What Unique Family Traditions Do You Enjoy at Holiday Time?

Honoring family traditions during Christmas time is so comforting for me. It is what I look forward to every year. What unique family traditions do you enjoy at holiday time?

When the kids were younger, we went to Breakfast with Santa. Gosh, I loved that! We’d get them dressed in their Christmas finery and go to Applebees for breakfast. Santa would show up on a firetruck. The entire restaurant would go nuts once we heard the siren and knew Santa had arrived. It was so much fun!

That tradition faded as Erin and Michael got older. No worries, though; we quickly replaced it with multiple other practices.

Family Traditions

• Cutting down our Christmas Tree at Maple Row Farm
• Dad decorates outside, and Mom decorates inside the house
• Making cookies with my sister
• Throwing a holiday brunch party
• Going to see a Christmas Light display as a family
• Attending 4 pm Christmas Eve Mass at Our Lady of Victory Church
• Celebrating Christmas Eve with the Kennedy family at Mary & John’s house
• Running outside to see Santa on the Bellerose Village Firetruck
• Exchanging gifts during chaos in the living room
• Eating a delicious meal followed by the hard icing layer cake cousin Kathleen brings every year
• Finishing the night with either Kelly’s cookies or Aunt Anna’s cream puffs (sometimes both)
• Sleeping in on Christmas morning
• Eating a big breakfast followed by (sometimes preceded by) Cinnabons
• Leisurely opening gifts together
• Heading out to dinner at either Barbara and Don’s or Eda and Lou’s house

Cutting Down Our Tree

We have a lot of traditions, and practicing them is very special to me. I love spending this time with my family. We cut our tree down every year at Maple Row Farm in Easton, CT. https://www.mrfarm.com/

We have been cutting down our trees for more than ten years now. We always count the trees we see on people’s cars on the highway on the two-hour drive there. It’s a silly thing to do, but it’s fun and makes the ride seem shorter. Many times we have counted over 100 trees!

Our son drove us in his pick-up truck this year, so we didn’t have to attach the tree to the car’s roof. It was great to toss the tree in the back of the truck and be on our way. I’m usually nervous that the tree will blow off the car on our way home. Not anymore!

Do you go somewhere and cut down a Christmas tree? It’s always an adventure! The trees never look as big on the farm as in your living room. We’ve had some doozies over the years!

Mary (my sister) and I will get together and bake cookies. I always make the peanut butter kiss cookies, and she makes the shortbread ones dipped in chocolate. Do you bake cookies for the holidays? What is your favorite? Have you made any yet?

Changing Up the Party

My husband and I love to entertain. While living in Chicago, we started the tradition of a holiday brunch party in the early ’90s. We continued it once we returned to Long Island in 2001. The brunch grew yearly to the point where we would host 80-100 people. It was a blast!

Unfortunately, we no longer live in a house that can accommodate such a crowd. So this year, we are having a siblings’ brunch instead. Sometimes you have to adapt your traditions as situations change in your life.

I was very bitter that we could no longer have our big brunch for the past couple of years. My breast cancer forced us to downsize, and the house we live in now is just too small for that big of a party. Thankfully, I am past the bitter feelings and am grateful to have our family over for an intimate brunch.

Life happens. Adapt. Embrace change, and make the most of everything that comes your way.

Nick Jonas

Due to unforeseen circumstances, have you changed any traditions over the years? How did you adapt?

Did you have family traditions you honored while growing up? One memory that is very dear to me is our fake fireplace (if you could even call it that). We had a bookcase in our living room that my mother would cover in red and white brick-like cardboard, so we had a place to hang our stockings. It was very cheugy, as the Gen Z’s would say, but such a great memory!

Family Recipes

Of course, I also have a food memory. My mom made the best Swedish meatballs. They were so delicious! I have her recipe card box, so I attempted to make them myself five years ago. Holy hats, it was a lot of work! I had no idea it was that time-consuming. God bless her for having the patience to make them every Christmas.

Frozen turkey meatballs and homemade sauce work perfectly for me now. While they do not taste half as good as Mom’s, they can be made much quicker! Do you have any favorite family recipes that have been handed down to you? Can you successfully duplicate them?

The older I get, the quicker the year seems to go. It’s only three weeks until Christmas. I still have an incredible amount of shopping and preparation ahead of me. I couldn’t be happier. I love Christmas time and all the “feels” that come with it.

I have a wonderful husband, two great kids that were miracles (thank you, fertility drugs), and the best family around. Christmas is a time to revel in traditions and thank God for our blessings. I sincerely hope you enjoy this season with your family.

Please let me know your favorite or most unique family tradition in the comments below.

Merry Christmas!