Growing up with traditions was such an important part of my childhood. It's something that I've discussed with A numerous times, and we've talked about how we're going to incorporate the traditions we had growing up within our individual families as well as how we're going to start NEW traditions with our children.
I can remember the holidays growing up. We always got new Christmas pajamas that we wore to bed. It was the one gift we were able to open on Christmas Eve. As a family, we always made a big deal of decorating the tree. For the majority of my life, I remember Christmas as just the three of us (Mom, Matt & I) as we lived a pretty good distance away from any family. If there was time, we baked & decorated Christmas cookies.
And one thing we almost always did was adopt an Angel from the Salvation Army Angel tree. My mom tells the story of an instance where Matt & I agreed to give up presents for ourselves in order to be able to adopt an angel as my parents didn't have the money for both.
In terms of traditions I hope to start with my own kids...
... I love the Christmas PJs, so that's something I want to continue.
... I'd like to buy them a new ornament each year of their life. The goal is to make sure they have a smaller tree in their room as they are growing up that has their ornaments on them, and then they'll have some ornaments to start their own tree when they move out.
... I'd like to also wrap 24 Christmas/holiday books, and read one each night as a bedtime story. (Until they are old enough to not want bedtime stories, that is.) On Christmas Eve, the story would be the story of Jesus' birth, and what the real meaning of Christmas is.
... Of course, attend the Christmas services at church during the holiday season, including Christmas Mass to pay homage to A's family.
... Have you read the book The Polar Express? Well, if not, the book gives various kids a "golden ticket" to ride The Polar Express. How fun would it be to wrap the golden ticket in with their Christmas PJs, and use that as family bonding time to drive around looking at Christmas lights? Granted, this one is more for me than them. :-)
... And the biggest tradition I want to continue is the Angel Tree. I think it's important to teach kids that there are people in this world that still need our help. I've seen instances where kids donate their older toys to make room for the new ones, and I think that's a great idea too. But, being able to pick an angel, and pick out clothes, toys, etc. specifically for that child was important to me as a child, and is even more important to me as an adult.
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