Christmas Traditions

With Christmas this Friday and the recent life changing loss that has taken place in my life over the past few weeks I really wanted to cancel Christmas.  Not only did my dad get called to heaven this month, but my nephew Ryan was called to join our Lord as well last night.

I started thinking about how sad this Christmas will be, but then I started thinking that even though my loved ones are not here in body, they are here in spirit and through some of the great Christmas traditions that my family and I are carrying on.

This alone makes me smile and gives me peace. Here are some very happy Holiday traditions that are being passed down from my siblings and I to our children.

1:  When we were very little I can remember running upstairs on Christmas morning to find not only tons of gifts under the tree, but a plate of candy on the table from Santa for each of us kids.

We always got an apple, an orange, nuts (in the shell so you had to crack them) and candy.  My favorite part of the candy on the plate was always the ribbon candy.  I have always bought ribbon candy for my kids for Christmas too.

2:  My sister Angie has built a Christmas village over the years that certainly puts most to shame.  She started giving her daughter Heather pieces for her own village when Heather was just a young girl and now Heather is passing that gift along to her own daughter.

3:  My brother In-law David grew up having pizza and oyster stew for their Christmas Eve dinner and he has passed that tradition onto his own children. As a matter of fact, we will be having pizza and oyster stew with my family tomorrow evening.

4:  A tradition my husband and I share that his parents did when he was growing up is that on Christmas morning before the gifts are opened and the day begins, we put on some Christmas music pour a glass of wine and toast each other and our family for another loving year.  Then we let the kids unwrap their gifts.  One for Bailey then one for Triston and so forth.

5:  For Christmas dinner we have ham.  When I was growing up we always had Turkey for Thanksgiving and Ham for Christmas (never Turkey, that was just not heard of).

One of my favorite things for Christmas is will always bee the green bean casserole my mom made and the homemade gravy (well Brett though it was homemade)  until he saw my mom  using canned cream of mushroom soup and condensed milk to make her famous gravy.

What are some of the Christmas traditions that you are carrying on from your childhood and passing along to your children.