Now that Thanksgiving is over, there should be no more pushback from anyone in starting of the Christmas season. The time for snow, hot cocoa and Rudolph is now upon us, and in honor of the beginning of what may just be the best time of the year, I decided to ask some of my friends what their favorite traditions are.
Madelyn Neal
"My favorite is going to family houses and having small Christmases with them leading up to Christmas, then having a small Christmas with my parents and brother on Christmas Day."
"When I was young, even though my family didn't celebrate Christmas, my parents would put up a nice artificial tree and my mom would decorate it with my brother and me. She didn't want us to feel left out. We would binge-watch Christmas movies together, especially the Hallmark ones, and we would drink hot chocolate."
"My favorite Christmas tradition is opening presents. I love it when I get to open presents, but I also love seeing my relatives opening the presents I got them."
"Well as a child it would be leaving cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve and then watching a Christmas story 24-hour special on Christmas Day!"
"My mom makes cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk every Christmas morning, then we do a sibling gift exchange!"
"One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the way my family spends Christmas Eve. Every year after the Christmas service at church, my family members all get together to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.' I particularly like this tradition because it allows us to reflect on the holidays and spend some time relaxing before Christmas officially hits and we are too busy to fully appreciate the holiday. This is something I've been doing since I was little, so it's a really special tradition that I love."
"My favorite Christmas tradition has to be my family setting up Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We all make a point to be home to decorate the tree and the house and spend the day listening to Christmas music and baking cookies. After all of that is finished, we all sit around and watch 'White Christmas' with apple cider and just enjoy each other's company."
"The longest-running and still happening tradition is making Christmas cookies. When I was younger it would be me, my mom and all my brothers. We always make sugar cookie cutouts and then the kids decorate them. And we like never really had appropriate or nice cookie cutters, so it would be like a mix of Christmas ones, Halloween ones, dinosaurs and we have a Christmas crab cookie cutter too. we always decorate with sprinkles and red hots."
"My favorite Christmas tradition was always reaching over my balcony to put the angel on the top of the tree!"
"Growing up, my favorite tradition was decorating the house with all of our various holiday things. We had a cute little town with fake stuffing-snow, a huge collection of Santas that we added to every year, and a few different wreaths. And my absolute favorite was decorating our little fake tree. Every year I grew taller and taller and could reach closer and closer to the top of the tree, and we had ornaments from my parents' childhood as well as from mine and my sisters'. We would listen to music and talk and laugh and bond and share memories, and there was nothing more perfect than that."
Madelyn Neal
As I sit here and write this, I can think of countless more Christmas traditions that make my holiday so special! My ultimate favorite has to be sitting in pajamas and under many blankets, near the fire, while drinking a cup of peppermint flavored cocoa and watching "Christmas Vacation"!
I can't wait for the holidays this year, and I can't wait to add on to my ever-growing number of traditions!
