Tra-di-tion!

I’m a weird sort of stickler when it comes to holiday traditions, which is odd because as a whole, my family just isn’t the sort that sticks with anything long enough for it to be Something We Do. There are few exceptions (which I’ll get to in a moment) but for the most part, we’re not bound by Tradition. We’ve had our Christmases a day or two before the actual date, sometimes even a week or so out. We’ve opened presents in the morning, we’ve opened them in the evening. We’ve had intimate affairs as well as times when there were total strangers gathered in our living room. One Christmas a crazy (really) lady came and spent the whole afternoon with us, forgetting her mother was waiting for her at her own house.

I think because we have so few traditions, and because we moved so much as a kid (one year we spent our Christmas break in two different houses, mid-move), I try as much as possible to keep and create my own. So far for Christmas I have just one — listening to Low’s Christmas album while I decorate the house/tree/cats/whathaveyou.

Yuletide Playlist
This year as we pulled our aluminum silver tree out of storage, we mixed it up a little and listened to the following, a highly recommended playlist for Festive Times.

Sun Giant – Fleet Foxes
Christmas – Low
Best of the Mamas and the Papas – The Mamas and the Papas

We decided to use the colored lights this year, which really makes the silver tree a bit blinding. I had a huge box of silver and transparent garlands (icicles, snowflakes, diamond shapes, etc) that I had rescued from a wet box on a rainy corner in Columbia City last year. The floral store was clearing out old stock so I had grabbed anything that looked usable. Our tree is now draped to the point of leaning with sparkly stuff. We also attached a stag shaped cologne bottle we had sitting around to the top of the tree using some wire. It’s pretty Nordic looking. I may make some stars out of tin foil, but I’m afraid of causing an traffic accident in front of our house as people maybe be forced to stop and stare at our magnificent tree. Pictures forthcoming, of course.

Thanksgiving
One tradition my family does keep up is the family gathering over Thanksgiving. I have a pretty small family – all counted it’s only 14 people (both sides of the family combined). We rent a big house on the Oregon coast each year and everyone does their best to make it. After we stuff ourselves full of good food we read pass around a stack of cards we wrote before we ate – little Thank You cards my mom brings with her each year. We write what we are thankful for, and there’s always the guessing game when they are read alound – who wrote what? This year they were pretty mushy and I’m still smiling when I think of them.