<center><Font size="+1">Christmas Eve Gift!</font></center>
What? You’ve never heard of it? Christmas eve gift (CEG) was an old slave tradition. The first slave to find the master on Christmas eve and say the phrase was supposed to receive a gift of some sort (probably a coin). I always wondered how it became a tradition in my fishbelly-white family (We’re mostly Irish, with a lot of other stuff thrown in)? Nobody actually got a gift, of course. It was more like counting coup. Only one person got to CEG anyone on Christmas Eve, since only the first CEG counted.
My grandma used to CEG us when we first got up on Christmas eve morning. She always got up before the crack of dawn to make some coffee in a cast-iron skillet – she claimed that percolated coffee was too darn weak. You could practically stand your spoon up in a cup of that stuff – it was indistinguishable from used motor oil, except for the aroma. Just the smell of it would put hair on your chest and pop your eyes wide open. I hesitate to think what effect drinking it would have. I was eighteen before I managed to CEG her. I felt bad. It was as if, since Grandma wasn’t sharp enough to get me first, this confirmed that she was getting old and was very likely mortal.
Can anyone tell me more about “Christmas Eve Gift”? How about your family’s unique holiday traditions?
Baloo, one of my friends does that, but I think that each person can have it said to them once. Like, you could CEG grandma, and dad, and sis, but not if someone else gets them first.
Cessandra
It’s frightening how many crazies think that world is going to end in a few days. All of us smart people know that it’s not ending until next year.
Specifically, the act of saying “Christmas Eve Gift!” to someone on Christmas eve morning.
Cessandra: Now that you mention it, you’re right! You could still Christmas-eve-gift somebody else as long as they had not already had it done to it. I seem to recall that in our family, anyone who had already CEG-ed somebody else wasn’t considered a legitimate target. As soon as Grandma got anyone, no-one could do it to her.
I still don’t know a whole lot about the original tradition, apart from how it was employed in my own family. After talking to a long-lost branch of the family, I find that they also practice "Christmas-eve-gifting, as well, in pretty much the same way as mine.
Since it was derived from a slave tradition, I’m uncertain how it became a tradition in my family. My Great-grandfather was from Indiana, and fought on the side of the North in the Civil War. Two of my remaining three Great-grandfathers also fought for the North, even though they were from the South. The tradition seems to have come from the Indiana branch of the family, though it may not have begun until after Great-grandfather Dunehew emigrated to Arkansas. Alas, all the ancestors who might know the answer to how it became a tradition to near-albino Irishmen have long since passed away.
My wife’s family has always done the Christmas Eve Gift thing too. Now with my family of five, my three kids love it too. Oddly enough we also do a “Christas Gift” on the 25th too. I didn’t see anyone else mention that.
As far as other traditions… All my kids get to open one package on Christmas Eve, and it’s always a new set of sleepwear, or jammies of some type. That way they look all cute in the morning when we’re taking their pictures while opening gifts.
We always had new jammies for Christmas eve as well and now I always make sure my son has some too. We were allowed to open one gift. Hmm I’m a softie, I let my son open a few.
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another