When I was little, 15 to 30 family members would gather at my grandparents’ house on Christmas Day. Everyone got presents from at least one person in each of the families (my mom is one of five, and sometimes even more extended family would show up with gifts for the 15 grandchildren).
This produced a lot of torn wrapping paper, ribbons, packing material, product packaging, and Sears toy catalogs used to weigh down gifts so the kids couldn’t guess what was in them. All this went in a giant trash can, but it would still be overflowing. So, my grandfather would always climb into the trash can to push everything down so the rest of it could fit. Then we would drape ribbons and stick bows on him while he was in there. We called it “Throwing Pop Away.”
Even when he got older and sick from cancer, we still filled a smaller cardboard box with some of the wrapping paper, and he would climb in.
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