I might become one of those people I scoffed at. One of
those people who begins decorating and celebrating Christmas before
Thanksgiving has come and gone. Oh, the bittersweet irony.
In the past, I was always adamant that each holiday had it’s
time, and not to rush Christmas. Trees were for putting up AFTER Thanksgiving,
carols were to be sung in December (although January 1st was
acceptable) and gifts were to be bought Christmas Eve. You know – all the same
rules everyone holds to, right?
This year though, with a baby girl in tow and a beautiful
home of our own to decorate, the itch for Christmas is hitting MUCH earlier
than ever before. So much so, that as I’ve been laid up in bed this week, I
have been all over Pinterest like
spit-up on a newborn, i.e., a lot.
Visions of craft days with Selah fill my head.
And yet, I’m already cautioning myself against burnout.
Maybe it’s from not feeling 100% lately, but I’m already a little weary and
nothing but anticipation has begun! It’s been blogged to death, but Pinterest
really can set some ridiculously high expectations, especially this time of
year. So as I’m thinking through things I want to do and establish, I want to
be mindful of making wise choices on how we spend our money, time and energy. One
thing I’ve kind of prided myself on is establishing intentional traditions for
our family and making intentional memories, not just during Christmas, but
throughout the year.
We always buy a coffee mug from big trips or places we’ve
lived. We started a family-portrait-in-front-of-a-cornfield tradition this
year. (Now) We always take a picture on our anniversary, holding a picture from
our last anniversary (and we always
take a trip on our anniversary). We always make several pots of various soups
and have a Harry Potter marathon the whole week of Thanksgiving (one of our
favorite traditions!!). I’m going to start a new tradition this year for
Christmas for Adrian, to remind him he’s my first priority. So my question is
this: What traditions do you recommend?
Obviously there are some big gaping holes in our traditions.
Journalist that I am, I like to commemorate with words and pictures. I need
some traditions to just ENJOY. We need some traditions to focus us on Jesus and
not on ourselves. We also need some Christmas traditions – a meal to bake, an
ornament to make, a picture to take…you get the idea. So, friends – hit me with
your best shot. Fire away.
What traditions have you found especially meaningful for
your family or yourself? What traditions help you draw close to Jesus? What
traditions are just great memories from Christmas or whenever that we should
consider implementing? Ready….GO.
I wouldn't call it a tradition yet, but last year we had a Jesse Tree and used the Jesus Storybook Bible for each days devo with Hannah. It was neat and helped keep the focus on Jesus! We have yet to tell her about Santa although she still knows about him from just hearing and seeing things when we're out...we're not anti Santa but it can EASILY turns into all about santa.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have that many traditions…our kids are just now starting to get old enough to actually participate in things and remember them, so we've kind of taken it easy so far. We do always have cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas, and Chinese food for dinner (we usually do a "normal" Christmas meal with other expats on a different day). We buy a new family Christmas ornament every year and of course each baby gets one the year they're born. We put our tree up on Thanksgiving Day (since we live overseas and nobody celebrates it here and we always end up having Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday) and eat pizza for dinner. I'd like to do a Jesse Tree or an advent calendar with activities for each day, something like that, but it will wait until next year since this year our advent season is going to be insane with traveling and packing. I think that whatever you decide, keep it SIMPLE. Goodness knows that we've already made Christmas so much more about "everything else" than about Jesus…adding tradition after tradition onto the holidays just because we "should" have traditions does not serve the purpose. =)
ReplyDeleteI don't know your theological take on it, but I try to ground myself and my family's celebrations in the liturgical calendar (i.e. Advent and the twelve days of Christmas). I put up lots of purple for Advent, and we light the Advent wreath every night (anything with candles is inherently awesome/special for little people. And big people, come to think of it). I haven't yet succeeded in delaying decorating for Christmas until Gaudete Sunday which might be my goal in other circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that we will probably never/rarely be home for Christmas itself, so I need to live with that, and the implications that has for us.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I feel like a lot of our Christmas celebration is built on the expectation that we won't be home for Christmas. I love stockings, and A's family doesn't do them, so I've moved that tradition that was important to me to St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6). And then I don't think it makes sense to ship presents out to CA and back, so our immediate family celebration is on the Feast of the Three Kings (Jan. 6) which a) gives me more time to finish anything I'm making and b) gives me (extra) motivation to keep the presents to three each.
I'm a little worried that spreading out gifts like this (not to mention Christmas in between) may put more of an emphasis on the gift-receiving aspects of the season than I'd really like, but so far it works for us.
The boys have their own Nativity set that we use when we read the Christmas story and is available for them to touch/look at all the time.
I have lots of ideas that I've read about, but none have seemed right for my family and kids yet, and I'm trying not to be in a hurry about it ;-)