Christmas then and Christmas now (Graded)

Bryson's comparison of celebrating Christmas in England vs. America raised my thoughts about how Christmas celebrations have changed in my family over the years. Although the difference is not culturally divided, as it is in Bryson's essay, it is quite different now from when I was a child. We now celebrate Christmas with three times as many people, we don't receive as many presents as we used to, and our Christmas Eve tradition has drastically changed.

When I was a child, our Christmas gathering involved only my parents, my six siblings, and sometimes my maternal grandmother. Now, all of us are grown and have our own families and when we get together for Christmas, there are usually no less than 23 of us. One year, we celebrated Christmas at my sister's house in Buffalo, MN. There was an ice storm on the night of our gathering and all of us ended up stranded at her house. There were 28 of us that spent the night. Luckily, she has a huge 5 bedroom house so everyone mangaged to find a place to sleep. The kids all slept on the floor and the adults got the bedrooms and the couches. I know that my sister and her husband were very glad to see that the storm had passed next morning so all of us could leave.

I know that the real meaning of Christmas is not about what you receive as gifts; however, I can't help but remember that as a child, presents were always in abundance at Christmastime. Each of us 7 children would have at least 5 or 6 presents, from my parents, under the tree. I can remember digging under the tree and organizing all the presents so that each of us had all of our presents in one spot. Now, we are lucky if we get one present each. My parents now have many grandchildren to buy presents for, so it would be too costly for them to lavish us with many presents as we used to get.

When I was young, our Christmas Eve tradition was the same every year. Us kids would torment my mother all day long by begging her to let us open up one present. To which she always replied, "not until after church!". Eventually, we would eat dinner and then either attend the 5:30 Mass or Midnight Mass (which was usually held at 10:00 p.m.) When we got home from church, it was time to open presents! There was such an excitement and happiness in all of us. We always started with the youngest, which was me! I opened all of my presents first, then my brother Chris, who was second to the youngest, then Brian, who was 3rd to the youngest, and so on. After everyone was done, my parents would let us stay up as long as we wanted to play with and admire our new presents. Nowdays, we rarely get together on Christmas Eve. It's usually sometime in December or January, when every one can manage to get together. Opening presents is now a long, drawn out process. Everyone opens their presents one at a time and with 28+ people, that takes a very long time! Also, we don't attend the Christmas Eve Service together anymore. My siblings attend Christmas services with their own families and my parents usually go alone.

A lot has changed over the years. I often day dream around Christmastime and think about how it used to be. The excitement and anticipation that I felt was so much more intense back then. Although I like celebrating Christmas with all of my extended family members, I miss the intimacy of having just my siblings and my parents together. I now hope to start my own traditions with my kids, so they can have the same opportunity to feel the way I did as a child.