I never thought to ask my Grandmother about this tradition. Unfortunatley she passed away just a few years ago, 6 weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. Now I wonder where this tradition came from. She was from wealthy parents but they were older and this was the 19th century when her parents were young. Her mother had been married before but had lost all of her children except one son and then she lost her husband. She did well for herself for a single woman with a child. My grandmother’s father had been married before and all three of his boys had passed away and he lost his wife as well. He was also well off. Another thing I wish I had asked about–how they came into all of this money-her parents were born in the 19th century after all. The two found each other and married. They had a little girl but she died while they were pregnant with my Grandmother. Her only step-brother died in a car accident just before his marriage. My Grandmother was the only one to live a full life and she passed away just before turning 90.  Her parents were older when she was born and things were not as commercialized back then. There was no TV.  I remember stories of her Mom and she was more practical than lavish. My Granmother never had a single bad thing to say about her Dad-he was her world and her shining star.

My grandmother made Christmas so fun. She was so funny — she made sure she spent the EXACT same amount on every person. How–well we might have some penny bubblegum or a pack of gum added to the top of our package.

So there in lies my curiosity for this holiday tradition and how it came to be. Christmas Eve Gift. On Christmas Eve everyone who calls our house will be greeted with -NOT a hello but Christmas Ever Gift. When we used to live close to my grandparetns and cousins, and we would all be together on Christmas Day, if you had gotten the words Christmas Eve gift in before the person calling you, they brought you a little gift–a pack of tic tacs or a favorite magazine—just little things but it made it FUN.

We would go to my grandparents house and spend the night on Christmas Eve. We would be sprawled out in the kitchen on the floor-sleeping with our cousins (the adults had the bedrooms). We couldn’t go in to one of the guest rooms because the ELVES WERE WORKING. It drove us crazy. We wanted to know what those elves looked like. Of course it was piled full of Christmas presents but she made sure to make us think the elves were busy. How they got all of those presents out of that bedroom, over all of us sleeping kids that night, and the living room-FULL of presents without waking us up-I can not imagine.

The next morning we would celebrate MY BIRTHDAY along with BABY JESUS’ birthday over a breakfast danish–who needs a cake when you have cookies and pastries everywhere. A little sugar to give you energy to start opening all of those presents.

I was wrapping like a crazy woman yesterday and I am done wrapping. Typically I am finishing it up on Christmas Eve. In order to get it all done I made a sign from paper and vinyl to help. If the sign was on the door the kids knew they couldn’t just come flying through the door. Head over to the DIY Club to see how easy peasy this sign is to make. It took me 10 minutes.

The sign reads

Mom’s wrapping not rapping