Friday Fives: Christmas Traditions

It’s Friday Fives time! This week, the question being asked over on Paper Hangover is: What are your FIVE holidays traditions? To me, when it’s December, “holidays” means “Christmas” since Christmas is the only holiday we celebrate in our family between Thanksgiving and New Year. So, if you will permit me that slight modification/clarification/fine-tuning of the challenge question, here we go… oh, and one more thing–these will be modern Christmas traditions. That is, traditions we currently practice in our family. I’m considering some blog articles about Christmas traditions my family practiced when I was growing up in England. Especially in light of Conan O’Brien’s less-than-complimentary comments about British Christmas celebrations the other night… harumph! More on that another time… OK… today’s Friday Fives. Here goes:

Picking out the Christmas Tree. When I was growing up, we had an artificial tree for Christmas, and always had for as long as I can remember. My wife, on the other hand, has always had a real tree at Christmas. At least from the time I’ve been in the States, her family would go to a local Christmas Tree farm on the weekend after Thanksgiving to get a tree. We fell into that tradition ourselves for our family. So every year, sometime during the weekend after Thanksgiving, we all pile into the car (okay, it’s a large SUV–it has to carry eight of us, after all) and go to a local tree farm to get our tree. My wife’s family would always go for a Virginia White Pine, but in recent years we’ve experimented with other types. This year, my oldest wanted us to try a Frasier Fir. So that’s what’s currently standing in our living room right now, all lit up and waiting to be decorated. The decorating of the tree will probably happen in the next few days. Having a real tree is fun, but there are some trade-offs. There’s the mess of pine needles to clean up, and you have to keep it watered (and fight a losing battle to stop the cats from drinking out of the tree stand). And speaking of tree stands–we’ve had some challenges with tree stands these past few years. Oh, the stories I could tell…!

Christmas Eve Cooked Breakfast. This is actually a recent tradition with our family that I have imported from my past. Every Christmas morning, my dad, who was usually an early riser, would get up about an hour or so after us (the kids), and make a cooked breakfast. This would usually consist of fried eggs, fried tomatoes, sausages (and or bacon), fried mushrooms, and toast (or fried bread). Yes, a good English fry-up! My dad passed away a few years ago, so I thought this would be a nice tradition to bring to my family in honor of him. Of course, we have twice as many kids, so it takes a little longer to do and ends up being more of a brunch than a breakfast. But that’s okay. And with us usually going to the in-laws for Christmas Day, I do it on Christmas Eve since things are a little less hectic. I provide vegetarian alternatives for, well, me–but everyone else gets the traditional fare: eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, and toast. Mmm… I’m looking forward to it just thinking about it… 🙂

Late Night with The Bishop’s Wife. This is not how it sounds. Really! I think it was sometime in my teens, one afternoon channel surfing probably during Christmas break, that I discovered the movie “The Bishop’s Wife” starring Cary Grant and David Niven. It’s an old black-and-white movie (remade in recent years as “The Preacher’s Wife”), but for some reason, it just struck a chord with me. The movie is set around Christmas, and essentially tells the story of a bishop (David Niven) who wants to build a grand cathedral. However, in his zeal to raise funds, he has lost sight of his family, his friends, and his principles. He prays for help, and help comes in the form of angel called Dudley (Cary Grant). Only the bishop knows that Dudley’s an angel. The bishop thinks Dudley has come to help him raise money, but Dudley knows of a greater need in the bishop’s life. It’s only when Dudley threatens to capture the hearts of the ones closest to the bishop–including his wife, if you can imagine, that the bishop comes to his senses. It’s a great, heart-warming, family movie. I usually watch it late on Christmas Eve, after the younger kids have all gone to bed, while doing some last minute gift-wrapping.

Stockings. In addition to “regular” gifts, everyone in the family, young and not-so-young, gets a stocking, and everyone contributes to the various items that go into them. There’s normally a bag of candy (selected according to the recipient’s taste), and then other odds-and-ends, often humorous or just silly things to raise a smile. Most importantly, the items are chosen with each person and their tastes and personalities in mind. I’ve been given books, fruit (I love fruit!), and even a small jar of wasabi (I love wasabi) in my stocking in past years. I’ve also been given deodorant a few times… something I should know, guys??

Christmas with the In-Laws. For the last 19 years, we have spent Christmas at my mother-in-law’s house. I have a really good relationship with my in-laws, I’m blessed to say, so this is never a drudgery to me. Some years it’s not possible to be there on Christmas Day, but we will try be there to exchange gifts and “do Christmas” with them as soon as we can. Thankfully, my in-laws live relatively close-by–a lot closer than my own family, which is why we spend Christmas there. My mum did come and spend Christmas with us a few years ago, and that was a lot of fun. I hope she (and perhaps my brothers) will do it again sometime soon.

Alright, I think I’ve babbled long enough on this. Besides, you’ve got all the other Friday Fives participants’ blogs to read! 🙂