Christmas Traditions

I’m a sucker for tradition. I guess most people probably are, especially around the holidays. But I like to think that I’m even more so than most. Maybe it’s a bi-product of being such a passionate history buff. After all, traditions are our little way of participating in our own histories and keeping them alive for future generations.

This Saturday the kids and I kept some traditions alive, both old and new.

We started by setting up the Christmas tree. I love a real Christmas tree and that delicious pine smell that fills the house. One sniff of an evergreen tree will immediately send me back to Christmases with my big family in our little house, all sitting snuggly around the fireplace, listening to Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas,” and drinking hot chocolate with mini marshmallows on top. But for now and for our family, it’s more practical to have a small plastic tree. It took me no more than five minutes to pop up our little 4 foot pre-lit tree, just enough time for the kids to get really excited about hanging the ornaments. We opened our ornament box and unwrapped each one individually. It was fun to tell them the story about each one: “This was from Grandma for Josie’s first Christmas.” “This one was our family last year. Who’s missing? Right, Johnny!” "This is one of Daddy's football players. Yes, Daddy LOVES football."

This is a new tradition for us. For the last four years we have taken a trip to Hallmark and picked out ornaments together. When I look at our tree I see twinkling lights and beautiful family memories ….Funny that a lot of them are “Baby’s First Christmas.”

After the tree was decorated it was time to hang the stockings. I take special pride in our family stockings. Firstly because I made them. But also because I am the third generation of mother to make them for my family. My maternal grandmother made this same style stocking  for her children, then my mother made them for me and my siblings, and now I get to make them for my children and my sisters are also making them for their spouses and children.

They’re cut from felt and sewn together with a white cuff, then decorated with names at the top and three unique seasonal emblems. On Christmas morning the kids will come downstairs and find them filled with candies, a few small presents, and lots of tradition.

Now that we had the tree and the stockings, it was time to set up the train set. To me, the decorating isn’t done until my train is clickety-clacking around the base of the tree. My dad had a small toy train collection and when we were growing up my sisters and brother and I always loved to play with his sets. So much so that my parents began a tradition of buying each of us our own set when we turned a certain age (I can’t remember if it was 6 or 7 or maybe 10 years old). It eventually became a contest each year to decide whose train would have the honor of circling the tree. Seeing my rickety old train run still fills me with pride, even though today it’s the only train in the household. And the kids love it too! Josie asks to see the train even when it’s not Christmas time. And Jamie’s eyes lit up when it surged forward for the first time and continued to grow wider and wider with each loop it made.

Keeping their little hands from derailing the train is a constant struggle, but it’s one that I’m willing to make for the sake of this beloved tradition.

Christmas is a special time of year. There are so many reasons to celebrate and to be filled with joy. Having young kids in the house magnifies all those reasons. During the Christmas season parents have the chance to pass on timeless traditions- simple ones like hanging felt stockings and also the most important ones like celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And without a doubt that’s the best history to keep alive!

(And here's a picture of Johnny from Sunday morning since he didn't get in any of the decorating pictures.)