Christmas Traditions Part 1
Nov 19th, 2007 by Bethany
I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I like to have a long Christmas season, and I've already talked about Thanksgiving a lot. Plus, we're going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving this year, where it looks like for the first time ever Christmas is going to be at our house. That means we have to be Christmassy at home! And that means more planning and thought on my part. So, it's time to start thinking about Christmas traditions.
1. Decorating is a big part of Christmas for me. A Christmas tree is important. We have a fake tree out back, but Colin's always had a real tree at Christmas time, so we'll probably have to work on deciding whether to buy a fresh one again this year. If nothing else, we should get something that smells like evergreen to make the house smell Christmassy. Both of our parents helped us collect ornaments (usually one a year) as we grew up, so we have a big collection of mismatched, but meaningful, ornaments. Plus, we've been doing the same thing with Maggie and Degen so we have their own ornaments to add.
An advent calendar is another favorite of mine. An advent calendar is a physical way of counting down the days until Christmas, usually from the first day of December as far as I know. We made a very simple, cheap one when we fist got married that consisted of hanging a long green ribbon with 24 knots in it on the wall and adding a red bow that climbs the ribbon one knot each day, ending up at the top on Christmas Eve. You can buy more elaborate ones in stores where you get a toy or candy each day, but there are lots of ways to do it and they can be cheap or free.
Nativity scenes are a big part of Christmas, though we don't have a nice one yet. We have a little one-piece ceramic scene and Colin's mom just sent the kids a finger-puppet version to play with in church. Someday I'd like to get an olive wood one like the ones they make in Israel, or less ambitiously, I'd really just like to have one where the Baby Jesus is removable so that we can continue Colin's family tradition of waiting until Christmas Day to put the baby in the manger.
2. Baking not only creates Christmassy smells that help you feel the spirit of the season, but is also an opportunity to spend time together if you do it right. In my family all of us spent hours in the kitchen together every year mixing and pouring and burning and tasting cookies and candies. My dad always makes "figgy pudding" like in the old "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" song. On Christmas Eve or the day of, we compile ribbon-topped plates of cookies and deliver them to neighbors, usually carolling all the way. The food didn't always turn out great, but we had a lot of cozy fun. A couple of essential items includes: chocolate chip cookies, candy-cane shaped cookies, and fudge.
3. Watching Christmas movies is a nice family tradition, especially if you watch ones with a more spiritual message. Not all of them have to be spiritual, though. Some or my favorite Christmas movies are White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Krueger's Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Charlie Brown Christmas.