Christmas Traditions

It’s funny how every family seems to have its own Christmas traditions.

For as long as I can remember, we’ve always eaten potato soup and cornbread for supper on Christmas Eve.  The reason:  it was quick and easy!  This tradition actually began when I was just a kid and all of my grandparents would come to visit for the holiday.  But even today my wife, Brenda, follows our longstanding tradition by cooking up a big pot of soup and a pan full of golden brown cornbread.  I can feel my mouth watering just writing about it…

Another tradition I remember from my childhood is driving through town on Christmas Eve to see all of the lights and decorations.  Here’s the funny thing.  When we’d get home, we’d always find that Santa had come early!  So instead of all of the gift-opening chaos happening on Christmas morn, at our house it usually happened on Christmas Eve.  I suspect this was done with my grandparents in mind.  But it really didn’t matter.  If Santa wanted to come to my house a little early, that was okay with me!

 

By the time I was old enough to have a family of my own, my wife and I decided to open gifts on Christmas morn.  But we still liked the idea of doing something special on Christmas Eve.  We would give each of our girls a box to open.  It would always contain a new pair of pajamas and a toy to take to bed.  Sometimes we would get a Christmas-themed movie we could watch together.  Even when the girls were old enough to know exactly what to expect, they seemed to enjoy the ritual of opening their Christmas Eve gift.

 

I’m not sure if this counts as a “tradition,” but it’s the way Christmas preparation always seemed to work at our house.  My wife and I would stay up late and wrap all of the gifts for our girls on Christmas Eve.  I remember one year staying up until 2 a.m. trying to put together a Little Tyke’s log cabin.  I was using soap.  I was beating it with a rubber mallet.  Believe me, I was totally exhausted by the time I finally got to bed.  The good news is that our girls were always late sleepers, even on Christmas.  We would already be up, showered, dressed, and eating breakfast before the girls even began to stir.  Since I was always sleep deprived from the night before, it was a blessing to have some extra time before the chaos began.

Both of my girls are grown up and married.  But I’m thankful they live nearby and we can still share Christmas together.  Even better, I’m a grandpa now and I get to experience the joy and excitement of Christmas through the eyes of my two granddaughters.  I foresee lots of Christmas traditions in the years to come–some of them old, some of them new.  But the wonderful thing is they’ll be traditions that we all get to share together!

 

How about you?  Do you have a Christmas tradition you’d like to share?

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