Family Christmas Traditions

Well, the question is...will I or won't I put up my Christmas decorations this year? My little granddaughters won't be coming down from The Outback so there won't be any littlies around to enjoy the glittery baubles and tinsel and Christmas just isn't the same without children around is it?



I pulled out the box of Christmas decorations to have a look at what was in there as I can never remember what I have stashed there from year to year.



Those Christmas calico angels would love to get out of that stuffy box for a few weeks I am sure and they could join their other friend who has been 'hanging around' all year.

 

 

I liked this one so much I never did pack it away in the Christmas decoration box. Just looking at the decorations made me think of the Christmas traditions we have established in our family over the years and also it brought to mind the simplicity of Christmas when I was a child during the 1950s.

 

 

 

When I was a child our church had a huge nativity scene and my friends and I always looked forward to Christmas Eve each year when baby Jesus suddenly appeared in the stable. The materialism of the modern Christmas period was unheard of then and we enjoyed simple pleasures.  I can't remember what presents our parents gave us at that time but I imagine my mother would have sewn a new dress for me to wear to church on Christmas Day and I would have been very happy with it as she was an excellent seamstress.

 

 

When my mum died I saved this little angel from her Christmas stash before we gave her decorations to a charity. Mum used to have the angel on her piano at Christmas and seeing it on my tree reminds me of all the Christmases we had at home when I was growing up.

 

When my children were growing up we would go to the beach each year during the first week of December after school finished and a day or so after we got back home they would put up the Christmas tree. We would also unwrap the nativity scene that we had made out of a cardboard box covered in hessian and the figures in the scene were made out of decorated toilet rolls with ping pong balls for heads.That somehow lasted for most of their childhood and I just loved its simplicity.

 

 

I had saved a couple of ornaments that I had bought them when they were little and they always enjoyed putting them on the tree. It was a tradition we established over the years. I think it is important to have traditions in a family. They can give children a feeling of belonging as well as establish a sense of identity and they can also provide a connection between one's family and previous generations.

 

 

 

 

While continuing to sort out my decorations my thoughts returned to the present when I saw a bauble with photos of my granddaughters in each side of it which reminded me that I need to update their photos as my oldest grandchild is now a big five years old and the little one is three and a half.

 

Life goes on and their family will establish their own Christmas traditions and perhaps will continue some handed down from previous generations. Does your family have Christmas traditions that you love?