We all have our Christmas traditions. Funny thing is not all our traditions are the same. I suppose it really does depend upon where you were raised. I thought I knew all the traditions, but as usual, just when you think you know it all, something new crops up. You'd think I would have learned that by now too. Well, anyway I heard of this tradition twice this year. Presents from Santa Claus are not wrapped but just paced under the tree. I really hadn't heard of that before. At my house and everyone I knew all presents were wrapped. The name tag would read, from Santa so you would know that. Mom and Dad and everyone else just put their name on that tag. Santa always brought the things that Mom and Dad told me they couldn't afford. On Christmas day, as least as I remember it, Santa did bring that bicycle or whatever. Mom and Dad always gave you clothes and a few small toys. I don't remember ever being disappointed on Christmas morning. In that excitement I always forgot about things I wanted and concentrated on what I had. That one big thing Santa never failed to deliver ? I don't remember that ever happening. I think that was the difference though. I really didn't expect to get many gifts, getting the one big one was always enough. And that, that only happened while you still believed in Santa Claus. Yes, once you knew the truth of it, the magic was gone. You understood that money didn't magically appear at Christmas to buy those gifts.
That may sound sad but it isn't. That was because the " magic " was replaced by knowledge. At that point you understood what a person had to do in order to gift you something. They either had to give up something of their own that they really liked or buy that gift. As I said you knew that money didn't magically appear and so that meant you had to earn it. Having worked to earn that money you then had to give it up to give it to someone else. I recall it making me feel real " grown up " when I had to do that. Never mind that Mom or an Aunt hired you to do stuff and paid you an exorbitant amount, two dollars just to rake the lawn or shovel the walk depending. That is something else missing in these traditions of today, making the kids feel grown up. Yes, we were expected to grow up ! We were expected to understand certain things. First was that money didn't magically appear or grow on trees. You want something, work for it. If someone is giving you a gift they had to work for that. Accept that gift with gratitude in your heart. That is when you learned that you don't always get what you want. Sometimes you just have to settle for what you need. Oh , and just because little Billy got ten " big " gifts doesn't mean you should have. Fact is, Little Billy was spoiled and would probably come to no good !
Well I wandered off the original topic in all of that. I started out talking about traditions. I really never heard that Santa didn't wrap his gifts. I always figured the elves did all that stuff. I admit that I never observed that Santa used the same paper as Mom or that his handwriting was just like hers. Santa was magic anyway and could anything he wanted. All throughout my childhood we put an Angel on top of the tree. I did that for many years afterward, but have now switched to a star. That was because my Angels wings got broken. Maybe I'll buy another after the season, get a bargain. Our other tradition was the stocking. We had to empty our stocking first. No opening any gifts until that was done, a sort of warmup period. I can tell you the excitement level did rise. In the toe of that stocking I would find an orange. A tradition from my Mom's childhood. Dad's stocking always had a can of Schaefer beer ! Dad usually got a carton of cigarettes too. Oh yeah, a merry little Christmas for sure. I don't remember Christmas dinner being a big deal, that stuff was for Thanksgiving. No, after opening our gifts the tradition was to play with those gifts the rest of the day, just do as you pleased. I'll always remember my Christmases fondly. They were all special to me. Yes, they were just what they were supposed to be.
That may sound sad but it isn't. That was because the " magic " was replaced by knowledge. At that point you understood what a person had to do in order to gift you something. They either had to give up something of their own that they really liked or buy that gift. As I said you knew that money didn't magically appear and so that meant you had to earn it. Having worked to earn that money you then had to give it up to give it to someone else. I recall it making me feel real " grown up " when I had to do that. Never mind that Mom or an Aunt hired you to do stuff and paid you an exorbitant amount, two dollars just to rake the lawn or shovel the walk depending. That is something else missing in these traditions of today, making the kids feel grown up. Yes, we were expected to grow up ! We were expected to understand certain things. First was that money didn't magically appear or grow on trees. You want something, work for it. If someone is giving you a gift they had to work for that. Accept that gift with gratitude in your heart. That is when you learned that you don't always get what you want. Sometimes you just have to settle for what you need. Oh , and just because little Billy got ten " big " gifts doesn't mean you should have. Fact is, Little Billy was spoiled and would probably come to no good !
Well I wandered off the original topic in all of that. I started out talking about traditions. I really never heard that Santa didn't wrap his gifts. I always figured the elves did all that stuff. I admit that I never observed that Santa used the same paper as Mom or that his handwriting was just like hers. Santa was magic anyway and could anything he wanted. All throughout my childhood we put an Angel on top of the tree. I did that for many years afterward, but have now switched to a star. That was because my Angels wings got broken. Maybe I'll buy another after the season, get a bargain. Our other tradition was the stocking. We had to empty our stocking first. No opening any gifts until that was done, a sort of warmup period. I can tell you the excitement level did rise. In the toe of that stocking I would find an orange. A tradition from my Mom's childhood. Dad's stocking always had a can of Schaefer beer ! Dad usually got a carton of cigarettes too. Oh yeah, a merry little Christmas for sure. I don't remember Christmas dinner being a big deal, that stuff was for Thanksgiving. No, after opening our gifts the tradition was to play with those gifts the rest of the day, just do as you pleased. I'll always remember my Christmases fondly. They were all special to me. Yes, they were just what they were supposed to be.
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