As we work to prepare for this holiday, I have been giving a lot of thought towards traditions. Christmas traditions have always meant so much to me. Each little act that my family would do would help get me into the Christmas spirit. There were some traditions from my childhood that I couldn't wait to continue on with my family. One of these is decorating the tree. We crank out the Christmas songs, fight with the strands of lights, wondering why only half the strand is working, the kids fight over who gets to put up the Christmas star, and we pull out the ornaments, remembering where and when we got each one, as we take turns hanging them on the tree. Each year we let the kids pick out new ornaments for the tree. We also try to get a new ornament from our travels.
I love seeing other people's Christmas trees. Each family does this in a different way. Some are like my family, you have a collection of mismatched ornaments that are meaningful in some way to you. Some families have a tree theme, maybe you have many trees, all with different themes. Some people have beautifully put together trees with ribbons and balls. It's all wonderful, no matter how you choose to decorate.
One thing that I didn't anticipate in my youth was that as we get older, as new people are added into the mix, and as things change, traditions will need to be changed as well. I don't fear change, generally, but messing with my traditions is something different all together.
This year marks the first time in my entire life that I am not sitting at my parents for Christmas dinner. Our little family of five will be by ourselves this Christmas day and I don't even know what to do. I tell the kids that we will develop new traditions, a new way of doing Christmas, but as of right now I do not know what that looks like. I do know, as I have learned from experience, that I can not force new traditions on my kids. There will be things we do, that I feel like the kids should love, but really I'm doing it more for me than them.
So, help me out friends! What are somethings that your family does, or has done, that you love, that really put you in the spirit of Christmas? How have you handled change to your Christmas routine? How have you explained those changes to your children?
This holiday season will be full of change, full of memories, and full of new experiences, of that I am sure.
I'll leave you with a few pictures of our ornament collection.
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| Nativity star from Vatican City |
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| Zach and mine's first ornament and Ryann's first ornament. |
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| Penguin family I got when I knew our family was complete. |
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| I love our little handmade ornaments! |
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| I had a picture ornament made this year. I love how it's nestled between Iron Man and a bell from the Polar Express! |
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| Zach and I received this little tree on our first Christmas as a married couple. Zach's grandmother gave it to us as a gift and it has fit perfectly in every home we have shared together, 6 houses! |
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