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"But the elves have to come and paper our doorways – it's tradition."
one of my teenagers stated years ago, looking down at me. "Well, the
elves are busy and they're, um... tired." Three sets of slightly forlorn
eyes stared back at me. "But, by golly, the elves aren't too tired to
paper the doorways this year, because it's tradition!" I rejoined, real-
izing that this particular Flynn tradition would, usefullness outlived,
never die. With that, all three happily departed for the kitchen (and
devoured everything in sight).
I'll back up a bit. When we first moved to our house in Clinton
Township, we were faced with the dilemma of two big open doorways to
the living room and nothing to hold back small children from jumping
into a mountain of presents and candy on Christmas morning at 4:00
a.m. (as I used to do). The possibility of the resulting child-meltdowns
at our big family get-together later in the day required a solution.
What to do? Luckily, the elves came up with a quick fix: Paper the
large doorways by taping together all of the leftover wrapping paper.
(Unfortunately, when it comes to this practice, elves aren't very en-
vironmentally conscious, nor are they neat.) The result was a messy,
hodge-podge,wrapping paper doorway, glowing from the Christmas
tree lit within. Our children loved it.
"Now kids," I said, "the elves mentioned that you aren't allowed to
break through the paper until all children (and parents) are awake,
and breakfast has been eaten. They took this rule as sacrosanct
and followed it accordingly, slightly annoyed that their parents ate
breakfast verrrry slowly (as mine used to on Christmas) but knowing
it was worth the wait.
Then, with breakfast finally eaten, the magic moment arrived.
Two kids manned one doorway, another kid (and their big-kid-Dad)
manned the other. At the count of three, everyone burst through
(except tired Mom.) After a couple of years of this tradition, they were
quite surprised to find out that the elves didn't do the same thing at
their friends' and cousins' houses. They were also a bit confused to
find out that the elves did, however, deliver new Christmas pajamas
to the McCutcheon kids across town on Christmas Eve. I explained
that while Santa's traditions were set in stone, the elves were just
making up new ones all over Clinton Township, willy-nilly.
Thus, I was a bit perplexed when my teenagers, no longer small
and all three quite wise (pun-intended) to the magic of Christmas,
insisted that – even though they happily sleep until noon, meltdowns
are no longer a threat and they're content to have breakfast and maybe
coffee before opening presents – the tradition must go on. Perhaps this
year the elves will make up a wacky new tradition for your family as
well? Whatever (and however) you celebrate, I hope you all have a
very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!!
– Julie Fl�nn
Carol
Beder's
www.MSIPlumbingAndRemodeling.com
1109 Rte. 31 S.
Lebanon, NJ 08833
New Jersey Licensed
Master Plumber #8722
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Experts!
908.735.4438
"Family traditions counter alienation and confusion.
They help us define who we are; they provide something steady,
reliable and safe in a confusing world."
– Susan Lieberman
