As you might know, I’ll be hosting the Christmas Hygge Challenge all month long. J, my best friend, dared me into it, by sending me the above list. She is much more Christmassy than me, and I suspect that she wanted to sprinkle a little Holiday magic in my life.

You are welcome to join in, either here on WordPress, or on Instagram (@thecyranny). Just take a picture inspired by the theme of the day, post it and link me in!

Here is my take for December 10th:

Sometimes, I wonder how magic Santa still is, for children. In 2019, it seems like Christmas is more about gifts than anything else.

Little girl-me used to wait for the old white bearded man more than for the presents he was bringing with him. Now, in most of the houses I visit during the holidays, people put the colorful gifts under the Christmas tree days if not weeks before Christmas Eve.

When little bro and I were kids, there was no gift to be seen around our house, until that magic night. We spent all evening peeking out the bay-window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh and his valiant raindeers.

We were a bit badlucked, because the visit to our house always happened when we were taking our bath. As soon as we were in the tub, Dad raced to get everything done. He gathered the hidden presents, put them under the tree, ate most of our cookies and drank the glass of milk left by the fireplace, and finally shook spoons in a mason jar (try it, it sounds just like Santa’s bells, I promise you!) and Ho-Ho-Hoed loudly in the living room.

Mom hurried drying us up, and insisted that we put on our pajamas before running down the stairs…

And every year, we were just a few seconds too late.

Look, we can still see the sleigh’s traces in the snow! Can you see them too? You were so close to catching him this time! 

Of course, we could see the fresh traces in the fluffy snow. How could we have missed him once more?? Disappointment soon wore off, though, since we had Santa’s gifts to unwrap, waiting for us under the firetree.

What about you? How did you experience the magic of Christmas as a kid? And how do you keep the magic alive, if you have young children or grand children?