A Christmas Eve Tradition

In this article: A simple little Christmas family tradition we’ve adopted for our family.

tra·di·tion

trəˈdiSH(ə)n/   noun ~ the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.

Traditions are an interesting thing, aren’t they?  It seems that this time of year is full of them!  Families seems to have their own traditions, and I love to hear what they are.  Sometimes people can define why a tradition exists, and other times, they have no idea!

We’re looking forward to sharing Christmas dinner tomorrow with friends, and I’m thrilled that I  get to savour each bite of turkey dinner without having to cook it!!  (I, will, however, be contributing our traditional Christmas Steam Pudding dessert…)

A Christmas Eve Tradition

And, tonight, on this Christmas Eve, we’ll practice another of our family’s traditions. This one, I’m happy to say, is one that I vividly remember why it started:

The tradition’s start…

I was just a little girl happily anticipating Christmas on our farm in Montana.  The Christmas tree in our avocado green & brown clad living room was all decorated with shiny lights and ornaments, and UNDER the tree was a ginormous pile of presents.  When my mom wasn’t looking, I’d sneak around on my hands and knees looking for gifts with my name on it…

The weather was cold and frightful…

Christmas Eve arrived, and with it came a doozy of a snowstorm.  Along with an extreme drop in temperature came high winds and blowing snow.  Of course, our family’s tradition was to attend our church’s Christmas Eve service and we were just about to venture out in the storm to drive the 6 miles to town to attend.

My brother (a young adult at the time) was standing by the front door, layering up his coats and putting on winter boots.  It was time to get the car scraped off and warmed up.  He turned to my mom and said with a grin,

“If one of those presents under the tree is a warm hat, I sure could use it right now…”

She smiled real big and marched over to the Christmas tree, grabbed a wrapped present, and said with a sigh,

“You might as well just open it now…”  (It was a family joke that he ALWAYS guessed what his presents were!!)

And, of course, since he got to open one present on Christmas Eve, all of the rest of us kids pleaded and begged (when we got home from the service) to open one, too!  And that was the beginning of our “open one present on Christmas Eve” tradition!

We’ve adopted that little tradition for our own family, too.  We’re thrilled that all our boys are back home for Christmas again this year.  Gone are the years of buying toys and pjs to put under the tree.  Now they are busy buying presents for each other!  (It’s really fun!!:))

And, tonight ~ after we attend our little island Christmas Eve service ~ we’ll come home, and each open one present from under the Christmas tree…