Christmas and the holiday season is actually one of my favorite times of the year. I think that is probably true of most people. The reason, in part, that Christmas is so special to me, is it’s filled with tradition.
My grandma and I were very close. No one I know quite did Christmas like she did. She made everything for us grandchildren special, but Christmas was even more so. Some of my favorite memories are of the two of us starting to make Christmas cookies (in August) or bringing out Snowball the Christmas Kitty that would go under her enormous Christmas tree. She had the best Christmas ornaments that would now be considered vintage and also some wonderful originals provided by her children and grandchildren. The traditions she started, trickled down to her children’s families and now with a family of my own, I see how important traditions can be to my own kids.
Traditions cement those magical memories that we want to create for our children every Christmas. I have found too, they center around being together creating experiences rather than the presents received. Both sides of our family celebrate Christmas, and celebrate it BIG! It’s been a lot of fun to do both sides’ different traditions while also creating our own. My favorite Gibson tradition is going to my father in law’s house to decorate his massive Christmas tree. The grandkids find it so magical and my husband and his siblings love putting up their ornaments from when they were kids. Traditions create magic for adults as well, allowing us to sort of relive our childhood, while also experiencing it with our own children.
Like my grandma, I enjoy creating magical, memorable experiences for my own children. Every year we make Christmas cookies, and spend a night decorating our Christmas tree. We open our advent calendars starting on December 1st in anticipation for Christmas morning. My kids’ favorite tradition so far is simply going around town looking at all the Christmas lights. Most importantly, every night on Christmas week, we read a little bit of Luke 2 to our children. These traditions aren’t elaborate. They don’t have to be. Regardless, traditions are the memories we give our children and create a lot of the magic of Christmas.
