What are your Christmas morning traditions? Our (Moose & Mumz) traditions are a collection from my family and Elaine’s. Christmas stockings get opened before breakfast and all at once. There is a small hammer that always ends up in my stocking that has been wrapped and re-wrapped many times. Then for a quick breakfast. We have a long tradition in both our families of opening one gift at a time so everyone can watch. Sometimes this takes us last lunch time.
One tradition we adopted from Elaine’s family goes like this: A ho and a ho ho and a ho ho ho. An what do we have here? Followed by a very detailed description of the Christmas paper wrapping each gift. The colour of paper, characters, snowmen, Santas, princesses, designs like stripes or stars, words like Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, the weight of the gift, who it’s for and who it’s from and on and on… and so it continues with each new paper that comes from under the tree. It took a very long time this year for one gift that had 20 layers of wrapping paper.
And then there’s the guessing. Back in the 80’s it was “is it an 8 track?”, “is it a pair of undies?”. Then it it got updated to cassettes, CD’s, DVD’s, etc. Now it’s more about is it a book or socks or clothes, a tool, a loud toy, etc.
Lunch is “lapatizers”, defined by Carolyn (Tundra) as lunch appetizers eaten on your lap. It consists of meats, cheeses, shrimp & sauce, crackers, hot appetizers, punch, cookies, butter tarts, short bread cookies and other baking.
Dinner is of course the traditional Canadian Christmas fare of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce (if desired), gravy, rolls, etc. Dessert is pies pumpkin, pecan, maybe blueberry with whipped cream and icing. Naturally there’s coffee and tea and more sweets that follow.
Nicole added a beautiful new tradition last year. Later in the evening, we were in the basement and each person had a candle. After a person’s candle was lit, each of us took turns speaking affirmation to them.
What are your Christmas morning traditions?
Meandering Moose 
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