Christmas Traditions—Old and New

I love Christmastime.  It’s a time of year when we’re generous and forgiving.  It’s this season full of miracles, overflowing with love and steeped in tradition.

I love that I’ve plugged in the same “ugly Rudolph” every year since I was a child, and that Gavin and I hang ornaments on a felt Christmas tree every day to count down to Christmas—just like I did growing up.

I love that the same stories are told around the dinner table every year.  The one where everyone broke the gold forks reserved for special occasions, or the one where my cousin drove her pink Barbie car right out of the box, or the one where everyone wrapped my gifts (and my car) in red yarn because I complained that it was “kid wrapping.”

I love that at Christmas—we make time for old traditions, and that it's okay to make new ones.  Because Ryan and I are kids of divorce and have SO much family, it’s been really important to us to make new traditions that are just ours.

I love that one of those new traditions, especially now that we have a child (almost children—plural!) is Christmas in the Park at Longview in Lee’s Summit.

It’s pretty magical.  Can’t you tell from the look on that face?

I love that this year, I introduced Gavin to an old family recipe passed down from my Great Grandma Fox.  He helped me make “krumkrockers,” (at least, that’s what my family has always called them).  They’re Swedish cookies she made every year at Christmas, and they get their unique shape by baking on pieces of semi-circle guttering.  I have some of the old gutters she used, and I cherish getting them out every year to bake with.

 

I love that even though I never really got to know her, I feel a little closer to her at Christmas, and I think she’d really appreciate her recipe being passed down to another generation.

I love Christmas traditions because they help us remember what this season is all about.  It's not the decorations or the stories or the cookies, it's the love that's in and around those things that matters.  A love so graciously given to this world so many years ago.