Christmas traditions

I am sitting up in bed on a very wet (almost stormy) but very muggy Saturday morning. Window open and curtains blowing, kittens running everywhere, and Mingus on the floor at the side of the bed.
An on-line conversation with a cousin last night prompted me to think about Christmases past and the things which we did as a family that have been passed on through the generations. Even though we are cousins, we didnt really know each other as children - we certainly never spent a Christmas together that I am aware of - but she had similar traditions to me and has continued them as well.
I recall the Christmases of my childhood. The long hot heady days leading up to the 25th when me and my three brothers seemed to enjoy each other more than usual and peace and tranquility broke out in the home. Not that we fought very often - I don't recall more than one or two skirmishes as children - but Christmas seemed to bring a special flavour. We would spend days cutting out old Christmas cards and recycling them into new ones to give to friends at school. A bit of glue, a bit of glitter and hey presto, we would create masterpieces. That smell of glue remains for me as part of the "Christmas smell".
We didnt have a Christmas tree until I was about 10. Until then, we always made our own decorations using crepe paper, lots of balloons and old Christmas cards and wrapping paper.
Another memory is picking and shelling peas on Christmas Eve. We did this every year - probably ate more than we shelled but there was still plenty to go round and it kept us occupied for some time. Mum must have been driven mad by us on Dec 24 - it was the only night of the year that we wanted to go to bed early but of course with excitement and expectation we could never go to sleep. It was always too hot and we would toss and turn for hours.
We put pillow cases at the end of our beds and eventually we must have gone to sleep because they were always full in the morning and we never heard or saw Santa come. Mum laughingly tells me that one Christmas we woke up less than an hour after Santa called and she had to be the Christmas grinch so that she could get some sleep.
Every year, we got a new towel, and an orange (in those days, oranges were a real treat). There were also the usual clickers, whistles, etc as well as the one special thing we had asked Santa to bring. Early in December we would write our letters to Santa and Mum would offer to post them. We didnt always get everything we asked for but we always got at least one thing. One year I got a yellow silk handkerchief which, although I quite liked it, I found a bit odd. I still believed in Santa at that stage and I can remember saying to Mum, "I wonder why Santa gave me this?" Her reply "Didn't you ask for it?" I had asked but had no idea why - I was probably just making a list!
In those early days, we opened presents as soon as we woke up and I don't really recall what we did for the rest of the day. But as we got older, family time together became stronger and more important.
I will continue this in another post later today .....