Feeding the birds on Christmas morning.
As a kid, I never really understood this tradition very well. I still may not.
Like many winter traditions of my northern ancestors it likely came into being in the deep past and it's practice and interpretation have probably shifted, persisting though remodeled into my life.
Why make a point of feeding the birds at Christmas? Well, because it's a tradition of course! Variously known as julkarve or juleneg.
And if you do feed the birds you'll be rewarded. Depending on where you live, this will bring good luck next year, a good harvest, or as in my family...the birds will return to gratefully deliver fanciful colored eggs and sweets.
There's often a lesson in old traditions although many meanings are lost to history. On the surface, this tradition of feeding the birds could be seen as a lesson in commerce, a quid pro quo investment in the present to bring a future return.
But there's an off-chance that it could also be a millennia old behavior that gives access and expression to a too rare but, deeply humanizing experience...the urge to share, even to those birds which in late summer were mostly viewed as flying pests.
Yes, I know it may be just an old humanist's fantasy to rationalize a tradition of the season passed down from an immigrant grandparent, but I chose to feed the birds this morning and so honor tradition and the urge to share as something deeper in human constitutions than selfishness.
So, happiness to you, and in your giving joyful celebration of being in touch with your humanity!
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but in my family of origin, it was customary to feed the animals a special treat on Christmas Eve because of a folk belief that animals were granted the power of speech at midnight on that night and you want them to speak well of you. When I got older I realized we had only the one dog and I wondered to whom he would be speaking, but anyway.....
I continued the tradition as my kids were growing up.
who clearly wouldn't have any idea of whether you'd been naughty or nice. 
feed the birds every morning, but sometimes I forget so I feed them in the evening and if I forget to feed them in the evening I usually feed them as soon as I remember to feed them.
The tradition you describe is a good one. Birds get hungry too.
before i saw your post i filled the feeder
I've been feeding my birdies out front every year since last year - when we found this little nest tucked up under the roof overhang outside the front door. Late April noticed unusual activity, unusually close to the house. Birds flying across from the magnolia trees in toward the door.
Whaaaa? It was a pair of them taking turns feeding something up there in the - "OMG LOOK! There's a bird's nest!!!"coupla days later I heard little cheeping and chirping up there. One day later there was this little beak sticking up. Then the whole head with mouth wide open. Then next day two little heads! Then three!!! 
By Mother's Day they were so big they were crowding each other out of the best and learning to perch on the rim of the nest. Then they started leaving. 
But they hung around because I'd started leaving a little pile of seeds on the ground for the mama and daddy birds. It was fun to see the little ones come back because they too discovered the pile of seeds.
This past late April, sure enough, another of that same kind of bird came back and moved in on the nest and the cycle started all over again! When the nest emptied we had different sets of advice - should clear the nest away cuz they won't be back, and don't clear the nest away cuz they wil be back. Sure enough there soon was flapping and zooming across the front with parents bringing food, then one little head poking up, then two. Finally there wer FOUR this year! I named 'em after the boys in the band!
The boys liked it. When they'd come over to do band stuff they'd sit out front and watch and thought it was pretty cool! By then we had a couple of hungry squirrels that grew pretty bold and wouldn't scamper off so quickly when we'd come outside. And there were blue jays and mourning doves and the little birds of the nest. Don't know what kind of birds they are but they have little black hooded heads, black and gray backs and wings and tails, and creamy white tummies. I call 'em tuxedo birds.
I love feeding the birds and watching them. And the squirrels too. Hope we get another nesting next spring - cuz the nest is still up there!
Filled the bird feeder, and I look forward to seeing how soon I get my first customer!
Thanks for the interesting post; this is a good thing to do on Christmas Day.
Cher
It was on my list, and I'm so happy. I enjoy our birds. Charlie, our kitty, enjoys watching them, too, from the window.
Merry Christmas! 
