FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITION
Traditions come and go as we grow from childhood to adulthood. Many traditions we grew up with change when we have families of our own. Sometimes, they remain the same - or similar - with our own children; sometimes, they change completely.When my brothers and I were growing up, it was all about Family and being together. My parents and grandparents made sure we had Christmas no matter what...coming in from overseas in January?! No problem! We had Christmas in January - and everything was waiting for us when we arrived! Of course, there were many "normal" Christmases shared either at our home or my grandparents; but the idea of having Christmas at a different time because of being "away" on the actual date was special to us all.
Now that my children are adults with families of their own, we are not ALL always together on December 25th; the girls and their families are in town, so after they have their morning of unwrapping Christmas with their families, we get together later for our traditional (or sometimes non-traditional) meal. And, my son and his family visit when they can, usually a day or so after Christmas - and we do it all over again!
This year we had our family Christmas on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving - and that is because my son and daughter-in-law arrived that day around 7:00 pm, unloaded their car and put things around the little tree we had set up. We were sooooo excited and it was hard to keep the little ones from tearing into the packages. So, after eating some homemade soup and bread - we handed out gifts and started the tearing!
All the gifts waiting to be opened (2014)
Patiently waiting!
After-Christmas Sale (2013)
The Holy Family (2013)
Santa's Toy Shop (2013)
More toys (2013)
A few years ago when my son and his family were in town for the holidays, he requested we make a special trip across town to visit the florist he remembered seeing on Christmas Eve when growing up. It warmed my heart to think he wanted to re-visit something from his childhood!
So that has now become a new tradition; to make that effort to drive by and check out the windows when they are in town during the holidays!
The Little Guys enjoying the scene (2013)
The Older Guy checking out Santa (2013)
Me and the 5 Grands (2013)
And although we were not all together to stop by the florist this year, we did make that effort during our Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday this past week - and here I am with my new-found friend!
And although we were not all together to stop by the florist this year, we did make that effort during our Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday this past week - and here I am with my new-found friend!
Me and my new friend (2014)
It seems our traditions aren't that much different from those in the past after all!! Looking forward to sharing more this month; and to reading what other bloggers are sharing!
Linking up December 1 - 25
I love reading your traditions on Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I loved reading others' traditions as well...appreciate your reading and commenting!
DeleteWhat a beautiful family you have! We have celebrated many Christmases at Thanksgiving for the same reasons. I think your childhood memories of celebrating at different times is really neat!
ReplyDeleteFunny how it morphed into the "now" celebrations, isn't it Natalie! Enjoyed reading others' traditions as well; appreciate your reading and commenting!
DeleteTraditions are my absolute favorite things about holidays, either Christmas or otherwise. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://queenofthelandoftwigsnberries.wordpress.com
Thanks for reading and commenting, Amanda! I love the holidays; they are sometimes stressful and hard to get through - and when they have been that way is usually when I think I have to "buy" and "get" things for others...just trying to be giving but don't have that much resources to do so. This year I am letting it happen...and doing what I can. It's just being together that matters!
DeleteYou are inspiring me!
ReplyDeleteSo happy I could inspire you, Susan! I am inspired by others' blogs that I've been reading...I have been on this computer way too long today...but have enjoyed the "down time" and reading time! Thanks for reading and commenting!
DeleteGreat post...such a fun idea! Traditions do sometimes change, but they also can stay the same too. Our traditions havent changed much. Since my sister and I are not married and are the only two grandkids on my dads side, the traditions are still pretty much the same. I love going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service with my family. Happy Advent!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting, Tara...I don't usually stop to really think about any of this...traditions, etc. But this Blogmas 2014 that I discovered really made me want to write the prompts this month and the first was about traditions...so, I thought about it and - voila! This is what came out of it! Even as adults with no little ones (children or grandchildren!) we have those special memories and traditions...enjoy yours this Christmas season!!
DeleteI love traditions! This year we had a modified tradition that had been on hiatus for a few years--we went Christmas tree 'hunting' (when our kids were little, we got a permit from the local National Forest and went out and actually hunted for our perfect tree) at a tree lot with our daughter and her husband. It was fun to see their excitement as they blended traditions form his family and ours.
ReplyDeleteWe would go back and forth between a real tree or an artificial one...different years, different reasons for each choice! Now that we are retired, we have a small artificial tree that we put up, along with other decorations. We down-sized majorly on our deccorations when we moved from our 4-bedroom/2 bathroom house to a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment! Thanks for reading and commenting!
DeleteLove your post.....the windows in the florists look amazing! [How wonderful that they would make that special effort].....love that you move Christmas around according to schedules....proving that Christmas is not the 25th, it's a state of mind....
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helen! Now that my 3 "children" are married with families of their own, there are other people in their lives to consider; and we are not all in the same town, or even the same state! Christmas IS more than a date, isn't it?! Thanks for reading and commenting!
DeleteLove your traditions and really enjoyed reading your post. Christmas is about family for me and I love that you concentrate on that and celebrating together no matter when it happens to occur.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting...as we get older, things do seem to get changed around! But it IS all about family, isn't it!?
DeleteOh I love this! I love traditions as well and oh my goodness, how my girlie is a stickler to keep them! When I suggested buying new ornaments for our tree downstairs (to go with the new color scheme) and giving her some of our family ones for her first tree in her own apartment... well - she was having none of it! "Our" tree must have all the traditional ornaments! sigh... still - it really does warm your heart to see them treasuring so much of what the holidays meant to them growing up! (Needless to say - I do not -yet, ahem - have new ornaments!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting, Karrilee...It does warm the heart to see our children keeping the old traditions!!
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