With the upcoming Christmas holiday drawing near, I have been thinking a lot about traditions. Everything having to do with this holiday is a tradition that has been handed down through our parents and grandparents and beyond. As we start our own families, we also add traditions to the mix and balancing out all of this has become kind of tough. We tend to ask ourselves – What to keep and what to change?
In my house, Christmas was always on celebrated on Christmas Eve. I was raised with my Mom’s German influence and all of her family traditions. Christmas Eve, we had a light German supper of brats or cold cuts and warm German potato salad. Then we would go to church and come home to unwrap gifts.
Christmas Day, we woke to a delicious breakfast and we spent time as a family and enjoyed a big meal in the mid afternoon. Afterwards we would visit other families and friends to celebrate the holiday with a quick visit to deliver Mom’s homemade cookies.
As I look at the traditions the I have instituted with my own family, much of them follow along with how I was raised. Now I make the potato salad from Mom’s recipe and we enjoy brats right along with it. We then go to church and come home to open a gift or two depending on who wants to wait until morning. LOL Now that the kid is older, we don’t have to wait if we don’t want to.
Christmas Day is much the same too with a lovely breakfast and delicious dinner. In the evening, we head out to friends and enjoy driving through the neighborhoods to see all of the Christmas lights too.
I think that having specific traditions during a Holiday is a comforting process. For me it brings peace and comfort and even though my family is thousands of miles from me, I can still have them close to me with beautiful traditions passed down through the years. My only regret is that my Dad cannot spend time with me so he can enjoy the foods I make from my mom’s recipes. I know it would make his memory bank over flow!
Share with us some of your favorite Christmas holiday traditions! I love to hear about them as this is my favorite time of year!
I make cookies and candies and we bring them to neighbors and family. We go to church Christmas day, come home to open presents and have a large meal in late afternooon.
On Christmas Eve at grandma’s house, she would make chrusciki. They are Polish cookies shaped like angel wings and covered with powdered sugar.
One that my children and now my grandchildren do is setting out Santa personalized plate and cup and filling with his milk and cookies. Then we throw out nuts for his reindeer. Kids love this