Ornaments and Traditions

 Jon and I almost had a tragedy of sorts at our household.  We pulled out our Christmas decorations and we began to decorate the house when Jon realized he could not find our ornaments for the tree.  We recently moved and immediately we both realized that we had left them in our attic at our old house.  A great friend was able to find them and is holding them for us for when we visit.  Tragedy avoided and I am so grateful!

I was almost in tears when I thought our ornaments were lost because those are not just decorations, they are memories.  Both Jon and I have most of our ornaments from our childhood and other various times, like 1st Married Christmas and 1st Christmas for J.  Those ornaments remind me of different points in my life and different ways my family has celebrated Christmas.  I grew up with traditions in my family, especially decorating our Christmas tree.  Not being able to completely decorate our tree this year made me start thinking about how important it is to continue these traditions with J and H. 

Some of my family's traditions included:
1.  Making lots of yummy Christmas candy to pass out to friends, teachers, church members etc.
2.  Decorating the tree while listening/singing loudly to Christmas music.
3.  Having chili for supper and inviting our next door neighbor to join us.

My favorite tradition is that my family would read in the book of Luke about Jesus's birth, sing a few Christmas carols, and pray before opening our Christmas presents.  As a child, I was not always thrilled to delay finding out what was underneath all of that fun wrapping paper but it was a great reminder of the real reason for celebrating. 

Ornaments can be lost or broken but the memories that they represent will be always be with me.  I want J and H to look back on their childhood and know that we celebrated Christ's birth.  My desire is to establish these great traditions and for our family to be closer because of them. 

What about you?  What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?  What traditions bring the focus onto Christ during the Christmas season?