Christmas Traditions

Brittany will be home for 5 days over Christmas and I’ve been planning how to make every minute perfect. (Christmas is all about faith, right?)

She has often let me know how important traditions are to her. Usually after I’ve forgotten one. I googled tradition for some help. An article in Christianity Today, said, “Big or small, traditions add richness to our lives. They give us common ground with others. They give us touch points, times and events to remember fondly. They help us feel secure when things around us aren't. Tradition is about creating a safe haven away from the world.”

I thought I’d better ask her which Christmas traditions were really important to her, so I didn’t mess up.

She emailed me back that she loves making rosettes, which I’ve done every year since before she was born. From the time she was about 10 until she graduated from high school she took over the frying part while I powdered them with sugar. Every time someone mentions rosettes it reminds her of the small burn scar on her wrist. In fact I’ll bet she just stopped reading this to look at it again. Right, Britt?

Anyway, we can’t do that together this year because I’ve already made them. I needed them to take to Christmas parties weeks ago.

Her next favorite tradition she said is the Dessert Open Houses I had. Note had. I haven’t done one in about 4 years. The baking consumed the entire month of December so now I am all about volunteering to host the potlucks for different groups I’m in!

The next tradition she mentioned was putting up the Christmas tree together the Sunday after Thanksgiving, having a holiday meal, movie and one gift to kick off the season.

She had to work over Thanksgiving, so John and I went to my relatives in Chicago.

So far I was striking out. I thought I might borrow a tradition from my family. One of the things I remember the most while growing up was my mom color coordinating my sisters (twins) and me (11 months younger). She never had to put a tag on a gift because Debbie’s gifts were always wrapped in red, Barb’s in blue and mine in green. Our pajamas were white with the appropriate color buttons; our bikes were white with the appropriate color handlebars. There was never a question about what belonged to whom!

The only problem with that was I got really sick of green. And Brittany’s an only child.

I got back online and finally found what I was looking for. On a site called AskMen.com a Mr. Mafioso wrote about holiday traditions: “Ultimately it’s about coming home.”

So maybe we’ll just make a really great cup of coffee on Christmas morning and open our stockings and gifts. We’ll all stuff the turkey and get it in the oven, go for a walk, call all of our relatives, have dinner and play a game.

Because that’s what we always do.

It’s our tradition.