Everyone has their own traditions throughout the holiday season. My family's traditions begin in November during Thanksgiving and continue on through the Christmas season. Tradition is something important and unique to every family. Even if you don't realize it, some of the things your family does might be very different from what other families do, but the uniqueness is what makes traditions so special.
1. Our family all comes home for the holidays.
As our family gets older, many of us have moved out and gone to college. My brother, father, and I all attend college and my other older brother has moved into his own house. That being said, we all make sure to make it home for the holidays that way we can all get together and spend some time together after being in such separate places.
2. Thanksgiving preparations
For Thanksgiving, my grandma spends the night with my step mom and I. We all then get up at about 6 in the morning to prepare lunch. As tradition, my grandma makes her famous stuffing and my step mom makes the potatoes (which are the best in the world).
3. Football
My dad and the rest of our family are devout Detroit Lions fans. Every year during or after our meal, we all sit in front of the TV and pray for a win. Go Lions!
4. Family games
My family is really big on board games, so usually either on Thanksgiving or sometime during the weekend we all get together to play games. Some of the games we usually play are The Farming Game, Murder (it's a marble game, similar to Sorry, and no one is actually harmed physically), and Dominoes.
5. Tree Decorating
Also during the Thanksgiving weekend, my family always makes sure to put up the Christmas tree. This year my step mom was tempted not to put up a tree as hardly any of the family will be here until break but we made sure to continue on the tradition. We also put up the family stockings which, yes, includes one for our dog, Shasta.
6. Winter Break
Same as during Thanksgiving Break, my immediate family always makes sure to come home to celebrate the Christmas season. Being raised in a Christian family, we celebrate Christmas every year.
7. Christmas Eve
My brother and I have a very busy Christmas Eve. We usually begin our day with our mom, as our parents are divorced. After that we go with our mom to celebrate Christmas at our Aunt's house. We usually stay there until it is time to go to our great grandparent's house. As children, my dad would always pick us up from our aunt's house but now that we are old enough we usually just drive. At our grandparent's house, usually everyone else has already eaten pizza so we arrive when it is time to open presents. By the time we are ready to leave, it's usually time to go home and go to bed.
8. Presents
As a tradition, Christmas morning begins with presents. My dad and brother usually request that we hold off until 9 in the morning now that we are older, but when we were younger we always ran down the stairs and made sure to wake up the whole house early in the day. In both our house and my grandparent's house, the children always pass out the presents to everyone in the family, and even though my brother and I are both technically adults, that still includes us.
9. Christmas Lunch
For lunch, my mom usually makes ham. Other traditional holiday foods in my house include my step mom's famous mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows, of course), ham dip (which is basically the best thing since sliced bread), cheese dip, deviled eggs, and various desserts.
10. New Years Eve
Usually my family stays together on New Years but now that we are older it could be a little different. My mom always makes cookies with little Hershey's kisses in the middle and we all wait for the ball to drop in New York on TV.
11. Family
The most important part of our holiday is that our family gets to spend time together. Now that we are all separated it is more important to us than ever that we all get together on the holidays. It is important for a family to stay connected and even though we have plenty of technology that enable us to communicate, nothing quite beats sitting around the table and playing a good ole family game.
