There are two kinds of people of the world: those annoyed by the Christmas season and people, like me, who could celebrate Christmas year round. I blame my parents.
They did their best to make sure each and every Christmas was over-the-top for my siblings and me. Moving away and making a family of my own didn’t change that either. When I go home, I still expect stockings over the fireplace, and I still have to make Christmas cookies using Grandma’s recipe. Luckily my husband is into this Christmas thang with me. Even if he weren’t, I’d be dragging him along.
That said, I’ve got five cheesy Christmas traditions that I know we’ll be putting our kids through year after year.
24 hours of 'A Christmas Story'
My sister and I like to think that we were hip to this movie way before it became popular. Aside from being one of the silliest movies of all time, watching "A Christmas Story" all day on Christmas is just comforting. There’s just something great about watching Flick get his tongue stuck on a pole that makes me never want to grow up. So yeah, sorry, kids. Don’t even think about touching that remote. We’re watching the entire 24 hours of Ralphie and his Christmas dreams. Deal with it.
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Passing out the gifts
Each year my mom picked who would be Santa. Santa’s role was to pass out the gifts, and we’d all sit around watching each other open them. I remember praying that my mom would forget my turn was coming up. You see, Santa got the short end of the stick. Santa couldn’t selfishly open his or her gifts one after another. That wouldn’t be fair. Santa ended up having to wait a good hour or so before s/he could really dig into the pile. It was torture, alright. And my kids will get to experience it!
I don’t think I will ever forgive my parents for those horribly lame pictures that were taken during the holidays.
Christmas stockings
We lived for the Christmas stockings in our homes. Even as teenagers, we knew that hitting the stockings were equivalent to hitting the jackpot. Gift cards, jewelry and even cash was often plentiful in those stockings with our names stitched in hard-to-read calligraphy. In college, I came to realize that no one actually puts stuff in their stockings. They are just for decoration. Whatever. We will definitely be stashing loot in our stockings this and every year.
Obligatory family photos
I don’t think I will ever forgive my parents for those horribly lame pictures that were taken during the holidays. Granted the '90s fashion wasn’t that bad (or was it?). But matching sweatshirts are never okay when your sister is five years younger than you. Is it any surprise, then, that I can’t wait to put my kids through this blackmail-worthy stuff?
Gifts from Santa
I get it. Many parents aren’t into their kids believing in Santa Claus. That’s fine. While we always grew up knowing the true meaning of Christmas, there was something magical about the idea of Santa Claus. That said, having gifts from Santa is about as cheesy as it gets, but yep, we’re doing it!
Got any cheesy traditions that I can add to my list?
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