Christmas Traditions

I love hearing about people’s Christmas traditions. It seems each family puts their own special stamp on this holiday.

In our family, Christmas Eve is spent at Gram’s house with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. The Christmas Eve dinner features lobster and swordfish and is a major production, especially considering that there are more than 20-25 people in attendance. Back at our house, the Christmas Eve ritual begins with the ceremonial hanging of the stockings. This event was based on the tradition in my family and is always filmed. Each member of the family dances into the living room with his/her stocking and hangs it from the hearth. Enthusiasm and dramatic flair are a must.  This is followed by the writing and the reading of the letter to Santa. Snacks are placed on the coffee table for Santa and his reindeer and then off to bed.

In the morning no one is allowed downstairs until everyone is up. Peter gets the video camera ready and then we all go down together to see what Santa has brought. Santa does some special things at our house. He always brings balloons. There are a dozen green and red balloons floating above the hearth and two giant mylar balloons, one for Emma and one for Sarah. The stockings are jam-packed and new packages have been placed under the tree. And Santa always places candy canes on the tree. He’s eaten his muffin and the snacks for the reindeer are gone. He has read the Christmas letter and always writes back, showing a special appreciation for the goodies that were left and the sentiments that have been expressed.

This year Santa clearly understood how difficult this holiday would be for us and expressed that in his note to us. He left the balloons, the candy canes were on the tree and the packages were beneath it. But this year Santa did something new; at least we think it was Santa. Our tree was sprinkled with beautiful white butterflies and Santa left three delicate purple ornaments in Emma’s stocking.  It is little things like that that helped keep Emma in our Christmas this year. And that is the best gift we could get.