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A Cesarz Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve in our house is packed with traditions. Depending on the number of pieces involved and the complexity of assembling the presents from Santa, it can sometimes feel like a mad dash to the finish line rather than the joyous family time we mean it to be. I have even thought about skipping a tradition or narrowing them down a bit, especially as the girls get older, and it seems like the mystery and wonder of Santa has passed. In those moments I have been swiftly corrected. It seems no matter how old the girls get, they are adamant that we stick to the drill. (Maybe it’s as they get older, those traditions become more important.) Some of our traditions are probably very similar to the same ones you share with your family; others probably not so much.
Christmas Eve is kicked off by attending Christmas Eve candlelight service. I have contemplated going to the 11 0’clock service because I have always loved its simplicity and the notion that we are celebrating Christmas when I’ve always imagined the nativity was taking place. Like Jesus was the first new born of the year, only he was born at 12:01 am December 25th. The girls are definitely old enough now. We could get away with it with no problem, but that might mess with our traditions. Some might say, we could just push the traditions until midnight, after the service…. But I’m too old for that nonsense.
So, we usually attend the 7 o’clock service. It’s dark out… I’m guessing in the nativity timeline that exists in my mind Mary is cursing Joseph for not making reservations, maybe even suggesting he should have just picked a hotel chain and started earning loyalty status rather than just going with whatever was cheaper on AirBnB. She might even have been desperate enough to suggest a Motel 6 or Knight’s Inn would do. After church we enjoy a lovely dinner of tamales. I would love to say that this is part of our cultural heritage, it’s not. (Well that’s not entirely true, it’s in our cultural heritage as much as we live in Texas and could get some really delicious fresh tamales at the HEB.)
After dinner the real run on traditions begins. Looking at pictures the order of these may vary, but the general idea is the same. First, the girls get to open ONE present on Christmas Eve. They do not get to pick which present, it is always predetermined. It is also always pajamas. I try to make them as matchy as possible. In fact, one year in particular I managed to get matching pajamas for the ENTIRE family- thank you Gymboree. (Now that’s not such a big thing, but it was at the time.) This also really annoyed Shan. (Score MOMMY!) As the girls have realized there is a pattern to this – its only been 15+ years- we have the OH MY GOSH! I can’t believe it’s pajamas picture that’s required.
Pajamas are opened and pajamas are on. It’s story time. We have pictures growing up of my dad reading the Night Before Christmas and the Story of Jesus as told through a Hallmark popup book. My senior year in high school my dad waited up for my Christmas Eve so he could read me the Night Before Christmas (he “PG-ed” it up a bit). We have hung onto this, though we’ve added a twist. We still read about Santa and his reindeer, and a variant on the Birth of Jesus- its definitely not a Hallmark popup book, but we also add the beloved tale of Rico.
In either 2006 or 2007 (this will forever be debated in the history books) Alex composed a cute little tale about Rico the Roughneck and how he helped bail Santa out of a crisis. Every year he reads it to the girls along with our other Christmas stories. I’m not going to post the entire tale but in essence Santa’s sleigh breaks down in Corsicana in the 1970s. Rico helps Santa out by providing not just transportation, but also presents from the Collin Street Bakery. If you’re familiar with Corsicana and its famed Collin Street Bakery, you know the present and you probably have a very strong opinion whether it’s positive or negative. For the rest of you…there’s google (Since I hate it when people tell me to google things… it’s fruitcake.) More importantly, as everyone knows when someone lends you his truck or helps you move it’s only polite to pay them in beer, and since we’re in Texas it has to be Shiner. In addition to leaving milk and cookies for Santa, we always leave a Shiner and chips for Rico. Let’s face it most of us would prefer a beer and chips to milk and cookies (in full disclosure, we don’t actually leave milk for Santa because milk makes you tired. We leave diet coke, so Santa can have a caffeine boost without the calories).
Lastly, as least as far as the girls are concerned with sprinkle Reindeer Dust no matter how wet or cold. I know for those of you that live in the wretched northern regions of the world, no matter how cold seems like a joke, but we did get snow one year for Christmas, and the girls were out sprinkling the magic mixture making sure Santa knew the way. The worst was probably the first Christmas we lived in Spring where there was literal deluge going on all night. The girls huddled under the front porch awning and tried to throw the mixture out into the yard without getting absolutely soaked. Of all of our traditions, this is the one I really thought the girls would let go. I usually end up running around at the last minute mixing up the secret batch of Reindeer Dust (it’s oatmeal and glitter by the way), but last year I didn’t even bother. I figured surely at 12 and 20 we were beyond this particular ritual, I was wrong. They did still want to dust the yard in magic glittery powder. I’m pretty sure they argued more about who got to sprinkle more. Maybe they just really wanted to prove they took the “You don’t believe, you don’t receive” mantra to heart.
When the pajamas are opened, the stories are read, and the reindeer dust has been spread the girls scuttle off to bed. Then the real adventure begins: assembling and arranging those presents.