12 days until Christmas
I'm not a huge fan of "the 12 days of Christmas" song. It gets annoying after the "partridge in a pear tree." I am a huge fan of the 12 days until Christmas giving tradition however.
I'm not sure when it started. I just know that it was a long time ago when our kids were little. We would choose a family or an elderly person in the neighborhood and for each of the 12 days before Christmas, we would take a little something over to their house and leave it anonymously on their front porch. We'd ring the door bell and run. This would go on for 12 days and then finally at the end, we'd give them the best gift of all and usually they would have figured out who we were or we would stop by and wish them a Merry Christmas.
One year a family did the 12 days of Christmas to our family! It was so exciting for our kids. This special family started out on the 13th day of December and brought one gift that was left on your doorstep and a note announcing that they would be giving us gifts for the next 11 days. Our kids were so excited. Day one brought one gift, day two brought two gifts and so forth. They were nice gifts too. Our little kids watched from their bedroom windows faithfully and tried so hard to figure out who was "doing" the 12 days for our family. The givers were very good and very fast. They could come and go without a trace. The doorbell would ring and the kids would run to the door and to the windows to try and spy the givers. Nothing. This went on for days! Finally towards the very end of it, we discovered that the Livingston family was our special giving family! They ended the streak with a Christmas book that we still have. It made the days before Christmas so exciting and we appreciated them so much for making such a special Christmas memory for us.
This year we have chosen a family who needs an extra special boost. I hope they enjoy it and I hope we can build the same kind of suspense and mystery that the Livingston boys built for our family all those years ago. One problem however. We can't run as fast...
Oh, on a side note. My little elf has started delivering little gifts to my car seat again this year. It annoys Rick to no end that some little elf gets into our locked garage to leave the gifts, but I LOVE it. I look forward to it every year and hope that he comes again. And he did!
I'm not sure when it started. I just know that it was a long time ago when our kids were little. We would choose a family or an elderly person in the neighborhood and for each of the 12 days before Christmas, we would take a little something over to their house and leave it anonymously on their front porch. We'd ring the door bell and run. This would go on for 12 days and then finally at the end, we'd give them the best gift of all and usually they would have figured out who we were or we would stop by and wish them a Merry Christmas.
One year a family did the 12 days of Christmas to our family! It was so exciting for our kids. This special family started out on the 13th day of December and brought one gift that was left on your doorstep and a note announcing that they would be giving us gifts for the next 11 days. Our kids were so excited. Day one brought one gift, day two brought two gifts and so forth. They were nice gifts too. Our little kids watched from their bedroom windows faithfully and tried so hard to figure out who was "doing" the 12 days for our family. The givers were very good and very fast. They could come and go without a trace. The doorbell would ring and the kids would run to the door and to the windows to try and spy the givers. Nothing. This went on for days! Finally towards the very end of it, we discovered that the Livingston family was our special giving family! They ended the streak with a Christmas book that we still have. It made the days before Christmas so exciting and we appreciated them so much for making such a special Christmas memory for us.
This year we have chosen a family who needs an extra special boost. I hope they enjoy it and I hope we can build the same kind of suspense and mystery that the Livingston boys built for our family all those years ago. One problem however. We can't run as fast...
Oh, on a side note. My little elf has started delivering little gifts to my car seat again this year. It annoys Rick to no end that some little elf gets into our locked garage to leave the gifts, but I LOVE it. I look forward to it every year and hope that he comes again. And he did!
5 comments:
What's a "weel?" Also we DID catch Chris C. after devising an ingenious plan for Jord to go one way and me the other, but it totally ruined the 12 days after that since we then knew who it was.s
I mean Chris L.
how fun! Our family has never been on the receiving end of the 12 days, so this year I"m doing it for the kids. But don't tell. . . I'm going to see how long I can go w/o them knowing. Who's your little elf? Ricky? What are your plans for the 21st?
I can't stand the thought of someone burglarizing the garage and leaving stuff for you in the car. I hope I can catch the bugger and turn him/her in to the police. We'll see how much fun it is then . . .
The 12 days is a wonderful tradition and I wish you luck running away without getting caught!
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