New Christmas Traditions

[digitS']

I am going to try to come up with new Christmas traditions this year.

It has been an awful long time since I was a kid who couldn't get to sleep Christmas Eve. It has been a long time since I was a young father watching my toddler learn about Christmas.

What I've discovered is that the young'uns want the oldsters to stay in the same spot for the holidays. That's okay for them but I want something new. Something meaningful - that can be a new tradition. I'm willing to put in some effort and share it with others.

What will it be? Right now, I'm setting up a Blues Christmas Pandora station. No, no, not a a "blue Christmas" - a bunch of blues artists playing holiday music. Sound like fun? I plan on playing it now-&-then while the kids are around, maybe even while the presents are being opened!!

What else!? Food - Drink - Games???

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Maybe those tired old Christmas songs will sound better with a blues slant. Wonder if John Lee Hooker ever did a Christmas album?

I know my kids and grandkids love the few traditions we follow for holidays. Even if they are silly. Since one set of my grandkids are going through divorcing parents, they seem to need traditions even more. Same decorations, same food, same activities, same people. Just new PRESENTS!
We've had to shuffle a few things, since my Dad died and Mom gave up the house for assisted living. Their house was always open to as many people that wanted to crash there. I married a man who's family was more "closed" rather than the "open" to one and all attitude my mom had. So now I have for years had a semi-closed house, to get along with DH. But times have to change now, since our house is the only one nearby. I am trying to break him in gently. I think as long as he doesn't get rousted out of his own bed, he'll be ok.
At least the kids are making their own traditions, so when Grandma is gone, we have already experienced that change.

 

[digitS']

John Lee Hooker? I like the way you think, So Lucky! Yeah, your DH should be okay . . .

This isn't something nobody ever listened to but Let's See if This Works:



Turn your speaker on, Click and sit back.

Steve

 

[digitS']

 

[digitS']

 

[digitS']

 

[journey11]

I instigated a new Christmas tradition in my family about 4 years ago. We now have a cookie baking party.

Another one I started with just my own family (DH, DD's and the doggies)...we all bundle up and go walk through the park where they have everything lit up in Christmas lights on Christmas eve. If it's snowing enough, we pull the kids on the sled. I bring hot cocoa in a thermos. With all the rush and obligation to go visit EVERYONE you're related to over the holidays, I have staked out this particular time as ours and ours alone!

 

[digitS']

Yeah, a walk thru a park pulling a sled!

That's great, Journey!

I'm sure everyone will remember that. . . . now, are there any parks around here like that . . ? I don't think so . . . but, I'll think again.

Steve

 

[Mickey328]

You're right Steve, the young 'uns like things to stay the same, and I think it provides a sense of continuity throughout one's life. As an adult, I always wanted to capture and re-create the same feeling Christmas had when I was a child. I scoured thrift stores looking to find decorations just like the ones the folks had; made the same goodies Grandma always did; put up and took down the tree the same way; in general tried very hard to duplicate things from my memories. LOL, I remember being appalled that some folks would go away for Christmas...like to Hawaii or the Caribbean. And while blues is one of my very favorite music genres, I'm very traditional when it comes to Christmas music; I like the old standards sung by folk who really have voices.

The one thing that makes it all meaningful for me however, is family. If you don't have family, there's really no point in it all. Since our kids are all grown up (no grands yet) and live 1100 miles away, Dave and I really don't do much these days. We don't decorate, in fact we both volunteer to work holidays so our co-workers with families can enjoy them more. For us, one day or another really makes no difference. We do like to have a nice meal, but with just the two of us, it's difficult to put on a big spread without having leftovers for a month of Sundays afterward.

This year, however, we're doing a little something different. A couple of our co-workers are also working the holidays so we decided to get together and have our own celebration. The only day we are all off happens to be New Year's Eve. So that's going to be our "holiday" festivity. Should be about 7 of us so I'll have a chance to seriously cook, although we'll probably end up with enough to feed an army since I'm constitutionally unable to cook in small quantities, LOL. Who knows, perhaps it'll become a new "tradition" for us.

 

[digitS']

It is all, and has always been, a "Beginning" time of the year, Mikey. We look back at those beginnings that have come before and are not quite ready to look forward except in a very light-hearted way. Most of us have New Years Eve for that.

Peculiar isn't it. An anomaly maybe.

Living this far north, it is easy for me to see the changes in daylight/darkness hours. The change is relentless . . . One week is darker than the last right now. By the 1st week in January, it will be easy for me to recognize the lengthening day. And yet! The most severe weather will be upon us!

The Christmas holiday seems so rooted in the past. With dim sight, we face the future on New Years Day . . .

In my life, I am certainly losing the older generation . . . fortunately, both of my offspring will be here for Christmas. They aren't kids and they aren't gonna get off easy!

Def Stef