Christmas Traditions; Creating and Remembering Christmas Memories

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love the decorations, the lights, the music, the smells, and the jovial moods. I love driving through neighborhoods during a brisk cold night and looking at all the wonderful and creative decorations and lighted displays. I love giving gifts and making other people happy! I enjoy having all my shopping done before Thanksgiving and then being able to go to the mall and enjoy the music, the decorations, and everyone else’s hustle and bustle.

I enjoy going to a church service, especially after dark on Christmas Eve, and hearing the Christmas story all over again as it is shared. I enjoy joining the choir in singing Christmas carols, and after having done it so many years the words come to me with ease.

I enjoy a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, especially if it’s mine. Over the years I have been able to collect ornaments that I truly love and enjoy using year after year. Because of the great pleasure that I derive in creating a beautiful Christmas tree, I wanted to pass this tradition on to my children. I wanted them to have decorations that they loved and enjoyed using year after year.

After adopting them in August of 1996, and because they were older when we adopted them, we had to hustle to begin creating traditions for our family that very first year. One of the traditions that I began was to give each of the children their very own Christmas ornament each year.

On each ornament that I gave them, I wrote their name and the year in an obscure place on the ornament. I always gave the ornament to them early so they could enjoy it that year on our tree. They were the only one that could put their ornament on the tree, and the only one who could take the ornament off. When Christmas was over, they each had their own box that they kept in their closet with their ornaments in it.

It was fun to watch their ornament collections grow over the years and to know that when they put up their first tree in their own home, they would have some lovely ornaments and memories to go with each ornament.

It was a lovely tradition and I thoroughly enjoyed picking out each special ornament for them and watching their faces light up when they unwrapped them on the day that we put up our Christmas tree each year. They enjoyed watching their Christmas ornament collections grow, but I think I derived more pleasure from it than they did. And you can continue helping their collection grow each year even after they have left home.

Start a new tradition with your children by purchasing a Christmas tree ornament for them each year, and watch the collections and the memories grow each year. It’s fun to watch them pull the ornaments out and reminisce about Christmas memories that goes with each ornament. Create a tradition which will bring back many wonderful memories for many years to come.

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Copyright © 2011 Cindy Murdoch (homesteadbound)

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