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Dad still hanging on to one pre-children tradition
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Published: December 31, 2008
Whew! Christmas is over, the wrapping paper is recycled, school is almost back in session, the first post-Christmas credit card statement hasn't yet arrived and I am still basking in the bliss of gifts well-chosen.
Because, of course, I am incapable of choosing gifts that are less than ideally suited for the recipient. Well, mostly. At least I didn't give anyone a bowling ball with my name on it or something equally awful.
Suffice it to say that all in our family had a very merry Christmas. And, I'll add with just a touch of self-satisfaction, my streak is still alive. Which streak is that, you ask? My early-opening streak. I am 20-0 for Christmases in which my wife tells me that she and I will NOT be opening any presents early, yet I still manage to pressure … er, convince her to open at least one present prior to Christmas morning.
In fairness, she didn't always fight me on this. For our first few Christmases, we both enjoyed watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve, then each choosing one present for the other to open. We'd even include our canine child.
Half of the pleasure was in the obligatory refusals, each telling the other that we really should wait for Christmas day. Then we'd hem and haw about which present to choose for the other to open. Some years we'd let the other choose; other years we took turns picking one up, extending it to the other then quickly pulling it back and replacing it in favor of another gift.
Then would come the feigned worries that the gift about to be opened wouldn't be suitable, and concern over the location of the receipt. I would watch Cary Anne neatly strip the wrapping paper from around the diversionary box labeled "dog biscuits," or something similar, and await the moment she got to the real gift. Then she'd do the same as I opened the gift she had chosen for me.
This ritual, as well as one involving the disguise of presents in oversized boxes or containers for some mundane item, became an institution of the Melton family. Periodically, Cary Anne would tell me that we shouldn't open anything early. Each time, I'd manage to talk her out of it. Year after year she'd demur, but each time I'd manage to convince her that we couldn't break the tradition.
Then we had children, and she insisted that for their sake, we stop the practice. It would spoil the occasion for them, she thought. I was conflicted. While on one hand I wanted our children to grow up with a traditional Christmas, on the other, this was indeed a tradition. All families have Christmas rituals. This is one of ours, albeit one we haven't yet let the children in on. We will, likely next year, but for now we're keeping this to ourselves. It's a dual pleasure of watching our children anticipate Christmas day while still maintaining our own personal tradition of a single gift opened early.
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