My Family's Holiday Traditions

Not going to lie, the holiday seasons were kind of rough growing up. Both my dad’s parents died during the holiday season (before he met my mom), but my mom and grandma always tried their best to make sure that time of year was full of magic.

What usually kicked off the holiday season was watching my sister and I in the Nutcracker Ballet. When we were younger, Alberta Ballet would come down from Canada and selected local dancers would get to perform with them. Once we got older (and Alberta Ballet lost their spot for the Lion King), Ballet Memphis and State Street Ballet came up as well. After the last show, my grandma would take us out to dinner and celebrate our performances (usually 5 shows in 3 days).

Nutcracker usually happened right before Thanksgiving, so it wasn’t until the day after Thanksgiving did we really get into the holiday spirits. Our family always waited to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. We’d wake up in the morning, still turkey drunk, make hot cocoa and dig out the Christmas decorations from underneath the stairs. Holiday music would be playing, and up went the tree! I vaguely remember having a real tree once in my childhood, and it died super fast and we almost burnt the house down…. So no real trees after that. We’d spend the entire morning decorating the house, and then the rest of the family (Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins) would come over again for lunch leftovers. Up until recently, I always got to see my relatives during the holidays. Our family is small, but I am thankful for those years where I got to see everyone.

The last one with my family was my Grandma’s Christmas Eve dinner. This one was always my favorite. We’d get all dressed up, drive to her house and eat the most delicious food! Then followed the cheesecake; my Grammy makes the most delicious cheesecake! I have yet to find one that hold a candle to hers. After we ate, we’d run to the basement where she’d play the piano and we’d sing Christmas carols through the night. And finally, we’d gather around her fireplace and tree, and hand out gifts. More recently, we’ve gotten into this silly whistling game to make Christmas songs!

Now, as I am part of another family, there are new holiday traditions which include cutting down the Christmas Tree, Midnight Mass and going to the baby cousin’s house to open presents with Christmas Day dinner following that.

I hope to start some new traditions with my own little family, but I’ll get to that in another post. What are some of your favorite family traditions during the holidays?

This is all for now!

Tootles,

~ Izzy