Untypical Christmas Traditions

Being the people that we are, coming from the families that we did, and having the heritage that we do, Matt and I have tried to infuse our holidays and everyday lives with traditions from all walks of life. I just finished one of my most hated Christmas traditions, buying presents a few days before the big day. It's never my intention of course, but you have to live by the laws of the paycheck sometimes.

I spent the whole day with my mother in law, getting those last minute gifts (or all of them in my case) for everyone. It was a crazy day. People were in a rush, impatient, rude and snarky. I wish I was one of those people that could strike up a conversation with a stranger and somehow cheer them up in the process. Thankfully my mother in law is one of those people and discussed at length the troubles of sciatica pain with a man who stood in line with us for about twenty minutes. By the time we reached the register, we were all laughing and joking around. We tried our best to at least make the poor cashiers smile every now and then - it's clear they've been through hell today.

Right now though I'm relaxing and thinking about all the things I have left to do.

A pile of presents is waiting for me to wrap. A penguin ornament filled tree is standing next to the computer reminding me that Matt and I need to finish our 2011 penguin ornament to hang on the tree. The stockings are hung (though not yet stuffed) and there's the faint smell of dried fruit soaking in spices in the kitchen, readying itself for me to make barmbrack (a traditional Irish sweet bread) tomorrow. I make it on Christmas, even though traditionally it's made on Halloween, but I like it around this time of year because it reminds me of fruit cake (except it's not terrible LOL).

One tradition I won't be keeping this year is my homemade spiced peaches. Just didn't have the time or the money to get it done this year. Oh well, next Christmas is only twelve months away.

There are a few other traditions we have, one of which includes a ten dollar trip to the Dollar Tree where Matt and I buy each other small presents, and of course a marathon of Christmas movies that started last night with The Grinch, and will end with a massive overload of A Christmas Story on Sunday night.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and there's only one real tradition that I've kept myself for this day. Sometime at night before I go to sleep, I light a candle and place it in a front window (or sometimes on the porch if I was afraid of a fire) to light the way for the Holy Family. It's something I've done myself for the past several years, and this year will be no different (other than I bought an LED "candle" that won't have the potential to start any fires).

Earlier this month at a Church meeting for the women in our ward we all got to talk about traditions. We learned that there's a family in our ward who also celebrate Hanukkah. I love that and I'm honestly considering it for next year (in addition to Christmas). I'm always game for new holidays and traditions, especially when they involve cultures that we can incorporate into our celebrations. It may have been centuries and centuries ago, but I have Jewish ancestry (though it's more Irish and Scottish as the years get closer to me.)

One thing I've always envied my typical Irish Catholic ancestors is that every Christmas they would attend mass. My family and I are LDS (Mormon) and we only attend Church on Sundays, but thankfully this Christmas falls on a Sunday so you will find us bright eyed and bushy tailed sitting in the pews singing Christmas carols with the rest of the congregation. I'm really excited about it. There's something special to me about going to Church on Christmas - considering the reason for the season (at least for the Church goers).

One tradition that I haven't kept going is one that Motherly would always have at her house growing up. We wouldn't have a big meal of turkey or ham. We'd wake up at the crack of dawn, open all of our presents and by the time we'd finished cleaning up the wrapping paper (and tried on our new outfits) Motherly would have homemade hoagies in the oven warming up for Christmas lunch. Nothing tasted more like Christmas at the time! My sister Kristine and I recently recalled this and both of us excitedly reminisced about Christmases past and how we miss our holiday hoagies.

As the years go on I'm hoping to add more traditions to our holidays. Stories to be read (as well as scriptures), carols to be sung, crafts and cookies to be made and maybe . . . just maybe a tradition that involves not being at Walmart on Christmas Eve Eve.