I have a Xmas Question. Is the waking up in Xmas morning to find your presents at the foot of your bed a Harry Potter thing or a British thing?

I think it's a British thing. I seem to remember it from other British books - possibly National Velvet.

The Harry Potter knock offs are hysterical!

From Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is this:

When Hogwarts’ magic protection fails, Voldemort leads Death Eaters, werewolves, dementors and giants in a merciless campaign against the castle. Harry Potter together with the Chinese students fights Voldemort.

That one's almost true!

I also like this line from Harry Potter and the Showdown :

But Gryffindor’s sword, which hung in the headmaster’s office, assassinates Professor McGonagall.

Presents on foot of bed = British.

So then does each person open presents in his or her bedroom, or do they bring them to a common area so everyone can open them together? I'm trying to remember how they did it at the Burrow during the Christmas scenes we've seen there -- I think I remember Harry and Ron opening their presents in their bedroom, and Ginny and Hermione and the twins coming in to show them what they got, and everyone else discussing it at the kitchen table.

I think I remember Harry and Ron opening their presents in their bedroom, and Ginny and Hermione and the twins coming in to show them what they got, and everyone else discussing it at the kitchen table.

I believe you're right

Oh my. I think I need to read all those Chinese Harry Potter knockoffs now. Snurk.

Also I've realized why, when I first read HP&tSS, I felt fiercely protective towards lil Harry and thought I'd be a far better parent for him than the Dursleys ever could. This surprised me, especially because this thought required quite a leap of imagination for a child-free person, but there ya go, the power of fiction strikes again. It turns out that I share James and Lily's birth year, so I'm exactly the right age to be Harry's mum. It feels like the author was aiming right at me all along.

So,I have now re-reread Azkaban and GoF. Azkaban was a much better book than I remember. Victor is right, it's really where the story takes off. And GoF...well rereading goblet of fire was like reading it anew.There was so much I didn't remember. Mostly of mymemories of what happened in that book were from the movie (and those memories are dim) It seems to me that Rowling does really good endings. The last half of the GoF was quite good, but there seemed to be a lot in the the first half that could have been edited out. Did we really need the first chapter with Voldemort in his familyhome? Did we really need all that stuff about Bertha Jonkins? Sure it was a important point in theplot mechanism, but it took a lot of time to lay out one that one point.

Azkaban was a much better book than I remember.

I think PoA is the best in the series. It's so beautifully and tightly plotted. Lots happens, but it has little fluff. And it's genuinely suspenseful.