Merry Christmas Eve To All Today
From Ray

Christmas in America generally begins in most homes the day before Christmas, as the legend goes all the children around America and the world are exited and for one night of the year are anxious to actually go to bed so they can wake up earlier to hopefully celebrate Santa's visit while they were supposed to have been sleeping.

In our home as I was growing up our each member of the family got to choose one present to open on Christmas eve after a family dinner spent with just immediate family members and the remainder of the gifts were opened by all on Christmas morning.

After that ritual we gathered for breakfast, played with our new bounty for a few hours as mom cooked for the party later in the day, dad watched whatever sports where on that late morning until time came to then proceed to ol' Grandma's house in the afternoon to spend the rest of the day and night with our rather large extended family which was always anticipated and fun for all truly. I never understood folks that dreaded these occasions as I always and still do love them dearly.

This annual ritual lasted for me until my early twenties after college graduation when father time started catching up to many of the senior members of the family and the parties & gatherings subsequently became smaller and smaller as is the case for most families I imagine. I do long for the days as they were then, families were much closer and bigger it seems to me and of coarse the times where just simpler, although I'm only 40 and sound much older when I clamor for the good old days, but for some reason those days seemed easier and more enjoyable than the times of present.

I am single and not a father, and I/we are lucky we still have both parents with us gratefully and my brothers and sisters with their children, so these days the gatherings are still much more intimate than the 30-40 people gatherings of yore but no less meaningful and I still enjoy Christmastime and count it as my favorite couple of weeks of each year.

So here are some other Christmas Links of interest I'm sure you won't have time to check out, in any case please enjoy your Christmas eve and Christmas wherever you are and with whomever's company you truly enjoy !!

Some Christmas Traditions in other parts of the world include;

• The idea that animals have the power of speech at midnight on Christmas Eve. This superstition exists in various parts of Europe, and no one can hear the beasts talk with impunity.
  
  
• There is also a French belief that on Christmas Eve, while the genealogy of Christ is being chanted at the Midnight Mass, hidden treasures are revealed.
  
  
• In Russia all sorts of buried treasures are supposed to be revealed on the evenings between Christmas and the Epiphany, and on the eves of these festivals the heavens are opened, and the waters of springs and rivers turn into wine.
  
  And here are some historical faves' of mine that cover just about everything aside from the religious aspects of the holiday that hopefully we all know by now, unless of coarse your a liberal God hating ACLU card carrying progressive, then to you happy festivus or happy holidays or whatever the hell you're calling it this year.
  

• Norad's Santa Tracking Website
  The old favorite for the kids to track Santa's Sleigh ride
  
• Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus
  (Newseum - The Interactive Museum of News)
  
• The Real Story of Christmas
  The History Channel Takes You Thru Christmas' Past and Present
  
• Legends of Christmas
  Some Christmas Traditions from The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
  
• An American Christmas
• Also from the Presidential Library of Herbert Hoover Displays Christmas Trees
  

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