For years, I fought like hard to make sure Christmas wasn’t my favorite holiday, but the older I got, I realized it was. It became the only holiday that I would decorate for. I got into it.
Some of my Christmas Traditions:
1) Putting the Christmas Tree Up
It was my mother’s rule, the tree and lights could not go up or on until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving would not be forgotten. I kept with this tradition. The weekend after Thanksgiving is when I would pull out all of the decorations and put the house up in the way I like it.
2) Department 56
About 5 years ago I started collecting the Department 56 villages. I loved going into the stores and looking endlessly for hours at all the villages and houses available. Each year I would look for the deals on the houses that were retiring that year, and also the new villages that would come out that year.
3) Spaghetti for Dinner
Our family doesn’t do Ham for Christmas, nor do we do a huge meal. Instead, it’s a spaghetti dinner. My mom told me this tradition started when my brother and I were young, for we wouldn’t eat anything else. Over the years, people began to expect the Spaghetti, so the tradition’s stayed since then.
4) Christmas Eve as Opposed to Christmas Day
Our holiday celebration always was Christmas Eve night. In the past, I would usually have to work during the day then the evening would be all about family. It also began when we were young, as my parents were divorced so Christmas Eve was spent with mom, and Christmas Day, I’d go over to my dads. I never realized how complicated it could get once married though 😉
5) Shopping
The majority of my shopping also happens the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am not one to go out at midnight to shop though. Instead, I will shop online looking for all the good deals, and the more and more web friendly it becomes, the easier and easier it is to shop. This year, I was done shopping by the second weekend of December. And that’s my goal every year.
6) Christmas Movies
There are 2 movies I have to watch every year around Christmas Time. Those movies are: Love Actually and While You Were Sleeping. Love Actually is just a cute feel good movie, and While You Were Sleeping was my mom’s and my tradition as I grew up.
7) Christmas Ornaments
From the year my little sisters were born, it was always tradition to give them an ornament so when they were old enough to move out on their own, they would have enough ornaments to start their own tree. 16 years later, and it is still a tradition.
8) Baking
The older I got the more and more I realized how much I loved to bake. I’d only get in my baking niches around Christmas though, so one of the December weekends would be completely dedicated to baking. And boy oh boy, would I make a mess of the kitchen.
9) Christmas Lights
At least one night my loved ones and myself would go out for a night of driving around town looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights. Since moving out to LA, since there is so much to see, it happens to be more than one night around here. Part of that reasoning is me wanting to see as much as I can so I can decide on my favorites. This year I’m very much looking forward to visiting the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA.
10) Christmas Cards
The reason I like doing Christmas Cards is kind of a selfish reason for I love receiving mail in my mailbox 😉 And I realize in order to receive you must put the effort out too. However, it has become a tradition. In the past, I use to make my own cards when I was huge into scrapbooking, but over the years I’ve realized how time consuming that can be, and it can add up in the costs, that I’ve gone back to buying the cards out of the box. Every year it’s my goal to pick out a card that represents my style and a little bit of me though. This year were two boxes, Angels and a Snowman.
These are some of my holiday traditions, what are some of yours?
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