Christmas gift (exclamation)
christmas eve gift exclamation traced back early southern united state derived tradition waking christmas morning rushing say christmas gift anyone else person told christmas gift expected present person saying present merry christmas common current seasonal salutation christmas gift equivalent expression used rural south also southern pennsylvania ohio valley west virginia later northeastern texas simple greeting recognizing birth christ gift greeting first attested letter thomas jefferson december mentioning grandson moment running cousin bawling merry christmas christmas gift etc dictionary american regional english dare provides citation variant tradition christmas eve gift tradition similar christmas gift tradition occurs christmas eve person told christmas eve gift expected present person saying small present traditionally candy nut dare trace first written us version christmas christmas eve holiday greeting