This is how we do Christmas. Every day for 12 days, we drop everything else, sing the silly song, and we all take turns opening a single gift. Most days we try to time this so that there’s time to actually get to know the thing that was opened. The 12th day is always an adventure.

We love this tradition. It teaches the kids how to get happiness from someone else’s happiness (the word for this is mudita). Watching someone open a gift and be happy should make you happy, too. It also reminds us that we don’t need large gifts, or a large number of them, to be happy at this time of year.

We hope your holidays were as joyful as ours.