What was your favorite holiday as a child?

The next question is: What was your favorite holiday as a child and how did your family celebrate it?

My favorite holiday has always been Christmas.  For the early part of my life, the tradition was to put up our cut live tree on Aunt Norma Allen's birthday.  That kind of went by the wayside after our first Christmas in Germany when all of the needles of the tree were on the floor long before Christmas.  No matter what my parents did, they could not keep the tree from drying out.  There after the tree went up the week before Christmas in our years in Germany.  Stateside it could go up early and stay green all through the holidays.  One of the standing traditions was that we all entered into  where the gifts were together.  This was easier in some homes than others but nonetheless the tradition stood.  

When we were in Germany our first year, we had some good friends - the Mebius family.  They had three boys.  Donald and Walter were Marianne's and my age.  They told us about the tradition of St. Nicholas.  It has been in a tradition in my family ever since.  The mission president was Theodore M. Burton.  One of the sister missionaries was German and she told us the story of Advent.  That too has been a tradition in our home to this day.  

Having aebleskivers on Christmas morning is also a tradition that goes back to my father's maternal grandmothers family.  That tradition is being carried on by our family too.

I love decorating the house from top to bottom.  I look forward to someday having a house of my own again and being able to decorate more than a 1 foot tree.  I could not sleep on Christmas Eve as a child and in truth am not much better now.  When we lived on Infantry Post in San Antonio, on Christmas Eve, when the MP's would do their rounds - they would shake sleigh bells after midnight.  I will never forget that sound and knowing that Santa Claus had really come.  I think that is why I was so reluctant to quit believing in Santa Claus.  Oh wait - I never quit believing!