Don’t you just love holiday traditions? They are one of my favorite things about the holidays. Have you seen the ridiculous commercial where everybody has to do ridiculous stuff because “it’s tradition”? So fun! Pearson and I both grew up with our own traditions and we’ve kept some of them, we’ve re-vamped some of them, and we’ve made some of our own. I want to share some of my favorites with you along with how they got started and why we continue to do them!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert. We love TSO. We decided to go to a concert when we were engaged and seniors at Harding University and we were blown away! They seriously put on the best concert either of us have ever been to. So we decided to make it a tradition and have gone to a concert every year since. That makes four!
Driving around looking at lights. We started this one in college too. When we would come home for Christmas break, we always spent one night together driving around the high end neighborhoods in our area and looked at all the Christmas lights. We’d have Christmas music playing on the radio. We’d be drinking Starbucks. And we always had to pick out our favorite houses. We still try to do this every year.
Baking and Decorating Cookies. Pearson’s family does this every year. His mom makes homemade lemon cookie dough and icing. The kids clear off the kitchen table and spend a whole afternoon cutting out, baking and decorating cookies! I don’t think we are going to be there for the cookies this year so I would like to do our own this week. We’ll see if it gets done.
Playing Sequence at my grandparents’. My grandparents love the game “sequence”. They introduced it to all of their grandchildren years ago and now we play it almost every time the family gathers for any occasion. Pearson isn’t too fond of board or card games and this game is a combination of both, but I couldn’t imagine going a Christmas without playing. So he humors me. Also, we played with our friends when we stayed in a cabin earlier this year and I’m pretty sure he actually enjoyed it! I can see Sequence being a part of our Christmas for years to come.
Sleeping in the living room. Another thing Pearson’s family does is on Christmas Eve Eve, all the kids sleep in the living room by the Christmas tree and fire. They can’t do this on Christmas Eve because Santa won’t come if they’re not in their beds! This year, Pearson and I decided to sleep in the living room (on an air mattress) the first weekend we had our tree up and I loved it! I think we are going to continue this for years to come!
Breakfast on Christmas morning. Pearson’s mom always made orange sweet rolls for breakfast Christmas morning and my mom usually made chocolate gravy and biscuits. Since we are usually at either of their houses on Christmas morning, we have what they fix, but when we start having Christmas at our house, I think we may alternate every year.
Christmas at Easton. Easton is a very pretty out door mall near us and they decorate really well for Christmas! They of course have Santa and they have carolers walking around. The whole atmosphere is just so Merry & Bright! We have gone and just walked around every year since we’ve lived here
New Years with Ashley and Taylor. After my best friend, Ashley and I both got married and moved away from each other, we decided that we wanted to see each other over the holidays but we would both be busy with our families and such. So we decided to do New Years! Last year, they came to Columbus and this year we’ll be spending the New Year in Mississippi!
My family’s traditions mostly revolve around things for kids so it will be interesting to see what we incorporate when we have little ones of our own.
