Christmas Traditions

We've had seven Christmas' together as a family, but I still don't feel like we have a lot of traditions yet. We do all of the traditional things, like baking and decorating cookies, decorating the tree together, watching certain Christmas specials and movies, getting new Christmas pajamas, etc., but nothing particularly unique to our family. This year I started something new that I hope will be something the kids will look forward to each year, and remember once their grown up. I decided to sew the kids' each a Christmas pillowcase that we would pull out each year with the Christmas decorations, and they could use throughout the Christmas season. I know that that was the kind of thing I would have loved as a kid. I bought the fabric in secret, carefully choosing fabric that suited each of them, and sewed them one evening after the kids were asleep. The plan was to give them to them on the first night of the Christmas season, which to me starts when the tree is set up :) 

 

 Somehow I got the idea that rather than wait until Christmas eve to give them their Christmas pajamas, I should give them at the beginning of the Christmas season, so that they'd have all month to wear them. I had also chosen each of them a new Christmas book for our collection, and a Christmas ornament that represented something about them this year. I decided that I'd wrap them up in their newly sewn Christmas pillowcases, and have them waiting under the tree for them, on the night that we decorated the tree. Stu gave them baths downstairs, then they came upstairs to these..

 It was a memorable, peaceful night and I'm happy that I thought to record it with pictures. I look forward to picking out new Christmas pajamas, books, and ornaments each year, and delivering them on that first Christmas night in their original Christmas pillowcases. I'm guessing that next year they will have possibly forgotten, but I hope that in time it will be something they anticipate and look forward to each year :)