Everyone has their own special Christmas traditions. They are all beautiful, meaningful and fun for the entire family. Even if you live alone, you should indulge in whatever brings a festive feeling to your heart and uplifts your spirit. These traditions bring a certain warmth and ambiance to your home every year and make this beautiful holiday particularly pleasant. It can be decorations, a tree, a nativity, special food, helping those in need….whatever brings you joy.
In our house, the first tradition starts with charity. We love to participate in a warm clothing drive each year and purchase coats, hats, gloves and socks for those in need, along with food items requested by a nearby resource center. We cannot enjoy a holiday thinking that there are people suffering from cold weather or hunger while we are feasting. Our second tradition is our family Christmas tree. It goes up the weekend before Thanksgiving every year. We head south for Florida shortly after Christmas Day, so we want to maximize our enjoyment of this very festive holiday symbol.
The tree is decorated with a special section for every member of our immediate family which, by the way, even includes our dog, Farrah. Each person has ornaments that were purchased specifically to represent them on the tree. For instance, Farrah has a ceramic bone and lots of animal ornaments on her section, and my grandchildren have unique ornaments specific to their interests. For many years, I would purchase one ornament for each person to hang on the tree every Thanksgiving Day. I have always hosted Thanksgiving in my home and it was easy to put a new ornament at each place setting every year for family members to hang on the tree in a section specifically assigned to them.
At this point in time, I do not buy additional decorations because there is no longer any space on the tree, but continue to have dedicated sections for each person. It is still fun for everyone to explore their individual section and try to recall the year and event that is associated with each ornament.
Another favorite tradition is the Christmas Eve dinner. That is the night we sit down to a beautiful table with flowers and candles and enjoy Zuppa di Pesce, which is basically an Italian seafood stew. Ours is a mixture of lobster, shrimp, scallops, squid and clams in a tomato based sauce served over linguini.
Christmas Day is slightly more casual with the emphasis being on going to Church and then coming home to open presents. In the interest of full disclosure, I am very skilled at unwrapping and rewrapping my presents after midnight on Christmas Eve. It was a skill learned in childhood and I am a master in the art of acting surprised!
Please go to the Contact Form on this website (or email author@lindalaurence author.com) to share your special traditions. I would love to hear what all of you are doing this year.
Merry Christmas!
