Family Christmas Traditions

Growing up in Southern California, we didn't get snow like everyone else to signify Christmas getting near. Usually the temperature was around 70-74 degrees, but a few times it pushed 80 degrees on or around Christmas! As a child, I knew Christmas was getting near by the family traditions we had.

The biggest indicator, of course, was buying the Christmas tree. The entire family would go to select the perfect Christmas tree a couple weeks before Christmas. Decorating the tree was always a fun time. My dad would hang the Christmas lights first, then the rest of us could hang the ornaments. My mom had her special ornaments of the Three Wise Men that she hung, but everything else was fair game. After the ornaments, we placed tinsel on it. We younger ones didn't really grasp the concept of making it look like icicles on the tree; we clumped the tinsel! My older sisters would fix it to make it look all right.

The tradition I looked forward to most was the little village my mom would display on top of the TV. Back then, the TV was a huge console, big enough for the display. My mom first placed the "snow" on the TV cabinet, then carefully placed the village, complete with Nativity scene, on it. I found out later on that it’s a Danish family tradition to set up a village display. I never grew tired of looking at that display.

On Christmas Eve, we were allowed to open one gift before we went to bed. It was hard to choose one, but I knew I'd get to open the other in just a few hours. Afterward, we'd lay out our stockings, which was any sock that we could find, on the couch or chair in the living room, since we didn't have a fireplace.

I could hardly sleep, I was so excited to see what Santa would bring! At 4 AM Christmas morning, my sisters and brother and I would get up and tiptoe into the living room to see what we'd gotten. Santa never wrapped our gifts, just laid them out oh-so-carefully where we'd placed our stockings. In our stockings there would be some sort of candy, some nuts, and an orange, another Danish tradition. I'd be so excited to see what gifts I'd received! Somehow, I'd received almost everything on my list! Looking back, I don't know how my parents were able to afford all that we got. We weren't rich by any means, but not poor, either, just a simple middle class family.

After ooh-ing and ah-ing at our haul for about half an hour, we'd quietly go back to bed, thinking of all the gifts we had received. At a more reasonable hour, everyone would get up and we'd show our parents what we'd received, then we'd open the wrapped gifts, sometimes too excited to eat breakfast!

The Christmas tree always had to be up until after New Years Day, and the reason for that was so Mother Goose could leave us something on the tree! It was usually just a little trinket, but we looked forward to seeing what she would bring us. The next day would be a sad day, as we had to take the ornaments off the tree, then my dad would take it out to the curb to be picked up.

I have tried to carry on many of these traditions with my own family. I hold the family traditions close to my heart, and I hope my children will do the same some day for their families.

What family traditions do you and your family continue, or what new ones did you start?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

*originally published with Yahoo! Contributor Network