Some Christmas morning memories stay with you forever — the quiet ones, the strange ones, the ones that don’t fade even when the stockings move rooms and the years pile up.
They quietly ignore adulthood and bring you right back to being a kid with no patience and too much hope.
Case in point:
I woke up at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning this year.
No kids rushing down the hall.
No stockings at the end of the bed.
Just the unmistakable feeling that something good is happening and sleep can wait.
Which reminded me of a Christmas from childhood that still lives in my bones.
1. That one year we slept in my nana’s bed
It only happened once.
My sister and I slept in my nana’s bed on Christmas Eve, and at 3 a.m. we opened our stockings like it was the most reasonable plan anyone had ever made.
It was not.
2. Scented soaps were involved
Both stockings held strongly scented soaps.
Floral. Enthusiastic. Impossible to ignore.
They absolutely drove my nana crazy.
To this day, one whiff of overly perfumed soap can transport me straight back to that moment — joy, excitement, and mild regret all at once.
3. Time moves the stockings, not the feeling
This year, the stockings were in the living room.
But the excitement was the same.
That quiet, buzzy, childlike certainty that something wonderful exists just out of reach and right now might be the moment to touch it.
4. Christmas morning hits differently when you’re older
You wake up tired.
Your body feels it.
But your heart doesn’t mind.
There’s a soft contentment that settles in — less chaos, more gratitude, and the strange comfort of knowing you don’t have to rush through it anymore.
5. At the center of it all, the reason still holds
Christmas isn’t really about stockings or soaps or being awake before the sun.
It’s about remembering why the day exists at all.
A quiet birthday.
A holy interruption.
Light arriving without fanfare — and somehow changing everything.
Just a few things that help.
Save what works. Skip what doesn’t.
If you’re tired but content on Christmas Day, you’re probably doing it right.