Inventing Christmas

Every family gets to create its own traditions for the winter holiday season. With Christmas approaching this year, I have realized that Frederic and I get to start with a blank page, by name of Eliot, and design Christmas for our family- keeping traditions from our parents, and adding in new elements of our own.

At my dad's house, I can remember as a kid helping Debbie decorate the tree while my dad and brother fought with tangles of lights to decorate the house. Once both teams were done, we'd settle in for "Ernest Saves Christmas" and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

At my mom's house, Christmas means boxes and boxes of decorations- I usually was in charge of arranging the team of reindeer. It means going through cookbooks to find recipes, quadrupling them, and feeding a huge crowd.

When I was at the Air Force Academy, my host family had a great tradition. Since baby Jesus received three presents, each of their four kids received three presents as well.

I'd like to steal from my family the traditions of big meals, handmade ornaments, trees, and stockings, and I think the three present idea is a great way to keep the holiday from escalating in terms of materialism and money spent!

I'd like to add in a special nod to the Winter Solstice, a celebration to welcome back the sun. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Every day after that includes a few minutes more of sunlight. Maybe a small gift related to nature- a packet of seeds, a bird feeder... would be a fun way to acknowledge the turning of nature's wheel.