We celebrate Christmas at my house. My love of this holiday waxes and wanes depending on our money situation, whether or not there is a spiritual feel to it on any given year, and what the relationship weather is doing within the families.
There are years when I would have rather forget the whole thing. People acting crazy or mean and the commercialism has killed it for me a time or two. But on the whole, I enjoy the holiday season and Christmas.
My family had lots of traditions that I've brought forward to my own family. We used to "mail" letters to Santa on Christmas Eve by putting them up the chimney. Can't really do that now, as we don't have a fireplace - but every year, SANTA writes a letter to The Boy reminding him how much he is loved and to look forward to the next year. It lands in his stocking or attached to a special gift.
Speaking of stockings, that is a tradition we've carried forward. When I was little, Santa would deliver the stockings to our beds (in an effort to keep us in our rooms until Mom and Dad were ready to get up). He always managed to sneak in and we never caught him - but one year, I opened my eyes and saw him leaving my room. I was a believer for a few more years after that. As for keeping us in our beds - well, that had mixed results. Once we moved to Waverly and the kids' bedrooms were downstairs (but for one), we would excitedly visit each other but understood that coming upstairs was verboten until we could hear Dad walking around in the kitchen. This continued even after we were adults and we played Santa for each other. These days, The Boy knows there is no Santa, but he still looks forward to the stocking on the end of his bed on Christmas Day - and he also knows he should stay there until we get up.
I'm not sure how Christmas will play out this year. Darling Man has to work on Christmas Day, but I'm not sure if it 's the early shift or the late shift. The in-laws are coming for dinner, so there will be cooking.
The thing I am looking forward to the most though, is going to church on Christmas Eve. I am reading at both services. And resurrecting a tradition of long standing but the last few decades has seen it gathering cobwebs in a closet - celebrating the reason we have Christmas in the first place.
Check out some other Christmas traditions! Leave your name in the comments if you want to join in.
Joangee
Jill
Sandy
Pamela
7 comments:
I love the way you've insisted on keeping the celebration away from commercialism, Sayre. I hoped you keep the custom of writing a letter to the Boy until he is grown and that those letters are kept to be re-read when growing up gets rocky.
Some of my traditions--sending New Year instead of Christmas cards, getting together with friends in lovely places for lunch and friendship, Christmas concerts.
we plan on building a fire and sending up a list!
ooh - I love the idea of putting stockings on the bed. That would definitely let us sleep in a little longer!
I miss the "like" button (:
I would like to come to your house for Christmas.
One of my favorite traditions is listening to Handel's Messiah on Christmas morning. This year we look forward to reading and acolyting at the children's service on Christmas Eve too.
I love the stocking idea, too!
Christmas Eve services are always something special. I love Handel's Messiah, brings back memories of singing in the Cathedral when I was at school.
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