A Different Christmas Morning Ritual

I’ve never really been a huge fan of Christmas, so I’ve just never been excited… See, I didn’t get toys. I didn’t play.

What’d you get?

I got like stuffed animals and lotion and DVDs and like I got a camera one time. Like, my sisters and I would sleep in a queen-sized bed and I would be like, “No, we’re not waking up until nine. And we’d take– each of us had like thirty stuffed animals. We’d take them all downstairs, we’d set them up, and then we’d open the stockings and assign each present to an animal. After that whole process, which took like an hour and a half, we’d make breakfast for our parents.

We wouldn’t get to open presents until after this, at about like eleven. We would take turns watching each other open presents and show what they are.  We would do this every year.

 

This informant, as opposed to the other, more colorful one, showed a more restrained and reverent exhibition of Christmas, placing each family member in the spotlight and showing the importance of parents in their life by cooking for them. These opposite posts (see “Waking Up Early”) show the many different ways that families celebrate the holiday and the different values emphasized.