Please share your Christmas stories

It’s Christmas morning as I write this and I hope you all are having a lovely Christmas.  Perhaps the way to celebrate in the Bookwormroom is to share Christmas stories.  I don’t have much to share myself, but I do have one and my wife has a better one, so I’ll share them both.

When I was about 6 years old, I was allowed to stay up to watch for Santa Claus.  I feel asleep, of course, and, eventually, my Dad picked me up to carry me off to bed.  When he did so, I woke up and caught a peek at the presents the adults had already placed under the tree.  This confused me terribly.  Not only had Santa been there and I’d missed him, but he apparently came when the adults were still up.  I think that was the beginning of my suspicions about Santa.

My wife’s story is really cute.  She was about 8 years old.  The night before Christmas, her Dad took her aside and whispered to her that he had a present for her Mom out in the car.  He asked her to sneek out and get it and sneek it back in.  Mom was in the kitchen, so my wife snuck out the dining room door and out to the car.  She got the gift and snuck back, not fully closing the door because she didn’t want to make any noise.  She  made her way quietly and successfully up stairs and hid the present under her bed.  The door blew open and her Mom asked who left it open but never realized what had happened.  The next morning, Dad whispered to my wife to wait while the presents were opened.  Finally, he nodded to her that it was time.  She went up stairs and got the present. When she came back down Mom had her back turned.  She held the present out in front of her and exclaimed Merry Christmas, surprising and delighting her Mom.  My wife says she’s never forgotten the joy of sharing this secret surprise with her Dad.  You might guess (and you would be correct) that my wife had a nearly perfect childhood until the car accident that blinded her and took her parents when she was 15.  I suspect it’s that foundation that allowed her to turn out to be the extraordinarily wonderful person she is today.

I’m sure most of us have stories.  Please share with us all your favorite Christmas (or other holiday, if you do not celebrate Christmas) story.  I look forward to hearing them and thanks in advance.