Raven's View

Warning - Possible Santa spoiler.

I've had a number of Christmas traditions over the years.

As a child I think what we used to do was go to midnight mass (being staunch Catholics) then go back and open ONE present and go to bed. You had to hope you picked a great one, and not socks or something. We'd get up in the morning and stampede for the tree to see what Santa had bought. After looking in the stockings - they were at the foot of the bed to keep us occupied when we woke up.

Then as we got older, my mom's friend started making Moose Milk for us all. Egg nog and brandy I think. Maybe a shot of rum too. Whatever it was, midnight mass got skipped.

When I had kids we had stockings with lots of fun little toys in them - little windup things and cool cars, nothing expensive. And those little figures with a tiny plastic parachute held on with thread. The stockings were often more fun than the real presents. As the kids got older they picked stuff to put in the stockings too. We started the one present before bed thing too. They would all be wrapped, under the tree, ahead of time. Except the Santa ones of course. They would appear by the tree in the middle of the night - unwrapped of course. Because Santa doesn't wrap his presents. Much less trouble that way.

When we separated the kids were young but we kept the same traditions - we co-parented back and forth weekly and took turns at Christmas - one place Christmas Eve, the other place the next day.

Once they grew up and moved out the plan changed to Christmas Eve my place, Christmas day their mom's and dinner there later. I go too, bring some wine, help to clean up. We still have Christmas crackers with little toys and tissue hats inside, and wear the hats through dinner, all in our finery.

We still do stockings, I serve tourtier and a salad and various nibblies, and we sit together and watch a Christmas movie. Last year was Anger Management, on my new DVD player. This year I've picked another family classic, Shaun of the Dead. 

So - what were/are your traditions at Christmas?