Christmas Traditions

Husband and I are avid Christmas lovers.

And with an avid Christmas lover comes strong traditions, and when it came time to blend our homes it was hard to decided which we would keep, which we would adapt, which we would leave for our parents and which we would use once kids came (bet you didn’t know there were so many categories).

I am not going to lie and will tell you most all were kept in some facet or another.

Tradition #1: Christmas tree set up, when to do it? Early vs. Late
In Husbands house they put up the tree a couple weeks before Christmas, when he told me this I was holding my breath that he wouldn’t be against my family’s tradition of putting it up thanksgiving weekend.  He wasn’t opposed to putting it up early but didn’t want one up that early due to the fact that we get a live tree and didn’t want to risk it being close to dead at Christmas time. The compromise was putting up the tree the first weekend in December (I think I amended that to a December date, I wasn’t going to wait too long once we flipped the calendar page.) Also, we adopted my family’s tradition of going to a local Garden center for our tree. I have done the whole “Let’s cut a tree down” but I didn’t fall in love with it. The Garden center we go to is small enough but has an awesome selection… and they have Christmas music and free popcorn.

Tradition #2: Christmas Eve: Church vs. Stay at home
If it is Christmas in the Buckeye state we stay home like I did when I was a kid, if it is Christmas in Birmingham we go to church like Husband did when he was a kid. When we would stay home we would play board games, watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas carols.  I didn’t know what I was missing when by not going to service until I went with the G family, the service was beautiful and really did make me feel the reason for the season. We would talk about the Christmas story but when you are little you are listening but only barely… I mean SANTA IS COMING!!!  This is one tradition that I want to merry, I want to go to Christmas eve service and then come home and have some Christmas eve fun.

Tradition # 3: Christmas PJ’s

I think I have received a pair of PJ’s for as long as I can remember.  This was the only gift that we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve and I always loved slipping in to my new Christmas Threads. Husband had never had this before and loves this little tradition that my Momma started and we plan on keeping.

Tradition # 4: Gifts from Santa:

This has actually caused a rift between Husband and me. Growing up his gifts from Santa weren’t wrapped; they were just sitting under the tree with a bow and tag, whereas all my gifts were wrapped, but my mom was sneaky and would wrap only the gifts from Santa in special wrapping paper. I want to go one step further and print out special tags (my mom has very distinctive hand writing and that is what gave it away).  He says it is too much work and I say that is all part of the magic for little kids.

Tradition #5: The Gingerbread house:

I don’t know how long my Dad and I have been doing this, but if I had to guess it has been at least 6 years. I love this because it is just my dad and I; we come up with a concept and decorate the house. Sometimes they are pretty cool and others have been… not so great. But it doesn’t matter because we did it together.

Finally the traditions I can’t wait to start:

Elf on the shelf: 

My mom got me the book for Christmas and I can’t wait to have little ones and see what elfin tomfooleries that little guy gets in to, I have already started researching ideas.

 The Christmas pickle

 

Nothing like a little competition on Christmas morning.

Other contenders are:

Homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning

A toothbrush in your stocking

Watching the Christmas Story Marathon on TBS

What are some of your Traditions?