What are the holidays without traditions?

I can't say that I have specific memories about what I received each year for Christmas as a child. But I do have great memories of our family traditions. The ornaments from the old trunk that my brothers would carefully pass down from our crawl space attic, the night we would drive down to Boston to visit my Great Aunt and go see the fancy department store window displays and the beautiful neighborhood lights. My Nana was a Portuguese immigrant and we always celebrated the Epiphany on Jan. 6th (as kids, we referred to this as "Little Christmas" as we would still receive presents on that day). Many foods evoke memories for me as well. My Nana's homemade ravioli that would stretch across her small apartment table, even the ironing board was put into service. Smelling my mom's sauce and manicotti baking. Sitting at the "kids table" and the long wait to be old enough to sit at the "grown-up table".

Over the next two weeks spend some time thinking about what traditions you enjoy with your family and think about adding some new ones to your list. It will make the holidays more special and last longer than just one day. Here are some we enjoy with our little family each year:

~Going through toys that we no longer use to give away to a local charity.

~Driving around to view Christmas light displays, while listening to Christmas music, bring along hot cocoa or make some when we get home.

~Collecting Christmas story books and display after Thanksgiving so they are more special. Read one a day to count down the days.

~Baking cookies or other treats to give to friends and neighbors.

~Teaching our kids about other holiday celebrations like Hanukkah, La Posada, Kwanzaa, etc...

~Buying an ornament each year, for each of our kids, so when they are grown they'll have some for their own family tree.

~Watching old home movies of Christmases past and remembering when.

~We both come from large families and instead of buying for everyone, we do an ornament or gift exchange.

~Teaching our kids about the Christmas traditions of our various nationalities, ie Italian, Portuguese, German, French, English, and Irish.

~Visiting gingerbread house displays, then making some of our own.

~Making Christmas crafts, ornaments and cards.

~Making shoe boxes filled with gifts for children in third world countries through Operation Christmas Child.

~Participating in a church pageant or carol singing.

~Because our house is small, rather than stress over having a lot of friends over at once, we have a few different holiday dinners, before or after Christmas, and rather than exchange gifts, just enjoy being together and playing games etc...

~Attending the Christmas Eve candlelight service with our church family.

~And we always bake Great Grandma's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake on Christmas Eve to eat for breakfast on Christmas morning. Yummy!

May you and yours enjoy a wonderful holiday season, filled with many traditions :)