The 12 Days of Christmas

I think that the 12 days of Christmas are really supposed to be the 12 days after Christmas, but this "secret Santa" type activity is done, starting on Dec.13th, so it's before Christmas. At least that is the way that we did it.

One year, several years ago, we came home from work to find a little package outside our door. It contained one item. Each day when we came home there was another package and each day one more item was added. Each day’s items were different. We didn't know who was dropping the fun packages outside our door, but it was definitely fun and exciting to think about the mysterious person that was stopping by each day, hiding from us. It was a very nice way to spread some Christmas cheer. Some of the presents were large; others were pieces of candy or Christmas cookies. Finally, on the 12th day, the mystery was solved. Mike's nephew, wife and kids had dropped the packages each day. It was a good thing that they lived close by. It was a big commitment to stop by each day.

Then, a couple of years later, we did the same thing for our Granddaughter’s paternal Grandparents. They also lived close to us, so we could drop off the gifts each day without being discovered.

Then, a couple of years after that, some of our friends needed some extra Christmas cheer, so we decided to give them the 12 days of Christmas surprises. They did not live really close to us, so we wrapped all the little gifts and put them in a large plastic container, with printed instructions that they should open gift one on day one, gift two on day two, etc. We said, "no peeking". Then, on Christmas day, we stopped by their house with the last gift, letting them know that we had given them the gifts.
The gifts were little ornaments, cross stitch crafts, candy, cookies, golf balls, or things that we knew that they would like. Each day was something different, but all the items were the same for each day.

They were some very fun memories.