Thursday, December 22, 2011

Holiday Blog Hopping - Did you open any gifts yet?

If you celebrate Hanukkah, chances are you've opened at least one Hanukkah gift by now. But if you celebrate Christmas, you might be watching a growing pile of gifts under your tree, waiting for a chance to dig in. :-)

When I was growing up, we didn't open any gifts, not one, until Christmas morning. (Santa doesn't come until after midnight after all!) Typical children, my sister and I would wake our mother and grandmother around 5 or 6 a.m. (Actually, I remember waking Mom at 3 or 4 a.m. one year...she did send us back to bed.) I don't remember there being a lot of gift exchanging in school or at church or Girl Scouts, or anything like that, so we really did have to wait until Christmas morning for our new "stuff."

As I got older, though, things started to change. I was 19 when I met my husband and spent my first Christmas with his family. How shocked was I to find out I was dating a man whose family opened their gifts on Christmas Eve! Even worse was their custom to put all the opened gifts under the tree and wait until after New Year's Day to use any of them!

I'm sorry, but that's going too far...way too far! Why open them early and leave them sitting there for more than a week?! I didn't get it, and as soon as we married, that tradition changed. Not only do we (my husband and I and our kids) wait until Christmas morning to open our gifts, but we have no rules about waiting to use our new gifts. Once it's out of its wrapping, a gift is fair game. In fact, I opened two lovely gifts from co-workers this week, have already worn one and plan to wear the other one either today or tomorrow! Life is too short to waste it looking at your gifts! Am I right? :-)

What about your and your families? Are you gift watchers, content to savor what you received for awhile? Or are you like me, ready to dive in and put those gifts to immediate use?

Leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for a copy of my paranormal romance novella Adrienne's Ghost (I'll give out a total of 10). One of those 10 will win my "grand prize" of a $25 Amazon gift certificate, and all of my winners will be entered into the Holiday Blog Hop's contest for the super grand prize, a KINDLE FIRE!

If you'd rather not leave a comment, please send me an e-mail (leah@leahstjames.com) and let me know you'd like to enter.

Thanks for stopping by the Holiday Blog Hop!

15 comments:

  1. Your book sounds pretty neat!!

    emilyannward at yahoo dot com

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  2. Hi, Emily! Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your kind words about the book. Happy Holidays!

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  3. I couldn't even imagine unwrapping gifts and then leaving them untouched for a week! Seeing the wrapped gifts is torture enough :)

    We open ours on Christmas Day too. Sometimes we only open stockings and then go to the in-laws for gifts & dinner, which is nice too because when we come home, we still have goodies to open!

    Thanks for hosting the contest, fellow Holiday Hopper!

    maryrajotte[at]gmail

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  4. We open it on the 24th around 6 o'clock(p.m).
    Then it's ours, no more waiting! You're version sounds like some kind of modern torture. :)

    Thanks for the giveaway and Happy Holidays!

    cayce006 at yahoo dot com

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  5. Hi, Mary - I like your idea, sort of splitting the "opening" into two parts to prolong the enjoyment. :-) Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Thanks for sharing your traditions, Cayce! I'm glad you agree with me on the whole waiting-to-use thing! (It's a wonder I married him!) :-)

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  7. Thank you for the excellent giveaway. I hope you have a joyous and safe holiday season. My family has always opened presents on Christmas morning. My ex's family opened on Christmas Eve. I can't even imagine opening presents and not using them for a week. After we open we immediately dive in and use or wear whatever we get. If we told the kids they couldn't play with new toys we'd have a riot.

    seriousreader at live dot com

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  8. Same here, Linda! I can't imagine making my kids wait. :-) Geez...I don't make myself wait! Luckily we nipped that in the bud pretty quickly. (Although I think they were quite shocked at my behavior at the time!) :-)Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Merry Christmas and thanks for the giveaway. Good luck with your writing
    teressaoliver at gmail dot com

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  10. i would love to be entered into your contest! thanks so much!!

    yankeedragon4 at gmail dotcom

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  11. I'd like to be entered! Thanks for such a great giveaway, and Merry Christmas!

    meghan_L_P at hotmail dot com

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  12. Thanks so much, Teressa, Heather and Meghan! You're entered! :-)

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  13. Happy Holidays & thanks for the giveaway!

    elizabeth@bookattict.com
    GFC/G+/Twitter: BookAttict

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  14. Happy Holidays, BookAttict! Thanks for visiting! :-)

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  15. Definitely dive in and play! Whats the fun in getting something and just stare at it? Thanks for the fun! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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