Celebrating the holidays this year definitely looks and feels very different than usual. One thing that remains the same is the holiday spirit that I bring into our home.
I feel that family traditions are so important to cultivate and hold dear. It can be the simplest of things that seem to anchor us and bring us closer together. Many of the traditions that I remember as a child have continued with my own family. My mom always put out the nativity scene each year, and I remember as a little girl playing with the little figurines and knowing how sacred they were. Every year I put out a couple of different nativity scenes to remind my children why we celebrate Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus Christ.
When I started my own family, I began my own traditions. One of them is preparing a big Christmas Eve dinner. I try to make it very special for my family. These are memories I hope for my kids and my husband to always remember. I love to prepare their favorite homemade dishes and decorate my table with beautiful flowers, and “poppers” on each plate. It’s so much fun to pull them open and see what surprises are inside.
I love sweets, so I always make sure to have an array of cookies, cakes, and candy. I guess you can say that’s the little girl in me getting to relive and indulge in the sweetness of the holiday.
On Christmas Eve, It’s a tradition that everybody has one gift to open. Every year that gift is Christmas jammies. When the kids were really little they were always excited to open up a gift, but after many years they realized the gift is always Christmas jammies. I still get so excited to see them open them and put them on. I don’t care how big the kids are. Actually, most of them are young adults! I hope that they will continue the tradition with their own families.
We still make cookies for Santa and leave them out with a glass of milk.
It doesn’t matter how old the kids have gotten, or how old I am getting, Christmas is a magical time, and It’s important for me to preserve these moments and keep them going. I still tell the kids “if you don’t believe you don’t receive.” I think there is something magical about believing in Santa Clause, because for me, it’s believing in magic, in hope, in goodness, and that the magic of Christmas.
