Christmas in Our House

Posted at Dec 24, 2013 10:19 pm

The Christmas Eve dinner of my family tradition, first grade heritage project version.

The Richland family combines cultural and food traditions ranging from the Eastern European Christmas Eve dinner of twelve dishes handed down on my side, to Mr. Richland’s more Anglo-Canadian Christmas Day feast of roasted meat and Yorkshire puddings.

Ornaments that once hung on my grandparents’ tree now decorate ours, and an advent calendar gifted from my husband’s family hangs in a place of honor in our front window … although Mr. Richland would probably call it a place of honour.

But as a family we’ve created new traditions that belong only to our little unit. We save the nicer pieces of used wrapping paper, and a few days after Christmas the children and I rewrap all the annual Christmas books. They have permission to use all the tape they want, and to write goofy messages on the rewrapped books. Next year they’ll open a book a day leading up to Christmas, and savor each one again. Even the board books get a re-read each Christmas.

Our annual Christmas toy wreath.

Our other tradition is a live wreath decorated with small toys that I wire in place. I started this when the Big Boy was two years old, and the return of the toy wreath reminds me of the Island of Misfit Toys happily going to new homes.

You’re welcome to borrow my book rewrap idea, and I’d love to hear about a tradition you started.

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