The town that I grew up in has a pretty cool tradition that started way back in the 1940s that allows kids to get an early evening visit from Santa in their homes on Christmas Eve where they would receive one gift with the promise of more under the tree when they woke up in the morning. When I was a kid I would literally sit watching out the living room all afternoon waiting, even though he wouldn't arrive until about 6-7 pm

The way it works is the parents would sign up to participate and then drop off a wrapped gift at one of the local schools the weekend prior to Christmas with their kids name, age and address on it, and it would be organized into about 50 different routes. Each route had a Santa, driver and checker and would head out between 5-8 pm, getting to about 30 houses and spending a few minutes at each one. All volunteer effort, everything need to run the program donated, no cost for families to participate.(http://www.bedfordsanta.com/) . I later became a Santa while I was in college and for a few years after and it was a blast, although at some houses it would be huge parties where the adults (all hammered) got gifts along with the few kids that were there, and usually would give Santa a cold one for the road. It would be tiring but also a lot of fun. I was lucky that I got to participate as a parent myself when my folks were still in the house we grew up in and my daughter would get a visit from Santa.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

That's really cool, great tradition! I love those community-type efforts that are fun for everyone involved, and it's ultimately for the kids who I'm sure absolutely LOVE it.

Sidenote: Bedford seems like a great town. my wife and I are looking at houses in the 95/495 corridor and Bedford's one that's on the list. The town is mostly out of our budget but I'd love to get into a nice community like that if we can find a fixer-upper that makes it affordable for us.

Nice thread idea!

We were so fortunate growing up and our Xmas' were simply awesome.

The big thing each year were the mini concerts we would put on for Christmas Eve. My older sister was 2 years older then I had a brother 4 years younger and a sister a year younger than that. Generally the concerts were my big sister and I. We'd practice our carols or little piano tunes/book readings in the lead up.

The excitement would commence around 4-5pm on Xmas Eve, waiting for our godparents (they weren't a couple) and faux grandma - a lady my mother had boarded with as a student back when mum went to college but to us was Nanny Reeves - to arrive. We used to have a 6'high brick wall around the front yard with gates and my older sister and I would sit on the adjacent piers like a pair of lion statues, waiting for those people to arrive. My godfather would typically help mum and dad prepare the roast (turkey/ham, occasionally pork) whilst we'd chat with Nanny R. Then it would be sit down dinner in the lounge room (a room only ever used that one time of the year). Dad would get out the vintage VCR (the type that looked like CNN were covering a story - actual VCR player attached for "portability") and set it up on the tripod then ask us all for our Xmas messages one at a time.

After dinner it was concert time in the main part of the lounge room (the dining portion was a small section off the end of the kitchen but wrapped around the side of the kitchen back to main walkway). Adults would sit down (mostly) whilst the kids would put on a show. The youngest two might get involved to sing twinkle twinkle and other basics whereas it was us older two that did most of the showing off. My staples were playing Silent Night and reading a book called Mog's Christmas. Looking back at the recorded videos all I can say is that the adults were patient as fk! That book (and my reading tone) were excruciatingly boring!!! Mum would get involved as she was the life of the party and everyone would sing along at some point. Then it was open one gift, typically that of my artsy Godmother who never stayed over. More acting required as we pretended to be grateful for knitted coat hangars, or soap. Maybe she thought we got enough toys. Then it was bed time.

Most people can probably recall the excitement of trying to sleep the night before so I won't elaborate other than to say you'd lie there listening to the adults banter downstairs until you managed to doze off. In the morning us older two would sneak downstairs to take a peak. The loungeroom was locked up each night with little latches on the sliding doors (dining area had a single wooden door off the back of the kitchen whereas the main portion, which you entered from the hallway at the base of the second story staircase, had double frosted glass doors at its entrance). My sister and I would slip the latches and quietly go in for a peak. The room would be setup with piles from Santa for each kid spread out across the various couches. Presents from 'the folks' and others would be wrapped under the tree.

We would then pester our folks to get up. Dad would force us to wait what seemed an eternity (but was probably about 5 minutes) whilst he set up the VCR cam inside the lounge room. Then when everyone was ready the latch to the double doors would open and it would look like the Boxing Day sales as we kids burst in, magically running straight to the couch where our gifts were, having already undertaken reconnaissance. Dad would try and pan around for each of our reactions etc. Then mum would start handing out the wrapped presents.

After gifts we would sit down to a nice breakfast which often included pastries and gingerbread Santas etc. Then the compulsory Church with dad whilst mum, Nanny R and our Godfather would prepare the lunch. It would be an afternoon of relaxing after all that. Perhaps heading up the road to see what some of your school friends got etc.

We had the perfect storm environment for awesome Xmas'. Dad was a surgeon so we were pretty darn spoilt for gifts. The concerts built the excitement over several weeks. Our Godfather (looking back) was just the greatest - always got you something you really wanted, helped with all the meals and was a character during the concerts. He passed a few years back and we always say Xmas is never the same without him. It's only now that we view our individual family attempts that we realise how good they used to be. We have from time to time tried to recreate that with concerts including all the grandkids but it hasn't worked. Maybe its just that as adults the magic has faded. Being a kid was great!

It is a great town although it has changed a gotten pricier from when I was growing up. Easy access to 128 and excellent school system. Also some great riding routes nearby.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

My childhood was typical: Christmas in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the morning, we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. Pretty standard, really.

My frat in college had pledges do random scenes from movies, dress up for them, bring in props if necessary. I had to do this one, and also the Dalai Lama scene from Caddyshack. Nailed both of them.

When I was a kid xmas meant going back to NE where virtually all of the family still lived. Amongst my favorite memories from all that include:

-Sleeping on my grandmas divan. Not the damn couch mind you, the divan. Wrapped up in homemade quilts and happy in a particular way that only happens at grAndmas. Drinking Orange Vess in grAndmas kitchen, "helping" her make couga, but mostly guzzling pop and pilfering ingredients. Walking down the street with a five spot to pick up a carton of cream. At age 8. Giant, epic whole family team Trivial Pursuit matches after dinner and presents.

- as we all got older and the family grew too big for grAndmas, we started having xmas night at my crazy uncle Bob's. Bob owned an enormous swine farm outside of town and thus there was no lacking of things for little boys to get into. The farm had a gigantic 3 story farm house and I had two cousin from that aunt and uncle within a year of me in age.

It was nuts. We had laser tag wars. Except instead of fake Lasers we used real bb guns. In the house. Tractors, 4wheelers and real guns were readily available and minimally supervised as we aged a bit. Hired hands living on site usually had beer and porno mags when we got a little olde. It was freakin awesome and I'm lucky to have survived it. So much better than Disneyland. Bob would slaughter and cook a fresh hog for the occasion and after dinner we'd go rat hunting out in the farrowing huts. All pretty heady stuff for a city boy like me.

manhattans

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