Christmas Traditions

By Margaret Ensor, Davenport, Washington

I remember that we had a separate huge living room with a wide sliding  door.  We would go to the Church Children's Christmas Eve program at  about 7 PM.  When we got home from that.  (we all of course had  "pieces" to say and costumes to wear), Santa had brought our gifts  which were all under the Christmas tree in the living room.  My  parents would open the sliding door and we were so excited that Santa  had come while we were at church.  We never had any gifts that we  opened in the morning.  Even when we were older and there was no  longer any Santa, we exchanged gifts when we came home from the  Christmas eve program.  My mother usually invited guests (extended  family members or close friends) for dinner on Christmas Day.