Ten Holiday Traditions

Everyone has little traditions that make Christmas special.  I remember quite fondly things my mom used to do to make our Christmas special.  One of my favorite traditions from when I was a kid was that she let us open anything in our stockings as soon as we woke up Christmas morning.  You know at like 2 AM when we would go sneak into the living room to see if Santa came.  I always loved that and plan on doing that for Destructo.

Here are ten of my holiday traditions that I plan on doing or am already doing with Destructo.

1)  Setting up my Christmas village.  I collect all the ceramic Christmas village houses and do an entire village with them.  I have pet shops, a shop with my last name on it, church, school house, barn, stable.  It all reflects my personality and hobbies.  I haven't been able to set it up in two years though and it depresses me.  But Destructo is well destructive and I would hate to lose my precious houses to his brute force.  So this will probably be in the attic until he is older or until I get a place to put it that I can keep him out of.

2)  Decorating the Christmas tree together while Christmas music plays in the background.  Again this didn't happen as much because he is a bit young, but I did save some ornaments that weren't breakable for him to help me put on the tree.

3)  Adopting an angel from my church's angel tree that is the age and gender of my children.  This year I got a two year old little boy.  As Destructo gets older, he will get to help me pick out toys and an outfit for my angel.  I am hoping this will help teach him about giving and keep Christmas from becoming a holiday solely about getting.

4)  Setting up Destructo's nativity set under the Christmas tree.  Right now he has the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set.   He loves playing with it and I sit and tell him the Christmas story at least a few times a week.  Of course our Joseph went missing for a week so it was a little hard to tell there for a while.  Haha 

5)  Always letting Destructo wake up in his own bed Christmas morning.  We have always stayed the night at my parent's house Christmas eve.  We celebrate with Mr. Destructo's family on Christmas Eve and my parents live much closer to them than we do so we would just stay at my family's house instead of driving the hour back home.  But this ended last year since I want to be able to have Destructo wake up at his own house and see all his presents under the Christmas tree.  This year I told my mom we won't be coming down Christmas Day until evening time for dinner that way he has time to play with all his new toys instead of opening them, going to church, and then immediately having to leave.  More driving, but probably quite worth it in the end.

6)  Church as a family Christmas morning.  I absolutely love getting dressed up and going and singing Christmas songs and hearing the Christmas story.  I actually do prefer the midnight mass (which is usually at nine the night before) but it just doesn't work anymore with a little one.

7)  Making presents for friends and family.  As Destructo gets older, I want to instill in him the fact that homemade gifts that come from the heart mean more than anything you can buy in a store.  I plan on helping him to make all his aunts and uncles, grandparents, etc something each year.

8)  I am thinking of doing the four gifts thing next year.  Destructo has so much and will continue to be spoiled rotten most likely by all his doting extended family.  (As of right now, he is the only grandchild on both sides which leads to massive spoilage.)  You get them something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.  This would also help keep him from getting a case of the gimmies at Christmas.

9)  I think I will let Destructo open one present on Christmas eve each year from Mr. Destructo and I.  I also think that present will be Christmas PJ's.  Just think of the cute Christmas morning photo ops!  This back fired on me last year since always the frugal person I am I bought Destructo's Christmas PJ's on clearance the year before after Christmas. I got two pairs in two different sizes.  Yeah I have a tall kid.  This is what he ended up wearing on Christmas.  But his Christmas in July and September PJ's sure looked nice.

10)  Buying or making an ornament for Destructo every year.  Then one day down the road when he is married and has his own Christmas tree, I can pass these down to him.  I love some of my ornaments from when I was a kid.

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