I have been slacking. I meant to write about holiday traditions earlier this week, but here it is the day after Thanksgiving…and I still haven’t done it. I do have excuses. I have been feeling a bit under the weather, plus getting ready for Thanksgiving, and my Air Force son has been home on leave this week..so I guess I’ve just been living life. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be my pattern for the month of December as well. Normally my tradition is to do my Christmas decorating on the day after Thanksgiving, but it’s mid-afternoon and I’ve done nothing so far. Perhaps the merry jingle jolly bug will hit me later this evening, or perhaps I’ll wait until tomorrow..or the next day..

Let’s talk about traditions

Do you have specific holiday traditions? Some families celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional Norman Rockwell style, sitting around a fancy table, eating off mother’s best china, while father carves the turkey in front of the guests. A prayer of thanks is given before the meal, and then everybody stuffs themselves before settling in to watch football, play games, or take naps. Some families dread Thanksgiving day because it turns into a day of excess..excessive eating, excessive drinking, and excessive arguing/fighting. Does that sound familiar to you?

Our family Thanksgiving

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving at our house would begin with my mother and I watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade together. My mom LOVED the Rockettes. We would watch together, but my mom would be in and out as she was also preparing the Thanksgiving meal. My mom was actually always in and out of the kitchen- not just on Thanksgiving. She was always cooking something good. Anyway..back to my parade memories.. I would watch, and when I heard the Rockettes were getting ready to perform, I would yell for mom. She would come running in to sit and watch them, mesmerized. She got so excited when they would get ready to do their “high kicks” at the end of the performance. I continued to watch the parade every year, even after mom passed away. Every year tears would stream down my face when the Rockettes performed, because…mom. I didn’t watch the parade this year. I don’t even know why.

As far back as I can remember, our Thanksgiving meals have been served buffet style. We don’t use the good china, but we DO use Chinette paper plates (free plug for them..geez I should have asked them to sponsor this post)! We don’t say a formal prayer of Thanksgiving before the meal, but you can definitely feel the thankfulness in the air. Our turkey is already carved before we set it out to be served.

Back when Thanksgiving dinners were held at mom and dad’s house, it was a day long event. We would eat our meal at noon, or whenever my sister Jan showed up..we started telling her we were eating an hour earlier so that she’d get there on time! 🙂  Mom made the turkey, my sister Lorna made the stuffing and the pies, and everyone else brought sides. After lunch we would be stuffed, not wanting to move, but my sweet mom couldn’t stand the thought of a kitchen full of dirty dishes. She would go into the kitchen and very loudly start cleaning up..we knew that was our cue. After we got everything tidy, we would spend the afternoon playing board games. The past several Thanksgivings have been held at either my sister Jan’s house or my home. Most of our Thanksgiving traditions remain the same, except the person hosting makes the turkey (usually Jan), I make the stuffing, and Costco makes the pies! Lorna was a fantastic cook, just one of the many things we miss about her. Most of us scatter by mid afternoon, as many of the kids have multiple places to go on Thanksgiving. One thing I can say..I don’t recall any fighting at our family holiday.

Christmas

I don’t know how or why it started, but we always opened the majority of our gifts on Christmas Eve. I loved it as a kid, because I got to open everything(except Santa gift) the night before most of my friends! I’ve heard many people say that they had a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve, and the rest on Christmas Day. I do have to admit that this tradition made Christmas Day seem like a bit of a letdown, as I had nothing to open. My Santa gifts were always unwrapped…I remember asking my parents why Santa wrapped some people’s gifts but not mine. I believe they told me that they came straight from the North Pole and the elves didn’t wrap presents. Santa never brought anything extravagant to our house, usually a doll and a game (or something equivalent). My stocking always had the same thing in it every year. At the bottom of the stocking was a big, juicy orange. The rest was filled with a whole bunch of peanuts in the shell, hard ribbon candy, and a little bit of chocolate candy. My sister told me that she used to always have creme drops in her stocking, but I can’t recall getting those.  A few months ago, I wrote about a place right here in Kansas that makes the ribbon candies, as well as just about any other type of candy that are stocking worthy.  If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here:

https://cookiesandcursewords.com/Henrys-candy-company-a-sweet-treat

I remember as a small child we would go to a Christmas Day celebration at my cousin Dennie’s house and I would exchange a small gift with my cousins Julie and Jane. I loved to go to their house because they had all of the “cool” toys.  I wanted an Easy Bake Oven so badly, but I had to settle for playing with theirs.  I think my mom thought I would catch the house on fire! For some reason, we quit going there..I presume it was because families grew and schedules conflicted.

My family continued the Christmas Eve tradition. When all of the family got together, there were so many presents under mom’s tree! As my parents aged and downsized, we began to have Christmas Eve at Jan’s house. Our final Christmas Eve at my parents house was in 2009. I remember it well, because we had a huge snowstorm and my mom was worried that nobody would make it. Everybody did, and although it was crowded in their smaller house, we had a great time. My dad was battling lung cancer and we were unsure of the future. By the next Christmas Eve, both of my parents were in a nursing facility and my grandmother had passed away. One year after that, my parents( as well as my sister Lorna), were gone.

We tried to keep the Christmas Eve tradition, but every year it became harder and harder to do. All of the now grown children have families and schedules of their own and it just became too difficult to coordinate. My brother hasn’t been back for Christmas with us since my parents have been gone, as he moved to Colorado and then to Kansas City. Last year my family didn’t go to Jan’s house. It was a hard decision, but I think it was a good one. Jan still celebrates Christmas Eve with her family, and I celebrate with mine on Christmas Day or whenever we can coordinate it.

I still try to keep up some traditions with my own family. I make caramel popcorn from my Grandma Hazel’s recipe every year, as we could always count on a tin of goodness from her each Christmas. I also buy or make each of my grandkids an ornament or some token with their name and date each year. My sister’s two grandchildren help her decorate the Christmas tree at her house every year. They’ve done this since they were tiny, and they are teenagers now.

Even though traditions may change, many remain and continue to be passed down…as well as new traditions formed. I would love to hear about your own traditions in the comments of this post.

No matter what your traditions are, remember that you are making memories that will last many years to come. Make good ones!