Our Christmas Traditions

Traditions are an important part of family life. Creating and passing down traditions help to knit the bonds of a family tighter. Traditions also are a way to provide comfort and a feeling of safety in children. It gives them a sense of belonging and stability. They are a way to pass on a faith, values, a work ethic, and personal responsibility. The Christmas season is an excellent time of the year to start new family traditions and pass on older traditions. 

When we started our journey of starting our family, we had some things to figure out. We had to blend our two families traditions and come up with some new ones of our own. Christmas was a great place to start. My family always alternated having Christmas with my mother's and father's family between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. DH's family always had a big Christmas dinner (lunch). So, we had to work out the times so that we could attend all of the gatherings. We had to compromise. There was also an opportunity to create a new tradition for my parents and brother. We decided to celebrate our Christmas together with a Christmas breakfast at my parent's house. When DD came along, we continued the tradition my parents started by allowing DD to open one present on Christmas Eve. DH's family never did this, but he was willing to take on my family's tradition, because he knew it was important to me. 

Over the years, we continue to pass along traditions from our family to our DD and create new ones for our little family. Here are some of our Christmas traditions. 

• We don't decorate the main areas of our home until Thanksgiving. We think Thanksgiving is a very special time of the year and we don't want to take away from its meaning. 
• DD and I get up on Thanksgiving morning and watch The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We watch it all the way to the end and greet Santa when he makes his grand entrance. 
• We don't watch any Christmas movies or special until after Thanksgiving and after the have appeared on tv. 
• We always try to watch Frosty and Rudolph on tv as a family when they come on, even though we have them on DVD. 
• DD always likes to put the angel on top of the Christmas tree. 
• We have an extended family reunion of my maternal grandmother's family on the first Sunday of December at their families home church.
• As soon as Thanksgiving is over, we pop Christmas movies in the DVD to watch during the day or a Christmas CD is the CD player to listen too. 
• We don't listen to Christmas music in the car until the Thanksgiving Day Weekend is over with, then it is Christmas music all the time. 
• We always open one present before we go to bed on Christmas Eve. 
• We are up early on Christmas  morning, but we have always had to wake DD up. (True story.) 
• We open the res of our presents before we head up to my parents house for Christmas breakfast.
• After Thanksgiving, we start using our Snowmen china and snowflake glasses. we continue to use them until the end of February in the hope that it they will lead to much loved snow. 

Those are just a few of our family traditions as they relate to Christmas. We have other traditions for birthdays and other holidays that we have shared and created. They all have been a part of bringing our family into its own and creating a sense of belonging. 

I would love to hear what some of your family traditions whether they are holiday related or not. Leave me a comment and let me in on them.

Living a simple life and enjoying the traditions that come with it!