Holidays are a time of family and tradition. Before I jump into traditions, I want to acknowledge that not everyone has positive feelings around the holidays. They don't have the family, traditions, ideal situations that they would like. I see you. You are loved and valued and I hope you find peace.
As a kid Christmas was the time of traditions. I have a few favorites. There is the ever popular Christmas pajamas. We loved opening up one present on Christmas Eve, even though we knew what it would be. As little kids our jammies were homemade by mom and the girls matched and the boys matched. As we got older they didn't always matched and they weren't always homemade, but that didn't matter. Even when I was serving a mission for my church in Spain, my mom made me Christmas pajamas and mailed them to me. I'm venturing into the homemade pajamas this year. Wish me luck!
A tradition we as kids started was all sleeping in the same room. They boys would come in and sleep on our floor. We would stay up as late as we could, giddy with excitement for Santa to come. In the morning (middle of the night) we would sneak upstairs to see if Santa had come. We would crowd together on the top step whispering and giggling. Mom and dad would scold us and tell us to go back to bed. As we have gotten older we were more likely to sleep in, but there have been a few years that as adults we've slept in the same room and in the morning (not so early) crowded on the top step and fake whispered.
My aunt Suzanne has made us Christmas ornaments since. . . forever. She makes them by hand for all of us. I'm 36 years old and she still sends an ornament every year. My mom also gets us an ornament every year. We have two trees in our house because I love my ornaments. My husband wants the magazine beautiful tree and I want my mismatched ornaments. Our beautiful coordinated tree is upstairs and our tree downstairs has all my ornaments I've collected over the years.
My mom made us pillowcases for the different holidays. We didn't get a new one every year, but we got to pull them out every holiday and have them on our beds bringing holiday cheer. Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, they were made a little more special with fun pillowcases.
These are the traditions that have meant the most to me over the years. Traditions have a very special way of keeping favorite memories forever in our hearts. They don't have to be big and complicated. They're just a fun way to bring a little bit of extra spirit to your home.
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