What traditions from your childhood holidays did you take into adulthood and which ones were you happy to ditch when you could do your own thing?
It should be no surprise that I cling to most of my childhood traditions like a life raft. I can get high on nostalgia especially at holiday time. Obviously, Grandma's noodles are the glue of the holidays for us and even though my family opts for the lazy version some years (which we don't eat because eww and all of us grandkids agree), I will make my wonky version. I can never make them as good as she did but I will try til my dying day. When I roll the dough with her rolling pin, she's right there with me. I also make sure we have cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning which my mom and I always did. I love going out and looking at Christmas lights in neighborhoods like I did as a kid. (Though sadly, there are far less people putting up lights the past 10 years.) We also listen to the Christmas music I loved as a kid and the cool thing is since the Mr and I basically grew up together, my Christmas music is the Christmas music of his youth too even if not from his childhood.
The ones I was happy to ditch were the multiple visits to varying families. When my parents were together, we would go to my dad's parents house on Christmas Eve and my mom's mom (Grandma I always speak of) on Christmas Day. Somewhere in there we would have to fit in my mom's dad's get together with his wife and two kids. (She is where I got my love of entertaining.) We were Easter Christmas Catholics because of my dad's upbringing so we'd go to midnight mass until I was seven. Needless to say, even though I was bouncing off the walls because it was Christmas, I was pretty tired. Then we'd go to Grandma's on New Years Day. When the parents got divorced, it was SO much worse. Christmas Eve was and still is my favorite day of the year and that meant my dad got me that night to be with his family. I was NOT happy and thankfully by the time I was 13, he moved across the country so we didn't have to worry about that anymore. Then we had to get together with the new wife's family and even though they were all kind to me, I just never totally felt like I fit in except with her grandma who was an absolute joy and just thinking of her brings tears to my eyes. It was a lot to fit in. So I was glad to leave like five different holiday gatherings behind for sanity's sake but I also dearly miss the people at them with my grandma and grandpa being gone. I suppose you could say since we now go away every other year for Christmas in Vermont that is a big change but not one I necessarily wanted to make. But boy am I GLAD we did! There is something about just having PEACE on Christmas Day, nowhere to be, nothing to do and eating the same food you'd eat anyway that is heaven. I highly recommend it at least once. Nothing says you can't get together with the family before or after for a holiday celebration. (When it's safe.)
Your turn!
What traditions from your childhood holidays did you take into adulthood and which ones were you happy to ditch when you could do your own thing?
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While I did love going to Christmas Eve mass and especially being a part of it when I was in the choir, I absolutely hated having to be a part of the Christmas morning mass too. My dad was in the men's choir and I had been in the boy's choir which was never required to sing Christmas morning, for obvious reasons. However I was "lucky" enough to be one of only 2 ever boys who were invited to join the men's choir at a young age and this privilege came with a big caveat for me. Suddenly it was like I had a job Christmas morning. I hated it. Not the actual singing and all that but there were practices on Saturdays in December which meant I also had to give those up - I was not a fan. So I wasn't quite an adult yet but once I got to high school I had the opportunity to use football as a valid reason to get out of the choir, and I was all over that. While I did somewhat enjoy that time with my dad, I do not regret taking back my Christmas mornings. My dad would rush off to church and I would stay behind to relish in my opened presents that I had time to play with again and I am glad I got that back when I did. So as an adult, nobody messes with my Christmas mornings!
ReplyDeleteI've kept the tradition of having a natural balsam fir tree that fills a large part of the living room and having to look at every tree available on the lot before selecting one. We also decorate the outside of house with lights and fresh wreaths on the doors, hang our Christmas stockings on the stairs because we don't have a mantle, and use old Christmas cards to decorate the house.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten rid of going to Mass on Christmas Eve. We are not a religious family. I've also gotten rid of my partner's tradition of the big family gatherings on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My family always stayed home on Christmas Day and that is our preference.
One tradition that we have added is assisting a family friend with selling Christmas trees each year. He is a Christmas tree farmer and sets up a lot to sell locally after all of his export business is complete. It is a lot of fun trying to help other people pick out their perfect Christmas tree. Sometimes they know exactly what they want and other times they are open to being surprised by our recommendations.
Hmmm...my mind is a bit muddled these days so I can't quite remember what's old school tradition and what I've been doing for a long time. lol Reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to the dogs is one thing I still do with just the tree lights on (will need to adjust this year given no lights on the Charlie brown tree! LOL) A relative and I used to give the same gift box back and forth every year which was AWESOME (I'll have to take a picture of it for you...so stinkin' cute!) so that's something I miss greatly because you never knew when you'd unwrap it from under the tree. When we still put ornaments on the tree, I did carry the tradition of putting a horrible ornament I made in 2nd or 3rd grade in school with my picture in it that my mom would hide in the tree like a Where's Waldo thing because she knew I'd take it down. So then I'd hang the dang thing up on my tree too...in the middle...by the trunk...so it wasn't visible but I knew where the little bastard was. ROFL We haven't done ornaments for a few years now, but it still gives me the giggles. Oh! One thing that I still do is have a box of Meltaways open in the living room when we open presents. That's a standing tradition for a few decades.
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