Remember \”Twas the night before Christmas\”? And A Christmas Carol, when it was so foggy?

When I was a kid, the evening of December 24 was very exciting. We had trimmed the tree after breakfast that morning, and it was still something new and wonderful. Our tree was always a real one, and it smelled so good!

We had a \”whirligig\” ornament, shaped like a little carousel, that had a small propeller suspended horizontally in the middle. It was meant to be hung over one of the light bulbs on the tree, and the heated air rose and made the propeller spin. It was a great favorite of us kids.

Naturally we hung up our stockings. When I was about six, an aunt made felt stocking for us. Each of our stockings had our name on it. Of course as we got older, those stockings were much too small for all the \”loot\”.

Playing records (this in the days of 33-1/3 rpm albums) of Christmas music was always a major part of the holiday, although naturally we didn\’t wait until December 24 to start playing them. When I was about eleven, my mother brought home an album with the title, \”Round the World Christmas\”, which became my favorite Christmas record. For some reason the one from Australia has been running through my mind lately. On the record the accompaniment was organ, but this YouTube is still the same song.

What do you do the night before Christmas? Bake cookies? And sneak some icing to eat while trimming them? I always did! Make wassail? Caroling, snowmen, even going for a bicycle ride through the snow?

Whatever it is, May your days be merry and bright!