It's not a memory of a holiday in a specific year, but I'll share my memories of how we celebrated Christmas at my house when I was growing up.
First, mom bought us or made us ornaments every year. I have 26 years worth of these. Right up until the second year of my first marriage. We each decorated a section that mom assigned us of the tree with our personal ornaments. This is where all of our gifts would go.
Mom and dad made us all line up at the top of the stairs by age, oldest (me!) to youngest. Then he went down to check if Santa had been there and to plug in the tree. Sure enough, he'd call us all down...and we knew our part of the tree, so we could head straight to it with our stockings.
Mom always wrapped the Santa gifts in paper decorated with Santas and printed on in marker who it was too and from. Mom and dad's gifts were wrapped in fancy paper with tags and bows, and cursive writing.
And I always remember driving my mom crazy because I never just ripped the paper off of a gift...I had to slowly unwrap it by the tape. My younger son does this too, which is what made me remember it. I laughed watching him on his birthdays...just like mom.
