Christmas Traditions: Ones We Have and Ones I want

On December 26th, we went shopping. I know, it’s crazy, but I like shopping on busy days when there are lots of sales, and I like to buy the Swarovski crystal Christmas ornament, which is super expensive, and I’m not willing to pay full price. So we go out on the 26th, and get it on sale and with coupons, which makes it closer to reasonable. We now have all the ones for the years that we’ve been married, which makes it the closest to a Christmas tradition that B and I have just as the two of us.

Other than that, we don’t really have anything that we do that is a tradition established by us — I mean, we have family traditions, and we’ve had to negotiate which ones we’re going to do over the years, but we’re not really old enough to establish anything on our own. However, going home for only 6 days (and, I think, seeing what other people do and reading blogs) has made me want to have a month long worth of celebrations for us. My family does fondue on Christmas Eve, and I like that. His family eats hot dogs in crescent rolls, which I like but not as much, so we’ll have to sort something out on that one. Maybe hot dogs for lunch?

One other thing we bought to use in future years is an advent calendar, which I got at Macy’s for about $15, but it’s wood and has little drawers with all the dates on it (it was 70% off which to me just indicates that I would never have paid $55 for it, but what do I know?). I haven’t totally figured out what it is that I want to do with the advent calendar (it’s empty, and I’m leaning towards perishable things rather than buying 25 little toys that can then somehow be set out, but maybe I could use one of the little trees that we already have and put 25 little ornaments inside to be put on one at a time? I don’t know, it’s a work in progress), but I know that I like it, and that I liked opening things one day at a time as a child.

One thing that I’ve noticed about my traditions and history is that they’re entirely secular, and I don’t even understand the ones that people have that are religious. I mean, we have this nativity, and I’d like to get some more things for it, preferably animals (yet another tradition! We’re up to what, 3?). Camels, sheep, more cats perhaps. Wise dudes? optional. I do like the little kids. But in all my years of celebrating Chrismtas, there’s never been an explicit discussion of the birth of Jesus. I’ve never been to Church on Christmas eve (or Christmas day, for that matter), and though we’ve celebrated advent (and I’m aware of the purple and pink candles for that at church), I’m not precisely sure what the whole thing is about, at least from a Christian perspective.

B, as a child, made a birthday cake for Jesus every year with his brother’s godparents, which involved a tub of Cool Whip, a lot of sprinkles, and a cake that was somehow made out of Jello. I find this hilarious in a cute sort of way, one that I can’t explain, because I’m not mocking the baby Jesus, but I can’t imagine a childhood tradition making a cake with a tub of Cool Whip that isn’t the least bit ironic or tongue-in-cheek. I like the idea, even though the cake itself sounds gross, and can’t imagine doing anything of the sort of thing I would have done with my parents, what with my dad’s penchant for the phrase, “What a friend we have in Cheeses.”

There were two traditions that I saw on other people’s blogs this holiday season that I totally want to do. First, Dawnie talked about how her family color coded all of their holiday gifts under the tree so that no one would know whose were whose from just looking at the packages. This seems like an awesome plan to me, though for now sort of impossible, as Baxter and I only buy for each other and I’m pretty sure we can figure out what was bought. But maybe next year I’ll have a party and buy gifts for a bunch of people just so that I can do that. Maybe I’ll convince my sister and Kari to come here for Christmas next year and then we can color coordinate.

The other? Miss Zoot‘s family has a tradition where they do a scavenger hunt for their big gift. When I was a kid, I mentioned that we would go to my grandparents’ house for Christmas eve, and open all of our gifts except for one, which would be under the tree the next morning when we got up, along with stockings. But how awesome would it be if that was replaced by a clue, and then you had to find the actual gift? It’s like an Easter Egg hunt on Christmas! This one I totally want to do. Added bonus? It works better if you do it in the morning, so people can do the hiding the night before and then you wake up to the gift, whih is awesome because I prefer not to wait during the day to get gifts.

Anyways, debate extravaganza begins tomorrow. I found a neat survey I’m probably going to take, so that should keep blog readers occupied tomorrow. Here’s to pretending that work is really a vacation, I guess.