I was at my mom’s house the past few days, and we were discussing holiday plans. You know, the typical ‘when are you coming over here vs Tim’s family’s place’ etc etc.
Then we started talking about decorating.
Presents.
Wish lists.
You get the idea.
I mean, the holiday season comes quickly and I think being a parent makes that even more true so one can never be too prepared! (Sidenote: I used to be the person who didn’t even think about Christmas until Christmas Eve… being a mom has changed me.)
WHERE DOES TIME GO?!
(Last Christmas I was 15 weeks pregnant… wow!)
Anyway. I’ve always been a bit bothered by the lack of traditions my family had when I was little. Some years we went to Cincinnati (where my extended family lives), some years we didn’t. Some years we cut down our own tree, some years we bought it from a parking lot, pre-cut. Some years we went to church on Christmas Eve, other years we went on Christmas Day. We never had a specific meal for Thanksgiving/Christmas/etc.
Well, I want different for Clara (and Tim and myself). I want there to be some sort of ‘routine’ or event that Clara (and we) can look forward to every single year.
I will admit that I’m becoming overwhelmed with this sense of ‘ohmygosh this is Clara’s first Thanksgiving/Christmas and we need new traditions and if we don’t start them this year we’ll never have them and she’ll end up in therapy for the rest of her life because of it!’
I mean, yeah, that’s a little dramatic, but you get the general idea.
Should I be collecting an ornament every year? Should we have certain decorations we collect? Should we have a tradition of opening presents? What traditions do people even have that children love all the way into adulthood?!
I don’t want to do everything, of course, I just want there to be a few awesome things that I can easily incorporate into the holiday season – and of course, I’d love it to not revolve around consumerism.
I’m no expert on this, so I thought I would ask you.
I guess this isn’t really a blog post at all, it’s more of a question that is too long to ask and properly answer on Twitter.
What Thanksgiving / Christmas / Holiday traditions do you love?!*
