Christmas Day Surprises

{sorry this is so long with very bad and few pictures}

I grew up with a Christmas tradition that I can't replicate. It started out (I think) as a plan to keep us kids in bed a little longer on Christmas morning and blossomed into a very big deal. Every year my dad set a 'Christmas Trap'. They ranged in the early years from a simple fish line strung across the doorway connected to some pots and pans to complex mechanical devices that told us to get back to bed or that lit up or gave us a little scare or we faced false walls, decoys etc. . . . As kids we spent hours planning ways to get through the traps. We planned ways to communicate between bedrooms, stashed scissors, wire cutters, flashlights, knives etc. in our bedrooms so that we would be able to get passed or disarm whatever got in our way. In many ways the traps were more anticipated (and remembered) than the presents we gave or received. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I made an album last year for my dad about the traps and don't have any pictures left. So you'll just have to use your imaginations.

While we lived in Preston, we often spent Christmas Eve night with my parents so the boys got a few experiences with the traps. When we moved away, I knew we couldn't continue the traps because we're not nearly as resourceful or smart as my dad. But I wanted a fun, but doable for us, Christmas tradition. So Tom and I have come up with a Christmas Day surprises tradition. What does this mean? Who knows. . . but each year we try to make things just a little different and crazy. I'll share a few things we've done thus far to give you an idea.

First off, I have to note that we came across a *wonderful* tradition for us as parents, the kids have grown to like it, but that isn't to say it was well accepted at first. . .but at 8:30 on Christmas Eve, the kids are sent to bed in our room. They get the PlayStation, books, snacks and a cell phone. They are NOT to come out on any condition (but they don't need to since they have access to a bathroom, food, phone and fun.) That way we can get to work on all of our stuff at an early hour. I tell you, this idea has been genius for our family. I will ever thank Whitney Barrett for sharing their family tradition with me. Anyway, back to the Christmas Day Surprises. . .

We started out small the first year we did it. . . it was a search and find type of thing for one of their gifts. They each got numerous small gifts for their collections--Cache dice, Caleb marbles (Chan just got a small Lego set) that were all wrapped individually in the same paper and they had to hunt all over the house until they found all 50 or so items before they could open them. It ended up taking quite a bit of time and they had a lot of fun with it.

The next year Christmas was on a Sunday so we didn't plan something long and extensive. That year we got a ping pong table that we set up downstairs then we wrapped a lot of ping pong balls in shimmery paper and tied them with curly ribbon on the ends to make them look like candy. Then we hung them from the ceiling. Two of the balls were orange and at the end of the Christmas unwrapping that day we started opening ping pong balls one at a time. Whoever got the orange balls had to clean up. Caleb and Tom were the (un?)lucky finders. We sent Caleb downstairs with a large load of things to put away and he was the one to discover the ping pong table. (the bragging rights from the find made the cleaning up woes suddenly okay!)

The next year we hid their stockings, but left each boy a different color of yarn strung ALL OVER the house that they had to wind up to find their stocking. This was one of their favorites. (the whole house looked this tangled!)

Last year we got a little more involved with it. . . first off, the boys woke up to no presents under the tree, the old Christmas stockings were the only things under the tree, with nothing in them but a very large nail (like 5" long) with a poem about Christ's atonement. After a little devotional, they each got an envelope. In the envelope was a paper with bunch of numbers on them. Small dot stickers were stuck all over the main living area of the house. They had to collect the small dot stickers of their color to put on the numbers which created a dot to dot picture of the place where they would find a clue as to where their stocking was. (one picture made a drawing of the ceiling fan). Once they found their stockings, they had to find the presents. They were all stashed in the bathtub. After hauling them back under the tree we started the unwrapping festivities as usual.

This year we have gone even crazier, but I'm not going to say what we are doing in case I've got some blog reading children. I'll post about it after Christmas.

What are your traditions? I love to hear about what other people do. I was talking to our neighbors and it is interesting how vastly different everyone does Christmas morning. Please share!