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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kasia, post: 13055034, member: 31533&quot;]Many people celebrate Christmas (opening presents) on Christmas morning, but when I was a kid, my family followed the German tradition of doing this all on Christmas Eve. </p><p><br /></p><p>Tree was decorated about a week, maybe two at the most before Christmas, it had to have ornaments (no candles, though my mother and her family used candles on their trees when she was growing up) and lots of tinsel, placed strand by strand, but never a flocked tree. Then on Christmas Eve, at 7pm at night, my dad would get us all in the car to go see the lights on other peoples homes and all, this would be about a half hour or so driving about and then we would head back to the house to open our gifts, as Santa always came while we were out looking at lights. This was so normal for me, and it was when I became about 9 or 10 that I began realizing that this was not a normal thing where I lived, that most kids if they opened any presents on Christmas Eve, it was only one (like a concession to them), and of course it was never one from Santa, as he had not stopped by their home until between midnight and 6 am while they were sleeping. But we continued the tradition anyways. I actually really loved this tradition. Before we could open presents though, once we were back home, us kids had to always locate our stockings. And those were not always the easiest to find, they might be in the dishwasher, under a sibling&#039;s bed, hiding behind a chair or something, tucked under a pillow in my parents bed, or who knows, and never in the same place as the year before. And if we found a sibling&#039;s one, we could not tell our brother or sister where their stocking was or bring it to them!!!! Then we had to get everything out of the stocking and listen to my dad tell me (when we got down to the huge orange at the bottom of the stocking, put there to really fill up the stocking as much as possible so less candy had to be put in there) how he as a kid was lucky to get an Orange at Christmas.... Strange, in retrospect...</p><p><br /></p><p>So, except for a few years raising my kids with my ex and going by &#039;normal American&#039; Christmas traditions, having all gifts on Christmas morning, plus some years where we were split up and my kids had three Christmases where Santa showed up with their gifts... my Christmas eve, their dad&#039;s Christmas day (6am!!!!), and then later Christmas morning at his parents home, I&nbsp; normally revert back to my Christmas Eve tradition as far as opening gifts, though my tree is smaller and in many cases, a pre-decorated one and I love bows and ribbons on it and not tinsel.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So. I opened my CTSS gifts and I was completely blown away with the generosity and thoughtfulness of these Santas. I could not have imagined that I would get these and they are so welcome and wonderful. Thank you Secret Santas, from the bottom of my heart!</p><p><br /></p><p>I will be posting pictures soon, maybe tomorrow.</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope everyone has as bright and wonderful a Secret Santa time as I am having and loves their numismatic surprises and that they and their families are enjoing either very good health or are properly on the mend.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1529182[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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