Monday, December 21, 2015

Quirky Monday: Yuletide Quirks

So I haven't had finals, but the places where I work all do, plus crunch time for GRE(EWWW); and with all the finals chaos, this little blog has been sadly neglected. But, I'm back, and as it's the week of Christmas, here's a little Christmas Quirk for y'all.

My family still plays Santa.

Seriously, all of us know The Big Secret and we still have Santa Wrapping Paper and Santa Presents, and the go-to-bed-now-so-Santa-can-come conversation on Christmas Eve.

I'm not kidding.

You would think that once all of us became "In The Know", Christmas would change just the tiniest bit. Sure, there'd be presents and family and Christmas specials and things--just no Red Suit Guy. But for some reason, that ain't happening in my family.

My dad loves Christmas--like to the point of obsession. For thirty days out of the year this fifty-two year old man behaves like he's five--which entertains the rest of us no end. It's my dad's idea to keep the Santa paper and play Santa Claus; I think the day the twins(the youngest in my family) Found Out was one of the most tragic of his life.  

The result is that all of us still get Santa things, which is pretty cool considering we all know The Secret.


The kids still get up between 4 and 6 am on Christmas Day.

When we were little, my parents established a rule that we were not allowed out of our rooms until Mom and Dad came to get us. Only then were we allowed to see Santa stuff, which usually happened around 6 am.

Of course, this didn't mean we didn't get up earlier than that.

Since we were allowed out of our rooms, we would do other stuff, like read or let out muted squeals of excitement about what we had received because we'd been so good. When my  brothers were old enough, they started to sneak into the room I shared with my sister, so we were all in one room when it was time to go see what we had.

Over the past several years, a new tradition has been added to this one: the girls(or usually just me) are woken up at 4am by the twins so we can watch a movie together before going to see "Santa gifts".

Again, I'm not kidding.

Two early teen boys come into my room when I'm home for Christmas at 4 am and we watch tv until it's Santa time. And they don't let me sleep. It's tradition. Have I tried to stop them? Well, I would but:

a) there is no lock on my bedroom door, and even if there was, they'd find another way in. And,

b) I'm kind of fond of this tradition

I still don't sleep on Christmas Eve

My earliest memories of December 24th are of tossing and turning and checking my clock. Would Santa really come? What if he didn't? What if I got coal instead of presents? I hadn't cleaned my closet, what if he looked there? Once he did come, could I convince him I was asleep? What would he bring me? What if he skipped me?

I am now an adult, so you would think that I'd be able to sleep through the night.

Ha. Ha, ha, HA!

I still get butterflies in my stomach at the thought of Santa presents.

I still can't wait to wake up and see those presents by my stocking.

I still toss and turn until my covers fall of because I can't sleep.

I still check my phone like a maniac every few hours to see if it's time to get up yet.

My longest sleep record Christmas Eve? Four hours. Midnight to four am(see reason above). Sometimes, I take go back to bed after the Santa things. But most of the time, I pull a--day that's longer than twenty-four hours(whatever 4am-10pm is; you do the math--that's not my thing).

We still watch "It's A Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve, and I still bawl the last half hour.
I first saw this classic Christmas movie when I was seven, and I didn't like it. I didn't like it because it was on tv(ew, commercials) and I didn't like it because it wasn't in color(I didn't actually start to like black and white films until high school).

Now, we have the movie on DVD and I am in love.

I love watching Jimmy Stewart, and I love the story, and--yes, I cry. From the time he loses his wife(SPOILER!!!) to the end of the film, I am a bawling mess. Needless, to say, this causes no end of entertainment for my brothers. (it's also number 6 on my "movies that make me cry" list)

My family is quirky, just as I am. We do things like this every year. Is this going to change? Never. Do I want it to? Nope.