I must caution you. This is a tale so disturbing it may haunt you in the wee hours of the morning. It concerns the very first Christmas I spent with the man who is now my husband. When it came time to sit down in the living room and open gifts with his family, I offered to take down the stockings from the fireplace and hand them out. Various family members looked at me in an odd sort of way, and that’s when I discovered the truth.
They open their stockings after they open the main gifts.
How could this be? In my mind, the correct Christmas Day procedure involved stockings first and presents second. That was my family’s holiday tradition—and so it had never occurred to me that other families did things the other way around. Clearly his family felt the same since they looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
After my initial surprise, I easily adapted to the new normal. This was a good reminder that everyone has different traditions they hold dear…even if they’re wrong…so, SO wrong.
Print this booklet on basic Christmas traditions for PreK–Grade 1! Then ask your students to share their favorite holiday traditions.