Holiday Traditions

As I ponder the upcoming holiday, I think about traditions I was raised with, ones I’ve continued, and which ones I have created for my own family.

Growing up, we went out as a family to the mountain behind our house in rural Oregon, cut down a real tree, then brought it in on a homemade tree stand and decorated it with handmade ornaments, strings of popcorn and paper chains, and LOTS of tinsel. We put as many lights on it as Mom and Dad would allow. Then we used the fake snow spray and decorated all the windows, using Christmas stencils.  Somebody always had to ruin the pureness of it by drawing finger art in it (and since my brother Tim is the only sibling I have left, I’ll blame him). Mom made a gingerbread house every year and gave each of us kids a bag of different colored icing to do our own favorite artwork on it. She confessed to me years later that the reason she made a gingerbread house every year was to motivate us to take down the tree, ornaments, and put everything away after Christmas. We couldn’t break the gingerbread house down and eat it until all the holiday stuff was packed away. I remember how hard the gingerbread was after sitting out for several weeks! Even soaking pieces of the house in a glass of milk didn’t soften them! And then there were the Christmases that our pet monkey would eat the popcorn and cranberries from our garlands. Gaps in the strings told us he’d been there.

Years later, I made gingerbread houses for my kids, though not for the same reason; mine was more for nostalgia’s sake. The kids had a good time and one time friends stopped by in the middle of our venture. One asked us what smelled so good, I said, “We’re making gingerbread.” He looked confused and said, “You’re making Ninja Bread???” All work stopped on our creation while we roared with laughter! I told this story to my girlfriend and this year she got us all ninja bread cookie cutters! Little gingerbread men, doing what ninjas do, kicking, etc.

When I was growing up, we were allowed to open one gift on Christmas eve; that tradition died with my adulthood since my firstborn arrived on Christmas Eve. I felt it would cheat him out feeling special on his own day.

One tradition I started when I had children, was an annual Christmas lights viewing. Every year we would gather family members and friends and we’d cruise around town, looking at everyone’s Christmas lights. We’d take pictures, ooh and ah, and then we’d converge upon the local Denny’s to get hot cocoa, snacks, and vote on the best of the season. This tradition has been going on for over twenty-five years now and I’ve had as few as two people and as many as a dozen carpooling and caravanning with me.

Next year I plan to start a new tradition with my friends. It will take place either the Saturday or Sunday right after Thanksgiving. We will each create some kind of snack type food and we will converge upon each other’s houses to snack and put up each other’s holiday decorations and trees. This will surely start our season out right!

Right now, I have three gifts left to wrap and this year’s preparations are complete.

My son, his new girl, and I attended an early Christmas service tonight and it’s probably a good thing because the weatherman is predicting a severe storm tomorrow night. We will surely have a white Christmas this year! Merry Christmas everyone!