Some of my favorite memories at Christmas time come from traditions my family has created over the years. On Christmas Eve we always go to one of our favorite restaurants for an early dinner, then go to the Christmas Eve service at my parents’ church. On Christmas morning we have pigs in a blanket and watch the parade, then open our gifts in our pajamas. We’ve never taken to eating the typical Christmas meal, but instead have had things like chicken enchiladas, Cornish hens, seafood, or fajitas. All of those things are part of celebrating Christmas to me.
The first year we were married, just after Thanksgiving, my parents brought a huge box of ornaments to my house. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but a few days later when we started to decorate our Christmas tree, I saw why they had given them to me. These ornaments all had special meaning for me—gifts from my first Christmas, handmade ornaments from my school days, ornaments from my grandmothers. I began telling Michael where each ornament had come from—who gave it to me, or when it was made. I suddenly realized that by sharing these stories, I was doing the same thing we had done growing up when we put them on the tree. Telling the history of these ornaments was a tradition that I didn’t even realize we had started, but has now become important to me as an adult.
What traditions are important to your family?
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