Creating Family Memories Around the Christmas Tree
Happy teamwork builds Christmas traditions
The human soul can always use a new tradition. Sometimes we require them.
— Pat Conroy
It is our family tradition that we put our Christmas tree up together as a family, ever since my boys were toddlers.
That was a tradition my mother started. It was always just me and my mom. Each year she would gift me a new Christmas ornament so I would have a collection by the time I moved away.
The music of Nat King Cole, Bing Cosby, and Andy Williams filled our home as we decorated our tiny home on the east side of St. Paul.
I made sure to continue the tradition with my family. In those early years, when my boys were toddlers, they would place the ornaments all in a cluster at the base of the tree. They were proud of their work and I let it be (even though a small part of me wanted to reorganize it).
Now they are taller than the tree. And we still decorate it as a family.
I may not have the original records from my childhood, but Nat King Cole still sings in the background as we unpack the boxes of cherished memories.
Each and every ornament evokes special memories as they are handed out to find the perfect place on the tree. The oldest ones from my mother and my childhood grace the top of the tree.
Many are handmade and falling apart from their elementary school days. They are handled like they are made from glass.
Some ornaments are the special ones I’ve gifted them each year, continuing the tradition from my mother.
I know these moments of us coming together as a family to decorate are limited. There will be the first year our oldest goes off to college and not home until it’s nearly Christmas. The following year, my youngest will follow suit and who knows what our lives will be like a decade from now when they are 25 and 23-years-old.
I’m thankful for these moments of what I sometimes call “forced family time,” but thankfully they don’t see it as forced, but instead happy family team work.
And where was Mr. Percy during all this family time? He stayed out of the chaos, observing from the third level of his “kitty condo,” waiting for us to leave so he can rest under the tree in peace.
What are your family holiday traditions (sometimes called forced family time)?
Inspiration
Thank you Trista Signe Ainsworth for inspiring this story
✍ Written by Ellie Jacobson, @2021 all rights reserved.
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