Traditions!

Only 17 days left!  Are you the type who gets excited over Christmas every year over and over?  I used to be that way.  And I am taking a moment to consider the why's and wherefore's of that happening to me.  Driving in the car the other day, my son was telling me about a convo with his step brother (love you, Michael!) They were reminiscing about how Christmas was important to me - how traditions were what made everyone realize that Christmas was upon us.  But to me, those traditions also meant that everyone knew what to expect, other than a few minor detail changes.  But of course, working retail changes that a bit.  (Remember, we've been opening boxes and stuff labelled "Christmas" since August -- we're kinda tired of red and green by now.  hehehe)

Real tree or Fake tree?  I debated that for a lot of years.  Living in California, it wasn't a difficult decision.  We bought a real tree, because we drove up to Santa Cruz to one of the tree farms and cut our own!  When I moved to Ohio -- not so many folks had real trees from cutting their own down, they just do grow as prolifically as they do in CA!  That first year, I trudged all six kids out into the snow to cut our own tree.  They were rather pathetic looking to my way of thinking.  But we got one anyhow.  Had the traditional hot chocolate with a candy cane stir stick.  Ahhh, traditions! 

Outside lights? Of course!  When they came out with the icicle type lights, we put white lights all around the front of the house.  It was beautiful, as they lined the outside of the porch.  Now, don't laugh, but yes, we were rednecks -- those lights stayed up until Easter!  Mostly because they were 1.  White.  and 2.  With snow on the ground, icicles, whether they were real or fake, fit in to the decor!!

Inside decorations?  I think I had every imaginable inside decoration they made:  Garland around the windows.  Gold bells hung on wide red velvet ribbon in the front windows.  Every conceivable version of Santa, things red and green, knick knacks, candles, snowmen -- we had it all :)

Ornaments?  We had plenty of ornaments for the tree.  My one tradition was having the kids make something of their own every year.  (With six kids, lots of ornaments were created!)  Every year, I bought a Santa ornament as well (one of the things I collected).  When it was time to decorate the tree, the big box of ornaments came out, and each ornament is in its own little box.  So it was like opening gifts.  I write the year on every ornament, helps recall how long that's been around. I still have the first ornament I ever got - handmade by my mother, in 1978 :)  Some of the ornaments had little stories to tell.  The kids would open a box, hand it off to whoever made the ornament, that's what they hung on the tree, while I told how and when that ornament came to be.  Many times, it would also spark memories from the kids and they'd be telling their own versions of Christmas' past.  We'd have snacks, make an event of it. 

Ahh, traditions!!

What are some of your Holiday Traditions?