NOTE: Tomorrow is the big Pick-My-License-Plate Vote. Be sure to stop by and help decide my fate.
__
Amy and I haven’t really settled in on too many Christmas traditions. We want to – we just haven’t landed on any winners. Like any married couple, we’re still having to scroll through each of our family’s traditions to see which ones make the cut. Here are a few from my childhood that I’m still not sure about.

Picture with Santa
I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I was forced to get my picture taken with Santa until I was eighteen. Let that sink in for a minute. Not as a joke. Not as a fun thing to do with your girlfriend. Nope, just me and my brothers living the dream. What did you do during your Christmas break freshman year of college? Really? That sounds fun. Me? Oh, I sat on an old man’s lap.
Candy Tree
You know, it’s the one with 25 candy slots, one for each December day leading up to Christmas. There’s never been more of an incentive for me to wake up early. God forbid I get stuck with the lemon Jolly Rancher.
Top of the stairs
On Christmas morning, my Dad would make me and my brothers wait at the top of the stairs while he set up the video camera. My suspicion is that his “setting up” also included making (and drinking) a pot of coffee, reading the Sunday paper, opening and re-wrapping our gifts, and jogging a couple miles. I think I’ve spent more time at the top of those stairs than doctor’s office waiting rooms and dentist’s chairs combined.
Hygiene joke
Every year it was the same thing. Towards the bottom of our stocking, we’d pull out a bunch of personal hygiene items (deodorant, toothpaste, etc) and I’d exclaim, with the same gusto as the first time I said it, “Looks like Santa’s trying to tell me something!” My family’s courtesy laugh was also a tradition.
Clear the den
One of the greatest things about Christmas is that your den gets transformed into a toy haven. Wrapping paper is everywhere. My 10-speed is propped up against the coffee table. The Sega Genesis is plugged in and already being played. Then around 3pm, like clockwork, we had to take our loot upstairs/outside, thus transforming the den back into it’s boring self. At that moment, it was already the 26th.
What about you? Got any Christmas traditions that we should try out/avoid?
___