“Twas the day before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring now even a mouse…”
It’s Suazmo’s 6th Day of Christmas and I just want to say that I’m so grateful for all the amazing people in my life. My family and friends, as well as those virtual through Suazmopolitan, twitter, etc. #merrychristmaseve to you all.
On this day, the eve of Christmas, I want to quickly touch on family tradition. What it means to me, to you, and a fun suggestion for next year to make your family more worldly; thanks to @mary_obrien for the idea.
What’s your fondest memory growing up during the holiday season? Was it going with mom and dad to pick out the tree? Decorating the Christmas tree together? Holiday shopping and gift wrapping? Baking cookies for Santa? Christmas morning matching PJ’s? There must be something you remember, a recurring memory from the holidays each and every year. These are your family traditions.
Big or small, your family has some kind of routine, maybe even passed down from generations before you. It’s these routines that are dubbed tradition, and there’s nothing more comforting than tradition during the holiday season.
While my little family has a couple of varied “traditions” the oldest and most consistent is celebrating Christmas Eve. What is usually a day off, is a day of final gift wrapping and any minor cooking to which we might be taking to grandma’s house. Around 2-3PM we head into NYC and spend at least an hour looking for parking. Grandma’s been cooking since the day before, and we walk in to warmth, love, the Jackson 5 Christmas album on full blast, and mouth-watering smells of lamb and pork and rice and beans and more.
Dinner’s around 6PM followed by opening gifts from grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We dawdle around on the couches and on the floor as we digest, laughing and reminiscing.
Miss Mary whom suggested this post, has what I think is a more fun tradition,
per Mary, don’t laugh,
“we go to Christmas Eve mass at 5 and then we order pizza and hang out and watch the Grinch, it’s so silly but it’s our tradition.”
What are your family traditions? Share in the comments below!
Starting your own traditions and/or want to introduce a new one to your family? Consider Christmas Crackers, and no I don’t mean Christmas Crack, but crackers, like fire crackers. This may be a biased suggestion since my mom is now part-Brit, but Christmas Crackers aka Christmas poppers or “bon bons” are a UK (and other commonwealth countries’) tradition dating as far back as the 1840’s.
“The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang or snapping sound… crackers are typically pulled at the Christmas dinner table or at parties…typically these contents are a colored paper hat or crown; a small toy, small plastic model or other trinket and a motto, a joke, a riddle or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper” – source. Read more via London Perfect about the tradition.
Mom apparently has some Christmas crackers waiting for us… can’t wait to crack my first cracker!
Slippers & Vino 