not something that is usually my style.  We always go to a Christmas Tree farm and pick out a tree.  Its usually a day long event as the tree farm has activities and then there's the decorating of the tree.  Well, this coming Sunday is the big day...and my daughter and her significant other who just bought the house are coming with the rest of the family to pick out their tree for their first year together in their new house.  

A not so sentimental pass-down:  fast food Fridays.  That was our big treat as kids when I was growing up...not a lot of choice in those days as I was a teenager by the time the first McDonalds rolled into our town...but, we still do this with our kids.  And no matter how old they are or what else they're doing, they'll show up on Friday evening to get their weekly fast food fix.

so he grew up ending every meal with fruit.  

I thought this was just good health habits, but it turns out that having your father peel you a grapefruit in individual sections is not universal.

I also do this for my family.  I love fruit after a meal.

I also grow herbs, as my mother took a class on them once and showed me what she learned and then I got hooked.

I also make pork chops smothered in mushroom soup gravy, like she taught me, and have this method of putting on panty hose or tights based on how she'd dress me, too.

I like to sit around after a meal and linger and get annoyed with people who pop up right after they finish eating to start clearing plates and washing dishes.  This is related to the peeling fruit thing, I think, and I remember having long discussions with my parents, especially my father, at the table over the wreckage of a shared meal.

yes those dreaded cakes that everyone makes fun of! now for any of you that have gotten the store bought kind that has likely been regifted for last 50 years...our fruitcake is delicious due to a long soaking in brandy. i helped my mom make them as a kid. now we are again doing it together now that she lives with me.  although i did them on my own too.

we are headed out tonight to buy trees.  one big one which will be loaded with all the decorations we have collected over the years plus ones my mother and i made together when i was a little girl.  we will also get a small tree which is for my dd as she has her own collection of ornaments.

we open our gifts on christmas eve which is a tradition carried forward from my childhood.  my 3 siblings and i were far apart in age, so the kids who stopped believing in santa got to open gifts with the adults on christmas eve and then we all got up with the youngest who stilled believed to watch the santa magic through the eyes of a believer early christmas morning.

i love the holidays, beginning with halloween.  and i am getting very sentimental now that dd is 17. where the hell did the time go?

On Christmas morning.
Everyone having their own ornaments to put on the tree, and everyone helping.
A real tree. The scent of pine needles. The constant vacuuming.

Non-Christmasy:
Never believing that you're sick until you have blood coming out of your eyes. "Just don't think you're sick, and you won't be!"
Never drinking anything but milk when you eat spaghetti. No idea why.

Christmas traditions are so important to my Mom, that I keep as many as I can, and started new ones with my 2.5yr DS.

Making at LEAST 20 kinds of cookies and candies to share with friends and family

Reading the Night Before Christmas before bed as a family

Putting out cookies for Santa and carrots with salt for the reindeer (my mom thought it they would like it!)

Hot cocoa and our clothes fresh out of the dyer after a romp in the snow

For my husband, eating peanut butter on bread with beef stew. Ick!

And, going to Grandmom's house!

Christmas has been kind of sad in this neck of the woods since my Busia died 4 years ago... she held up the tradition, and it hasn't been the same. I railed and moaned about in the year after she died- we weren't DOING things RIGHT. It wasn't CHRISTMAS. It SUCKED... on and on. I get it was part of grieving, but I have to say, growing up can suck at Christmas time. Both sides of my family have cheapened the days to remove pretty much everything except eating a lot and giving random, not-well-thought-out gifts (like, gift card exchange! For your... Family! Everyone uses $25 and then, exchange! how random!?!?)

As Lily gets older, I'm trying to force-feed some tradition. It's not working all that well. When she's a bit older we'll have to come up with some fun family thing to do- I would guess her Santa presents will be fun to open but the day won't have much sentimental meaning.

MiL decorates Christmas cookies with her granddaughters every year. It's a tradition she shared with her mother- I actually envy them their tradition!

Enough depressing stuff... I have to think about something good to post later.

Old:

We get a beautiful tree and then decorate it with white lights (only, very important) and the collection of ornaments from over the years.  Each year we received an ornament as children, a tradition we continued with our kids.  

For gifts:  Each year my family gave each child a special hardcover book, which we're also continuing with our kids.  Stockings were filled with a few special gifts and were given by people, not Santa Claus.  I think we may do the same, although we haven't decided yet.

For food:  Several cookies -- a rolled shortbread cookie, frosted cream cheese cookies and candied orange peel.

New -- on winter solstice we walk around and look at holiday lights, drink port or hot chocolate (depending on one's age) and the girls open the presents from us.  We leave our outside holiday lights on all night long in celebration of the shortest day of the year.

For food -- Dim Sum on Christmas Day!  Mmmmmmmmmmm......