New Christmas Traditions

My wife loves traditions.   I am always a little hesitant to commit to traditions, because that means I have to do them every year. I don’t like that pressure. But, my wife and I came to an understanding. We can feel free to start/try things, with an eye to maybe continuing them, as long as she doesn’t expect that they will always happen. So, we are working on some new Christmas traditions.

We put a variety of candy in little Christmas cellophane bags. We printed out labels that said something like, “Marry Christmas from Christian, Angie, and Joshua Sanich, from your neighbors at (address).”  Last night we walked around as a family and handed those out to all of our neighbors. Only about half of our neighbors were home, but the six or seven we got to talk to were very friendly with us. We really enjoyed it. We like what this kind of thing teaches Joshua. So, we will probably do this one again next year. 

Angie and I are not going to buy Christmas gifts for each other (we still give gifts, see Christmas Gift Ideas). We aren't giving a bunch of gifts to Joshua either. Instead, we are going to take the money we would have spent on each other and Joshua and we are going to buy an animal, like a cow, to be sent to a needy family in a third world country, through World Vision or Samaritan's Purse. We are pretty excited about this. Again, we like what this teaches Joshua. He’s too young to understand it yet, so we are going to print a picture of what we give, put it in a little frame, and make it a tree ornament for posterity. 

We’re also going to start Christmas eve at our house for family and friends. We are going to have hot drinks, sit out by the fire and sing a few Christmas carols, and then play games. I’m looking forward to that.

I hope you will start some traditions that honor the true meaning of Christmas and reaches out to others. If you have some great traditions, post a comment to share them with us.