My posts so far have been pretty heavy and not much fun, so this time I wanted to shake things up a little bit and do something different.
I don’t know about everyone else but the next six weeks is one of my favorite times of the year. Some of my favorite memories come from the stretch of time from Thanksgiving through New Years Day. Growing up, Thanksgiving was always the most social of the holidays. That’s the day the larger extended family would all gather together for the day. Usually, the hosting duties rotated around a bit so no one person had to carry the burden every year. But those were always fun days. It normally started with watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone participated in some way, even if they almost ended in disaster on occasion. From fire alarms due to a small grease fire in an oven to nearly ruining the potatoes by letting them boil dry, the stories are almost endless. Oh and you absolutely can not eat pumpkin pie without feathers (whipped topping) without serious risk of some good-natured ribbing.
The Friday immediately after Thanksgiving wasn’t one for shopping until later. Early on, that day was set aside for exactly one purpose: finding the perfect Christmas tree. That process was known to take several hours. The evening was then spent getting the tree in the stand and letting it sit overnight so the branches would let down in preparation for “Decorating Saturday.” In our house that didn’t just mean decorating the tree, that meant getting out the antique Nativity set, installing the pine garland, hanging the Christmas streamers, and so much more. But my favorite part was that it was also the day the train set was unpacked and started to be put together.
Another Saturday usually, was family shopping day. The entire family would go together. We kids were given a small allowance to do our own shopping and were allowed to roam the store without the adults and my sisters and I almost always pooled our money together so we could buy better gifts. It was always fun though when it came time to check out and load the car figuring out how to accomplish it without everything being discovered. That day usually also meant a rare meal in a nice restaurant before going home.
Christmas Eve was started at a Christmas Eve candlelight service. I still get goosebumps singing Silent Night as candles are slowly lit from the front of the auditorium to the back. We usually were back home to watch some Christmas movie, before we were ushered off to bed so the adults could finish wrapping, Santa could do his thing, and best of all, the stockings could be stuffed. When we were young, shortly after that was all accomplished, normally around midnight, we were awakened to enjoy the normal Christmas morning routine early. But it always started by reading the Christmas story, usually out of Luke. Presents would come next with the stockings last of all. Those stocking almost always had the very best gifts hidden in them: From a receipt for a badly needed washer and dryer that had been secretly installed that evening for my Grandma, to the starting note of a scavenger hunt for a BB gun for myself. What I didn’t realize until much later, the middle of the night practice was a great way to make sure that everyone got some sleep that night and nobody was waking up too early on Christmas morning! As we got older, that tradition changed a little bit to include a more normal morning where we all enjoyed a great Christmas breakfast as a family before the other festivities began. Now, the Christmas Day tradition includes my dad, grandma, and me eating a lunch of liver and onions with fried potatoes while the rest of the family spends the afternoon with other family.
While serving with a church in central Minnesota, New Year’s Eve was an event not to be missed. Most of the church would get together and throw a party that included food, board and card games, and late-night sledding trips for the youth. This all culminated in a prayer circle at midnight. The laughter and fun of those evenings still resonate to this day. New Year’s Day then was usually mostly low key. Normally, we watch the Parade of Roses before having the traditional pork and sauerkraut lunch that we can trace back to our German heritage.
This year the holidays for many will be a very different experience as the pandemic rages across the globe. I encourage everyone to reach out to people that may be isolated from their loved ones. It doesn’t have to be much, but even just a phone call to say you were thinking about them can be a great source of joy.
What holiday family traditions do you have?