Nelson Holidays: The Road to Christmas Part IV: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Nelson Holidays: The Road to Christmas Part IV: MERRY CHRISTMAS

See here for the first post in this series!

With this post, we arrive at the crescendo of Nelson Holiday celebrations. The traditions associated with Christmas are fairly straightforward. The day began at 7AM sharp. None of the children were allowed out of their room before that, though we would often wake up much earlier and wait impatiently for time to move faster. Once the clock struck seven, we would tear downstairs and open stockings from Santa while Mom and Dad and the older kids drank coffee. Soon after, while the children were finishing up with their stockings, Mom would pull homemade cinnamon buns out of the oven and finish making scrambled eggs. 

The family would take a break for about an hour to eat breakfast and tidy up before moving on to the focus of the morning: gift opening. From a young age, we understood that the presents under the tree were from Mom and Dad (the sibling gifts had been exchanged the day before. See here for the full post). Generally, the oldest sibling would be put in charge of distributing the gifts. From there, the gifts would usually be opened in order of age from youngest to oldest, or vice-versa. After all the gifts were opened, cleanup was done. From there, the family might scatter and play with their new toys, or we might be corralled into the 15-passenger van to go celebrate Christmas at one or both of the grandparents house. This was a rarity, though, since most of us wanted to stay home and enjoy the day. 

As the day drew to a close, we would often watch a Christmas movie of some kind and end the holiday rightly. And with that, you now have a decent understanding of how the Nelson household has historically celebrated the holiday. Merry Christmas!

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