Christmas Traditions

Eighteen years ago a very important event took place in my life. I became a mother. As Emile's first Christmas approached, I was overjoyed at the prospect of spending the holidays with a baby of my own. She was only two months old... but that didn't matter. I still had a wonderful day with her. One day I was working on her baby book. One of the questions asked was about Christmas traditions celebrated when her dad and I were growing up. Neither of us could really remember any specific things done year after year. I remembered reading from the Bible on Christmas Eve and opening one gift that night, but that's about it. Right then and there I decided things would be different for my own children when it came to Christmas traditions.

At some point during the next year, I came across a very special book.I can't remember how much I paid for it... perhaps around $10.00... but this single purchase became the beginning of what would eventually lead to many special Christmas memories. By Emile's second Christmas she was a little over a year old. She was beginning to enjoy storybooks. Most of the stories in the book were a little too long, but she still enjoyed looking at the pictures.

As time moved by, Brie came into our family. What was fun with one child was doubled with her arrival. Within a few years I was doing all kinds of fun things with the girls. Besides the obvious "trimming the tree" tradition, here are some other special traditions which were started for my girls....

1. Visit with Santa Claus
2. Reading a Christmas story each night. What started out "little" ended up becoming something that even I looked forward to. Eventually I had collected enough books that I'd begin reading Thanksgiving evening and continue straight through to the middle of January.Here are just a few of our "favorites." There are many, many more to pick from.
3. The Candy ChainEach evening after we finished reading our Christmas story, the girls got to take a piece of candy off the chain. Obviously there were two chains and each one had 24 pieces of candy counting down the days to Christmas. It became too much for me to make this each year so I found something a little different.I'd tuck a little piece of candy in each pocket and the girls would move the emblem each evening after they took the candy out. It ended up working just fine.
4. The Pickle OrnamentI'd hide the pickle on the tree. Each Christmas morning the girls would search the tree to try and find it first. Whoever found it received the "pickle gift" and a year of good luck. The gift itself was something small and family oriented so everyone could enjoy it.
5. The Santa KeyI had to make sure I hung the Santa Key so that Santa would be able to get in the house since we didn't have a fireplace.
6. The Spider OrnamentWe also placed a spider on our Christmas tree. This was the result of the following legend.

~A long time ago in Germany, a mother was busily cleaning for Christmas. The spiders fled to the attic to escape the broom. When the house became quiet the spiders slowly crept downstairs for a peek. Oh what a beautiful tree! In their excitement they scurried up the trunk and out along each branch. They were filled with happiness as they climbed amongst the glittering beauty. But alas! By the time they were through climbing, the tree was completely shrouded in their dusty grey spider webs.

When Santa Claus came with the gifts for the children and saw the tree covered with spider webs, he smiled as he saw how happy the spiders were, but knew how heartbroken the mother would be if she saw the tree covered with the dusty webs. So he turned the webs to silver and gold. The tree sparkled and shimmered and was even more beautiful than before.

That's why we have tinsel on our tree and every tree should have a Christmas spider in it's branches.~
7. Christmas PJ'sThis was started by Grandma Bobby when the girls were 2 and 5 years old. When she was a little girl her parents always made sure she and her sister had them. From then on Emile and Brie had matching jammies for Christmas as well.
8. Mexican Food on Christmas EveThis tradition began when I was still married. The entire Lopez family would get together on Christmas Eve and have the most wonderful array of Mexican food you could imagine. After eating we'd do our gift exchange and relax. Eventually most of the family would head out for midnight mass. I decided this would be a wonderful way for Em and Brie to remain connected to their roots. It was another fun thing to look forward to on Christmas Eve.
9. Watch "It's a Wonderful Life"This tradition started because of Emile. I don't remember ever watching this movie until she was around 8 years old. She fell in love with it.
10.Reading from Luke 2One final but most important tradition was to read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible. This was done either last thing Christmas Eve or first thing Christmas morning. It just depended on what was going on. Either way we always made sure we remembered the true reason for the season.

And there you have it. Some of our family traditions. I hope the girls enjoyed the times spent together as much as I did. It's not the same now as they're getting older. Memories are sweet though. I also hope that some of these traditions are carried on eventually with their own families. Merry Christmas.