Family traditions on Christmas Day chez the Iles family

This edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is looking at our family traditions concerning the holidays.

I thought I'd share what I would call a traditional Iles Christmas day.

Christmas time was always a busy time when you were in the grocery business and for my parents Christmas Eve often meant working very late and then settling up accounts after the store was closed.

These memories will have to be from when we were living on the west side of town as I can't remember much about Christmas from my early childhood. I don't recall our family being one to get up extremely early on Christmas morning. Usually which ever the children was awake first, would get the other two up to go downstairs if it was a reasonable hour. Mom and dad would here us come down. After we built the addition to the house, they slept on the main floor of the house in the family room.

We only opened the gifts that we received from Santa before breakfast. Then we ate breakfast. I honestly don't remember whether we ate anything special on Christmas morning. Once everything was cleaned up and we were all dressed we could open our Christmas gifts that were piled under the tree. If Christmas fell on a Sunday morning, we would go to church and the gift exchanging would not happen until after lunch.

My dad acted as Santa and looked after digging the gifts from under the tree. Each person would receive a gift and open it before anyone else would get one. Usually, there was a special gift for my mother from my dad; it would always be given to her last. Sometimes, it would be not under the tree and not brought out until it was time.

Once all the gifts were open, it was time clean up. First wrapping paper that was reusable was pressed down flat and folded and any boxes that were good were kept. We'd organize the gifts to put them on display. A list was made of what each one received and from whom, to aid in writing the appropriate thank you letters.

Many years we did not have the big traditional turkey dinner. That would wait until Boxing Day when we were better rested.

After my brother got married, the one thing that was changed in the gift giving routine was that the gifts were passed out and each would have a pile by them. Still, only one gift could be opened at a time.

When we have our gift exchange at a time other than the traditional time, it just didn't seem right. Now it is very rare to have what I call my traditional Christmas day and I have grown to get used to that too.

Another thing we liked to do on Christmas Day was to listen/watch the Queen's Christmas message. We also enjoyed the Christmas programming on television. I still do.

When my nephews and niece were little we had a birthday cake for Jesus.

I am not sure what my Christmas plans are but I am sure I will spend some time with family.

Gift giving at Christmas

December 10 - Christmas Gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give?
Well, when I think about this I honestly can't name a favourite gift that I received. It is not that I haven't received many great gifts because I have. My mother kept a note pad listing the Christmas gifts she was going to purchase. Even if you read the list before Christmas, you wouldn't know what you were going to receive because it was written in shorthand. 

My favourite gift that I gave was in Christmas 2000. I made three copies of a brief family history. I gave a copy to my sister and my brother. The book was printed on my computer printer and put into a binder. Our parents were the focus of the book. I talked about them, their families and traced only their direct lines as I knew it at that time. I will talk about this more in a post in the new year. 

One year, around 1993, my mother and I gave each other the same sweater. When we exchanged the gifts, only the two of us were there. She opened hers up first. At first, she thought something had happened to the gift tags. Then, I opened mine. We had a good laugh about how we both had chosen the same gift for the other. Has that every happened to you? Sometimes without consulting the other, we would both chose to wear this same sweater and the same coloured slacks to an event. 

When I was younger, our family custom was one person to act as "Santa". This was usually my dad. He would dig under the tree to pass a gift to each person as it came their turn. Only one person opened a gift at a time. Everyone would ooh and ah! It didn't matter whether it was a pair of socks or a new toy or book. The giver would be thanked if they were present. My dad's big gift for my mom would always be given last. Often, it would placed somewhere other than under the tree. Someone would grab a camera to capture mom's expression when she opened her gift. 

After all the gifts were opened, each person was assigned a spot to display their gifts. A list was made of what a person received. This helped when you did your thank you letters.
After my brother got married, we adopted his wife's family's tradition of passing out the gifts to each person at the start. Still, only one person could open a gift at a time. If it was your turn and your pile was getting a little short, you might pass until it came your turn again.
I enjoy taking my time to open the gifts and to see what each person received. I do not like to be rushed.

Blogs as gifts

My RSS fee via Internet Explorer finally showed a post on blogs being gifts. Vern the idea dude, guest blogger, at Successful and outstanding blog(gers) post was Giving dots

Connecting dots with The Idea Dude Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Thanksgiving conjures up words like harvest, community, celebration, thanks . . . and giving. Have you ever thought of your blog that way?

Some great thoughts about blogging in both his posting and the comments.

Vern followed up with a posting The Dots are Free on his own blog The Idea Dude

And the most wonderful of things is when the recipient does reciprocate in another blog post or a comment. Because it means......the conversation has begun... It was liberating for me, because all of a sudden when you have this realization, there is no more stress of smart or good you should be. There is no counting of views and links. For most of us, we shouldn't need to care. To turn one head and one heart should be all you should wish for. And whether it is today, tomorrow or 5 years from now, someone will read the post and their hearts will be touched. Of that I am sure. Just give when you feel like giving...

Thanks for your post. Good food for thought.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.