Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!
When I was younger, I used to say that my favorite holiday was Christmas because of the presents, I mean what child doesn’t? Now that I’m older and “an adult” (let’s face it, I’m nowhere being one), I still say that Christmas is my favorite holiday, but definitely for different reasons. Christmas is my favorite holiday because I get to do all of the traditional stuff that either my family or I do! I’ve definitely created some of my own personal holiday traditions over the years, so here are some of the things I do every year during the holiday season:
- If I can, I put up all the Christmas house decorations and the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving or the weekend after. This year, I’ve managed to decorate my apartment with Christmas stuff, now I’m just waiting to have some time to put the actual tree up. (Edit: she’s up!)
- For as long as I could remember, my extended family would come together for Christmas and exchange gifts either before or after Christmas (one year, we exchanged Christmas gifts January 31st… yeah). When I was younger, though, we used to do it before Christmas and whenever my grandparents came into town, they would drop off me and my sister’s gifts at my house, and then take us to my aunt’s house to open the other gifts. I used to hate it when my grandmother would tell my mom that we weren’t allowed to open them before Christmas, and my sister and I knew that my grandparents spoiled us rotten. We got amazing gifts as children. We still do get amazing gifts, but we get to open them the day we see them nowadays.
- My family and I open Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. There’s no special reason why; we were literally impatient as kids and now we’re impatient grown adults. Personally, I never liked opening gifts on Christmas morning. I feel like presents should be open at nighttime after dinner; who wants to be groggy and tired opening gifts the morning after?
- Speaking of Christmas Eve, I’ve spent every Christmas Eve with Obie for the last six years. At first, it was just coincidental that we would hang out on Christmas Eve, but after the 3rd year of doing so, I made it my mission to always see him that day: 1.) to keep the tradition going and 2.) to give him his Christmas present. Let’s hope we do it again this year!
- When my sister and I were kids, my parents made Santa’s arrival really dramatic. One year, the whole fire-escape window was wide open and things were knocked down; another year a big ass garbage bag of gifts were left on our front porch as if Santa was the fucking UPS Delivery man, it was fun and honestly, I didn’t stop believing in Santa until… I was legit 10 years old.
- I guess I picked this up from my mother, but every Christmas I send out a couple of Christmas cards to some friends. I send cards to those people who I don’t really get to see anymore or anyone who lives far away now, but I always do it for the holiday spirit. I feel like people don’t send out cards anymore unless you’re that suburban family who lives in a wealthy neighborhood and buys every family member a different Hallmark card because they just got it like that. I felt like I just shook a whole community of people. I feel like some of my friends only get cards from me, and I really like to bring that aspect back into people’s lives again.
And that’s all of them! What are your Holiday Traditions?
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 