Greeting Folks with “Christmas Gift!” At Christmastime

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Grant. My name’s Kelly Goddard. I’m calling from Tallahassee, Florida.

Hello, Kelly. Welcome to the show. I’m calling about, it’s kind of a game, but it’s also, I guess, an exclamation that my grandmother, it passed down from my grandmother. She played it with her siblings when she was younger and then as an adult, and it’s only played around the holidays, specifically Christmas, and it’s called Christmas Gift. It’s kind of like a, almost like a tag game. So it’s like the first person to say Christmas Gift is the winner, but you don’t really win anything except for bragging rights.

Just bragging rights.

Yeah, that’s kind of how you play it. And so for us, it’s always just been like, who can say Christmas Gift first? But I was just really curious. I never knew, anybody as I was growing up, I never knew anyone else that played that game. But then my daughter, she’s now a senior in high school, but when she was in middle school, she had a friend whose family played Christmas gift. And they’re like, I’ve never ever heard of another family that did this. And so it just got me thinking where it came from. And I was curious.

How does it work?

Okay, for instance, if we are, let’s just say, after Thanksgiving, game on.

Okay.

And if the phone rings and you think it might be, I mean, nowadays it’s super easy with caller ID. But before you call her ID, I remember my grandmother would just answer the phone.

Christmas gift.

So no one could get her.

Like it gets more competitive towards Christmas.

And then the ultimate winner is Christmas Day. Like whoever says Christmas gifts on Christmas Day, you are the ultimate winner.

So you get one chance the whole season to say Christmas gift to the other person first and then that’s it?

Well, no.

Every time you see them, it’s like, oh, I got you.

I got you.

Oh, okay.

Gotcha.

You try to sneak up on people.

You really quietly arrive to the house.

That’s ridiculous.

It really is ridiculous.

That sounds fun, though.

There’s no gift.

There’s no prize.

No.

No prize.

Just bragging rights.

But other people have played it that way.

Well, yeah, I’m fascinated that your family plays it for so long, because the tradition I’m familiar with is you just say it on Christmas Day or maybe Christmas Eve.

Would you believe you can actually find Civil War letters where guys are riding back home and wishing people Christmas gift?

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Yeah, it goes way, way back.

And other versions of it early on would involve people, like you said, sneaking up to a house and knocking on the door and seeing Christmas gifts.

And the recipient was supposed to oblige with a gift to those people, an actual gift, like popcorn or homemade coffee.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, or fruit, maybe an apple or an orange.

There is one more extreme version if you want it.

Yeah, I would.

So one of the citations in the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English describes people getting up early on Christmas morning, usually the children. They go to their nearest neighbor’s house secretly and quietly, and then they, quote, serenade them by banging pots and pans and setting off firecrackers.

And then when the neighbors come out to say, what in tarnation, they yell, Christmas gift.

Oh, my gosh.

Yep.

That’s way farther than we’ve ever gone.

We’ve never woken anyone up with pots and pans and firecrackers.

Kelly, there’s always next Christmas.

That’s right.

We can start planning, Martha.

Thank you so much for sharing these memories with us. It sounds like you guys have great fun.

Yeah, it is a lot of fun.

And thanks for taking my call and my question. I appreciate it.

All right.

Be well.

Christmas gift to you.

All right.

Thanks, you guys.

Thanks, Kelly.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Well, we’d love to hear your vaguely linguistic folkloric traditions. Whatever holiday they’re attached to or not, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org, or tell us the details on Twitter @wayword.