Christmas Traditions

I'm the type of person who's annoyed by stores putting out Christmas decorations by Halloween. Let me enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving and then we can move onto Christmas. So I'm adamant about not doing anything "Christmasy" until at least the day after Thanksgiving, (for those of us in colder climates, I consider taking advantage of warmer weather to put up outdoor Christmas decorations to be a reasonable, and wise, exception) but now it's December 1, and well, let the Christmas season begin!

Growing up, my family never went all out for Christmas. We decorated a small tree, hung stockings from the mantle, placed a few decorations around the house and left the exterior bare, except for the occasional wreath. Although my mom liked the ambiance of a sparkling Christmas tree in a dimly-lit living room, my parents weren't into decorating, so that was the extent of it. The Griswolds we weren't.

As for traditions, they came and went depending the ages of my brother and me. Christmas was marked as little kids by photographs with Santa Claus at the mall and the Christmas pageant at Friends Meeting, choir concerts in middle school, the Christmas Cotillion in high school and the crunch of exams and semester-end projects followed by weeks-long winter breaks in college.

Some simple traditions stayed the same throughout most of my childhood. We came together as a family on Christmas Eve when we ate an early dinner at the Springhouse Tavern and then spent time at my paternal grandparent's house, where the adults opened gifts. (My brother and I were allowed to open one from my grandparent's - the rest waited until "Santa" brought them on Christmas Day.) Everyone reconvened at our house on Christmas Day. And by "everyone," I mean both sets of grandparents, my Uncle Gary, my parents and my brother. (This is when I really longed for cousins.)

Nothing compares to the excitement of early childhood when you believe in Santa Claus and hope that this year you'll be able to stay awake and catch a glimpse of him, or at least his sleigh and reindeer on their way to the next house. Waking up to see all those presents under the tree was a dream come true. But by the time I had entered my college years, Christmas had lost a lot of its magic. Everyone was busy with work or school and sometimes it seemed my brother and I were the only ones adamant about continuing "tradition." As an adult, I have more understanding of my parents and grandparents who'd probably grown tired of following every little tradition fastidiously year after year.

Having a baby gives reason to reclaim the magic of Christmas, and a new generation is an excuse to start new traditions. But Oliver was only three months old last Christmas and in the weeks leading up to the biggest holiday of the year, I was still rather overwhelmed (and tired) by motherhood. Despite it being our baby's first Christmas, it was anti-climatic. Oliver obviously had no concept that it was a holiday and he spent all the present-opening time under a cover for a marathon nursing session, so he never even saw us open his presents. The only pictures I have of him from Christmas are the ones I insisted Chris take of the two of us shortly after we put the tree up.

Looking back, I'm proud of what I did accomplish. We got the tree up, I managed most of the holiday shopping by myself, (thank goodness for the Internet!) we hosted Chris's family on Christmas Day, (thankfully one of their Christmas traditions is a light meal - sandwiches - on Christmas Day since they're still recovering from the feast on Christmas Eve) and I got Oliver and myself on a plane to Philadelphia the day after Christmas.

Even though last year ended up being about simply pulling it together rather than creating new Christmas memories, I've been given an extra year to think about what traditions to start. Every year I've been acquiring more decorations and look forward to when Oliver is old enough and we can make an afternoon or evening out of decorating the house. An advent calender, something I'd loved so much as a kid, especially the ones with chocolates, is a must-have for any kid and I forgot to get him one! Oops! Put that on the list for next year...We are going to a community Christmas party on Saturday, because Chris wants a picture of Oliver with Santa Claus, even though I know that's not going to go over very well. But all in the name of tradition, right? We never celebrated Nikolaustag (St. Nickolas Day) as kids, but after my time in Switzerland and Germany, what a fun and easy tradition to work into the season.

Chris also finally convinced me to get a real tree. We have a fake tree, which Chris hates, but I got it at a second-hand store and consider it more environmentally friendly than buying either a real tree, or a fake one new. Plus, you have to water a real tree every day and I hate vacuuming up needles. But now that Oliver is mobile, we need a tree we can tuck in a corner and barricade with a table and our fake one is too big. With a promise that we'll buy a small, skinny tree, we're headed to the St. Paul Farmer's Market this weekend to pick out our family's first real Christmas tree.

Oliver is still too young to understand Christmas, so in actuality, I have another year or two to build on whatever we do this year. I want to try a bunch of different things and see what sticks. Maybe some activities we'll just end up doing every couple of years when we feel like it, while others will become tradition. I'm sure there'll also be the traditions that are clearly more important to me than they will be for Oliver. But in reality, many traditions you don't realize are important to your kids until years down the road when they it announce it as their favorite Christmas memory - or until you suddenly stop doing them.

Even though Oliver is still very young, this Christmas is already more fun. He's much more observant and interactive, so I talk to him about Christmas and try to build the excitement even if I know he doesn't understand a lot yet. But he's already noticed our stockings we hung above the couch. I point out his stocking and explain that on Christmas morning he's going to be able to reach in his stocking and pull out treats and gifts from Santa.