I love Christmas. Everything about it. We just put our decorations and Christmas tree up on Friday, and it is so pretty. We are multi-colored lights people, since that is what we both grew up on. I love the soft glow they give from the tree when all the house lights are off. I will take a picture and post it, I promise.
I also love Christmas music. So much that by the time I am done listening to it at New Year's, I am kind of sick of it and ready to put it away for another year.
I love Christmas treats. I kind of have to put away my food guilt and say, oh well. I will be good in January. I don't stop working out, but when yummy food is so prevalent at this time of year, I have to eat it.
I love the season so much that, in fact, Christmas Day seems anti-climactic sometimes. Because then you have a week of weird limbo between Christmas and New Year's , then it is over.
My dilemma is, Cristian and I have not really established any traditions yet. I know we have so much time to do that, but I don't know what to do. All I know is what I did growing up with my family, and I love those traditions. But now Cristian and I are a family, and I don't want to just subject him to my childhood traditions with no thought for his. Besides, some of mine he outright refuses to participate in, like the old-school tape recorded from a record (yes, we are talking 1960's, people) that told a Christmas Eve story so little kids would go to sleep for Santa. We would listen to it every Christmas Eve before going to bed, and it became such a cult classic in our family that even as adults those of us who are together for the holidays will listen to the tape, quote everything, and laugh our guts out. Truthfully, it is kind of dumb, but we sure love it. I am also pretty sure that none of the men who married into my family have grasped the value of this tradition. Sure do wonder why.
Anyway, the only tradition he told me about was an advent calender; so I bought one this year. It is not the home-made felt one that he had ( and I had one too) but it will do.
Any ideas, anyone? What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions that you do with your family?
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12 comments:
Nicole! We need to see some pictures.
make up your own traditions or copy ones you both really like from other people or your families. that way the mixture will be all your own. our silly one is we eat take-out chinese food on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions that remind me of you actually is to do an awkward pelvis move while straightening my hands down toward my knees and rocking back and forth like I'm ready to get on a surf board. It's really fun. You should teach it to Mr. Bell and stand around the Christmas tree doing it for hours and hours!
Hi Nicole.. just found your blog. I'm excited to keep in touch!
Nicole, it is true that it is hard to mesh family traditions. I love the tape listening your family did and it is the best to laugh about those things when you get older. We do lots of music and treat making and the 12 days of Christmas to someone we know. The kids love the door-bell ditching.
Trip also refuses to participate in our family tradition of singing carols around the tree on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, he lets me subject the boys to it!
We have combined our favorite growing-up traditions, and started a few of our own.
One of my favorite traditions is our Christmas Day Dinner. I grew up having turkey (basically Thanksgiving dinner all over again) and it always seemed boring to do it again so soon! We adopted his family's traditional dinner -- a rib roast with yorkshire pudding. Then we started our own tradition and added german red cabbage on the side (cooked with beer and apples). It's a formal, English-style dinner and it makes Christmas seem so much more Christmas-y to me to have a meal unique for the day. (We still do just a small turkey breast on Christmas eve, with stuffing and whatnot. So we still get the best of both worlds!)
The best thing about starting your own traditions is that you can include the best of the past, and add in anything new that sounds really cool to the both of you!
We do the singing Christmas Carols around the tree as well. We also do the nativity with the little ones. Which unless Christian is willing to play a donkey I don't think it will fly. Sub for Santa is always a good tradition. My family loves doing that together. We also always watch "The Christmas Story" and "Its a Wonderful Life"
In my family we always did one gift on xmas eve, course it was always pj's. Then We'd all change into our pj's and read the christmas story. One thing that we've started is going to one of the more decorated streets and walkign around looking at the lights. I'm still trying to figure out what traditions we want, or more importantly ones I want to do. haha!
Hi Nicole,
Long time no talk (ummm 10 years?). It was so nice to read a post from you and it seems you are doing well. It is fun to be in this blog world and run into different people. My Favorite family tradition is baking with my mom when she makes home made cinnamon rolls. I just love it! Mike and I don't really have any of our own yet. I guess we are still trying to come up with them too. Happy Holidays! Alix :)
Ok, so we used to open our pajamas Christmas Eve, homemade of course, and then my dad would proceed to lead the whole family in aerobics around the entire house. It was a riot, a little bizarre, but we all loved it. Garrett hasn't quite taken to that one yet. His family used to put grocery bags over their heads as they lined up in the hallway to go see what Santa left. I think the ones that are maybe a little off, really become the most endearing.
That's a tough one! Infact, Collin said to me at thanksgiving, "How come we do all of you family's traditions?"
And well, I guess- for one, I am the enforcer, and two- it seems like our traditions were similar... my family just added a twist here and there.
For the most part, I just follow my traditions.... Hitting Disneyland at Christmas has been a new one- now we've managed 3 years running....
good luck!
I know that this is MANY years after your original post, but I came across your blog when doing my own search for "Dansel the elf". If it's the same thing, we too, as a family, had the tradition of listening to this Christmas story, "A visit to Santa's Workshop" on record every Christmas Eve! Fast forward a bazillion years later, and I now have 2 small children of my own. A few years ago, when my son was 2, my father recorded the record story for me onto cassette, and then last year my husband was able to make an MP3 of it. So now that we no longer have a cassette player in the house, my kids (and me of course) are still able to carry on my childhood tradition of listening to this beloved story every year on Christmas Eve!
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