A Yankee Christmas?

The Yankees around here have a few unusual Christmas traditions.  Our Southern parents like to put the Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  If Thanksgiving is early like it was this year, they might wait one more weekend, but that is really pushing it.  So many of Mommy's friends here wait until the week before Christmas to put up their tree, or even stranger yet, Santa puts the tree up on Christmas Eve!  Doesn't Santa have enough to worry about than to put up a tree, put lights on it, and decorate it?  No wonder he wants milk and cookies when he arrives!  I know Santa has a bit of magic up his sleeves, but putting a tree up is surely more responsibility than he needs (or wants)!  Where does he carry that tree?  Does it fit on the sleigh with all of the other gifts?  Hmmm . . . perhaps there's an advantage to this strategy; Mommy wouldn't have to drag Daddy from tree to tree looking for the perfect one!  I'm sure Santa's trees are perfect! 

Another strange tradition (at least in Mommy's opinion) is waiting to put the gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve.  Why in the world would you wait?  If a gift is wrapped, shouldn't it go under the tree?  How can I shake it up and guess what it is if I can't see it or touch it?  You humans might not know it, but those gifts under the tree have smells too!  Part of the fun of Christmas is trying to guess what's in each package.  I like to sniff around to try to find the ones that might belong to me.  Daddy likes to take Mommy's small gifts and wrap them in giant boxes with lots of extra packing so nothing inside makes a movement or sound at all!  Mommy likes to wrap gifts before she even has a tree.  That way, when the tree goes up, the gifts go underneath and the "look" is complete!

Mommy may think these Yankee customs are strange, but she puts wreaths on every door in the house (minus the closet doors)!  Isn't the front door enough?  Look closely to see what Mommy has added to this one!  This wreath is my personal favorite and hangs in the kitchen.  There is even an outline of me on it!

No matter what traditions your family has, enjoy them!
Hunter