Holiday Traditions

Can you hear all of the Christmas songs in the air? What about the smell of fresh baked goodies?

For a lot of us, Christmas is one of our favorite times of year because it creates a festive atmosphere of fun, family time and eating WAY to much – not to mention giving and receiving presents!

Family traditions surrounding Christmas are both new and old. Some of us have family traditions that are almost as sacred as the day itself and if you tried to change them, grandma or grandpa might decide that you’re not their favorite anymore. There are other family traditions we’ve started ourselves.

As children, the days leading up to Christmas were almost as good as the day itself. Every year at the start of December my mom would get out a blanket calendar that she would hang on the door. With this soft calendar came a little soft bear that you could move from day to day and I couldn’t wait to move the bear each morning because it meant it was one day closer to the best night of the year.

A family tradition that Kate and I started is that every year, the day after Thanksgiving, we cut down our Christmas tree. It’s my one time of year that I get to feel like Clark Griswold and really live in the moment. Just me and the tree. Saw and all. I have to confess that cutting down the tree every year is one of my most manly moments of the year – at least I feel like that. The excitement of going to the tree farm, finding our tree, cutting it down, and drinking hot cider. I like it, and my wife and kids like it even more.

Every year Kate’s parent’s cut down their tree with us. Three years ago they received an extra surprise when they found a new family pet in their den – a little baby bat! So for the next few days Kate’s dad played animal detective until he found the bat and released it back into the wild. This story gets brought up every year at Christmas as we relive those moments and enjoy it more and more.

This is one of the great treasures that Christmas has to offer all of us. Tradition, Family, Love.

We think that is what God would want for all of us in the celebration of Jesus’s birth. A focused time every year basked in tradition, family and love. A time where we can embrace both old and new generational influences, remember why the story of Jesus is so important, and spread love to one another.

So during this Christmas season, as you enjoy the lead up to the big day, we hope and pray that you can celebrate new beginnings of hope, love and forgiveness – for yourself and those around you.

Happy Holidays!