When I was little, we used to read the from the Gospel story of the Nativity every year on Christmas eve, and when we got to "and she wrapped the babe in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger", one of us would put the Baby Jesus in place in the nativity. In later years we would do this around the Christmas tree, but when I was really little Santa even brought the tree after I was asleep! My parents would play a Christmas record for me and tell me to stay awake for the whole thing, to make sure I fell asleep. My dad would have stood the tree in the (off-limits) basement for a few days to let the branches fill out. Alternately one or the other of my parents would get to go to Midnight Mass on the given year. In the meantime the other would start to decorate the tree. When whichever of my parents got to the later Mass that year got back, they would finish up. Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner consisted of fruit, cheese, sometimes nutbread, and wine (ginger ale for me). This dated back to my parents first Christmas as a married couple when they forgot to pick up fish for dinner. As Catholics, Christmas Eve is on of they days when we can't eat meat so they settled for what they had and a family traditon was born. When my parents finished up with the tree and putting out the presents, they would have a snack of leftover wine and cheese along with cookies and milk left out for Santa, then wake us up and tell us Santa had been here. They'd watch us open our gifts and open theirs and then go to bed, which we thought was ridiculous considering they had to have gone to bed right after us in order for Santa to have come.

Merry Christmas and be sure to get to bed on time tonight so Santa doesn't pass you by.

Rich