Traditions

What are your family Christmas traditions?

In addition to the obvious, like hanging lights outside and putting up a tree, we do a few things that are more unique to our family.

Each Christmas, every family member gets a new ornament for the tree. Often the kids get more than one each. The ornaments are dated and initialed so we can remember each year who they belong to and when we got them. In a few years when the boys move out on their own and get their own tree, they’ll take all their ornaments with them. Their first tree will be hung with ornaments they’ve had for their whole lives.

We have a party each year where we decorate the tree. We turn on some Christmas music and make finger foods and eat dinner as we put the ornaments up. Everybody puts up their own ornaments. Years ago when the boys were very little, after they went to bed, we’d re-arrange the ornaments to spread them out a bit from the toddler-height clusters they started on.

A few years ago we started going up the mountain to cut down our own tree at one of the dozens of family owned tree farms. We make a day of it, complete with a stop for coffee and hot chocolate. We always get a tree that’s just a little taller than we need. The bottom branches come off and are available for wreaths and decorations. The foot or two of extra trunk is cut off and stored for the next year. On Christmas morning we have a fire fueled by the bit of last year’s trunk.