The long-awaited holiday is here! Christmas has finally arrived. Expectations are high in the children watching out windows for a glimpse of a fat man in a red suit driving a sleigh pulled by reindeer. I wonder how many parents still teach their little ones about the spirit of Christmas.
My parents raised me Catholic, but that didn’t stop them from allowing me the wonder of the Santa miracle. They merely added a religious element to it. There was a little gift from Santa and a big one from Baby Jesus.
Typical Children
We were typical children. We wanted to wait up to see Santa sneak into the house. There wasn’t a chimney into the house, but my mother assured me he had keys to everyone’s door. Of course, Baby Jesus automatically could appear without tools.
Looking back, the fact that I was a natural night owl probably caused problems on Christmas. No matter when I went to bed, sleep avoided me until almost midnight. I honestly tried to fall asleep. However, I was naturally in a time zone of my own.
No matter how long I waited for Santa, sleep inevitably overtook my eyes. Christmas morning the cookies were gone from the platter in the kitchen. There were packages of red and green beneath the tree we had put up only days earlier.
Time To Wake Up!
As one can expect, the first child to wake up (there were six of us) alerted the entire household. Santa had come! We jumped into my parents’ bed to wake them and announce the good news. I doubt they had enough sleep.
Christmas Mass came before opening presents. Reluctantly we dressed up for church and scrambled out to the car, hoping the priest was quick in his sermon. Upon returning from Mass, my mother unhid the Christmas cookies she had baked during the previous weeks. If she didn’t hide them, there would be none for Christmas morning.
We took turns opening our gifts, prolonging the suspense as well as extending the surprises of the morning. There were not many, so taking time kept the fun longer. Once opened we could play with our toys if we wanted. Most often we preferred to see what everyone else received.
Christmas Dinner
My mother began preparations for Christmas dinner after the gift-opening. Sometimes the children opted to lend a hand. There wasn’t much we could do when we were very young but, as we got older we could help with the minor things. I loved filling celery sticks with peanut butter. (Peanut butter was a favorite food of mine.)
Dinner usually consisted of ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with gravy, and whole corn. For appetizers, there were always dill pickle slices, green olives filled with red pimientos, and the celery sticks with peanut butter. Holidays were the only times we were allowed to eat those. I’m sure we enjoyed them more than the main course.
Christmas night was quiet. All the activities of the day wore out everyone. Few of us argued about going to bed when it was time. The house went quiet. We nestled in our beds, smiling. Life was good.
Merry Christmas from The Write Empath.
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