Favorite Childhood Christmas Memories

My favorite childhood Christmas memories include:

• Playing “Christmas” with my sister for weeks before and after the big day. This included pretending that Santa was arriving with piles of (make-believe) presents for us, opening the pretend gifts, oohing and aahing over them, etc.  (No, we didn’t pretend to write thank-you notes…)
• The Hollywood setting during Christmas morning gift opening. “Director” Dad set up a bunch of bright lights on tripods around the room the tree was in and we were “stars” as he took movies!

• My sister receiving a regift of my old bicycle. My dad had painted “Diane” on the main diagonal bar when they originally gave it to me, and he painted that out and repainted her name in the same place. When she saw it under the tree J immediately said, “Heyyyyy! This is Diane’s old bike!” (What can I say? My parents are thrifty and I guess they figured she wouldn’t notice?)
• My grandma coming to visit and the whole family driving around town looking at Christmas lights on people’s houses
• Drinking eggnog and eating goodies we never got to eat during the rest of the year
• Turning on the kitchen porch light every year when we woke up on Christmas morning so that our neighbors across the street (our “adopted grandparents”) could come over and join us for gift opening and breakfast

What are your favorite childhood Christmas memories?