It was a tradition within my mother’s family.  For growing up with her four sisters and their widowed mom on a cotton farm in Central Texas, when it came to extras, there simply weren’t many at all.  But every December 24 there was one special gift for whichever family member could wake up early and call out the words first:  “Christmas Eve Gift!”  It wasn’t a big item, of course—maybe just fruit and nuts– and sometimes, it simply meant that the winner could open their package a day earlier than all the others.  But it made life on the farm more fun and even the most modest Christmas more festive.  

So, in turn, my mom introduced the custom to our family, often coming into our room early on December 24 to catch my brother and myself off guard while still half asleep.  And I continued the custom with our kids as well, such that even now, our daughter, who has children of her own, will call me from England to try to say it before I can.  (She has a six-hour advantage on me.)

To be sure, the custom itself can be traced back to the early part of the 1800s, particularly in the southern United States. And Thomas Jefferson is recorded as having written in a letter on December 25, 1809, that his grandson was “at this moment running about with his cousins bawling out a ‘merry Christmas’ and ‘Christmas Eve gift!”

But then I suppose that God was the first one to ever make that cry when He sent His own Son into the world on that original Christmas morning.  For the gospels seem to tell us that, despite all of the Old Testament prophecies,  the Incarnation still came as surprise to almost everyone.  And when you strip away all of the cultural accoutrements, maybe it still does.

Here’s praying that each of you may be enabled to keep that same sense of wonder and surprise, no matter what else may happen on this winter’s day.  For what God did long ago in surprising the world really was the greatest Christmas Eve Gift of all.

Just don’t forget: I’ve already called it for this year.