Christmas Memories and Traditions

Here we are in Week Two of Red Writing's 12 Weeks of Christmas - Christmas Memories and Traditions!

I think one of my favorite traditions, with lots of memories, is our tree decorating party. All of my growing up years, my parents and my sister and I would go out one night to several Christmas tree lots to find our tree. Then a day or two later we had our tree-decorating party. We always had some food and Christmas music to go along with the evening. My dad always put the lights on the tree first, then we would all decorate it together. My mom always made this night feel like such a big deal for all of us.

So when my husband and I got married, I carried on this tradition.

Every year my husband and I and all three kids go shopping for our main tree together. (This is for our main, real tree - I do put up other trees around the house.) And the night we decorate it, we have an assortment of party foods. This is not hard - I buy things from Sams or Costco like those little frozen quiches, taquitos, deli spiral roll-ups, etc. I try to get 3-5 different non-sweet finger foods. And I get 1-2 sweet items that are ready to go. I do make a batch of fudge. Because fudge is required for your tree-decorating party! I put all these finger foods out on the coffee table on pretty Christmas platters. And we have Christmas music playing.

My hubby puts the lights on the tree. I put the beads or garland, with one of my daughters helping. Then hubby and I watch the kids put on all the decorations. Then we all just sit and eat and look at the pretty tree and talk. It's just always a perfect night.

Every year since they were born we have let the kids pick out at least one new ornament to buy. They range from Disney characters, to sports-themed, to traditional, to really pretty blown-glass. It's fun to see all of their interests over the years displayed in their choices. We have marked all of their ornaments with their initials and the year they purchased them. When they move out, they can take all their ornaments with them for their trees.

It is really fun to watch them sorting through all the ornaments so that each child ends up with a pile of their own ornaments to hang on the tree. They have sooo much fun looking for all of their ornaments from over the years - I highly recommend this tradition! Your kids will love it!

Ok, thinking about that night really puts me in the Christmas mood! I'm ready to start decorating! Aren't you?

Shannon

For more Christmas Memories and Traditions, go to Red Writing's -