Christmas Traditions

I posed a question to Kevin recently about what traditions he'd like to start for Christmas. I wondered if there were any traditions that his family had that he'd like to incorporate into our family Christmas. He told me about two that he'd like to carry on. First is the tradition of the presents (at least the big ones) from Santa not being wrapped. As a child, I can imagine that it's much more believable that the gifts not be wrapped. He's a busy man and if he had to wrap each gift at each house, it would take far too long.

He also wants to carry on the tradition of getting to open one gift on Christmas Eve. That gift was always new pajamas that Kevin and his siblings slept in Christmas Eve. I love this idea and am already shopping for a new pair of pajamas for Anna's Christmas Eve gift.

When I was a kid, we'd go to my grandfather's house on Christmas Eve (but back home in time for bed). My cousins would be there and I'm sure we were crazy and out of control, fueled by a week-long diet of cookies and cheese and in a complete feeding frenzy about the hordes of gifts that were about to be bestowed upon us. Lucky for our parents, Christmas Eve holds the power of the most serious threat in the world...worse than terrorist threats: Santa Threats. The Santa Threats probably kept us in check a little. I mean, you don't want to ruin 2 months of good behavior on a few hours of cousin-induced insanity...especially since Santa probably already has your gifts loaded on the sleigh and ready to deliver (it's not inconcevable that he might turn the sleigh around and bypass your house, due to bad behavior). My grandfather had a set of authentic sleigh bells, rusty from years of being exposed to the elements in the snowy wonderland of upstate New York. A few times on Christmas Eve, Paw Paw would sneak over and shake those sleigh bells. It would jolt my cousins and I back into shape, as if Santa himself were right outside, watching our behavior.

Another Paw Paw-ism was the thing that he used to say every Christmas, right before we got ready to open presents: "Aw...let's just wait until next year" (to open these gifts). As a child, in the frenzied excitement of present-opening, you'd at first think that he just might be serious, at which point your bottom lip would begin to tremble a little as you watched the hopes and dreams of all that you were about to receive flushed down the toilet. Naturally, he'd quickly relent and the present-opening would proceed. Later, that became a good joke for us older kids to play on the younger ones and to watch their bottom lips tremble and the twinkle leave their eyes.

I hope that, in addition to incorportaing our families' traditions into our own Christmases, special traditions of our own will develop over time. I also hope that Anna grows up with fond memories of holidays spent with friends and family and traditions that she can some day pass on.

And yes, I plan to post clips of my favorite Holiday movies on the blog every chance I get. Lucky you.