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Re: Featured Forum Thread: Christmas gift giving customs, Christmas present gift exchanges
Growing up, we went to our Grandparents house on Christmas Eve and sometimes afterwards, made it to the Midnight candle service at church. Santa gifts came the following morning, and we were all exhausted.
By the time I was 14 and, as the oldest of the 5 of us, I was asked to wrap the Santa gifts and put them out so our parents could sleep. So, I would do it all including my own and sleep on the couch all night, and pretend I was surprised for the other kids.
That only lasted a couple years until my youngest brother was about 8 and I asked him if he believed in Santa, he said no. Thank god. I gathered all the kids together to agree we didn't want to do that anymore. From that time on, we opened gifts from each other on Christmas Eve and even now 40 years later, we still do it that way. They probably don't even remember why, but that was the reason. I was tired of doing it.
Now we meet at our parents Christmas Eve for family gifts, starting with the youngest child one at a time up to the oldest. They are always token gifts - nothing expensive or fancy, but mostly fun. As we all started having our own children, it was getting too expensive and nobody really cared much about gifting, so we drew names for a few years. Then we agreed to only gift to the kids until they were age 18. Now they are over 18 and we didn't stop!
My mom gets everyone the same thing and one year, she said she didn't buy for anyone but had a great time shopping for herself and gave us a fashion show. I still laugh about that one! It was a relief, actually. A few years we started with the oldest because our 90 year old Grandma would fall asleep before it was her turn. One year she opened the same gift 4 times and was surprised each time. That was the funniest year ever! We have a nice dinner with wine and everyone goes home early. We do our own thing after that.
When my 3 sons were little I wanted us to stay home Christmas day so they could play with their toys so I started having a Christmas Day brunch at our house for Grandparents and anyone who didn't have something planned, or didn't have little children - it is sort of an open invitation and I make the same menu every year, a real simple egg casserole I can throw into the oven and everyone likes it. Coffee, fruit, home made apple coffee cake.
One year we had gone to many parties and all my sons were grown up and gone, so I didn't do much at home that year and took down decorations the day after Christmas. They were all out of the country at one point so I spent more time with in laws those years.
This year, two adult sons are home for a visit and my 4 yr. old Grandson is staying with us through Christmas, so I have revived some of my old traditions for them.
My husband is Jewish and doesn't care if we do anything or not, but when we do, he enjoys it. But he won't decorate, so I do all that kind of stuff. This is the first year I have actually gone shopping for gifts. I have many times mentioned to my family let's stop all the gifting and let's just go on a trip together or just have a nice dinner and have fun! But my mom refuses to consider it. So we go through the same ritual that never changes and there is sometimes a comfort in that.
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