Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has always been a special day for me.  When I was growing up, Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve.  I never questioned why, it was just the way it was.  As we all got older, the tradition continued that way no one had to get up early on Christmas and we could spend the day with our significant other if we had one.  My sister and I couldn't wait until noon on Christmas Eve.  That was the time when the Christmas music would start and play for 36 hours straight.  Back in the day, Christmas music was only played on the radio the day after Thanksgiving, a few songs sprinkled here and there and then from noon on Christmas eve until midnight on Christmas night.  We would go to sleep with the radio on because we just couldn't get enough.

Christmas Eve is also when the Christmas candy came out.  Never before.  It was wonderful!  Mom would have trays of candy:  M & M's, chocolate covered peanuts and peanut clusters, non-pariels, chocolate stars, malted milk balls, Hershey Kisses, Peanut Butter Cups, Rolos, York Peppermint Patties, gumdrops, and I'm sure more that I can't even recall.  I always thought the trays looked so pretty.

Christmas Eve dinner was always something fast and easy.  Then we would either all go take a bath or go look at Christmas lights and when we were done or returned home, Santa would have been there and the living room would have presents galore.  There were so many presents you could hardly even sit in there but it was wonderful.  It was so pretty and Christmasy you almost didn't even want to open them up.  We would open them up and play with them until way after midnight.  It was also cool to be able to stay up that late.  I remember one year, Santa hadn't come yet, and we were waiting for dad to get out of the bathroom when we heard a knock on the front door.  When mom opened the door, there were many garbage bags sitting on the porch with our presents inside.  It was magic.  Then there was one Christmas Eve when Santa didn't come at all.  The four of us were getting into trouble and Santa never brought present on Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning.  And just when we thought we had blew it, Santa had a change of heart and brought our presents on Christmas night.  That was the longest 24 hours of my little life.  I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Now that I have a family we decided to do Christmas the traditional way with Santa leaving presents for Christmas morning.  I still have made Christmas Eve a memorable day for my girls.  We have many traditions we do:  they write letters to leave for Santa, we watch Christmas shows, I put out the Christmas candy (which is a majority of what my mom used to put out for us), we make reindeer food to throw outside so the reindeer can find our house, we leave cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Since we don't have a chimney, we leave a special Santa key outside for Santa to get in our house.  We attend Christmas Eve service at our church and we read the Christmas story from the book of Luke in the Bible as well as Twas the Night Before Christmas.  After church service and before we head home, we ride around town looking at the various homes decorated for Christmas.

I know my girls are loving it and happy because one of them wrote on their letter to Santa that this is the best Christmas ever and she hasn't even received any presents yet.  I am blessed to have the wonderful memories and traditions that are from my childhood and I am even more blessed that I have 3 little ones that I can pass on these traditions and memories too, and who will hopefully keep passing them on for many generations to come.