celebrating christmas traditions

Now that it’s December, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas… shopping. As of the beginning of the month, I’ve purchased gifts for my closest friends, but none of my family. I don’t know what to get any of them. They should give me Christmas lists.

This year, we’ll be spending Christmas with my family. First, Christmas Eve at my grandparents’ house, Christmas morning with Dad, late Christmas morning with Mom, and Christmas lunch with my other set of grandparents. Last year, we went to my family’s Christmas, and my in-laws’ Christmas, driving 1000 miles over the course of three days. It was too much, so we’re starting a new tradition: swapping Christmas destinations every year. With my family, we’ve had several traditions over the years. Most of them faded as we got older, but I remember most of them.

I think the funniest tradition is the accidental one. Imagine it: you’ve just opened the last of your presents, and you didn’t get the video game you really wanted. But you put a smile on anyway, and thank your dad for the presents. A week later—yes, a week later—dad comes out of his bedroom with another present. Yeah, he forgot to put it under the tree. And yeah, it’s the video game you wanted. What’s funny, is it happens nearly every year. One year, it was board games he forgot to wrap. Another year, it was a dozen movies.

When me and my sister were kids, we would put out carrots and peanut butter for Santa’s reindeer and of course, cookies and milk for the fat man himself. I’d try to stay awake all night, but inevitably, I’d fall asleep on the couch and wake up in my bed the next morning. Dad never wrapped presents. They just arrived magically under the tree, and it was gift overload. A N64! A bicycle! An art set! Mario Kart! Barbies! Hot Wheels! Legos! I never knew what to play with first. Dad wraps presents now because I once complained that I didn’t have enough time to process each present. I like to savor each gift.

Now, when we have kids, we’ll probably have our own traditions, probably offbeat and weird.

What are your Christmas traditions? If you don’t have any now, did you when you were a kid?

This post is part of the 12Days of Christmas event going on from the 10^th of December to the 22^nd at Nadja Notariani's blog. I’ll be giving away a copy of my book at that time (as well as several other books), so stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted, and you can always click on the 12 Days of Christmas button in my sidebar to get there.