1 post tagged “holiday traditions”

Tell us about your holiday traditions. 
Submitted by Talk is Cheap.

Christmas Eve was always a big deal with my entire family. Actually, with everyone I knew as a kid. My parents would throw these HUGE Christmas Eve parties with both sides of the family and all their friends and their kids invited. I can remember people in every room of the house. They were singing carols, playing games, chit chatting, opening presents, and getting wasted, fighting, kissing, eating, and almost every “ing” you can think of. I have some great memories of playing with my cousins, opening presents, and the food…oh the food.

I can remember my mom getting ready for this party days…no, weeks in advanced. She would clean the house with the Christmas records (and yes, I do mean vinyl) playing on full blast. Not one speck of dirt remained. This is also the one time of year where she would demand I clean my room. “The rest of the year it can look like a pigsty, I just need you to clean it this one day!” Unfortunately, I never did and she always had to help me in order for me to work on it. I’m still that way about my room. It’s never clean unless Mike starts and then I feel bad, take over, and finish it. It’s mostly his stuff anyways, but I’m off topic.

We had these Styrofoam reindeer from the 60s that she would put up on the walls, tons of decorations, and she would even wrap each picture like a present and hang it on the walls. My mom loves Christmas.

So, Christmas Eve would come and we’d all hang out, play, party until around midnight when most of the kids had left and my parents made me go to sleep so Santa could come. However, I wouldn’t sleep. Due to the entire house filled with smoke (this was the 80s people, and no one cared about second hand anything) and my lungs clogged and my watery eyes and the anticipation of my Christmas gifts…I would never fall asleep until at least 2am.

I’d be wide awake at 3am sometimes 4am and after stopping to see the tree to see what Santa brought…I’d climb the stairs to my parent’s bedroom and wake them up. Usually, they’d tell me I’d have to go to bed and wait until at least 5am. They hadn’t gone to bed until probably 2 and had only slept an hour!

I got a little off track but the main focus was the traditional Christmas Eve party…we moved when I was 13 and we stopped having them at our house because no one wanted to travel in bad weather up the mountain. That’s been a 12 year lull between Christmas parties. However, this year with all us girls coming into town my mom thought she’d try and having the party again. Surprisingly, everyone is coming! They missed it so much but because they had complained about the drive so many years ago they didn’t dare ask her to have it again (as if my mom is someone to be scared of). It’s going to be so awesome to have all my cousins bring their kids to play with mine and to be able to see them together. It’s going to be great to catch up with everyone I haven’t seen for so long. A true Holiday tradition isn’t something that goes away just because you stop having it. It’s something that can be revived because it’s lived with you all through the years.