Holiday Traditions

One year, when I was about 8, my brother was about 10 and we lived in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.  That Christmas, we decided everything would be homemade.  You could even work on the others' gifts, right up til the final stages; because they couldn't get too nosey.

Even the wrapping paper was homemade.  It was blank newspaper that we drew pictures and made colorful.  All the ornaments that year were handmade, so the tree looked sparse, but it felt right.  We strung popcorn to hang.  We found garland runners under the snow, and mistletoe.  We even cut down our own tree from our woods behind the house.

We never were a family that tore into all our presents and christmas giving was over in 15 minutes.  We would take our time, getting up, stopping to answer the phone, make coffee, hot chocolate, and/or tea, and sometimes even having a break for breakfast or mom's stickee-buns.  Friends would stop by to enjoy Christmas morning with us.

The rule was that before that morning, you could look under the tree, but no touching allowed.  Then either my brother or myself would distribute one gift at a time.  That person would make their best guess.  Sometimes others tried to guess too.  Then after the gift was unwrapped, everyone passed it around and inspected it.

We could make an entire day out of it.  I was always amazed at my friends who were fairly wealthy and would receive so much stuff, and yet always be bored or not seem to value anything.  My gifts, I would carefully arrange under the tree when we were through.  I would usually receive a turtleneck, some socks, some underwear, some books, maybe perfume, and a pocket calendar.  Gifts were practical as well as pretty.  They were always appreciated.