Do Your Little Ones Keep You Awake on Christmas Eve?
I have a genius solution.
I had four children under five years old, and Christmas Day was often challenging. I had to stay awake until they were asleep before putting their presents into the stockings at the end of their beds.
They would wake up approximately ten minutes later, and mayhem would ensue.
I used to get so tired on Christmas Day, and I longed for a whole night of sleep before juggling excited little ones and cooking a turkey.
One year I hit on an ingenious solution.
Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday that year, but I told them it was on Thursday. They woke up at their regular 7am to find their presents from Santa Claus had arrived early. I said I was sorry I had made a mistake and had the best Christmas Day ever.
The following year, of course, they made sure to check calendars so I could not repeat my “mistake”.
Instead, I came up with another plan. They had been told Santa would not bring them anything if they were awake. So, if they woke up and there were no presents in their stockings, they had better go back to sleep.
They finally came through to wake me up at 8am. EIGHT AM. Bliss!! They were distraught because Santa hadn’t come.
“Oh dear,” I said. “Something must have gone wrong. Let’s check downstairs.”
Downstairs by the fireplace, we found some black bin bags with the children’s names attached and a note from Santa. It read: “I am so sorry. I was running late and didn’t have time to transfer these to your stockings.”
Another blissful Christmas Day.
