Christmas traditions are something most families hold near and dear to their hearts.
Memories of grandma serving eggnog from her special punchbowl.
Remembering all the family playing Dirty Santa and bringing the most ridiculous re-gifted items.
Anticipating everyone loading up and heading out to see the twinkly lights together as a family.
Holiday traditions seem to set the feel for the whole season.
I remember the traditions in my own family that signaled as a sign that Christmas was upon us. Heading into grandma’s attic, setting up the white flocked tree, and deciding which ornaments would be used this year—pink and gold or red and green? I remember the red tin metal treasure chest that set in the center of the dining table holding grandma’s homemade divinity, something akin to homemade fudge so rich and yummy! I can still picture the little green Christmas tree that grandma hand painted and placed little bulbs on each limb that would glow. Her wintery village all decked out in glittery snow and the ceramic nativity scene with the tiny babe in the manger were always the focal point of her living room.
Yes, I well remember Christmas traditions growing up…
I married young and quickly had children. For the first few years we still joined into grandma’s traditions. We embraced decorating the tree with her and she found great joy in seeing these tiny great grandchildren participate. But then one Christmas day, we stood in the ICU beside grandma’s bed, telling her goodbye for the very last time. There were no more Christmas tradition with grandma. Yes I inherited her village and the nativity scene, but I have no idea how to cook divinity. I still put some of her handmade bread dough ornament on my tree each year, but it is not a white flocked tree. In all honesty, it became very apparent that our little family unit needed some traditions of our own. My children needed to remember how we celebrated at our house.
I spent awhile considering what was important to us. Honoring our faith, making Christmas fun, and spending time together overrode the need spend a lot of money and run ourselves to exhaustion. My husband was up for whatever I could pull together, but he really only had one tradition that he was totally in charge of completing. He wanted to decorate the outside of our home. Not just any plain twinkle lights would do, no he wanted a LED lights display that danced and moved with the music that could be heard when you tuned your radio to the predetermined station. He spent time dreaming and creating his display. He recorded our girls reading the Christmas story and would play their sweet innocent voices between the songs. It’s a good memory we all cherish!
For my part the traditions are a little less grand. I started by making an advent calendar and planning activities to go along with the countdown. We kicked off advent by decorating our tree. Each evening we would read a Christmas story and complete whatever was listed on the calendar. The activities ranged from taking time to watch a movie, have a craft night, do a puzzle, or make a Christmas treat. A few times during the season we would do something bigger like attend a nativity play, go see the holiday lights, or visit Santa. The children got so excited as we read the next chapter to the story each night, counting each day closer to the arrival of Christmas Eve. As the children have grown and even a few had children of their own, I am the grandma of the family now. Now my Christmas traditions are our family traditions for this generation.
Here are a few practical tips for making traditions in your own family:
• Gather all your holiday movies and place them in a basket on your TV stand. We purchase both classics, cartoons, religious, and current ones to show. Then as the season ends we pack the whole basket away with our holiday ornaments. The kids can’t wait to get them out December 1st and dive right into their favorites.
• A few good ones to add are Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, The Nativity, The Grinch, Home Alone, etc.
• Start a collections of Christmas themed story books. I place those out with the decorations and my children never cease from picking them up and reading them each year.
• A few titles we own are “The Night Before Christmas”, “A Treasury of Christmas Stories and Songs”, “The Legend of Mistletoe and the Christmas Kittens”, and “Little Golden Book”. I often watch thrift stores to inexpensively purchase these during the year.
• Order a new Christmas Puzzle early. I keep mine to about 100-200 pieces. We can complete that in an evening, and it is fun. If your children are smaller, go with less pieces. You want to get it completed and picked up in one sitting.
• Let the children make or purchase a yearly ornament and date it. We have made snowmen thumbprints of bulbs, salt-dough handprints, trees made from bright colored fun straws, and mini sweaters made of felt. It’s so fun to see how the children grow from year to year.
• We have four different Advent books that we rotate through on different years. By the time we get back around every four years the children hear the story with fresh ears and excitement. Our family choices are the “Jotham's Journey” Series and “The Jesse Tree”.
• Plan to attend or participate in a church Nativity play. Nothing brings it home to small children like being part of the story. One year our baby daughter was a newborn and she got to play ‘baby Jesus’. The pictures are part of precious memories.
• We use graham crackers and frosting to make our gingerbread houses. They are simple and the children enjoy plastering them in candy and then eating it too. We don’t make masterpieces, but they have a lot of fun!
• Be sure to include the needy in your holiday plans. We have purchased gifts for Angel Tree children and also packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. My children have enjoyed knowing they are giving to children that might not get a celebration or even a gift.
• Treat yourself to a fragrant candle and a fun Christmas playlist. Set the tone in your home for a lovely festive season.
Use the ideas listed here that bring you peace this season, skip what seems hard, but take the time to make your family traditions your very own this year. These kinds of traditions are what we look forward to each year. These traditions are what bond our family’s actions to the joyful memories in our life.
You get to choose what your traditions are. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
~Pictures are from 2015 before Millie was born~
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I still believe in Millie’s Miracle
☆｡･:*:･ﾟ Hebrews 11:1 ｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
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