No one will wake before dawn this morning and race down the stairs to check for piles of gifts beneath the Christmas stockings. No plate of cookies, no carrots for the reindeer were set out last night. No one wrote a wish list for Santa Claus.
It's Year Two of Christmas Without Santa in our household, and my daughters seem relieved . . . which makes sense given that the girls are now 17, 19 and 22.
Until last year, we kept up the Santa shebang -- letters, cookies, no peeking Christmas morning until your sisters are awake and at your side -- even though Santa's gifts had progressed from Barbie dolls and Tickle Me Elmos to iPods and Victoria's Secret gift cards.
I knew the routine was getting old the year I wound up moping around the house Christmas morning, drinking my coffee alone and watching the clock, wondering when the girls would finally get up.
If I have to drag my kids out of bed to see what Santa brought, maybe it's time for him to skip our house. And another tradition bites the dust.
Children grow up, parents get old and families scatter, but holiday rituals are supposed to transcend all that.
Some we inherit as cultural standards: Making tamales, lighting Kwanzaa candles, dressing up for midnight church services. Others are habits that simply endure, becoming part of a family's signature.
My children lost their father one week before Christmas 14 years ago, tainting the holiday in ways that are hard to disguise. For us, it kicked family traditions into overdrive. Rituals became our security blanket.
So we get our Christmas tree every year from the lot around the corner that Daddy liked. We decorate with the same tattered collection of ornaments we've had since the girls were toddlers. We shop together, make Christmas cookies, hang lights outside and read " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.
Today, we'll open our gifts, have a big breakfast and go back to bed. Then we'll catch a movie and eat a late dinner at Benihana. Because that's what we've always done.
I believe what the experts say. The repetition of holiday customs is important because it makes children -- and grown-ups -- feel secure. But it's getting harder to pretend that nothing has changed, to fit old traditions around new lives.
