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Friday, December 24, 2010

Countdown to Christmas #24: Christmas Eve

"To the most beautiful moment in life, better than a deed, better than a memory, the moment...of anticipation!"

--Jacques, Marge Simpson's would-be-lover in the season 1 episode "Life on the Fast Lane".


In much the same way that Friday is my favorite day of the week because the promise of what the weekend holds is usually better than what actually ends up happening, I've always enjoyed Christmas Eve far more than Christmas Day.

It is the zenith of the holiday season, the apex of the run-up to Christmas. Plus, for as long as I can remember we always spent Christmas Eve with my grandparents and we received the majority of our presents that night, getting just a few things from Santa and in our stockings the next morning. Also, as a kid, I always preferred the more snack-like hors d'oeuvres we ate on Christmas Eve to the more traditional holiday meal we'd eat on Christmas Day.

What are some of your past or present Christmas Eve rituals? 

3 comments:

  1. it's true about the anticipation.
    On xmas eve we go to the parents and eat pote and crab legs and play games and open 1 present. Then tomorrow we'll open the rest and go to the extended family xmas for food.
    When we were little, we used to wake up in the middle of the night and go look at the tree and all the present underneath. We'd wake-up our little sister so she wouldn't forget. We wouldn't even turn on any lights- just stop at the top of the stairs and look at all the awesomenesss awaiting us in the morning. Luckily our parents put out the presents right after we went to bed.
    I don't think our parents knew we did that until a few years ago

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  2. yeah i'd probably enjoy christmas day more if we didn't have to go fraternize with the rest of the family. I wish it was more of a relaxing sort of holiday

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  3. @Anne: I don't think our parents knew we did that until a few years ago

    I love, as an adult, being able to fill in parents about stuff like that that we did as kids and never told them.

    @Falen: I wish it was more of a relaxing sort of holiday

    I know what you mean. Christmas has nothing on Thanksgiving (where we have to cram three family get-togethers into one day) but it would be nice to have one of those Christmases you see on TV and movies where you spend the day with family lazily watching movies or horsing around outside before eating and relaxing even more.

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