Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Incorporating Traditions



Hubby and I have been married for a little more than a year and a half.  This is our second Christmas as a married couple and our third together.  One of the challenging and most fun things about the Christmas season for us is mixing traditions from our respective families.  We have traditions from his family.  We have traditions from my family.  And we have traditions that we started as our own little family.  In the spirit of Christmas I would love to share some of our Christmas traditions with you.

Hubby’s family always set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  So, on Black Friday instead of going shopping and fighting the crowds, we spend a quiet day at home listening to Christmas music and decorating for the season.


A tradition we have from my family is celebrating the Christmas advent.  My dad spent two years living in Germany when he was younger, and upon his return he brought home some Christmas traditions. He and my mom have observed the advent since they married 36 years ago, and Hubby and I have continued the practice.  We have four matching candles, one for each week starting from the Sunday after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve.  Every Sunday, we light another candle, sing Christmas carols, and one of us gives an inspirational Christmas message, either from the scriptures or somewhere else.  This tradition is so fun for us and a great way to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Some of the best traditions are those that we start in our own family.  Every year since our first Christmas together in 2009, we have bought a new ornament to put on the tree.  We try to buy one that represents the year we’ve had.  Somewhere on the ornament, we write the year it was from so that each year when we take it out, we can remember when we got it and think about what happened that year.

I love children’s books.  I actually have quite an addiction for them.  Although we don’t have kids yet, we already have a pretty good collection of picture books and elementary age books. I have read every single one of them.  Thankfully, Hubby supports this addiction even when I start reading the books to him.  So perhaps my favorite new tradition has to do with children’s books.  Every year, we buy a new Christmas book.  I wrap all our previous Christmas books and put them under the tree.  Then, each day, we open one of them and read it (yes, I do read it to Hubby).  On Christmas Eve, we open the new book and read it.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

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