Christmas Traditions

Kind of interesting. Traditions at Christmas are like playing telephone through the years. I look back - my parents go to church every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They start Christmas around the 19th of December. Epiphany is when the tree comes down. They open gifts on Christmas Eve. They talk about their parents - my father is the son of a Lutheran minister. You don't say preacher when you are Lutheran - you say minister - or pastor. Their lives were spent in the church on Christmas. My mother used to wake up on Christmas morning and her living room was transformed by Christmas decorations and a tree.....that was the Christmas surprise - the tree. I still have some of the decorations from her tree as a child. My grandmother Karol told me one time that she put out shoes for Saint Nicholas when she was little and looked forward to an orange in December.


My family celebrated Advent - we did that with our children - and now my grandchildren know Advent and its meaning better than I. This is good. I am beginning to learn the value of tradition. Also the value of creating tradition. Like taking part of the past and making a future..or the future sitting in the past's lap and enjoying the now of Christmas.

This Christmas morning, Bill and I relished in the traditions of our family....and noticed our children and their wives are making some of their own. Like playing telephone....we look forward to enjoying the outcome---- at each home --- as babies are born, toddlers are taught, children participate, teens are coaxed to remember, young adults want to go back, and married couples create their own from the pieces whispered in their hearts years ago.

My baby Ebbie

Christmas photos