My Favorite Holiday Traditions

Christmas is a magical time for children, when they dream of possibilities and eagerly await opening their presents. Most families have traditions around setting up their Christmas tree and opening gifts. My family bought the tree together but my father decorated the tree in secret. After we came home from church on Christmas eve, we sang carols as we came down the stairs to a tree lit with real candles.

Before opening gifts we sang more Christmas carols and read the Christmas story in English and German. There was a pile of gifts for each person and it was your typical pandemonium as we opened gifts and shouted out look, look at what I got. As I fondly remember my childhood holidays, what I remember most are the traditions we shared as a family. There are only 2 gifts I recall from my childhood which makes me question what's really important?

Holiday Memories From My Childhood

When you think about your activities before and during the holiday season, there's a lot of time spent shopping for gifts. Do you realize the US economy is powered by consumer buying, driven my over zealous marketing? Do you know the majority of “things we purchase” for ourselves or others, are discarded in less than 6 months? So let's have some fun and remember things in 3s …

3 Favorite Holiday Memories

• Going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on the way to pick up relatives for dinner.
• Making Christmas cookies with my mother.
• Seeing the magic of the Christmas tree with real candles.

3 Favorite Presents

• A child size doll house my father built for myself and my sisters.
• My first pair of figure skates which led to a lifetime of skating.
• As a senior in high school, arranging for a professional photograph of myself and my sisters, as a gift for our parents.

Creating Holiday Traditions for Our Children

What's really interesting is which traditions we keep and how we adapt them to fit our family and lifestyle. For me it was never about the gifts and while I'd pick things up throughout the year, I often put them back in the closet as I didn't want to overwhelm the boys.

3 Favorite Holiday Memories

• Giving each son a box to fill with toys to give away and teaching them that giving is just as rewarding as getting (and it helped with clutter control too).
• Our gingerbread party tradition began after my son brought home a gingerbread house from his piano lesson. It changes each year — from New York to Tokyo, San Jose and Portsmouth NH. Last year it was a gingerbread ship for our son in the Navy.
• Grocery shopping for Christmas with the boys – where each of us filled a cart with goodies. My groceries came home while the boys groceries were given to adopted families but it was fun seeing how they followed my lead but added sparkly stuff like those favored straws.

3 Favorite Presents

• Transformers provided hours of enjoyment for our older son who analyzed and figured everything out without needing help from his parents.
• Big red building blocks the boys used to build everything from forts to walls to keep their parents out. They still talk about these blocks.
• Legos, Legos and more Legos as you never have too. While the boys might build what was pictured on the cover, these toys provided hundreds of hours of creative play.

My Favorite Holiday Activities

One of the things I've learned over the years, is to tuck special activities into my schedule. These all involve getting together with special friends so I know that along with the normal holiday activities, there is some time set aside to relax and enjoy life.

• Spending a day in New York City in December with each au pair, to see Macy's, the tree at Rockefeller Center and so much more.
• Wreath making and/or decorating with a friend. It's fun and a great way to catch up with each other when life gets too hectic.
• Decorating for the holidays has always been a challenge so I found a way to jump start the activity and make it more fun. Check out my Holiday Decorating Party to Save Money!

We'd love to hear about your favorite holiday memories and gifts.