Christmas Eve Traditions

Where do we get some of our family traditions?

Occasionally born out of laziness -- or a lack of time -- we've developed "traditions" at our home.

For instance, we realized in the pressure to get everything finished in time -- ie: presents wrapped, living room cleaned, tree decorated, Santa's cookies-and-milk put out, Christmas cards/letters mailed -- we decided to forego the wrapping paper and open gifts at 12:01 a.m. on Christmas. By "opening" we mean hand a present to the other person who has his/her eyes shut and must try to guess what the item is.

Another "tradition" is to decorate the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve so that the kids wake up to a decorated tree with prezzies beneath it on Christmas. That works great if you don't store the tree in a bucket of water the week before you decide to "install" it indoors....so that the trunk swells to a size just slightly larger than the old-fashioned tree stand....and you end up outside at 2 a.m. with a circular saw trying to figure out how to get the tree to fit without it shedding all of its needles.

And "Shhhh!"....don't tell the kids, but we forget nearly every year to put out the cookies and milk so we stage the event for a photo by placing a tiny bit of milk in the bottom of a cup and dusting a plate with cookie crumbs. I know, bad parents! Bad, bad parents!!

And what if you try really hard to get out all of your cards and Christmas letter before the big day...but fail miserably? You just call them "New Year's letters." As long as they're out before Easter, you're good to go.

Still in all, I figure traditions are what you make of them.

Sometimes you have to do what works for you....and, in the end, have fun....or at least make funny memories.

Isn't that what it's all about?