Christmas Traditions

[NewEnglander]

When the clan gathers on Christmas mornings we immediately start with some whisky sours (in my late and dearly missed grandmother's special glasses) and then proceed to open gifts, in order of increasing seniority. The whisky and other beverages flow and we have a grand old time.

[Lachlan09]

A thing in our family when I was a kid was Santa’s visit. We used to leave out milk and McVitie’s chocolate digestives for Santa and something for his reindeer and go off to bed. Hardly able to sleep with excitement, when my brother and I did awake and rushed, shivering, to the living room (we only had a coal fire back then), we’d spot the empty plate and the empty glass which had sooty fingerprints on it ! Sure sign of Santa’s visit. Then we’d see the stockings filled on the mantelpiece and the pressies around the tree. Then opening the presents, all the while me in my little cowboy motif pyjamas, shivering like a chihuahua, while it was still pitch black outside.

We did this until I was about 38.