Christmas Traditions
part 1 - the decorating
Last year I became totally involved in finding out how different families celebrate Christmas. I began by asking my preschool kiddos all sorts of questions: Does Santa wrap your gifts? Where does he leave them? What is on top of your tree? Of course you can only get so much information from a 4 year old since more often than not it's "I forgot" about what they did an hour ago.
I asked friends, extended family, strangers on the street (ok, maybe not) what traditions they had. Little did I know that by Christmas this year I would be pregnant with our first little one and finding out about traditions has become all the more exciting!
There are traditions my own family has stuck too through the years. You know I like to ramble on and on. This post will be broken up into parts! This post is dedicated to decorating! Be sure you skip to the end if you can't make it through all my rambles and take a minute to comment with my questions!!!!!!!! (please)
The Tree: I remember looking forward to (and begging) to put up the tree way before the Christmas season arrived. I do remember one horrible year where my parents broke my heart. I think I was about 5 or 6 (I'll have to ask Mom) when my parents got the bright idea that they would "surprise me" with putting up the tree without me. (I imagine they thought it would be easier that way) They let me spend the afternoon and evening at my Grandparents house and when they brought me home, the tree was up and done. "Surprise" .... "What?" Are you kidding me? I was so upset and still remember it, that's just wrong and it never happened again.
For two years we went to a tree farm and cut our tree down when I was young. It was a huge deal and took forever to pick out one that we all three agreed on.(If we had a bigger family, it would have been serious trouble) The problem was when we brought that monster home and Dad rigged a tree stand. Yikes! It didn't make him a happy camper and after two years of a seriously grumpy Dad after the tree stand making ....... investing in an artificial one seemed the way to go!
Thankfully now that I have my own family and home, I can (usually) sucker (beg) Andy into letting me start decorating even before Thanksgiving arrives! The only reason I need his "go ahead" is b/c he has to lug the hundreds (only a slight exaggeration) of boxes up the stairs. I decorate everything that stands still, seriously! We have two "big" trees, both are artificial. One in the dining room, a nice theme and white lights. Then the living room tree is multi color lights and a hodge podge of decorations from both of our childhoods, gifts and such. I decorate both bathrooms, yes I'm serious. I decorate the kitchen and go as far as to swap out to Christmas dishes, canisters, mixing bowls, etc... The kitchen has it's own very small, table top tree complete with white lights and ornaments. It's quite insane and I only wish I had a bigger house to do more!!
Here's the living room tree. Notice the muppet stuffed animal under the tree, he's from Hardees. Does anyone remember buying Christmas animals for like $1 or something there? (Or sets of glasses from McD's?) We had a Hardees in Powder Springs ages ago. There is also a baby reindeer on a present from there too! Then another reindeer from the Disney Very Merry Christmas Party a few years ago!
Here's the tiny table top kitchen tree.
I have begged for a white large tree for the kitchen. I've been collecting "candy"-like and gingerbread style ornaments the past few years for that kitchen tree I'll eventually get. Though I have no idea where we'll put it in there, it's already decorated in my head!!
Ornaments: It was tradition for years and years for a
wonderful woman named Jane McClure and her husband Herb to
give me an ornament at Christmas. She was a customer and friend of my Moms. Jane & I were big buddies and I miss her now that she's been in Heaven for many years. I have a gorgeous collection of glass bells and a few glass sleighs that she gave me and they are very special to me!
From Jane, 1981! (I was 7)
I love the ornaments that came from Andy's Moms tree. There are some sweet ornaments on there that Andy made when he was little and one that his Grand Mother made for him. I love them! There are some quirky little retro like ornaments from my Maw Maw's tree and they are some of my favorites. I am so very into retro-Christmas decorations, love 'em. Then there are some from my Mom's tree that just make me smile and bring back memories.
Andy's Grandmother made this for him when he was little.
I have oodles and I do mean oodles from previous preschool munchkins. I love to look back at those names and remember those little guys, wondering what they're up to now. (Thankfully some I still keep up with 11 years later!)
From Jill & Laura, sisters I had ages ago.
Stockings: Growing up my parents and I had the matching traditional red stockings with white fur at the top. I have all three of them now. They hung on a variety of places since we didn't always have a mantel for them. Andy & I have very "country" looking stockings. One has a snowman and one has a Santa, they aren't designated as who they belong to. Santa just chooses one for each of us when he visits and fills them!
When we lived in our first house they hung on those nifty little mantel hanger do-dads. Until.... Santa knocked one off the mantel when he got it down to fill it, breaking into tiny pieces. He left me a rather angry note about why I had them "rigged" like that. (More on the traditional Santa note later) This house had nails already in the mantel when we moved in, just perfect for stockings. I have begun the search for baby munchkin an official stocking already. I bought one last year that is perfect, but now I fear what if we have two little ones next year. (adoption and pregnancy) I want them to be similar. For now I'm still pondering that one.
Here is one of our stockings and part of the angel & star garland too.
Paper Decorations: I have to ask if any of you remember those old decorations that you buy and hang up, well... anywhere I guess? I had all sorts of them and Mom let me hang them on the doors in our house. I still have a few of them in a box, I need to find a good use for those. From time to time I see them in the dollar store and wonder if people still buy them and where they put them?
Outside: Growing up it varied on just how much we decorated outside. When I was in middle school my Dad grew braver and braver, getting involved in decorating all the trees outside. We would put up the tackiest hodge podge of lights in the trees you can imagine. They would hang all over the place with no rhyme or reason and I LOVED them. I loved hanging out with Dad, while he did all the work and I adored the finished project. Mom & I hung lights around all the windows and the front door too! She also had those old fashion plug in candle looking lights for all the windows. The bulbs were red for awhile and later went all white. I was eager every night for the sun to set and to plug those suckers in!!
Andy & I stick with white lights outside. We have two white snowflakes that have white lights, they go on windows on each side of the porch. I put white lights around the front door and front porch. (Though I don't now if I have the energy this year or not) We have 1 white deer with white lights who moves his head and he sits in the front yard. Andy surprised me last year with making him a Rudolph by replacing the bulb on his nose with a red one. We put white lights on the ground around him to resemble "snow" and then Andy wraps up the old farm wheel do-hickey out there in white lights too. We want to add another white animal out there, but it's never in the budget. Eventually......
One year Andy's brother Mike brought us a gorgeous real tree from their property. It was HUGE and was in the front of our yard. We put those huge old fashion lights on it out there (multi color) and it was awesome! It was a one time deal though, good memory!
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Your Turn:
So if you have stayed with me through all this babbling, God Bless you! Now, tell me about your decorating traditions!!!
Tree: Hodge Podge? Theme? How many? Solid lights or multi? Artificial or real? When does it go up? Tell me!!
Ornaments: Do you have special ones? Do you collect anything? New ones? Old ones? Style? Theme? Everything goes? Favorites? Please share!
Stockings: Does everyone match? Do they have names on them? Have you bought new ones or always used the same? Holders? Nails? Tell me all about 'em!
Outside: Do you decorate out there? Lights? Blow Ups? Animated? Tree? Thoughts??
6 comments:
Tree...... I love a tree with colored light and a hodgepog of ornaments. We have nice ones and homemade ones. Growing up dad would put our tree up the day after thanksgiving while we were shopping and when we got home we would all decorate the tree and the whole house together. It is a nice memory.
Ornaments.....When I was little my dad gave me an ornament every year with my name and the year engraved. I love those ornaments and I have them hanging on my tree.
Stockings....they all match. I have new ones this year that I got for 2.50 on the dollar aisle. The first year we were married though I bought stockings with our names monogrammed on them.
Outside....We have never done anything outside except when we lived in Lagrange. The whole neighborhood would light up luminaries everynight in the front of their house (on the road)and people whole drive through the neighborhood and look. I loved it. It was so very pretty.
I have a good tree story:
We always bought a live tree ... on Christmas Eve. Maybe it was b/c we were out to save money (they were always $5 and one year my brother and I 'stole' one b/c the tree lot was abandoned). It always gave us something to do on Christmas Eve, since we were always all rilled up for the present opening.
Tree: I have all white lights and white, red and silver ornaments. Instead of tinsel or garland, there are red and white beads and bows. Kinda girly.
Ornaments: I have all kinds of ornaments. A few of them are from my parents' tree as I was growing up, some were gifts, some I purchased through the years...lots of Mickeys (big surprise eh?)
Stockings: Don't do 'em
Outside: I'd love to decorate with lights outside but unfortunately my condo's on the second floor and my balcony doesn't have an outlet. One year I left the sliding glass door open a crack when I plugged the lights in on the inside. Got a little cold though.
Trees: Just one seven footer in the living room. It's fake, which I don't particularly care for, but after Kevin burnt the motor up in our vacuum cleaner sucking up pine needles he has since refused to buy another live tree. I have gobs of ornaments from my entire 36 years of life. Problem is I have three kids who have gobs of ornaments they've collected since birth. The entire tree is full on every single branch with their collections. I put a few of my favorites up, but not many. Mom has been obsessed with buying everyone special Hallmark ornaments for years. We go to their ornament premier in July and she buys everyone one special ornament they pick out. Then she gives them to us on Thanksgiving.
Our tree came prelit with white lights, but I was determined I was going to have bubble lights on my tree. When I was little my parents bought a set of bubble lights from Sears and we used those suckers for years until there was only one bulb left on them. I would sit mesmerized for hours waiting for them to heat up and then start bubbling. That is a very strong childhood Christmas memory I have. So, last year I lucked up and found some at Home Depot. Now my tree bubbles merrily away! I still could sit for hours and watch them.
We have had several different tree toppers through the years. From angels to santas to bows to the white star that is on it this year. Every year Tinkerbell is poised at the top pointing her magic wand towards whatever is on the very top. Skye got her on one of her first trips to Disney and she's been a fixture ever since.
I also collect snowmen and Santas. I have a pretty good collection of various Santas that sit by the fireplace and I've got snowman stuff everywhere.
Tree Tradition: For our first married Christmas I bought a birds nest and a little red bird to put in our tree. I had read somewhere that it was good luck. It's been on there every year since. For some reason I didn't see it in my stuff this year and it's not on there right now. I've got to dig that out.
Stockings: We used to have five different stockings. I changed to bushel baskets. I found these super cute, huge, red with a green band around the top, bushel baskets and put a big tag on each one with each child's name. These sat in front of the fireplace and Santa filled them instead of stockings. A couple of years ago I bought all five of us matching red/white fur stockings and cute little stocking hangers. We have used those for a few years now. Santa has to sit the stockings on the floor when they are filled though.
Skye has been our official outdoor decorator for a couple of years. She likes to decorate the front porch with colored lights. She's not done it yet this year though. One year we bought icicle lights and Kevin even bought a staple gun to put them up with. Bless his heart, they all fell after a few days and he was too disgusted to put them back up. I do remember having the humongo bulb lights outside when I was little.
Traditions: When Skye was about three, my mom decided to start making her an Elf Box. She would search high and low to find a super cute Christmas box, you know the really nice hard kind you can store ornaments in. She would buy Christmas p.j.s and add candy and little Christmas trinkets. Then on Christmas Eve, after we'd had our family Christmas, we'd load Skyero in her wagon and walk around our neighborhood looking at the lights. I would sneak back in and sit the box out by the tree. We'd tell her the elves had left her an early present because she'd been so good. Mom still does this for the three kiddos to this day. She really, really gets into it and makes a huge production of finding the perfect box, pajamas, etc. Of course they've all figured it out now, but they'd have a cow if they didn't get them.
We also have always fed the reindeer on Christmas Eve. We make the reindeer food (oatmeal with glitter or red/green sprinkles) and then we go out and sprinkle it in the yard. The kids love this.
We had the little Elf for a few years that watched everyone and reported to Santa. This was before the official "Elf on a Shelf" thing came out that is so big right now. I still have our little elf, Edwin, and he is now a teacher's elf and is sitting in my room helping keep on eye on my class.
The Christmas Panties: We always have our family celebration with my parents and brother/sister-in-law on Christmas Eve. It always used to be at mom and dad's, but now we have everyone over here. It's easier since my kids get most of the stuff anyways. We always do gag gifts as well as our regular presents. A few years ago my mom found these horribly big panties at T.J. Maxx. She bought them and wrote Merry Christmas and the year on them. Then she wrapped them up and gave them to one of us. Now we write our name on them when we get them along with the year and then pass them along to someone else the next year. Crazy I know, but hey, it's tradition.
I tape all of my photo Christmas cards to the closet door right inside my front door. It's the first thing you see when you walk in our house. I also keep every photo card anyone sends me. I put them all together in one box and compare them every year.
Love, love, love all kinds of Christmas music. Flashback to when I was about 5 or 6, we still had an 8-track tape player in the house. Mom had a Christmas tape and it had Silver Bells on it. To this day every time I hear that song I can picture myself sitting by the tree cranking it up and singing along. Life was so much simpler then. My favorite Christmas song to listen to in the car is All I Want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. I swear it makes me drive too fast, but I love it.
Misty
Tree- I like white lights and a real tree.
Ornaments are a little higgaly piggaly, but I do edit or put in the back of the tree. The count has great pewter ornamnets from his childhood and I like unique classical looking ornaments. We don't have a tree topper, every year we pick a differant large scale ornament to rig on top.
Stockings-we have 3 one for the animals and one for each of us. They do not match.
Outside we do lights around the porch and the Count makes a wreath from the tree trimmings. We don't put out the Christmas stuff until the 1st or second weekend in December.
This year so far I only have four trees. I have my 7' one in the family room and have so many great ornaments. I think I need a support group! I try to buy at least one meaningful ornament every year, well i always get more! I get them from different areas we go to, it's fun to remember our trips. One of my favs is from the Keys, she's an octopus, purple bottom and a chubby lady on top, with a wild swim cap and shades...love her! We have tons of disney ornaments, but it's the speicalty ones I like best. The scuba divers, the sea creatures, some of the red/white/blue ones and my dog ones.
My second fav tree is my Animal Kingdom tree, it's totally fun. I had seen the trees at AK lodge and just had to make my own. I have blow glass african animals, animal masks, and african instruments. I also took the disney antenna toppers that are animal print and turned them into ornaments. I have hand painted gords and gords with woodburning on them. I have some twig people and a tree that looks like the tree of life, totally a favorite. I have a tiger mask that tops the tree.
Another favorite is my Mom/grandma tree. From handmade ornaments that kerri made me in grade school, the egg crate bell to the paper mache' snowman that is too heavy for the tree!!! Emily has also made me a few things, and i love all the ornaments on that tree.
Then there is the dad/grandpa tree. Lots of cute ornaments there. From tractors to goofy to the oscar mayer wiener mobile!!! It's a fun tree for sure.
I use to do a red/white & blue tree, but i put those on the big tree this year.
Our Christmas is on Christmas eve, always has been, always will be. With some family moving away, it's getting smaller and smaller, but the important ones are here.
Plans for Christmas Day....,headin to FL!!!!!!
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