It’s kind of amazing how much my holiday traditions have changed over the years. There are always reasons for the changes, and I like the new traditions, but sometimes I get nostalgic for the old traditions. For example, when we were kids, my family always decorated the tree on Christmas Eve. That fell away when my brothers and I grew up. We all had retail jobs and had to work on Christmas Eve. Now my parents try to find a weekend where everyone is free and put it up then.
As for my tree, it’s become a matter of whenever my kid and I have time. Sometimes we put it up the day after Thanksgiving and sometimes a couple of days before Christmas. That’s one of the tricks with shared custody. It’s a little sad that we never had a real tradition of putting up the tree.
Another tradition that I miss, although I knew nothing of it at the time, was my parents hiding the presents at a friend’s house until we went to bed on Christmas Eve. That way there was no chance of us stumbling on the presents early and spoiling the fun of Santa Claus. There’s something magical about going to bed with nothing under the tree and waking up to piles of presents. Although I’m still a stubborn Santa believer, it’s not like it used to be.
I also miss waking up at like 5:00 AM to see what Santa brought us. We couldn’t wake my parents up that early and we couldn’t open any of the presents until my parents were awake. That meant an hour or two examining the wrapped presents. We’d pick them up to see how heavy they were, shake them to listen for any noises, and squeeze them to see if they’ give. Then we’d guess what they were, and we had the added excitement seeing if we were right. That tradition ended gradually. Both my brothers started wanting to sleep in on Christmas. Then I moved out. Now I wake up before my kid every year.
We used to get a lot of music as Christmas gifts. That meant we’d make a quick mix tape on Christmas morning so we could listen to our new music on the way to our celebration. Remember when we only had tape decks in our cars?
My grandmother always used to buy us clothes. When I was little, I had to pretend to like them. As I grew older, I began to appreciate them more and more.
Perhaps my favorite old tradition was going to my grandmother’s place on Christmas day. It was an all-day event. After we were done opening all of our presents at home, we’d pick out one or two presents to bring to my grandmother’s house. Back then, it was usually a Star Wars toy. Then, we’d go down and spend the day there. My aunts and uncle used to spend the day there, too. But it was kind of an open house. Gram was one of nine. There were lots and lots of cousins. The cousins would be in and out all day. There was food and we got to show off our presents to anyone who might care. Many of the cousins we only saw once a year on Christmas. It was like a once-a-year family reunion. Eventually, Gram got too old to host. Then we started the more traditional family sit down meal with just my grandmother, aunts, uncle, first cousins, and my immediate family. It was still a lot of fun, but I miss seeing the second cousins.
That’s just some of the things I get nostalgic for.
I’d like to thank Ben Pollard for suggesting the topic.
What are you nostalgic for?
I miss those too, especially watching you and your brothers opening the presents Christmas morning.