I wish I could start with a story about a wonderful family Christmas tradition that I grew up with.
Sure, we opened presents together as a family.
There were stockings hung on the mantel.
We decorated a REAL Christmas tree and tried to keep the dog and cat off it. But I didn't grow up with any specific tradition of sitting in the living room with Dad reading the Christmas story from the Bible.
Even the years we baked Christmas cookies was spotty.
When I married my husband eight and a half years ago, I knew right away that I wanted to start a Christmas tradition that we could share.
With each other, and with a future family if we ever decide to have one.
We decided that every year we would choose a new Christmas ornament.
It can be whatever we want. Cheap, expensive, funny, religious, handmade — they're all game as long as we BOTH love it.
That's the only rule.
We generally try to find something that reflects our year, but sometimes it's just something that jumps off the shelf and into our arms.
A selection of our ornaments...
2004 was the first Christmas we were married. We found this little gingerbread guy at Pier 1 Imports. I'm sort of amazed he hasn't broken yet. But this is why we take pictures...
2005 was the cheapest ornament. We got it at the dollar store. Pretty though.
2008 was the year we moved to NYC.
2010 was the year I started my Christian greeting card company. We figured a nativity on a scroll was about as close as we were gonna get to representing that. This year, we moved from NYC to Santa Fe.
We've seen a few locally made ornaments that might make their way to our tree this year, but so far we haven't made a purchase. My favorite is the dried chili pepper painted with a Santa face complete with chili-pepper-length white beard.
Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Did you grow up enjoying them or have you started any of your own?
How have your traditions shaped your memories of Christmas?
- Thanks to Chrissy for letting me take over her blog today! Wishing you all a very merry Christmas season!
Stephanie Hinderer is a Georgia peach who got married and moved north, and a few years later wound up in New York City. She works on Wall Street, but not with numbers. She designs everything from covers to local news to entertainment for Metro newspapers in Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Every year, Stephanie and her husband struggled to find Christmas cards that conveyed the message of Christ’s birth while at the same time being … cool. They wanted Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. They wanted simpler, better-looking cards — and a lot less glitter.
So she decided to design them and share them with you. RedLetterPaperCo.com
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