‘Twas the ning before Christmas

It is a Gamble tradition that each child can select one present to open on Christmas Eve, ahead of the Christmas Day onslaught. On a nature ramble yesterday with my father and me, my son asked if he could open his when we got back to the house, around 2pm.

“Christmas Eve,” says I. “The clue is in the name.”

“Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas,” says he. “Eve just means before something. For example, ‘Evening’ means ‘before night’. ‘Eve’-‘ning’.”

“’Twas the ning before Christmas,” says I. “….hmm, that doesn’t sound quite right.”

I am used to such lawyering from my firstborn. The joke used to be that he would grow up to be a children’s rights lawyer. But in that moment I realized that many children are just that—little Ruth Bader Ginsburgs shifting the bars of their cages ever so slightly—and that the gains they make can actually build on those that have been made by children before them.

Because who negotiated that rule that children can open just one present on Christmas Eve? It’s a sure bet that wasn’t a parent’s idea. That rule has the distinct flavour of a wheedling child, a Gamble of past generations wearing down her mother, not suspecting her sons and grandsons would be opening presents on Christmas Eve right into the 21^st century, harvesting the fruits of her efforts.

So parents, before you give in to the next incremental change, consider this: your descendants down the line may be eating that extra piece of chocolate cake into eternity. Choose wisely.

p.s. I said yes.