Piling up presents under the Christmas tree is about a Christmas as it gets. However, there's a very dumb aspect to putting things under the tree. I'll get to that.
Only occasionally did we have a tree. There were few trees on the prairie and no spruce trees. Paying for a Christmas tree was out of reach. However in the late 40's after the war we did get Christmas trees.
I grew up in the 40's along with two brothers and a sister. The family was always hard up. If we got a present from Mom and Dad , it would be for the four of us. One year we got a tricycle. Another year we got a dog. Our maternal grandparents gave us individual gifts like a pair of mitts grandma would knit. One year we got pocket watches but they were second hand. Probably something Grandpa had. I remember my watch fell apart right after Christmas and I bawled.
Now the few presents we got were put under the tree for decoration. Well you can guess what we did. The gifts were shaken, squeezed, listened to until the wrapping was pretty well worn away.
Now it's getting close to that time of the season where the tree is bought and decorated. and soon gifts will be appearing under the tree.
What were our parents thinking when they stashed the gifts under the tree with four little kids in the house. That was kind of dumb!
Well, guess what? When I had little kids, what did I do? I put the gifts under the tree!
