I was pleasantly surprised when my daughter delivered her "Santa Claus" gifts to our house so my Honey could wrap them for their children. One of my husband's gifts is really being able to wrap presents beautifully and he actually enjoys doing it too. We don't usually do this job, but since my daughter's house flooded and they are living somewhere else until their home is renovated...she does not have the room to wrap or hide Santa's gifts from their children. So we volunteered to do this for her this year. The pleasant surprise came when she explained to me that even though there were a lot of gifts for each of her three children, these gifts were to be put together so that each child received just 3 gifts from Santa. And then she said" "You know Moma, just like you would do for us, explaining to us that just as Jesus received 3 gifts at His birth we get just 3 gifts too. One we need, one we want, and one just because we are loved." She told me she also buys each of their children an ornament to put on their own tree someday just I did with them. She told me that when the day comes that I can't read the story of Jesus' birth or bring the Happy Birthday Jesus cake anymore...she will continue that tradition too. I don't know if my two other daughters are following these traditions I begin with them. I do know my oldest daughter buys an ornament for each of them each year too. As for my youngest daughter her Family is only a few years old so it remains to be seen what she will do. But I do know that it touched my heart to know these traditions are being passed down in my Family with at least one of my children. The only thing we did the same every year for Christmas as I was growing up in my own Family was have the same Christmas meal every year. And sometimes we would all go to midnight mass. When I had my own children I wanted to do some things the same every Christmas so my own children would have traditions to take with them into their own Families if they wanted...and I am happy to find out this has happened. These are the ornaments I chose this year. Each of the grandkids gets a snowman one and each couple (their mom's and dad's) get the other one. Are their any Christmas traditions you know have been passed down in your Family?
Oh yes, but when I was a child I was given to whoever would take me I did experience one wonderful Christmas though and will never forget
I just can't click the LIKE button on this @Patsy Faye. But I do like it that you did experience one wonderful Christmas. And I hope you experience a few more...
One of my Christmas traditions is to send out Christmas cards every year to those I love. My daughter just sent me this picture of our grandson with his very 1st Christmas card from Granny and Papaw. She said in between rolling himself over...he is fasinated with the card.
My Grandma hand-decorated Easter eggs each year using a process traditionally handed-down mother to daughter. But, my Mother never learned it (only daughter). Grandma instructed my cousin, her grand-daughter in the method, but I never knew if she picked it up or not. I learned this tradition was of (I think) Ukrainian origin, so how my Grandma got it in Czechoslovakia, I don't know. Each egg so decorated took as long as 8 hours to complete. All the folks in our family had a few of her creations preserved at home. Alas, as time intervened, through attrition (broken by kids), lost, none remain. Hers were every bit as intricate as these I have pictured. My niece is gone, all others even privy to awareness of this are either dead, or not remotely interested. Yet another multigenerational tradition handed down from Europe to America, dead and gone? I truly hope not. Nonetheless, I have not seen this type of handiwork in any of the antique stores, where one might expect to. The process involved expulsing the egg's contents out of a pinhole at one end, blown through b y a pinhole at the other. That left the shell intact and empty. Then, the shell was dipped in molten wax, warmed by a tiny alcohol flame. The colors, I have no idea of the origins. The waxed shell had designs scratched through the wax, then dipped in vinegar (I think), the remaining wax in the traces so-scratched was removed by the vinegar, then the egg was re-dipped in molten wax, again, the next design and color to be inscribed. My Grandma was an artist of the first class, I see now, but as a kid observing the process, it was just another day. How sad. How I feel remorse.......
I feel for you Patsy I had the same type of childhood... ( Merry Xmas) chica...I hope your Christmases have been better since..
yep it surely did...Patsy....sometimes being 'strong' has been used a a bat to beat me with tho'... you can't win can you?..but at the end of the day it's all about self preservation, the will to survive is such a strong human emotion..
@Frank Sanoica Those are beautiful eggs and that certainly would have been a wonderful tradition to keep passing through the generations. I'm sorry someone did not leave a written "recipe" to preserve this tradition in your Family.
So true - in the end I walked away for my own sanity and prevention of a complete breakdown It took inner strength to do that, I've not regretted the decision, although I took far too long to reach it I think we've gone off topic @Holly Saunders
Although it is nice to hear if the Family you grew up in had any Christmas Traditions that you carried into your own Family what I'm really asking in my post is more about any Traditions you started in your own Families that continue in your children's Families. Or that you continue to this day. This morning I remembered another one that I do know my two oldest daughters continue and I'm pretty sure my youngest one will continue too. The week of Christmas I would always help my girls make sugar cookies in different Christmas shapes. After they were baked the girls got to use their "artistic" talents on decorating those cookies. I always had a variety of colored icings and trim, and plenty of sprinkles and what not for them to choose to decorate their cookies with. After they had decorated to their hearts content...we would each eat our favorite and then share some with others. What makes Holidays "Special" to me...is how we make them "Special". A Family whether just you and your furbabies, you and another loved one, or you, your spouse, children, and grandchildren...even you and your Family of friends, etc. can make your own Special Traditions...even if the Family you grew up in didn't have any. Our lives don't depend on others to make them special...we are the ones who can bring "specialness" to our own lives every day and not just during Christmas or any other Holiday.