Christmas Traditions

December is officially here and Christmas is on my mind. Lately, I’ve been thinking about traditions I had when growing up, and traditions I want to continue and start with my little family.

We live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, which makes some traditions a little more difficult to achieve. Like driving around to look at Christmas lights early in the season. This year, we’re spending Christmas with my family “in town” — we’ll be arriving on the 23rd, which will still give us time to go look at the lights.

For the last 2 years (since we moved out here), we’ve been able to go cut down our own Christmas tree, and that has been, for me, so much more fun than decorating a fake tree. Though this year, our tree looks a bit bare. Just one string of LED Christmas lights (’cause that’s all we could afford last year, lolol!) and some snowmen ribbon. I’ve been hesitant to hang ornaments, as my 2-year-old is all about discovering and destroying. I’m thinking we’ll cut out snowflakes to hang on the tree.

Dh’s family has a tradition of making chocolate-covered pretzels. I bought one of those huge bags of pretzels a while back from Costco, and needless to say, we still have quite a few of them. When I was asking dh a little bit more about this tradition, he said they sometimes would hang them on the Christmas tree. Bingo! Something else to hang on my tree.

Speaking of food, I think one of my favorite traditions at Christmastime is making plates of Christmas goodies. My favorites are mystic mints and turtles. Last year I added truffles — YUMMY! When I was growing up, we’d take a Monday night to go drive around and deliver all the plates. Out here, where everyone lives so far away, we wait until the Sunday before Christmas and deliver them at Church. Everyone leaves their doors unlocked and by the end of Church, your car is filled with goodies from all the church members. Super fun! (And quite different to being in town — we never leave our car unlocked in town.)

A new tradition for me, since marrying into a family with some different traditions, is all the celebrating they do on Christmas Eve — celebrating that is focused on the Savior, the true reason for the season. We have a birthday cake for Baby Jesus, lit with one candle. Then we gather around the table with the lights off, each holding our own tiny candle. As we make a commitment or goal for the next year, we light our candle from Baby Jesus’ candle, and add our candle to the cake. We also reenact the nativity, read uplifting stories, and sing Christmas carols with just the Christmas tree lights on. Love it!

Tell me about your Christmas traditions!