Traditions

 

 

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,

Jack Frost nipping at your nose,

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,

Folks dressed up like Eskimos.”*

 

*From The Christmas Song

 

Christmas is rich in traditions.  It is the traditions that keep us connected year after year.  Early in our marriage, my husband and I determined that we were going to blend our childhood traditions and create our own Christmas and year-round traditions to insure that our family had reason to feel and remain connected.  Traditions cement our sense of belonging.  Creating and carrying out traditions has been a delightful lifelong pursuit.  We are flexible enough not to resist change and willing to adapt new ways of doing things.  In addition, we enjoy our adult children including us in their own young family’s unique traditions.

 

I really have enjoyed the comment “we always_______”. It is fun to know we can count on things to be consistent year after year.  But we have to be careful not to become too rigid since it is fun to explore new ways to celebrate.

 

One tradition that a daughter has created is for her children to sing Christmas songs on the stairway while they wait for their parents to get up to see if Santa has arrived on Christmas morning.  Most years they go through dozens of songs before the exhausted parents pull themselves out of bed.  Another has created a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve which is always new pajamas for each family member.  And another daughter’s tradition is the food they have for breakfast on Christmas morning.

 

What are some of your most cherished Christmas traditions?  And what do you hope to be remembered for when your posterity reminisces about Christmas’ with you?