In 2005 Christmas day fell on Sunday. As a family with many children it became apparent that our typical Christmas schedule (open presents, Christmas story, breakfast, and then off to grandma and grandpa’s for dinner and presents) would be near impossible if we also had to fit in our normal Sunday church service as well. We rarely get to church on time as it is. So we decided that year to open presents on Christmas Eve.
But this interfered with our usual Christmas Eve tradition of the kids’ gift exchange. They draw a name early in the month and look forward to giving and opening one present before bed. They certainly didn’t want to give this up, so we decided they could exchange their gifts on December 23rd, Christmas Eve’s eve. They loved the new schedule so much that we decided to keep it.
A dilemma arose that first year: a special evening needed a special name. Christmas Eve’s Eve was a bit awkward to say. But what else could it be called? What could possibly come before Eve. Well Adam of course….. Christmas Adam!
A few years after that, we added a rule: they had to MAKE the gift for the sibling gift exchange. Now in the interest of honesty…these handcrafted projects weren’t full of grand successes. But the intentions were good. The biggest hit was definitely the wooden rifles!
And that brings us to Christmas 2010, when Grandma shared with an aunt about our Christmas Adam tradition and made the connection since Adam was made by the hand of God, all gifts had to be made just like we did that one year. The aunt loved the idea and held her own Christmas Adam party for the relatives.
~The guidelines: Exchange names and then each person makes a gift as well as a food item to share.
~The results: Everyone had a blast!
One aunt refurbished her mother’s old ornaments. An uncle made a solar powered lamp engraved with the person’s last name. Edible playdough and tissue flowers were treasured by a little cousin. Another had put together a photo collage and some gave baked goods, but it was apparent that everyone enjoyed the gathering. I was a bit surprised. Let’s just say this extended clan would NEVER get mistaken for a craft and garden club, maybe a craft bizarre if you emphasized bizarre. But, my relatives do love to get together and definitely have a flair for unique gatherings (like crazy road rallies orchestrated by my mom) so I guess it shouldn’t have been too surprising that a quirky Christmas Adam party was a big hit.
It was after this that it occurred to our family that others might enjoy this somewhat silly yet special addition to the holiday season. We searched the internet and found a few places that made mention of Christmas Adam as the day before Christmas Eve. I was a little disappointed to learn I wasn’t the only clever person in the world, but we found no one that celebrated it as our family does.
And so, we invite you to become acquainted with a new tradition that has old-fashioned appeal …………… Christmas Adam
