Traditions…

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I spend my time leading up to Christmas. Christmas really is my favourite time of year and yet, my Christmas days, the actual day, the 25th, tend to be pretty quiet and uneventful. When I was operational, I worked almost every Christmas and I was okay with that. There was a slow rhythm to the day that I appreciated. So, in my house, it’s the lead up to Christmas that is filled with excitement and anticipation. It’s the lead up that shines with traditions. I go to a lot of trouble to enjoy a whole season of Christmas and not just one day.

This morning as I was lying in bed (I really didn’t want to get out from under the warm blankets!), I took a quick scan through social media. I noticed a friend had posted that she missed the Christmases of her youth. I thought it was interesting timing as I knew I would be finishing this blog. This blog that is celebrating the elements of past Christmases. This blog that is about keeping the magic in Christmas through the traditions that we’ve carried with us. I realized that’s what traditions do for us. They keep alive the spirits of our past so that the special feeling of Christmas is never lost.

This past week has had an underlying current of chaos running through it. My mom is arriving and for any visit I want the house to be “picture perfect”. At Christmas that need for tidying and scrubbing seems more intense than normal. At first I was thinking it’s kind of crazy. Houses everywhere will be getting heavy doses of cleaning and for what? Christmas morning is usually filled with wrapping paper and treats and mess and no one cares if every last speck of dust is banished. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized there is something else to the cleaning that I do at Christmas. I think there’s a feeling of ah, I can take a break. I think there’s also a deeper feeling, a welcoming of sorts. When your home is tidied and you’ve mopped your floors and wiped your counters, you can open yourself to the spirit of the season. I embrace the joy by being prepared and cleaning is foundational to being ready. This year I am behind. Interestingly, there are very few people I know who are not behind. And guess what? Christmas will come anyway and we’ll all be swept up in the excitement.

Another tradition that I adore is lights! I have so many decorations that have a lighting element and I love turning them on each evening. We celebrate Christmas at the darkest time of the year and if you take a drive around your town or you pay to go an event, you can see that lights are the most common way to welcome the season. I have lit decorative plates telling half of ’Twas The Night Before Christmas story (my sister has the other half of the set) and always look forward to setting them up. They have graced my top shelves in the kitchen for the last couple of years. It seems like the perfect place and I build around them for the rest of the decor. Of course my Christmas tree is lit with multi-coloured lights. I placed it in the sitting room in front of a window to share with passersby! Especially this past week, I’ve enjoyed relaxing and listening to Christmas music with the Christmas tree lit up. I have baskets with pine cones and lights, a ceramic tree, garland with sparkling white lights, and a brand new addition - a gorgeous candle centrepiece (see picture below). At a time of year when our part of the earth is the darkest, I love nothing more than turning off the lights in my rooms and basking in the glow of my Christmas decorations.

My mother has started hosting Family Christmas at her house before December 25th. When we were young we weren’t fond of travelling at Christmas and I think she wants to give her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren the opportunity to have their own family occasion, without rushing out the door. Last year she was pretty insistent that we head outside and play in the snow. Although there was a lot of under-our-breath grumbling, out we all went. And we had a blast. There was a snowball fight and the youngest sat in the snow and fell over and giggled and ate the white stuff! It was truly a lot of fun. This year we had no snow on the ground in which to play. Instead Mom shared with us a tradition from her own childhood that had been left behind when she married. Her father would gather the children around him as he sat by the narrow, old black wood stove. It would be pumping off heat into an otherwise cold foyer (although not as grand as that word implies) and they would sit on the floor, jostling for a spot of heat. Then Grandpa would start reading and all would settle as they get caught up in the story of Scrooge. Each Christmas Eve he would read A Christmas Carol to his children. This year, my mother brought that tradition back to life in her own way. We sat in a beautifully decorated, warm room (so different from that old farmhouse in which she grew up) and passed around the book, each reading a couple of pages. To be honest, there might have been some initial hesitation but once the story started, everyone was drawn into the tale. While the very young slept or wandered, the rest of us sat together and read. It was absolutely beautiful and a tradition that I hope continues.

As I’ve mentioned many times throughout many blogs, I love to decorate for each season. When it comes to Christmas, I go all out. I like to have the decorating started by Advent. It may improve over that time until complete for Christmas but the commencement of it is the end of November. Looking back, I remember many Grey Cup Sundays setting up my tree. They don’t really go together but it’s interesting to realize I’ve used that as the trigger for many years. Similar to cleaning, decorating is a preparation for the season. I love looking around and soaking up the atmosphere that my decor brings to the house. I love looking around and soaking up the feeling inside that it gives me. There is a sense of joy that is grounded in the different treasures and I feel it with each unwrapping from a bin. There’s also a sense of remembrance. I’ll open my Christmas bins and as I reach in and take out the next item, be it a reminder of a gift from my mom (oh my, she’s given me a lot over the years), or an “I-remember-picking-that-up” story that flits through my head. There are the items that I got during an amazing Boxing Day sale that still bring a smile and the melancholy reminders of shopping with a friend from years ago. There are a few new additions but those are slowing down now as I have so much already. There is also the excitement of planning it out each year. This year I went bold with traditional reds and greens in my kitchen and soft creams and golds in my sitting room. It’s harder to miss the past when, for this special time, you bring it back to life.

From the time I was very young we have had two Advent traditions that I continue to follow. Long before there was any Elf on the Shelf, we had a special visitor from the North Pole. Our elf would appear on December 1st of each year. He would sit quietly, silently observing the household. At night he would pop back home to Santa to report on us for the Nice and Naughty List. We also had Advent calendars, one for each of us. As young children, those calendars started out with pictures or short verses that were religious in nature and absolutely beautiful! I remember the chocolate calendars were introduced to us when we were a little older. To be honest, I’m not sure if my memory is correct but I seem to remember they were German in nature, with very good chocolate, and perhaps given to us by our grandpa. Nowadays, these too, have become very commercial and not really about Advent. In some places, I’ve even seen them sold as “countdown” calendars. While not everything is going to remain the same, I still embrace it as part of my Advent time. [I certainly understand if you celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday you may see it differently.] The last of these “countdown”-type traditions that I have carried forward is my manger. We had them as children and I raised my son with it as well. Each evening we would be given a piece of straw for our manger if we had been good. The intent was to provide the baby Jesus with a soft bed. Yes, all of these traditions could be seen as bribery to get good behaviour for a while. From someone who lived these traditions as a child, raised her own child with them, and continues them even on her own, I can honestly say they were about bringing the spirit of the season into our hearts. I still have an elf and the manger and I enjoy a good Advent calendar each year. For me, it’s about ensuring that my heart and soul are refreshed and ready for the Good News of Christmas.

These are a few of my favourite traditions. This time of Advent has been pretty crazy this year. The world is in turmoil, our weather is bizarre, and there is a lot of unhappiness evident. Tomorrow is Christmas. With or without traditions, it comes each year. Whether you celebrate from a religious perspective or a secular one or even if you don’t celebrate at all, there is an opportunity to settle before starting a new year. I hope you are able to take some time and enjoy the lights and festive feeling in the air around us. Merry Christmas, Everyone!

My Advent countdowns.

A few of the lights I have around the house.

Some of my nativity scenes.

My beautiful candle centrepiece. Not only a gift from my mom but made by her.