Ahhhhhh…Christmas time. Peace on earth, good cheer, family, baby Jesus. It really is magical. I have always loved this time of year. I love it even more now that my girls are old enough to really embrace it. I look forward to creating all kinds of memories with them.
My own Christmas memories are colored by a childhood that was interesting to say the least. My dad is a retired oil guy, so I spent the first nine years of my life in Saudi Arabia. Try embracing Christmas in a Muslim country. Big fun. Ha! Not to mention when Christmas rolled around in December and it was still 80 degrees outside. I didn’t get a real tree until I was ten. As a result, I am almost fanatical about having a real tree. Add to the mix, the divorce of my parents about the time we moved back to the States. My sister and I had a schizophrenic holiday experience that included two separate Christmas celebrations in two separate states.
These days, Paul and I make an extra effort to stay at home each Christmas. If any of our family wants to trek to California for the holiday, they are welcome. Otherwise, we do our own thing. Nice and quiet. Paul and I do make an effort to create holiday memories and traditions for our girls, even if their extended family is no where to be seen.
I was thinking about those traditions this week. Thinking about what constitutes a tradition. Is a tradition something this contrived and planned or is it something that just
happens?
One of the biggest Christmas traditions is, obviously, Santa’s Christmas Eve visits. It’s interesting that Santa’s habits and idiosyncrasies vary from family to family. Sure, most of us hang stockings and leave cookies and milk for the big guy (as well as a little somethin’ somethin’ for those busy reindeer). But where else is the common ground? Here are a few of the Santa traditions around my house. Some of them are hold-overs from when Paul and I were kids. Some are newer traditions that only cropped up when we had our own kids.
- The presents from Santa are the only ones under the tree wrapped in paper with pictures of Santa.
- Santa hangs candy canes on the tree. Only Santa.
- Santa writes in fancy writing and only in red ink (obviously) on the present tags. Shockingly, his handwriting looks suspiciously like the handwriting of the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. This is explained by the fact that they all went to school together.
- Jingle bells fall off of the reindeer harnesses and end up in our yard and sometimes even in our house.
- Santa stops time so that he can get to everyone and, as a result, the clocks all blink 12:00 on Christmas morning.
- Santa leaves ashy footprints around the house. This is clearly a result of sliding down the chimney.
- Santa likes scotch. Leave a little next to the cookies.
Of course, all of these Santa traditions got me thinking about other traditions around our house. Holiday movies, holiday foods, holiday books. In fact, tonight, I was reminded of one of my favorite traditions. And this one doesn’t even have anything to do with the girls. Although, now that the girls are here, they have been incorporated into the activity.
Every year we have been together, Paul has given me an ornament. Not just any old ornament, but a beautiful glass ornament from one of those fancy Christmas stores. A $40 dollar ornament. Over the past nine years, he has even been able to coordinate the ornament with events of the past year (i.e. a gingerbread house for the year we bought our house, a dear with a fawn for the year Ava was born, etc. For the past three years, the girls have gone with Paul to help pick out the ornament. This year, while I decorated the tree with both girls (well, mostly with Ava my four year old), I got to tell the story of each ornament.
So in all of the chaos, stress, financial angst, and even (ahem) fun of the holiday season…take some time to find some comfort in the familiar. And if you need to, create a little familiarity that you can count on next year.
Ho, ho, ho.
