Many of these old Christmas traditions bring back good memories of my family or just some laughs. I know I can't go back, but these are some things I truly miss.
1. Watching Charlie Brown Christmas with my Grandmother
Each year, when Charlie Brown Christmas would premiere on television, I would eat dinner at my grandmother's house, go upstairs and stay up watching Charlie Brown in my grandparent's bedroom, and then sleep over. It was a tradition we had for years until about the second or third grade. I wish we had never stopped.
2. Picking out a real tree
When I was younger, we actually had a real tree and as a family we would spend a Saturday looking for the perfect one. In the fourth or fifth grade we converted from real to fake and it was pretty sad. The house doesn't smell like pine needles anymore so instead we have to burn fake balsam scented candles.
3. Going Christmas caroling
As a kid, my family and I always went caroling with our church. Seven-year-old me was even trusted with holding a real burning candle throughout the whole thing. We made our way through a local town, store by store on the main street, and serenaded people as they walked. The smiles on their faces made it worth it, plus the whole caroling group bonded. It was a blast. I feel like in general people don't carol anymore. It's just sad, especially since it can bring a smile to so many people's faces.
4. Buying gifts for my family at the school "holiday store"
This was the PTA run wonderland tho'm at they had every year in elementary school. Parents would delegate how much we each could spend on our friends and family, parents from the PTA would help us find gifts in our price range, and we would go nuts buying. Everyone was jealous of how the older kids got to go first and buy all the "cool presents" or the person who was allowed to buy a gift for themselves. The most coveted gifts included cool sparkly mugs for moms, beanie baby toys for siblings (or ourselves), and Eagles football accessories.
5. Making gingerbread houses
This may sound weird but I'm not sure any of my family has made a gingerbread house since I was about twelve and it's just kind of depressing. Gingerbread houses are one of the things we all think of when we're asked about the holiday season and they have been missing from my house for six years. My mom used to go all out and buy all kinds of decorations too. I think the lack of time during the holiday season as I've gotten older kind of contributed to this one fading away.
6. The children's Christmas pageant at church
The only reason I probably miss this is the fact that I myself as a child never was forced to dress up as Mary and perform for the congregation, I just got to sit back and enjoy (and giggle at my friends). I honestly think these are adorable though and I never get to see them these days. Do people even do this anymore?
7. Christmas PJs
Every year my mom would buy me a new pair of Christmas PJs from either Children's Place (remember that store?) or vintage style ones from Vermont Country Store. Looking back on photos, I forgot how happy I was to get PJs just for the holiday that I could prance around in all I wanted. Plus, I think I looked pretty cute.
8. The mystery of whether or not Santa was real
When I was in kindergarten, I started having some suspicions and from then on it was a game of figuring out if he was real or not. It began with realizing that Santa had extremely similar handwriting to my mother and went from there. Eventually after the 3rd grade I truly realized, but I didn't tell my parents.
9. Watching my dad struggle with all the weird packaging
If anyone loved Barbies or my Little Pony as a kid, you will remember all the twist ties, cardboard, and plastic that secured those things in place. Barbie boxes were the Fort Knox of toy packaging. It was always entertaining to watch my father, the engineer, struggle to get my dolls out of their boxes, and it probably still would be.
10. Singing Christmas songs in elementary school choir
When I was eight, my 3rd grade choir learned how to sing the entirety of The Beach Boys' Little Saint Nick. We had so much fun doing it even if it wasn't traditional. Over the next few years we learned many christmas songs, and even went to sing at a bunch of elderly homes and senior centers. I think we sounded pretty good, but, in the end it was all about having fun and making other people smile.
12. Elementary school holiday parties
These parties could be described in three words: ultimate sugar rush. The day before winter break was always great because it was usually spent watching movies and having a two-hour-long party in the afternoon. These days, these parties are probably all about being healthy but when I was a kid, there were enough cheese curls and candy canes to go around.
There are some things on this list that I can never bring back as a tradition since, let's face it, I'm not an elementary schooler anymore. However, there are others I can definitely bring back, like the Christmas PJs. Perhaps, I will treat myself to a new pair. Perhaps a pair of polar bear, printed pants?
