Christmas traditions
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Every family has a treasure trove of traditions that are uniquely their own. Sometimes it’s a variation of something their family has done for decades or a new idea that has become part
of family times together. Sometimes fun, crazy traditions mean the most over time.
Some families wear matching pajamas on Christmas morning or new, crazy Christmas stockings. Others don goofy Santa hats or the ugliest Christmas sweaters they can find at
resale shops. Some play bingo on Christmas Eve, camp out in the living room, read the Christmas story by candlelight or take a nighttime drive to see the lights.
When Southeast member Candy Konkler was growing up, her mother gave each one in the family a big, black trash bag filled with necessities such as paper towels, toilet paper,
laundry detergent, bars of soap, napkins and dish soap.
“I loved that gift from my mom, but my children made fun of the trash bags tied with a bow until they grew up and got married or moved out,” Konkler said.
After the death of her mother, Konkler continued the trash bag tradition in memory of her mother.
So this year, she already has the bows and the black bags.
Here are a few different family traditions. Maybe, just maybe, you will want to copy some to observe in your own family.
- On Christmas Eve, Amber Clark’s family always has a breakfast-style, candlelight dinner of homemade waffles.
- Hezekiah Barnes and his wife, Rachel, make stockings the main gift. Every year, they retell the story of the real St. Nicholas who was born into a wealthy family. After his parents died in an epidemic, he began using his inheritance to help the needy, the sick and suffering, often filling stockings with fruit, treats and small toys. Traditionally, each of the Barnes’ three boys gets an orange, a few small toys and candy in their stockings.
- On Christmas Eve in Karla Lows’ family, the main event is an epic duel with the cardboard rolls from wrapping paper. The Christmas Eve battle is always something to remember.
- Mike and Kathy Berry always bake and decorate about 100 butter cookies on Christmas Eve. Kathy makes sure there are plenty of snowmen cutouts, which happen to be Mike’s favorites. As long as they can remember, he paints a little yellow trickle down one sad-faced snowman’s leg, and every Christmas, the family searches through mounds of cookies for that special one.
- Esther Jaggers’ family still goes out caroling through the neighborhood.
- Camille Keller’s family has a traditional fondue dinner on Christmas Eve that provides plenty of quiet time to talk.
- Lindsey Trent’s family keeps the tradition of eating Christmas breakfast at the local Waffle House.
- Kelly Childers’ entire family stays in pajamas all day on Christmas.
- Brad McMahan’s family so “over decorates” the gazebo at his home that it seems like perpetual noon, even in the middle of the night. They always watch the movie “Christmas Vacation.”
- For her entire life, Stacie Gitschier has awakened at her parents’ home. When she got married and had children, the whole family joined the Christmas Eve campout.
- Julie Snipp grew up in the South, but her family always had a fire in the fireplace on Christmas Day, often with all the windows open.