I have never been great with traditions. In my adult life, I’ve worn very few Halloween costumes, I’d be happy to buy pre-cooked Thanksgiving food from the grocery store, and I’m almost always in bed by 10pm on New Year’s Eve. The one winter holiday I make an effort for is Christmas, but since our kids grew up, I find I do less and less. (I still need to put up a tree!)
There are a few things I do love to do every fall/winter, however. My extended family spends Thanksgiving together and this year our group was 22 and included all three of my (in the US) children’s significant others, my mom, all my siblings, and most of their kids. I’ve eaten every Thanksgiving of my life with my mom and it’s, for me, a powerful thing. I love holiday tunes–I keep adding to my Spotify playlist–and I love the turkey soup my mom makes (and leaves with me) after we’ve all dined.
When the kids were little, we did lots of Christmas things–reading our favorite holiday books, making and decorating Christmas cookies, caroling with the neighbors, and opening presents (one early on Christmas Eve). But since our kids partnered with others, we asked that they spend Thanksgiving with our family and told them it was fine if they spent Christmas with their spouses/fiancee’s family. So, for the past several years, it’s been just me and Dr. Feelgood and we have let a lot of the traditions slide.
We do still watch Elf, get dressed up for the occasional party, and toast each other (early in the evening) on New Year’s Eve. And, every year for the past five, I have run a gift program for the low income day care near my building and that makes me exceedingly happy. (This year we have 31 kids and 9 employees and they will all get everything on their holiday lists.)
How about you? What are your favorite holiday traditions? Have they changed over time? If you could pick the one thing that gave you the greatest holiday joy, what would it be?
Our holiday traditions have become sparse since our kids are grown and no grandkids are on the horizon. We had several traditions when the kids were growing up. I always had a gift labeled The Everything Box, which contained games, videos, books, etc suitable for various ages. These were things we wanted our kids to have, but not have “ownership” of. With 5, it was essential that things like music, games and videos, and even books, did not belong to just one child except for special items, like hardbacks of their favorite books, or a chess set only they asked for. They have told me since then that The Everything Box was one of their favorite things at Christmas.
Stockings were (and still are to some extent) a big part of our Christmas mornings and everyone looked forward to them. We open them before we ate breakfast, and any gifts after. Stocking has practical items, candy, small games and usually something nice, like a earrings, or a gift card for their favorite gaming platform. Gifts are few these days. The kids mutually decided not to gift each other, and we’re now just doing a stocking and one gift, usually something they’ve asked for, so not many surprises.
The one tradition that has kept going is having cinnamon rolls for breakfast, along with scrambled eggs, and mimosas. By the time the kids were in their teens they could have some with us if they wanted. The cinnamon rolls are a must, although they don’t have to be homemade! They love good cinnamon rolls, but for Christmas the ones in the can have a nostalgic appeal for some reason.
We do have a tree up- a tabletop one because our 18 month old puppy is still not trustworthy- and we have our stockings are hung, the same ones the kids have had for over 25 years.
I love the idea of the Everything Box – that’s fabulous! I think that might be something I can steal to do if/when we ever have grandchildren – even if that’s no time soon I suspect. thanks Carrie
You’re welcome. Another great thing about the Everything Box is that I could pick up things all year on sale, and even at yard sales when they were younger.
Another vote for the Everything Box! I only had one kid but perhaps there will be more than one grandkid someday?
We watch Home Alone every Thanksgiving. That’s it! I love having zero winter holiday traditions, I find the crazy, frenetic rush and emphasis on presents and decorations and a specific type of music stressful and unenjoyable, so I am very happy I never bothered with them.
I did inspire myself–by writing this column–to put up our tree. It really does make me so happy. So many of the ornaments are mementos of times and places with our family. I got teary several times!
We’ve not only become empty-nesters, but my husband retired earlier this year (I’m still working), so our lives have really started moving in a different, slower direction. My husband and I met 40 years ago and have been a couple for almost 39 of them—that’s a lot of traditions built up, and a tremendous amount of Christmas ornaments collected, lol. Our traditions still include getting hot chocolate and driving around to look at Christmas lights a couple of nights before Christmas and watching “A Christmas Story”, “Blackadder’s Christmas Carol”, and “Bernard & the Genie” (a really sweet tv movie from the early 1990s starring Alan Cumming and Lenny Henry: highly recommended) on Christmas Eve. Also, it’s not the Christmas season in our house until we listen to Elvis’s Christmas album. I intend to do that this very day as I put up Christmas decorations and put ornaments on our two ornament trees (I told you we’d accumulated a lot of ornaments over the past four decades, lol).
Our traditions mostly surround the food! Every year in late October (usually in the half-term holiday) I make the Christmas cake, pudding(s) and mincemeat and Mr. Caz makes pickles and chutneys. The tree goes up as close to 1st December as we can get – my eldest likes to come home to decorate it, so when depends on what time off she has. We’ll usually watch some Christmas films throughout December – The Muppet Christmas Carol is always a must, as is the 1951 Scrooge with Alastair Sim, Elf, White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life – and I insist on watching Die Hard on Christmas Eve!
My son in law sent me this. It cracked me up!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRvQ-q3EVq2/?igsh=Z3Q3cXV0MDJ5and2
The Muppet Christmas Carol is a favorite in our house as well, along with White Christmas. We watch those most years. Maybe I’ll watch Die Hard this year. I watched it many years ago but remember very little about it. I confess I’ve never seen Elf, so maybe I should remedy that, too!
My son-in-law made tiffin for my daughter’s birthday a couple of weeks ago and it might become a new tradition. He was able to get all the correct ingedients at the local World Market including golden syrup and digestive biscuits. He even used British chocolate bars for the topping. (He left out the raisins because my daughter doesn’t like them.) It was delicious and very rich! Now that I know the recipe, I’m going to make it the next time I need an item to share at a get together.
We watch A Christmas Story, Scrooged (with Bill Murray) and Die Hard every year . . . my husband has been lobbying for the Lethal Weapon movies in recent years as well.
I watch A Muppet Family Christmas every year!
My favorite tradition, started by my mother, was a special ornament each year for my brother and I. They were gift-wrapped, and opened each year to be the first ornaments to go on the tree. Sometimes themed in some way – I received a book ornament, my brother a skier – sometimes not. When I married and moved several states away and no plans to travel “home” for the holidays, I received a box in the mail a few weeks before Xmas with all of “my” ornaments. Totally unexpected (I never knew Mom intended that we should take them with us), it was such an emotional moment. I decided to do the same for my son when he was born. Of course, he’s still in college and renting a room and no plans for a tree of his own yet, so his ornaments are still here with me. LOL But someday, he’ll have a box of childhood memories rather generic ornaments to decorate his tree.
A second tradition that turned out to be far more valuable than ever imagined was our annual Xmas letter. Being of the computer generation, my husband and I collaborated on a generic letter every year that was then personalized by hand before putting it into everyone’s envelopes. But I also saved a copy for us. In the moment, it didn’t seem to be any big deal – we had fun writing the letter, trying to make it interesting and fun to read – but it has become a pretty treasured record of our married lives for the past 40 years.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to church with my children and my friend and her family on Christmas Eve. The church service is beautiful and something funny always happens. I love this tradition because my children, who do not want to go to church, love coming home and doing this. My friend and I sit together and our children sit behind us and we listen to them laugh, and visit, and participate in the service. Afterwards, we get a picture taken In front of the church Christmas tree.
I love this. I quit going to church years ago–I struggle with almost all organized religions–but I miss Christmas Eve services. My husband is an atheist so I’ve not gone by myself but have rather stayed home with him and our kids–and now just him. You’ve inspired me to go this year!!
Don’t forget that it’s not winter everywhere at Christmas time. In Australia it could be 40 degrees (Celsius) on Christmas Day and just as many families will be eating cold seafood as the traditional English-style roast dinner my grandmother used to insist on. My favourite summer tradition is settling in front of theTV on December 26 to watch Day One of the Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Christmas leftovers, air conditioning and watching Australia defeat another country (this year it will be England). There will be no snowy Christmas movies or schmaltzy Christmas pop songs if I can possibly avoid them.