There has already been a few Christmas parties to attend to. And it’s always nice to meet family and friends over the holiday. The older generation would always love to see the children, and to share their excitement over Christmas. So a question that often is asked is: So did Father Christmas give you anything nice for Christmas? This is said with a big smile and lots of expectation, as they know that the children receive a lot of Christmas gifts, and so the conversation can go on and on for a long time.
In Norway the gifts is handed out a little bit different. Our tradition was to keep all the Christmas gifts under the the Christmas Tree. And then Father Christmas would visit during the evening, handing out one present to each member of the family. The rest of the gifts would be labeled with “to” and “from”, so everybody could thank the giver.
Moving to the UK made a change in our tradition. All the gifts are now under the Christmas Tree, and will be opened on Christmas Eve. Since Father Christmas is busy traveling around Scandinavia on Christmas Eve, he is no longer visiting the children saying Hohoho… He’ll make it to the UK during the night sometime, and we therefor have introduced the Christmas Stocking. Father Christmas usually gives them a magazine, a film or some arts & craft things to do on Christmas Day.
So back to the question, So did Father Christmas give you anything nice for Christmas? -Yes! I got a Simpsons Magazine!
That kind of ended the conversation.
Picture above shows Santa visiting us Christmas 2003 in Oslo, Norway.