Christmas Eve Wonder

Copyright Megan Oteri 2010

What I remember most about Christmas is spending time with my family and the magic of Christmas Eve.  The joy of spotting Santa in the sky and the holiness of the night as it curved into dawn of Christmas Day.  We would wait up for my father on Christmas Eve, which was so exciting.  He worked nights as a security guard at the Northern Trust Bank in Chicago.  He would leave for work around 1 in the afternoon.  Even though his shift started at 3, he would leave the house at 1 to catch the train into the city from the suburb where we lived.  Mom had the house filled with Christmas smells and spices.  My favorite was a mixture of orange peels, cinnamon sticks, cloves simmering on the stove.  It made the house smell so wonderful. 

We would bake Christmas cookies and roll out the white dough and sprinkle green and red sugary crystals on top of each cookie.  Snowmen, Christmas trees, bells, Santas, and elves.  I don’t know how the afternoon passed.  Sometimes we would wrap last-minute presents Mom needed help with.  We would help get “The Little Room” ready for Christmas Eve.  The Little Room was the name of the room attached to the garage.  It was behind the house, about ten feet from the back door.  It had a fireplace and that is where we put up the Christmas tree.  It was such a magical place around the holidays.

With a fire crackling and the lights shimmering, we would sing along to the Christmas music on the radio and shake our presents to “see” what was inside.  Even though we were allowed to open any gift under the tree on Christmas Eve, my sister and I always opened each other’s gifts that we got each other.  Then it turned into tradition.  I remember one year she saved her allowance for months to get me a monkey puppet.  It had super long legs and arms and had a squeaky toy inside the mouth.  It was brown and furry. 

The most vivid memory is when Dad finally got home from work around midnight and we would squeal with delight, scampering around the house.  Then we would run barefoot over the snow (it was Chicago – you could pretty much always bank on a white Christmas) and pitter patter through it, jumping from stone to stone on the circular stone path that led to the Little Room.  And once inside the door, we would warm up by the fire and drink hot cocoa.  Then we would open each other’s gifts, my sister and me, and my parents would watch.  That is what I remember about Christmas.  Well, Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve is such a special time.  Everyone is getting everything ready and it just is magical, no way around it.  I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas morning. 

I hope to embrace this tradition with my son, who you can see in the picture above has already begun to experience the wonder of Christmas.  I hope you all have a beautiful Christmas with your loved ones and I hope you experience the wonder of the season, just as you did in the pockets of your childhood memory.