Can we talk?
We have other family traditions, but with Christmas there is no set one. We all know the holidays can be a stressful time for some. I do not get stressed at all about it. I know in the end it always wraps up well, and all is happy. I came across this wonderful article, and if you have a minute to spare, I highly recommend you reading it HERE.
It was well written and made some really interesting points about traditions and their true meanings. I would love to hear your opinion on that as well, but do not feel obligated, I am more interested in your traditions, and what they mean to you and your family.
It was well written and made some really interesting points about traditions and their true meanings. I would love to hear your opinion on that as well, but do not feel obligated, I am more interested in your traditions, and what they mean to you and your family.
Some of us have large families, some small. I am sure our boys will have so many fond memories of their childhood and growing up. A Christmas tradition in that sense of the word will not be one. I suppose being happy, together and LOVED is the best life long memory we can give.
I try to keep my decorating posts less wordy, for times like these when I want to engage with my readers. My mind is always going with something you know. Thanks so much for sharing with me and others.
CSN giveaway of $60.00....what are you rich? you can't use it? HEAD on over HERE if you can!
I am joining Vanessa for her inspiration party. I think this post is very inspiring to read others traditions and stories. And I am joining:
Holly for tickled pink
I try to keep my decorating posts less wordy, for times like these when I want to engage with my readers. My mind is always going with something you know. Thanks so much for sharing with me and others.
CSN giveaway of $60.00....what are you rich? you can't use it? HEAD on over HERE if you can!
I am joining Vanessa for her inspiration party. I think this post is very inspiring to read others traditions and stories. And I am joining:
Holly for tickled pink
Labels: Christmas 2010
posted by Debbiedoos @ 8:04 AM
35 Comments:
Growing up it seems there were so many traditions, making fudge and all sorts of sweets, opening one gift on Christmas Eve and our family always got together on Christmas Day for dinner. My Mom loved Christmas and all the fuss, she made enough sweets for everyone. She passed away 22 years ago and for a while I tried to have the family get together on Christmas or organize it to be at one of my siblings. One day I realized it just wasn't the same, it was such a chore and such a stress so yes, I quit doing it. I agree with the article. Though I still have some traditions for my own family including opening that one present on Christmas Eve. I think you need to keep aware though, some times change is needed.
Well, well, well....
Our tradition is to remember to breathe.
We are on the senior circuit this year with all both sides of the family, trying to please all seems to be a task. For what ever reason they all like Kate and Scott to be there. Maybe, it's that I'm the crazy, less stuffie, more fun, off the wall and easy to please of the whole group.
The only other tradition is No Gift between Scott and I....except well booking a trip the heck out of the snow in Feb or Mar...we do like to travel.
Oh, and how's about all Xmas must be put away before Jan.1 to start the new year off with a clean house for good luck. That's from an asian friend of mine...
Ok, so the list could go on, but I'll just move on....
Thanks for playing my silly little
KA-BOSH GIVEAWAY,
Kate
Hi Betty, nice to see you here. I am happy you read the article too. Change is good, HA I am the queen of change don't y'all think? I appreciate you coming by.
Kate, I could see you being the fun of the day for sure, I would want you there too.
That is an excellent article and it highlights why I do what makes me happy this year - which means some years we go all out with the advent candles and some years we don't.
Some years I decorate extensively and some years I don't.
Some years I make our Christmas cards and some years I don't.
Four four years I made the girls dress-up costumes and now they really don't want them so now I don't.
Traditions should be flexible so that their joy remains intact...if we don't do advent candles every year we do them frequently enough that they will be part of the girls holiday memories.
Honestly, I think if I continued a tradition when it becomes stressful, I destroy the benefit of the memories attached to it.
I save a two copies of all the Christmas cards I make so someday the girls will have them. No they won't have a complete set but they will have some.
I have two little traditions I hope to keep up until the girls are eighteen. I make a photo album of the two of them and send one to each set of grandparents. The result should be that the girls will both have a set of eighteen albums.
I also make photoframe ornaments for the grandparents. One of each girl so the grandparents get two ornaments.
I also make two photo frame ornaments for our tree. One of us as a family and one of the girls together.
Someday I hope that the girls will inherit a set of photo ornaments so that they can have a special memory tree.
Well, 1st let me say that it is nice to see you back around a little, again.. then LOVE your header...cute little hats : )
Traditions changed in our family over the past few yrs. I have 3 married sons... guess what happens?? that's right, they go to the wives : )
BUT one funny thing last year... when the boys were home, I always put a new tooth brush & toothepaste in the stockings (along with all the socks, candy etc.) So last year I did not do it & my son said, "I just told "C" ( his wife) not to buy toothpaste, as Mom ALWAYS gives us some in our stockings, it is our tradition"
Guess that I will do that this year...they expect it : )
Great Article and thoughts about the stresses we create for ourselves. I agree, when the "tradition" starts making people miserable it's time for a change! Other than having a family get together (which includes my sisters, spouses, kids and my Mom) on Christmas Eve, We leave Christmas day alone so each family can do their own thing. It is harder to have these gatherings these days with everybody living further and further apart. Well one tradition I can think of as of late is- I get a bunch of text messages with Merry Christmas on Christmas Morning! Woohoo!! LOL
The only tradition [if you even want to call this a tradition lol] would be, ever since I was young we would open up one present on Christmas eve. Of course not all the presents were under the tree [because "Santa" hadn't come yet ;)] but there were a good handful and my sister and I were allowed to pick one.
My family is also spread all over. Immediate family lives in Massachusetts, my sister and her hubby and kids live in Washington [STATE] and we live down here in Florida.
So far we have kept the tradition going within my own family. My hubby and I open one gift on Christmas eve and we let Jayden open one up also. -This year I will have a full house for Christmas and I'm hoping my sister and I can retreat back to this old tradition from when we were young kids and open a gift on Christmas eve :)
Hi Debbie, I read the article and agree with the points she asserts. My tradition is to bake pound cake and make fudge. My extended family asks for these for gifts as they know this is the only time they will get them. The three of us always open our few gifts on Christmas eve. My daughter and I frequently will make a shopping trip to the outlets in Dawsonville, Ga. and stay overnight. That is really fun for us. I do not pressure myself that I "must" do anything however. Great post!
Growing up Christmas Eve was always spent at my Godparents home. Santa came to their house Christmas Eve (which always intrigued us since he came to us the next day). I use to love watching them open their gifts. It would only excite me more for Christmas. Now, Christmas Eve is at my home. I love to have as many people as possible stop by. We do the traditional seven fish dinner and enjoy spending it with family and friends. My father reads the night before Christmas to all of the grandchildren and sometimes even sing holiday songs (the 12 days of Christmas - each day is picked out of a hat and that's the verse you have to sing). Christmas morning we open gifts and home and then my brothers and their families and me and my family all head over to my parents house. We all live within an hour of each other which makes it all possible. Sometime either Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning we go to church. Ultimately it's all about that.
Hmmm, lots to think about. This will be the first year celebrating w/o any family. We moved cross country and road trip (3000 miles round trip) back 2-3 times a year and are just DONE. No one will be coming to visit us because of either, cost, time, effort, or the derailing of THEIR traditions. So I'm in a bit of a funk about the whole thing and was wanting to just blow this Christmas out of the water with a magical feel. But in planning to do so, I was an overwhelmed mess! So, we're just going to take it as it comes and see how that works.
Some traditions we'll be doing... driving around and looking at lights on Christmas Eve while eating candy canes. Come home to open Christmas jammies to put on and an ornament to hang on the tree before going to bed.
That's all I've got for now ;P
When I was growing up I always did Christmas Eve with my dad's family. We used to play "bang the box". There's a nice gift inside and then you wrap, tape, tie, put into a bigger box... until you have a huge box! Then everyone gets in a circle... one person rolls the dice trying to get a set number while the person to the right is putting on a huge pair of gloves and a santa hat. Then you have to try to open the gift. It was truly a HOOT... sometimes you'd barely get the gloves on and others you'd just be mandhandling that box trying with all your might to get to the next one ;) Fun times! I can certainly see my boys liking this some day!
Happy Holidays Debbie!
We are pretty laid back regarding Holidays, especially Christmas. Traditions are only worth continuing if you enjoy them, so I agree with the article. We have a few traditions for Christmas. The first one is making a sausage, egg, biscuit casserole on Christmas eve to make things easier on Christmas morning. Since it is assembled the night before, all I have to do on Christmas morning is put it in the oven for 45 min when I get up. Then we call the kids downstairs to open presents. By the time we're finished, the casserole is ready and we eat breakfast. Easy! The second tradition is that we have homemade ravioli(I'm 1/2 Italian)for Christmas dinner. Tim likes to make a standing rib roast, duck or another main dish, as well. We also like to go see a movie on Christmas day if it's just the four of us - my family is in Southern California and Tim's is in Chicago & LA so there's no longer any huge get together which was often at our home. My youngest is always the first to say..."we have to do this because it's tradition". She's very sentimental! Me, not so much!
It's funny you should post this now because my husband and I were just talking last night about how we're developing new traditions this year with our kids (3 & 1). We both had loose traditions growing up, but like you said it was mostly about being together, loving one another and having fun.
This year we let each of the kids buy one new Christmas ornament to hang on the tree. By the time they're moving out of the house and putting up their own tree, they'll have a collection of ornaments each with wonderful memories.
I am going to come back and post to this when I have a bit of time..later tonight or tomorrow. I just got home from work and have a ton to do. Love your NO TRADITION ;>) Hugs-Diana
Our biggest celebration occurs on Christmas Eve when my husband's family joins us. There are about 30 people in our home, and I love it (the only family I have left is my sister who lives in Fla.-I'm in Ark-, so I don't get to see her often. When I began having grandchildren, I began our Christmas Pagent tradition. The older children in the family read the Christmas Story from a child's Bible book, and the younger children re-enact the journey to the birth of Christ. It's become one of our favorite traditions. Christmas day just involves our two children, their spouses, and our four grandchildren. Your children probably THINK you have traditions even if you don't. I was shocked when our son got married and told his wife about what they should do at Christmas time, because it had been a tradition in his family - like eggnog when you decorate the tree, etc. laurie
Thanks so much for all these inspiring stories. I am enjoying them, and I am sure everyone else is as well.
Debbie, the only tradition we have is actually on Christmas eve. My side of the family takes turns hosting Christmas eve at our homes. This year I don't have it. It will be at my brother and sister in law's house. We bring a covered dish and eat and visit. We used draw names at Thanksgiving for Christmas gifts and were to spend $50 dollars on that gift. Now we cut that out a couple of years ago with the economy going bad and none of us really NEED anything anyway. Being together is what it is all about.
That was a Great article, Debbie! Thank you for sharing with us.
I had many traditions that I came up with when my boys were younger. They have out grown most of them now and am too trying to think up some great ones that they won't think are silly. (I think that's hard with boys.. at least with mine. :-)
I will be back to read the many comments and ideas you are bound to get from this post! :-)
I have my own little tradition of writing a long letter to Santa every year on 24th, (I keep furiously writing away until midnight!!) which I then tuck into a large bag, hang it up for him with a few sweets in it and fall asleep. Lo and behold, I wake up and rush to check what he's left me this time!!! He never disappoints, in case you're wondering. :) :) :) I LOVE Christmas and I adore Santa! :)
First I'm loving the holiday header! We don't really have many family traditions anymore since my grandma and my husbands grandma has passed. My grandma always made breakfast casserole on Christmas Day, and I've taken that over since. I make one for the kids with just egg, sausage and cheese, and one filled with everything for the adults. It's delicious. We are starting the tradition of pajamas now. We must wear Christmas pjs on Christmas eve, to have adorable present opening photos on Christmas. Then theres the kids. They write a letter to Santa, and leave out cookies, and carrots. Other than that nothing special, just a wonderful time with family.
Hey girl! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this post!?? This is exactly what I love about the Inspiration Friday party...that we can link up the things on our minds and in our hearts. I seriously don't have enough space to write down all of our traditions and sometimes it does get to be a little much. My hubby says I am making little Christmas monsters out of our kiddos because they have to have things "just like we always do"! But, my most special, is one my parents started when my dad realized he got left out of the shopping and didn't know what we were opening on Christmas morning. So, he started giving me and my sister one gift each year, just from him, that we would open on Christmas Eve. I still have most of them and we have continued to get some on into adulthood. It is something we do now with our kiddos too! :-)
Thanks for joining the party, Debbie, and for being such a great blogging friend!
Vanessa
P.S. LOVE your header...too cute!
Brown noser huh? LOL! I do love doing those posts too! But...I love these types of posts of your as well. You are sooo good at opening up conversation.
We used to have some serious Christmas traditions but sadly they all seem to be changing. Most of our traditions were on my husbands side of the family. His mother was one of 5 sisters who kept very close. Every year on Christmas day my hubbys aunts would host Christmas brunch. Yummy oyster pie and mimosa's were favorites among the other traditonal foods! That was his entire extended family. All the aunts, uncles, children, grands, etc. It was intense at times but always a special occasion. Then later that day we all broke apart and went to the separate family gatherings, meaning my husbands immediate family, his parents,brothers,sister and their kids. Our (my husband and kids) personal Christmas was always an early morning frenzy of presents, showers and then we were off until the evening. We visited my family usually some day or weekend following Christmas. But, two years ago his aunts gave up the family brunch (due to age) and now with my FIL's illness I have a feeling that his immediate familys Christmas day gatherings will change to a more convienient date too. So, I guess it's time we are to start some new traditions of our own. It will be fun, but I do miss seeing everyone in the Christmas spirit on Christmas day. I started to read the article earlier but had to leave to go eat dinner, now it's too late, I will go and read it more tomorrow it sounded very interesting. Thanks for such a though provoking post!
Hi Debbie...Thanks so much for your visit to my blog and for your comment, too. I have a LOT of traditions...always set my dining room table with Christmas tree dishes right after Thanksgiving; bring out my Santa Claus "army"; make out cards after the fireplace is lighted, carols playing, and tree decorated; and keeping a Christmas memory book. Those are a few! Hey! Come back and visit often. Susan
Hi there Debbie~ I love this post. Really. I have to say thinking about traditions... well, lets just say we had a lot of traditions in our family, but divorce and remarriage on both sides changed so many things. I miss some of those really neat old traditions... my grandparents arriving Christmas morning with a trunk full of toys, pies and sweet treasures... we would open one present on Christmas Eve... and Santa brought the rest in the morning. Good memories... Thanks so much for sharing. :)
Hi lady! So many of the traditions I grew up with have disappeared - my extended family has all gone their own ways it seems. So I try to create our own here. Elizabeth at twelve crafts till Christmas is doing 12+ days of traditions right now.
Hmmm, growing up I remember tons of cookies, eggnog with a cool nutmeg sprinkler thing and we all got lifesaver candy books each year. I think I will buy those for my kids this year, I think they still make them.
My kids probably remember, their "own" ornaments that they got boxes of when they married. Littlest gets to open one present first and then we work our way around and around until we are done. One present at time, not a mad flurry of paper.
I am curious now to ask them what they remember.
In England "Father Christmas" would leave our presents in a pillowcase at the end of our beds. But after we moved to Canada my mom started putting them under the tree. We always stayed home and I would feel jealous of my friends who had huge families and tons of people around. My ex-husband is Armenian and they always had tons of people over on Xmas day which I loved. My boys still go over there on Xmas day...there's not much I miss about my ex husband except for the Armenian food...YUMM!!!
I actually thought this year I would be more into traditions since I am not working and have more time on my hands, but I'm still not. I agree, if the traditions are causing stress, quit doing them. I quit making cut out cookies years ago, because it is just so much work and no one cared about them besides me. Plus I ate them all and gained 400 lbs.
Yes, love is what matters...And a good family that gets along and has respect other wise it sucks ! LOL
Love this post ! You are such a great woman !
Xo
We are pretty flexible with our Christmas get-togethers. We always have a special dessert, that my husband's grandmother made, and if I have time, I try to make Norwegian lefse. Both of these traditions remind us of family...
Family traditions have evolved along with the family members living at home. We did things one way when we were growing up, I changed them when my kids were little, I changed them again when my first marriage ended and I changed them again after everyone grew up.
Thanksgiving is the over the top holiday at my house. Christmas is blissfully peaceful and simple. The commercial aspect of the holiday is like an extra on a movie set now and I enjoy the holiday so much more than I ever have.
Hi Debbie...our "tradition" is going to see a play right after Thanksgiving. It marks the start of the holiday season for us. We get new outfits, go out for a nice dinner, then to the play.
We look forward to it every year.
The grandkiddos LOVE it!
Debbie@lakehouse
When I was growing up, it was Grandma's house on Christmas eve, and now, we all go to my mom's on Christmas eve. For our girls, they have seen the same Santa since they were babies via my MIL's work, well, she retired last year, but my BIL saved the day, and now Santa will still be in our lives. Doesn't sound like a traditon, but he is wonderful and he's the "real" santa!!!
I love traditions, although we don't have a lot of them. One thing I always do is put a new pair of pjs under my kids pillows on Christmas eve. They love it and always put them on to sleep in and hang out the next morning in. We usually open one gift each on Christmas eve as well, and usually order chinese food for dinner. On Christmas day my husband always makes a big breakfast then we spend the morning hanging in the living room, presents, stockings, etc. We normally host both sides of the family for turkey dinner later on but some years (maybe 1 out of every 4) we go to one of my DHs siblings instead and are doing that this year. I am looking forward to the change.
Christmas Day is a busy day for us trying to fit all in visiting all of our families. So our traditions are before Christmas Day. We usually set up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. And Christmas Eve we go to church, then come home and bake cookies for Santa. I also buy everyone Christmas jammies which we open on Christmas Eve.
I know I'm a little late, sorry! We had a lot more traditions when I was little. I tried to carry on some. But some sort of disappeared or morphed into something else. I don't make the tons of cookies like my mom did but I do try to make something. Also, i like to get everyone new jammies for Christmas eve. Though with all big boys it's usually just the pants. And then they make sure I remember that they can open one gift. As they always pull the , It's Tradition, on me.
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