Ah...the holiday season. I have so many wonderful childhood memories of this time of year. Little traditions that made each year special. I used to be weird about these traditions...and I'm sure my family is chuckling at the "used to" reference. I'm sure that if I had stayed in Ohio, I would still be going to my folks' house on Christmas Eve, expecting all the same things to happen. But moving far away and having a quarter of a dozen children has hindered my ability to be home at Christmas. (doesn't that sound more impressive? Not 3 kids...a quarter of a dozen). Or, rather, it has forced me to make my own home instead.
I worry that my kids won't have the same types of hallowed traditions. How does one START a tradition? Will they remember their childhoods fondly or will it just seem like a generic Christmas...nothing unique and special about the way our family does it. Do the parents have to do it consciously, or do they naturally develop from seemingly random events? Will I ever be able to spell consciously without spell check? So many questions this morning.
Here are some of my favorite holiday memories and traditions from childhood:
1) Santa always came to our house on Christmas Eve. How special were we that he came to us first!?!?! We would go to church, look at lights on the way home, and then stay up all night opening gifts. Or probably until 11-12... I loved coming home on those cold evenings and finding our house all filled up with presents. And then the delicious torture of having to change out of our church clothes before opening all those gifts. And then Dad would take FOREVER getting a garbage bag for the wrapping paper and setting up chairs...I swear it was torturous. And then we would open gifts as slowly as possible...each person opening a gift at a time, while we all ooohhhed and aahhhhed. Even as very young kids we took patient turns.
2) My mother told me about Santa when I was in 3rd grade. I think she was embarrassed that I still believed. But I KNEW he existed. In 2nd grade, I made sure I was the last person out of the house on the way to church. And then I was the very first person back in the house...and all the presents had been laid out. My parents were sitting next to me in church the whole time...so there MUST be a Santa.
3) My older sister Kate and I had a great time making our little sister Andrea believe in Santa. We were desperate for her to continue to believe, because we knew that Christmas wouldn't be the same after she stopped believing. I remember her saying finally, "You guys, I KNOW there isn't a Santa." and we were all, "Okay, okay. But just make Mom and Dad THINK you still believe."
4) My parents would take us for long drives after church Christmas Eve night. Serious torture. We would beg to go home and Mom would say, "Oh, let's just go down this street." and Dad would turn down. And we would always see Santa up in the sky (aka helicopters).
5) After the gluttonous opening of gifts (my parents always spoiled us rotten), we would sadly sit back and realize it was over for another year. But then...STOCKINGS! Our tree was in a different room than the fireplace, so out of sight out of mind. And I swear, the toothbrushes and pens and little trinkets were just as exciting (if not more) than the gifts under the tree. While we were really excited about getting presents, I remember really enjoying watching other people open their gifts. One of my earliest memories is picking out a beret for my sister...I was so excited for her to open it. And the year my dad got my mom a ton of perfume samples for Christmas. And how every year my parents would chide each other for spending too much money on each other...but it happened every year.
Oh, I could go on and on. I love all that family time at Christmas Eve...and it was almost always just us 5, with maybe a grandparent thrown in there occasionally. A few years of my childhood, we spent Christmas away from home...and it was always a disappointment. Ironically, those are the years my older sister enjoyed the most. I guess you never know what your kids will like.
So far our traditions are not putting up the tree until after Andrew's birthday and our whole ornament putting up tradition (Giselle makes fun of Jeff's ornaments, Giselle gets tickled, Andrew defends Daddy's crappy ornaments, Giselle tries to hide them on the back of the tree, gets tickled some more, etc etc). Those aren't very exciting. I miss the Christmas Eve tradition...we are doing Christmas morning with our kids. Hopefully our own fun things will develop...
3 comments:
This year I am going to get a Christmas elf delivered to our house. Apparently they are all the rage in Dublin. The elves sometime leave nice presents, but more often the kids have fun seeing what kind of mischief they've been up to during the night (sitting in front of the tv with a bag of chips, in the driver seat of the car, in the cupboard with the cereal boxes, etc...)
That's funny. We always went to Christmas Eve Mass and Santa came to our house first! Sounds like we had extremely similar experiences. In hindsight, I think it just gave the parents extra hours in the morning to sleep in:) Also, you sound like us. I make fun of David's ornaments and always try to hide them in the back of the tree while Kimberly defends them.
I know what you mean about developing your own traditions. You don't want to force things but you don't want to be left without those little things that make your family's time together extra special. So far, one tradition we have is that everyone gets to open a gift on Christmas Eve. It's especially nice for Mike & I because we exchange one gift after the kiddies are in bed. The morning is complete chaos- which I love. But the night before is nice because it gives a quiet moment together.
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