Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Holiday Traditions

In the midst of our efforts to either destroy or save Christmas, I was thinking about just what the holiday (or one of the others during this season) means (or doesn't mean) to everyone. What are your childhood memories? What are your traditions? How do you celebrate now?

Growing up, Christmas was always a big build-up for us, of course, because of the month-long decorations, music, and anticipation of presents. The tree would be out with presents underneath at the start of December and we counted the days with our advent calendar.

The true festivities began on Christmas Eve. (Once I was old enough to remember, anyway,) We always attended the 11:00 p.m. church service. The service would focus on a celebration of the birth of Christ and what that meant/means. Often we ended with the lights out and everyone holding a candle. Sometimes we held hands in unity. It was always powerful. The service usually ended with a pronouncement that it was after midnight and now Christmas.

We then went home and slept fitfully until we could stand it no more. Our stockings filled mysteriously during the night and we could explore them right away. Mom and Dad would get up, get their coffee, and gather with us in the living room. We'd share what we found in our stockings then go around the room taking turns opening our presents until nothing was left. We'd have breakfast together and savor the morning.

Sometimes that was all, other years we went to celebrate with the extended families. If we didn't see them on Christmas day, we always saw both extended families on the nearest weekends. All the uncles, aunts, and cousins would get together with our Grandmas and Grandpas and catch up with each other.

It's harder to continue these traditions each year as everyone ages, spreads further apart geographically, and attaches to spouses with different tradtions. Plus the excitement isn't the same as adults and we don't have our own kids yet to share it with. But we still try to find time for as many of the elements as possible, and it's still a special time of year.

2 comments:

Kelly Sime said...

I've adopted one of my husband's family's traditions--cause it's cute. Instead of just putting small items in the stockings, we wrap them because it's much more fun to unwrap them :)

DaddyMan said...

Sounds nice! I'm going to have to gear up for a post of my own. :)

And I can relate with spreading out, my in-laws are 1800 miles away...good on one hand, bad on another.