Christmas Traditions (An Exerpt)

I wrote this for my church Christmas program 3 years ago:

You know what I love about Christmas; the traditions. The music, trees, decorating, the presents, the eggnog, the snow (or wished for). The list goes on and on.

Maybe it’s the cold winter nights as you bundle up together with eggnog or hot chocolate, or apple cider in hand, a faint fire flickering dimly in the fireplace, kids half asleep on the floor, and you are watching your favorite Christmas Special, like Charlie Brown Christmas.  And as you watch it, you can’t help notice that Charlie Brown’s tree looks a little better than yours.

Or maybe it’s the morning of Christmas, the kids have just finishing tearing in to their stockings, and you just saved them from opening their presents just yet.  Because this is the time where you have that special breakfast that you and your family have, just once a year, saved for this special day, at this special time, where share in this holy moment of feasting together, knowing that in the midst of this, God is there too, enjoying it with you.

For some it’s the Christmas Eve candle light service.  Remember that service?  Especially as a kid, were you’re watching this flame just flicker in front of you, and you’re trying to make sure the wax doesn’t spill off the catcher.  And you watched in amazement at how quickly the flames spread from candle to candle across the church, and when it was all done there was this sacred glow of candles everywhere as your sang “Silent Night” in quiet unison.

What about you, what kind of traditions did you have?  Which ones have you carried over?  When did you open gifts?

For us, it is more than just trees, and gifts and food.  It’s like these traditions are little heirlooms that have been passed to us, and that we pass on to others.  One of my other favorite things to do each year was to set aside a couple of hours, a couple of days before Christmas, pull out all the gifts that I was to wrap, put on my favorite Christmas movie, grab some holiday eggnog, and go at it.  And there was no better movie to get me in the mood than "A Christmas Story."

There was something about the last day of class at the end of my first semester at Bethany, finishing my last final, packing up, and heading home for that month off, where my dad would have me wallpaper the dining room in my parent's new home, paying me $500 (I was a POOR college student mind you), and enjoy a month full of traditions, food, faith, and family.  This was our year to host Christmas for our whole family: aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, nieces, and everyone!  My mom wanted everything just right, and I was there to make sure it happened.  I was the unofficial "Mr. Christmas" in our family.  Like every other year, I was there to make sure every decoration went up as soon as possible, and stayed up late as possible. I helped hang the lights, decorate the tree, eat the goodies.  Everything!

It was like every Christmas I remember as a child, my family sitting together, celebrating the birth of Christ.  I was still the first one up, probably couldn't sleep, never could.  I was quick to invade my stocking that hung over our fireplace.   I know I was the anxious one as we sat around and had a Swedish Christmas Breakfast, BEFORE we opened presents.  Talk about forms of torture.  It was always a struggle over who would be Santa, passing out the presents,  the fight was over who didn't have to do it.  It was like Norman Rockwell Christmas with Tuttle Twists.

Even when my mother passed away the following October, these were and still are things that held my family together, and the memories I hold very near to my heart.  That following Christmas, just 2 months after she passed, we made sure we still decorated the house, hung up the stockings, and celebrated with our family.  It was a continuation of the traditions we hold most dear, and our common faith in Christ.  And now we continue to build new traditions with new family having been added in the last few years.

It was more than just traditions, they are moments in time.  Memories of another life, Christmases Past, and moments cherished.

It was much more than just traditions, it was Home.