a Christmas tree, no matter how beautifully dressed and decorated, is nothing when there are no presents underneath it. when my siblings and cousins were still young, they loved nosing around my Christmas tree because sometimes my little Christmas tree got lost with all the presents for them. and as i did with the nephews and grandsons later on, i never would put a tag on the gifts but instead i put a code under the ribbons. the code is the IPA symbols of the sounds of their names so that i was the only one who could decipher it. they all thought i was a genius whenever i tried to shake the gift or tried to sniff it then hand it to the giftee and they opened it and saw that the cards inside had indeed their correct names and the stuff they wanted.
these are part of the decoration in our reception area, presents underneath the tree, which by the way are just for show as the presents are really empty. taken with my iPhone.
Love your story, I like presents under the tree very much, so festive looking and the kids, even when they’re young adults now, love it 😉 We didn’t have it as children , Christmas was all about the birth of Christ, Sinterklaas was when presents were handed out , we never celebrated Valentine’s either or Halloween. I guess that’s what globalisation does ... celebrate it all ☺️
