Alex (all of 12) says that opening gifts on Christmas Eve is not traditional. How can a 12-year-old be so comfortable with tradition? He's almost a teenager and should be challenging tradition!
Now I have some support for my point of view from Gene Edward Veith who posted the message below on his blog at http://www.geneveith.com/christmas-eve-is-christmas/_4196/
In the ancient world, the end of the day was when the sun went down. The night time counted as the beginning of the next day. This is the Biblical reckoning: “The evening and the morning were the first day.” To this day, Jews begin celebrating the Sabbath as soon as the sun goes down on Friday night. This means that Christmas begins with Christmas Eve. So if your custom is to open presents on Christmas Eve, as long as you do it after the sun goes down, IT’S ALL RIGHT!
I wonder if Alex will buy that argument?
I'm not sure that Alex's mom is ready to change tradition either!
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, my family always opened presents on Christmas Eve, so as to preserve the sacredness of Christmas Day and solely focus on the occasion.
ReplyDeleteAs an adult and father now, we had been doing presents on Christmas morning for years, but now we've reverted to a half and half idea - grandparents presents are opened on Christmas Eve, immediate family presents on Christmas Day.
And no awakening before 6 am, either. :)