Christmas Traditions

Now that the Christmas holiday season is upon us, I thought I would spread some Christmas cheer. We all think back to our Christmas experiences we had as kids. I think it would be fun to share my family's Christmas traditions and memories when I was a kid.

When I was a kid back in the 1950s (YIKES! That was a long time ago now that I think about it), Christmas was THE day that my twin brother and younger sister and I were in the state of sheer bliss! It was a Nirvana-like state. On Christmas Eve, our parents would go to Norwalk to my maternal grandparent's house. Their tradition was to open all their presents on Christmas Eve. We kids always wished that we could open all of our stuff on Christmas Eve, but alas, it never came to pass.

Meanwhile, at home my fraternal grandmother "Ollie" had an old Irish family tradition of having oyster stew and apple pie on Christmas Eve. She insisted that we kids at least take a "taste" of the wretched concoction. I held my nose and took a microscopic few molecules of it. The taste almost ruined Christmas for me. However, I persevered every year. Ironically enough, I am the only one of our generation that has kept up the tradition all these years, albeit I'm the only one that consumes any Christmas Eve oyster stew. Through the years, I have actually acquired a (small) taste for oyster stew.

Our parents would wait until we kids were in bed before they left for Norwalk to engage in a night of unbridled revelry, which consisted of imbibing quite liberally with spiked eggnog and other "spirits" late into the night.

On Christmas morning way before dawn, we kids would be up. Our tradition was that it had to be dark when we opened presents. It took forever to rouse our parents from their bed to come down and join us since they insisted we wait for them. In later years I finally figured out the reason why it was so hard to get them up before dawn, namely, they both had terrific hangovers!

Later in the afternoon, we had a gigantic meal, usually ham with all the "fixin's'".


Oh, hey, an idea just popped into my head. How about you my loyal Blog readers sending me your childhood Christmas traditions and memories for me to post here on my Blog to share with all of us! I do not need to know who you are; just use your first name or an alias. You can email them to me at
zukeyjuice-mikesblog@yahoo.com
Be sure to put "Christmas Blog Entry" in the "Subject" line because I get a horde of emails about my Blog and we wouldn't want to miss your experiences here. Just think of the EXCITEMENT and PRESTIGE for you my former passive readers actually contributing to my renowned Blog!!!!

The picture below is of us kids on Christmas Eve in 1956 when I was 8. Our stockings are hanging up behind us, Tim and I still hang these same stockings every Christmas Eve. However, at our age Santa has started filling them with things like Geritol, Metamucil, etc. Note the cat I am holding. I have a life-long love of any animal, especially cats. I remember posing for this picture as if it was yesterday.

Be watching my Web Site for some new Christmas stories coming up!!!

M

i

k

e