So tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Baby O is completely oblivious to it all of course but the other four are so excited. They have written their lists, made their gingerbread houses and are now eagerly awaiting tomorrow so we can put up the tree!
Yes that is right, in a world where people are packing away the Halloween decorations and dragging out the Christmas ones at the same time my poor children have to wait until Christmas Eve to get theirs. Aren’t I an evil!
Actually if I’m honest, this is a tradition that we just happened upon, very unpleasantly, about nine years ago and it stuck. I even offer them every year to put it up earlier and they refuse, saying that this is the way they like it.
So how did it all start? Well….
I had the bright idea, in about November, that I wanted to rip all the wallpaper off in our living room and then redecorate. Of course we didn’t take into account that Christmas was fast approaching, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they should have and with 3 little girls under 3 it wasn’t going to happen as fast as it necessarily should. So, it was literally Christmas eve when we were finally putting on the finishing touches.
Now for the unpleasant part. At around 5pm (after ALL the shops were closed) I went up to the attic to fetch the tree. Knowing it was right next to the hatch I only popped my head up and stuck my hand out to grab the box, luckily I grabbed the tree first as when I moved a piece of cloth about 3 dead rats went toppling out, it still sends shivers down my spine even thinking about it.
Let me tell you I nearly fell down that ladder with a screech! I slammed the hatch down and refused to go back for the decorations and so did hubby. It looked like a rat massacre with blood and bodies everywhere. Yuck. Now we do live in a 150 year old house in a valley surrounded by mountains and our back garden is the same level as our upstairs so rats and mice are always in people’s attics, unless they have been renovated. But never in my life had I seen anything like this. Even the rentokil guy was astounded at the sight!
Any who, onto the nice christmas tradition. We now had a tree, but no lights, no decorations and three little ones expecting Santa, so where was he going to put the gifts? After much ringing around I managed to beg and borrow some lights, tinsel and a few baubles. The girls woke on Christmas morning thinking the Elves had put up the tree, while Santa delivered the gifts. It was lovely. E&Ff had made their minds up that’s what had happened and who were we to spoil their fun?
It took quite a few years for me to tell them it wasn’t the elves but it had to be done, it was getting so hard and time consuming on Christmas eve waiting for them to go to sleep before I could start. But they were fine with it, they loved playing elves helping me decorate the tree. So now that is how we spend Christmas eve afternoon. But now I always check IN THE MORNING if everything is there and the lights work just in case lol.
Our other tradition is new pj’s. They love unwrapping them on Christmas Eve so we can all snuggle up with hot chocolate and a Christmas film.
Do you have any Christmas traditions? How did they start? I’d love to hear about them.
mami2five 