Christmas Traditions

What's so important about Christmas traditions? Think back about your family traditions for Christmas, maybe you opened your presents on Christmas Eve after a church service, or maybe just one. You could open your stockings as soon as you got up on Christmas morning or you had to wait. Maybe it was a special meal? Did you read the Christmas story? Traditions are the generational glue that hold families together.

(Sorry about the format. Blogger and Open Office don't get along).

I took a look back at some of our family traditions this year, because we've added two girls to the mix.

• Cutting the tree down at the Christmas tree farm and dragging it out through the woods, usually in deep snow and on snowshoes of late.
  
• Decorating the tree has a number of traditions, the lights, then the ribbon, then the ornaments.
• Christmas breakfast: fruit from around the world, baked brie and sparkling juice.
• We open presents on Christmas morning after breakfast.
• We try to stay home on Christmas, so we all play Santa on Christmas Eve and deliver presents to the rest of the family in the area.
  
• We tried to read the Christmas story every year, and to celebrate the advent Sundays.
• Our cat's tradition is to sleep under the tree, eventually he ends up on the back side, either on a pile of boxes or in the last open space between them and we wonder where he is.
  
• The Moscow Ballet's "The Nutcracker" has become a tradition. Moriah is a mouse this year, she'll have quite a bit of stage time compared to last year.
  

Traditions are fluid, they can change as needed. It won't be too many more years and we won't play Santa on Christmas Eve, because the kids will have grown up. We had the first advent Sunday sneak up and right on by us this year. That's okay, the youngest wouldn't get much out of it. Next year they'll both be ready for it.
I mentioned that tradition is the generational glue that holds families together, it can also tear them apart. Back when I was a kid: we'd get the whole family together, 30+ and have a party. That generation still has a party, but many of the younger generation doesn't make it. They've started their own family traditions. It's tough to break away, but it's okay, the young family needs that chance to establish itself.
The most important tradition of all is the one that teaches the next generation that Jesus is the reason we celebrate, His birth and His purpose in coming to this sin stained world to redeem us. Last year I wrote Moriah's renaissance alter ego a Christmas story.

Warning: Plot spoiler ahead. Princess Afeicta was chosen to dance with the traveling ballet in the Nutcracker. After the performance she got to stay up late and recieved a special present from her father. She went to the cast party. It was late when she fell asleep. She dreamed of being a daughter of a Magus, and they were traveling across the desert at night, following a star. They came to Jerusalem, and found no baby king, they found him instead in a small house in Bethlehem. Her fathered was warned supernaturally not go back to Jerusalem, and Joseph ad Mary were told to flee. He father decides to hire Joseph as a carpenter and go on to Egypt. She dreamed of the flight of the caravan and coming into Cairo. The bazaar was wonderful, dancers from all over, Egypt, India, Gypsies, Greek, and it ended with the beat of the Irish drum and their fast moving feet. She awoke, to the drumming of the snow on the window. and she hugged the book, she remembered looking into the King's eyes, this future King, she now held, holds the world in place and came to save her.

Think hand bound with leather cover and illustrations. That might sound like a couple of beloved Christmas stories. That's tradition that will be hard to repeat this year, even though it has been requested. I've got to go: Time to get working on the Christmas story tradition.