Christmas is coming! Â It’s a week away to be exact. Â The tree is (mostly) trimmed and presents have (mostly) been ordered. Â Everything is done enough that if something left on the list doesn’t get done no one will notice and that gives me great peace. Chase is turning three this year. Â I think that makes this Christmas particularly important. Â I’ve already heard her utter the word Santa this season and she shows a marked preference for the Charlie Brown Christmas music over other selections. Â So, that means that this year we MUST solidify what will be our household Christmas tradition.
Lots of people blend holiday traditions. Â This really shouldn’t be as complicated as I’ve made it out to be in my head. Â Honestly, we both celebrate Christmas it’s just a matter of picking and choosing how. Â At our house we mostly adopted my grandparent’s European traditions. Â We opened presents on Christmas Eve though they were delivered by Santa and not the Christkind. Â That worked for us. Â We would have dinner at my grandparents house and open gifts there. Â A dinner for which my father showed up late every. single. year. Â Although, remarkably, by the time we got home Santa had always been there! Â Ben did the traditional Christmas day stuff and I think that without some kind of structure in place to support the Christmas Eve tradition that it’s just too hard to maintain.
As a compromise, we’ve decided to open our family presents on Christmas Eve and open presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Â I can live with that. Â I suspect that lots of people do that anyway. Â I think it would also be nice for this to be a time to exchange some handmade goodness so in that vein I made Chase some new pyjamas. Â This year, it will just have to be pants because I just don’t have time to work on a set but maybe next year. Â She’ll be completely decked out in silly reindeer print. Â I ordered the shirt and while it’s a little loud, I didn’t think about looking for plain thermals at LL Bean or Land’s End until, well, today. Â So… you know. Â Make it work, right? Â At least it’s the right pink.
Then there’s the whole stocking issue. Â I’ve only lived in a handful of places without a fireplace and honestly it didnt’ matter… until now. Â We had a gas fireplace that was enormous and took up half of the living room. Â So we took it out. Â No we hang our stockings near the tree but I find it’s lacking a little something. Â We’ve decided to adopt a third party tradition! Â I know, highly unorthodox but it’s too cute. Â My friend Chelsea’s family hangs their stockings then when Santa comes he takes them down from wherever they are, fills them and puts them in the recipients’ beds. Â Â I love that so we’re going to do it because it will be better than taking them down from where they’re currently hanging for opening.
It feels good to finally just decide. Â What traditions do you celebrate?
When I was a kid we would always open 1 present on Christmas Eve. Then the rest would be on Christmas morning. Right now our stockings are hanging down the side of the steps. I like that idea of putting them in the beds when filled. Its pretty cool. I hope everything goes well for you guys this year. Good Luck :)
Since we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas at our house (which I did as a kid as well), a couple of nights ago we were lighting our Hanukkah candles and saying the prayers before dinner, giving the kids their Hanukkah gifts (these are small things like a pack of stickers, a book, etc) and then after dinner we were listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree!! Since Hanukkah falls at different times each year (during the month of December) depending on the Jewish calendar, it is especially interesting when they coincide. I have been explaining to Skyler that most Jewish kids don’t have a Christmas tree (although Eric prefers to celebrate the Winter Solstice and call it a Solstice Tree, the roots of the Christmas tree). I also told Skyler that people who celebrate the birth of Christ don’t usually celebrate Hanukkah, but I don’t know if he fully gets it yet!….and you are worried about keeping traditions straight for Chase! I like the idea of putting the stockings in their bed like the old tradition of filling the wooden shoes with goodies. We might use that idea as well. Who was that the Danish? I tried googling it but couldn’t find it. When we told Skyler about Santa coming in at night, he asked who was going to be up to tell him to take off his shoes when he comes in the house! When I suggested we leave him a note, he said maybe we can send him an e-mail!! :)
Steph, you are way to cute.
I dont know how you find the time to keep a blog.
XOXOXOXOX HAPPY christmas . Roxanne
We’ve just begun our “what do we want to do” conversation. We’re not going the Santa route. Abby has met him (three times) and knows he exists, but we’re not pushing gifts from him. We are skipping inner-family gifts again this year, too, but we have a plan next year for the Three Gift System – something you need, something to wear and something you want. I also want to incorporate some sort of charity work into our Advent – not just gifts to the needy, but volunteering to serve somewhere. As I said, we’re currently in discussion.
I really like your stocking idea. Never heard of it, but I like it.
Our real issue is that we will never celebrate Christmas as a family unit. If we are here, we will be at Nadia’s in the morning and Debbie’s in the evening. If we are with Anny’s family we will be somewhere with six other people, too. It’s great for us to be with others, but we are trying to figure out how to be ourselves, too.
Alice is so excited for Christmas. The hard part is waiting. The gifts come in the mail from family and I put one under the tree and she wants it so. bad. We’ll let her open one on Christmas eve, probably the one I make her (I still haven’t made her gifts!). That’s how we did it growing up. It was usually the new robe or jammies that my mom made. Your stocking tradition is awesome! I wanna try it, but I’m not sure if we can wake up before Alice.
Great post mate! Where’s the subscribe button? Haha