Yesterday I talked about some of my family’s ‘Official’ Christmas Eve traditions. What people rarely talk about is what they did as kids after the official family celebrations were over; you know, the ‘unofficial’ traditions.

When I was very young, after coming home from my Grandparent’s home, I was generally transported asleep to my bed, oblivious to Christmas jitters until the morning. However, when I began to be too old for carrying-off, I began to find ways to prolong my misery. Simple things.

My brothers and I would stay up talking. We’d sneak games into the room and stay up playing late or play them early in the morning before we were allowed to get our parents out of bed.

One year I turned the radio on and listened to Christmas music into the wee hours of the night. We had learned “Christmas in Killarney” to sing in school, and I thought it was a strange Christmas song until I heard Bing Crosby singing it on the radio that night. I knew Bing from “the Road” movies that got replayed on Saturday afternoons on one of our local stations. Once I heard Bing sing it, “Christmas in Killarney” was all of a sudden much more cool.

Of course, no childhood is complete without that Christmas Morning sneak-out of the bedroom to see what Santa brought. Oh come on! I only did it once. I think.

That brings us to the ‘official’ Christmas Morning Traditions . . .