Our family tries to avoid the often frantic pace of the holidays by celebrating the "Twelve Days of Christmas" rather than just one. We still have big dinners on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and we open presents from Santa on the 25th, but we save the rest of our present opening and visiting for the next 12 days. The kids, twins Mike and Louisa, age nine, and Nickolas, age five, love it because they get more than just one night of Christmas. And since the presents are spread out, each one is appreciated -- not lost in a pile of other gifts. Even some stickers and a new hair bow are exciting when opened one at a time. We spend more time together as a family, and holiday visits to all of our friends and relatives are much easier, since we now have 12 days in which to see everyone. For the 12th day, January 6 (the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day), we don robes and cardboard crowns, then go door-to-door singing "We Three Kings" and bearing homemade cookies.
--Paula R., Temecula, CA

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