Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without those fun holiday traditions. Every family has their own unique tradition to make their Christmas special. I wanted to remember some of those traditions from yesteryears and those new traditions that have developed into my family now.
* Singing Jingle Bells while opening every gift: While as a child, in our family gift exchange on Christmas Eve, we would elect a "Santa" or someone to help pass out the gifts. The elect person would then have to wear the Santa hat. The "Santa" didn't pass out the gifts all at once. No. He would pick a gift and hand it to the certain person. The person would read who the gift is from. Sometimes clues were written on the package to help the person guess what is inside. A brief moment of silence passes then the family (which usually consisted of our mom, my sister, my brother, my grandmother Nonnie and my grandpa) would start singing Jingle Bells. The person holding the gift would rapidly tear into the wrapped package. Legend has it that if you didn't open the gift by the time the song was over with the person whom the gift is from gets to have the gift back. No one ever took their gift back but it was just the excitement of it all that hurried the unwrapper up.
After the gift is opened we would oooh and aaahh over the present. The person would proudly show off their gift like a prized treasure. Some gifts would spark a story of someone to tell and some gifts would bring out laughter. It would take about 2 hours, give or take, to get through all of the Christmas Eve gift exchange. It didn't matter. We were family and time was not on our minds. It was about spending time with each other and enjoying the company of family.
I remember spending a Christmas time with another family and they passed out all the gifts and then everyone digs in. It went by so fast. It was hard to see what everyone received between all the colored holiday paper flying about. Don't get me wrong. It was still nice and delightful but it wasn't the same. When you are used to having Christmas a certain way the change feels ackward.
* The Manger: I loved it when my mom would pull out the manger. It had a huge door that pulled down and it revealed the cast of characters in Christmas. There was Mary, Joseph, Angels, 3 Wise Men, donkey, sheep, cow, a shepard and the manger, complete with baby Jesus and a bright star that hooked up on top of the stable. We were told that baby Jesus could not be placed in the manger until Christmas morning. My mom would tuck him away in a cupboard until that time. The manger still looked bare especially to a child playing with it. I found a small Garfield toy and placed that in the manger until Christmas morning. My mom was shocked to see Garfield in the manager. She would take him out only to find out later that one of her three children placed the Garfield back into the manger. To this day when I look at manger scenes I look into the manger. When I see baby Jesus in there I still think He shouldn't be there until Christmas morning.
* Placement of the gifts: On Christmas morning my sister, brother and I knew exactly where to look for our gifts. Our tree was always in front of the large picture window. The gifts on the right side of the tree were for my brothers. The gifts on the left side of the tree were for my sister and the gifts right in the middle were for me. The gifts were still labeled with our names but we knew exactly where to look for them. Gifts that would be for the whole family or gifts we made at school for our mom would be placed on the back side of the tree. Those where usually discoved after us kids unwrapped our presents.
I started to do that with my own children. When we had 2 children they each had half a tree. At 3 children it was left, right, and center. With 4 I tried doing left, right, front and back. Unfortunally the child who had the back of the tree had a hard time getting to their presents since the tree was against the wall or window. When child #5 and #6 entered our lives I stopped trying to make them a side of the tree. I would spread all the gifts all around the tree. Now they have to find their gifts under the tree and take it to a section of the room which they claim is their space to open their gifts.
* The Pickle in the tree: I first learned about the tradition of the pickle in the tree from taking a German class in the 10th grade in high school. Basically, the child who finds the pickle ornament in the Christmas tree receives an extra gift from Santa Claus. I told my mom about it and I ended up getting a pickle ornament in my stocking that following Christmas. For a while finding the pickle was just for bragging rights. Now that I have my own family it has turned into a mission on searching for that pickle.
I usually purchase a family gift, like a family game, a movie, or snacks, for the pickle gift. The one who finds the pickle gets to open up the family present. Our children will wake up super early on Christmas morning not only to see the presents under the tree but to start searching for the pickle. I will declare "pickle search" a few hours after they unwrapped their regular gifts. It is fun watching the excitment on their faces and they search between the branches, high and low, looking for a silly glass pickle ornament.
* The Stockings: We had our own red stockings waiting for us on Christmas morning. I came to learn to expect the little things, candy, a few trinkets, a gift or two that is wrapped like a music cassette tape or jewerly and in the toe part, an orange. Opening the stocking was just as exciting as the regular gifts themselves. My sister, brother and I would sit in a circle and dump out our stockings to reveal what we had hidden inside them.
An unexpected tradition started to unfold from the stocking as I had a family of my own. In 2 days we would go from my husband's dads, then to my mom's, then to his mom's, then to my step-dad's family. It became very overwhelming. We really didn't have time to visit as we were always on the go. One Christmas our 2 children didn't have time to even open their stockings. I told my husband they would open the stockings when we returned home. By the time we got home it was late and the kids were sleeping. The next day they were so busy playing with the toys, and us from recovering the hectic 2 days, that we forgot about the stockings sitting nicely on the table in the corner. It wasn't until 3 days AFTER Christmas that they finally had time to open their stockings. The year after that it was busy again that they didn't open the stockings until the next day. It's wasn't as bad as the one year but it still wasn't good.
My husband and I sat down and decided we needed to adjust our Christmas so we weren't in a rush packing everything in the two days. With more children coming into our family we needed to make things easier. It took a few years to work out the kinks to our plan but in doing so created a new tradition.
The stockings are still filled up by Christmas morning but we set them off to the side and we don't open them until later on in the evening. In doing so it makes the Christmas spirit last longer for the children. They have something to look forward to as the night settles over the land. They can see wrapped presents and candy canes sticking out from the top but they know not to peek in. They like the wait and the anticipation of seeing what they get.
* Sibiling Exchange: This is a tradition I started with my family a few years back. With our family getting larger (5 kids when I started this tradition, now at 6 children) I want to teach them about the joy of giving with the sibiling exchange. They each draw a name and they cannot say who they have. Then they have to buy a small gift usually around $5 for the person they drew. On Christmas Eve we gather in the living room and they have to guess who had them in order to open the present. If they didn't guess correctly then the next oldest or youngest sibiling gets to guess. If they guess correctly they get to open the gift right away. It is fun to see what crazy gifts they buy for each other and to see the joys of watching the other sibilings open the gifts.
No matter what traditions you have in your household it is about togetherness and family time. It is the special family moments that have been passed down from generation to generation. Some may be added and some traditions have ended altogether. It doesn't matter what gifts were bought or what is served at the Christmas dinner. It is to cherish the memories that are being made at that moment.
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