Traditions

 

As a child our Christmas tradition was simple. A week before Christmas we bought a big tree and my dad wired it to the woodwork on either side of the corner it stood in. Later we decorated it with old family heirloom ornaments and a gazillion single strands of tinsel. 

It was important to me that we establish traditions for our children, so around the second week in December we would drive out to a tree farm where my husband cut down the tree we all chose and we drove it home. Then we would string popcorn and cranberries and add them right after he put the lights on. Later we ate my iced Christmas cookies, drank hot chocolate and decorated that tree.

Soon, though, the children were involved in other things. Christmas concerts at school. The church's nativity scene play and the Community Theater's Christmas program. These took a lot of time, especially the last one. I worked on costumes, my husband played Santa in the suit I made, our oldest son usually had a solo or two and performed, or danced in whatever the program was that year. Our other two children were actors, elves, and extras. Rehearsals were long and late and there was no time to go look for a tree on the farm.

We bought an artificial tree and it lasted right up to the end of our marriage, Towards the end I left off the bottom two tiers and stuck it through the hole in our umbrella patio table, so the cats would not tip it over. With a big Christmas skirt, it was perfect!

Now I live alone. The boys are one on each coast and even though my daughter is nearby, there is the quarantine from COVID 19 to deal with. Still, traditions are important. 

I put up my small fake tree with the realistic pine cones and hung the macaroni angel, my grandson's singing ornament with his face on it, the ornaments friends and family have made recently and topped it with both a star and the ornament we put on Community Player's Christmas tree every year.

Wrapping presents to put underneath it is still one of my favorite things to do. The traditions have morphed a bit, but they are still recognizable in the joy I feel each year digging deep to find them.

That is the secret to traditions, I think. They have to grow with the times to stay alive.