Last night as I was frantically trying to get my in-laws' gifts wrapped, packed, and shipped up North I realized that I am stressing myself out for all the wrong reasons. The holidays are not about pretty wrapping paper with coordinating tissue paper inside the boxes...they are about love and kindness and traditions. We forget this sometimes in all of the hullaballoo of the holidays.
My Mom, brother, and I have a tradition of baking cookies before Christmas. We choose our favorite recipes-chocolate chip for Mom and I, peanut butter for my brother - and then pick out a new recipe to try. Then we totally trash the kitchen as we bake up some goodness. There is often a lot of "taste testing" and laughing and comfort. My Dad and grandmother are in charge of tasting the cookies and giving them the thumbs up (which they always do). We never seem to be able to eat all of the cookies (although we try) but it is a tradition that we continue, busy or not, every year.
Baking cookies is a simple thing that seems to bring us all great joy. Traditions don't need to be epic in proportions, they just need to be special, even in the tiniest of ways.
Share some of your holiday traditions with us...
19 comments:
I absolutely love holiday tradions. Secret Santas, and baking cookies, putting up the christmas tree and having family over. The holidays are so special when traditions are made.
One holiday tradition that me and my family do is every year we make an ornament for the tree. The ornament is basically just a family picture from that year thats decorated with glitter and beads and stickers. The ornament this year was made out of 4 popsicle sticks with a poloaroid picture in the middle. We painted the sticks red and green and decorated it with everything in our craft cabinet. We do this every single year and they all go on our christmas tree. Small traditions can really bring a family together for a day of catching up and laughing so hard your start to tear!
One holiday tradition that me and my dad have is making cookies, but more extreme then you would imagine. My dad and I make cookies for all of his clients, over 50 Ophthalmologist offices all over South Florida, and make at least 1,800 cookies in about 3 days. Whenever my dad delivers the cookies to his clients, everyone swarms around the table he placed them on and about 4 dozen cookies disappear in less than 5 minutes. It takes a lot of time to make all of those cookies, but it's something me and my dad enjoy doing every year.
One of my family traditions would be playing football before the big dinner. My brother and I love to play and watch football. We start off the day playing catch and throw and later we pick up a game at the park. After we play football we got inside and watch our team play. During the game my entire family comes into the kitchen and helps my mother prepare the food and taste it. These events seem to happen every year so I guess it became tradition over the years.
Our family wasn't the "super duper festive" type. We did the usual: put up Christmas lights, decorate the house a little, put up the Christmas tree, and etc. Most of the reason is because we're too old to do that (I'm the youngest in my family: my two brothers are 19 and 27 years old). The only real thing that happens is that we host a Christmas party on December 25th with our cousins and relatives, which is a whole lot of fun. It doesn't really bother us that we don't have such an amazing ritual such as baking special cookies or making eggnog, but hey, at least it's something.
One Holiday tradition that I have remembered ever since I was little is the celebration with the extended family on Christmas Eve. All of cousins, uncles, aunts, second cousins and their children all come and celebrate Christmas with eachother. My great grandmother (nonna) and my great aunt (zia) host the party at their house.
As Italians, its all about the food. And man can Nonna whip up some pasta. Nonna's pasta has been my favorite ever since my memory has started, and it always will be. Along with that pasta I remember wreslting outside on christmas eve with my cousin, I remember my grandmother twidling with my ear, I remember talking with my uncle about kung fu, so many memories.
Christmas Eve is our tradition, and I enjoy it the most I can.
Tsk tsk tsk Mrs. Stoklosa, you tell us to make sure we don't make any spelling errors and there you go and spell brother wrong. I am ashamed in you.
As far as traditions go I don't really have any. Around Hanukkah my mom steps outside her comfort zone and makes normal potato pancakes, as opposed to the veggie ones she has all year, gross.
My dad doesn't really do anything special. His side of the family comes to his house and generally he makes dinner for a bunch of people. Nothing special. My family is pretty boring when it comes to traditions I guess.
I think it's very interesting how everybody has different traditions for the holidays. Especially those from different cultures. My family and I used to have completely different traditions back when we lived in Venezuela. It was all about "ayacas" and "paneton". These were kinds of foods that were made or purchased during Christmas time. We would sometimes take family trips, but that's everyone's tradition, just like setting up a Christmas tree (for catholics).
I really enjoy holiday traditions. In my country we eat twelve grapes before the clock strikes twelve am on December thirty first. We all come together and after dinner everyone in the family does this. It is really fun, and the holidays would not be the same without little stuff like this. We cannot only depend on gifts to bring us happiness, we have the love of our family and friends, and what we do with them brings us an even greater happiness.
I think that someday when I'm old and look back on all of the holidays that I have spent with my family, I'll definitely remember the good times, family traditions, and great food, not the presents I got. One of my favourite holiday tradtions is my family's scavenger hunt. Every year since I was about five my mom gets up early on Christmas morning and hides riddles and little gifts all around our house. My brothers and I spend hours trying to figure them out while my mom, grandma, and uncle drop hints and egg us on. Never have I been let down by all the fun.
I holiday tradition I will always remember doing throught the christmas time is going to my familys houses and sharing the gifts throughout the entire family. Every year after my parents and I wrap our gifts, we pack up the other gifts and go to my aunts house to eat and share gifts together. We all spend the whole day together and share many things together since we don't see each other all the time.
I just love the holidays! Every year I fly back to New Jersey/New York are. (That's where my whole entire family is and were a big family) Everyone in my family sings pretty much and we have this tradition of breaking apart christmas songs and mixing up all different verses in a bag. Then you and your singing companion have to sing your verse together and make music. It's complicated to explain but it's definitely a great holiday tradition! I can't wait to see everyone again up North! I really hope it snows this year! Happy Holidays Mrs.Stoklosa! :)
Thats such a nice traditon! I would gain like a million pounds.. I would eat all the cookies.. jeje Its a good way to get the whole family together.
The traditions in my family are more traditions that are practiced all over Colombia, and they are preety interesting. What we do is that we get as much family and friends together as possible, and pray 9 days before Christmas, every day. We pray for about 20 minutes, and then sing for another 20 minutes. During the singing, everyone start to have their drinks, and once they are all done, its just a bunch of Colombian partying. =D jeje
my family doesnt really have any traditions. We do the usual, put up the tree, and the lights. My parents are usually not around during Christmas because that is there busiest time of year. So its usually just me and my brother.
Well Mrs. S my family does't really have a holiday tradition but we usually have a barbecue with a bunch of people in my house. It true it not about the presents, my parents have asked me about 10 time what i want for Christmas and i said i don't want anything. I realized thats i don't really need a present, Christmas is more about family time.
I love the holidays. My family also has holiday traditions. My mom and brother usually bake different cookies with holiday cookie cutters, and I help frost and decorate them. We also decorate the Christmas tree with an assortment of ornaments, and put up Christmas lights every year. On Christmas Eve we usually have a big family dinner. Traditions bring the family together and are great way to celebrate the holidays!
Traditions are what gives a holiday a joyful feeling. One holiday tradition that I've followed during the years I've been dancing ballet is performing in The Nutcracker, a magical show with a Christmas spirit. My family's most special tradition during Christmas is playing Secret Santa. Every member in my family must give another member of the family a special gift. During our Christmas celebration, we gather around the Christmas tree and try to guess who our "Secret Santa" gift is from as we pass them out.
As stupid as this sounds, it's the thought that counts. The holidays aren't about what you get someone or how expensive it is. This time of the year is all about spending quality time with your family helping them cook, clean, and get ready for the celebration!
That is such a cute tradition! I love spending time with my family on the holidays! Usually my family has these huge parties and all of our family comes from where ever they are to celebrate! We usually exchange gifts and eat our usual holiday food. This tradition has been going on for years!
I love spending time with my family no matter what we do. It is always really entertaining and fun when we talk about past or even what is going on in the present.
I am a very festive person, and I most definetely love the Holidays, especially the time around December. Like any other families, we put up the tree, with all its ornaments, put up the lights and decorate the house.
One holiday tradition my family and I always do, is called "Novenas. Novenas are gatherings where the whole family gets together at a house, they sit around the tree and we pray and sing, and at the end we eat. These novenas start on Decmber 16 and the last one is on December 24, the day Jesus was born. On New Year's eve, we have a tradition of making a doll out of straw, and dress him. The doll is about a person's height and is filled with gunpowder and fireworks. And when the big hand on the clock strikes midnight, the doll is set on fire and you can see how it explodes. This doll is called "Muneco viejo" meaning old doll. Of course this isn't allowed here in the U.S, so I haven't done it in a long time.
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