Mommy Maven: Holiday Traditions

Traditions, when they are good, make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Some of my earliest memories as a child were of trying to create traditions in our household.  I think they lent themselves to a feeling of security.  Now that I have my own family I am constantly thinking about new ones to create and while they are still so young it gave me so much joy this year when JR remembered and got excited about one of the traditions I have carried forward from when I was a child.  I used to be scared that Santa Claus (in my mind this big strange man I’d only met at some Malls and who had totally freaked me out), would come into my room.  I know I know, I have no idea why I thought he’d come to my room or why I was the only child in the world who thought it was a little odd that this strange man was coming into my house (I think I might have had a few anxiety issues!). Anyway, to curtail this fear on Christmas morning I would open my door and there would be a trail of tiny gifts from stickers to candy leading all the way to the christmas tree.  As it stopped at my door I could rest assure he had gone no further.  In hindsight, I have no idea why this relieved my anxiety as it meant he was coming pretty close all the way to my door! As the years passed it just became an excellent way to get more gifts as my room was pretty far from the tree!  Anyway, we do this in our house now except its not about a fear of Santa simply a sweet adventure trail of mini prizes that gets the kids that much more excited each step they take towards the tree.

We also cook Beef Wellington on Christmas day, a tradition started by my husband when we had our son Wellington.  I am in charge of cocktails, Kier Royale anyone? Or the Royale with the Kier if you’re pregnant (Recipe) and I have a romantic notion that one of these years I’ll convince everyone to dress up for Christmas dinner, pearls and all!

I think the sharing of holiday traditions is a beautiful thing as it is never too late to introduce a new one when we hear of a good one.  Just try not to introduce so many that you miss out on all the fun while your orchestrate one tradition after another! And if you are welcoming new people into the home, new family, new friends, new children, why not incorporate a tradition or two of their’s to make them feel welcome.

And lastly….start a wee traditions book! It’s amazing how we can forget from one year to the next the traditions that came up organically or that we want to continue next year.

Tags: celebrations, holidays