12 days of Christmas Tradition for small kids

In our house no decorations went up until Christmas Eve. That day was a great and festive day of excitement and preparation for Christmas. Boxes of baubles were pulled out from cupboards and ivy and holly (if we were lucky, there were berries on it) were pulled from the garden. When my father got home from work, he would cut a large branch from one of the yew trees in the garden and this was planted upright in a pot of soil to be the tree. Everything was duly decorated and festive-looking by nightfall and we sang carols around the tree. When we had sung our fill, each of us was given a tinsel star from the tree (which we had to hang over our bed head) and a large stocking (the kind that grownups used to wear inside of boots) to hang at the foot of the bed and we were sent up to bed with stern warnings that Father Christmas wouldn't come if we weren't asleep! There was not a hint of any presents (though the tree had a large empty, expectant space below it) because Father Christmas brought all of those in the night! On Christmas morning we would be awake very early (some Christmases, I believe, as early as three or four!), would reach out in the dark to feel satisfyingly lumpy and fat stockings and then check to see if anyone else was awake. If they were and it seemed 'morning enough' to be awake for good, we would gather in one or other of the rooms to share the opening of the stockings. These always contained enough small gifts and sweets [candy] to keep us occupied until the adults were up and called us to breakfast. It was only after this that we were encouraged to go and look at the tree ... and what a sight that was! Where, the previous evening, had been an empty space, now in the thin morning sunshine was such a heap of presents as you wouldn't believe! Tentatively we inspected the labels and speculated on the contents, based on the shape and size of the parcel. None of this, however, was to be really touched until after we had had Christmas dinner and (for us children) a rest. I suppose that, by the time the meal was finished and cleared away by the adults while we kids had a rest, it was almost three o'clock. It was unfortunate that, every Christmas Day (which was a holiday, of course) my father was unaccountably called in to work. We would wave him goodbye as he left the house ... but then, a few minutes later, who should we see arriving but Father Christmas, resplendent in boots and red coat and trousers with a beard and carrying a large sack over his shoulder. He was, of course, admitted and welcomed and proceeded to give out the presents from the pile under the tree, misreading the labels from time to time and occasionally getting our names mixed up. You can imagine the fun that we had ... and all the oohs and ahhs as we opened our presents. The Twelve Days of Christmas? Well, in the old days of the Romans, Saturnalia did, indeed, last for 12 days and this carried on, I believe, when the Church took over the old festival and made out that Jesus was born on that day. (For a long time that is what we kids believed and it was only much later that we learned that He was more likely born in the spring when shepherds would have, indeed, been watching their flocks on the hills). Christmas, anyway, lasted (traditionally) from Christmas Day until Epiphany - the supposed arrival of the three kings - on January 6th. Those are the real '12 Days of Christmas'!