Christmas Traditions, Part 1

"What are some Christmas traditions you had when you were growing up?" I've been asked a few times this year.

I have responded with a blank stare, then a slow response. "On Christmas morning, there would be presents under a large fake coniferous tree, and we would open them." Okay, I've never said that, but I have drawn a blank an embarrassing amount. (So much, in fact, that I turned down a chance to give a brief talk during Sacrament Meeting this Sunday, explaining, "I'm not very good at Christmas.")

And this year, I haven't been super great at it yet, though it had a promising start. We got all of our Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving (the snow came down and the tree came up -- it's Newton's third law of physics). The first week of December I attended a Christmas white elephant party and hosted a Christmas carol party, complete with wassail. But the next day I noticed a tickle in my throat, and both Matthew and I got hit hard with a bad cough and cold.

So that put a damper on things. I mean, it's not like you really want to go walking around with plates of cookies saying, "Here, have these rhinovirus laced treats!" (And it's not like we'd eat them ourselves . . . I may as well be mixing toothpaste into all of our treats for how much Kevin likes any sort of mint, and that and gingerbread are the two treats I think of when it comes to Christmas.) And all those books Kevin checked out of the music library for me with old English and Latin and French carols? I would be singing them in Phlegmish instead if I could sing at all. So the past week and a half hasn't felt terribly much like Christmas time (except for when Joseph and I would sit and watch these).

But it's actually been a good thing because it's helped me realize that my family actually had tons of traditions, none of which I'm carrying on this year. It turns out poinsettias and advent calendars don't just spontaneously appear, nor do games of "Warmer, Colder" with baby Jesus start on their own. Christmas books don't check themselves out of the library, tickets to the Nutcracker don't buy themselves, and even Christmas specials like Rudolph have to be found on YouTube before they get watched.

So yeah, my family actually did a ton for Christmas. There were decorations, foods, service projects, concerts, parties, movies, stories, nightly readings, all of it. I think I was just so busy as a teenager with AP projects and Christmas concerts that I forgot that we did anything. (Actually, that's also why I didn't think I did any extracurricular activities until I realized that choir and piano lessons and play practice counted as extracurriculars.)

Oddly enough, being able to remember how much we did for Christmas has helped take the pressure off for this year. Can't quite say why. Maybe it's that we still have time to tweak and add traditions -- nothing has to be perfect when your oldest is only 3 years old. Maybe it's that the process of forgetting and remembering traditions has helped highlight what matters most about Christmas. And, to be honest, since that's stressed me out too (I can't fix everything in the world and my ward for Christmas, and it drives me crazy), it's helped me realize that something is always better than nothing -- you are allowed to carol empty handed.

All that said, it's still nice to not have to give that talk on Sunday.