My kids and I would follow this every year.
Great memories!! Thx.
Every Christmas Eve, about 10 minutes after I put my kids to bed, I would go outside their bedroom windows and shake sleigh bells.
Years later, my son told me when he started school, all his Jewish friends kept telling him that there was no Santa but those bells kept him believing there was!
I want to say that back in the 1970’s there were radio announcements well before Dec 24. Something like “a jolly old man filed a flight plan, blah, blah, blah.”
Ahh, I put my husband’s snow boots in the ashes of the fireplace and made the boot prints go out into the room. And I did the sleigh bells trick, too. And I took bites from many cookies (and a few whole ones), and drank the milk or cocoa halfway down. I really wanted my kids to believe. And they were convinced. For quite a while.