Have a Family Tradition

Being a Christmas grump for many years, I have always had a little tradition of my own around the festive period to perk up my cheer and get me into the Christmas mood.  This, admittedly, was on Christmas Eve so the cheer was a just on the cusp of being Grinchian, but it was better late than never.

This tradition goes back a few years and involves my favourite Christmas story told in the best possible way, The Muppet's Christmas Carol.  Taking Dicken's classic tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge, adding in the comedic talents of Jim Henson and his motley crew and then flourish with a superb soundtrack and you have an ultimate Christmas Classic.

I pour myself a glass of port (or two) and sit down to watch, sing, laugh and shed a little tear.

When I met Clare, her view of Christmas was far from my own.  The Yule Season is one to be giddy, joyous and celebratory for the whole of December.  The tree goes up early in the month, the Christmas films start, and the wrapping begins. This began to rub off on me too, but the Scrooge like qualities still remained in the background.

This is where one of our family traditions began.  When in Los Angeles, we stumbled across a Christmas Store, 365 days of the year it was Christmas Day.  Giddy as anything, Clare ran inside (whilst dressed in summer clothes and was in Christmas heaven).  We purchased our first holiday Christmas Bauble, something for our tree that would remind us of the great times on holiday. This was then followed by a purchase in San Diego and Las Vegas including the M&M world and Coca-Cola World.  From then on, every holiday we go on, be it far afield or on home turf, if we class it as a holiday (rather than a weekend break) we purchase a decoration for our tree.

Each year, when putting up the focal decoration point, we reminisce over previous holidays as each adornment is added.  A glittering golden Colosseum, a San Diego sandal, a Czech egg, Krakovian Angel, the list keeps on growing and growing.  Every holiday destination now involves a hunt for the new feature.

With the birth of our daughter, Isabella, Christmas has a whole new meaning and with it the traditions of old were added to new and special traditions.

We now have a Christmas Eve box, which contains new Christmas PJ's and a few little treats to prepare for the visit from the big man in the red suit.  Add this to the annual tradition of sitting to watch The Muppet's Christmas Carol and the day just becomes perfect, oh, and don't forget the port.

On Isabella's first Christmas Eve, we went to a local carol mass hosted by local children in the area, not being religious, this was not normally something I would attend, but seeing how happy Clare was and how close knit the community feeling was, I can see this being added to the Christmas Eve celebration.

Outside of Christmas traditions, but remaining strong with our family love of travel, Clare has started her own little tradition and it has already become something of a work of art.  With us visiting so many countries and going on as many holidays as possible, we both want Isabella to have a similar passion to see the world.  Clare came up with the idea of Isabella's Travel Book, in which pictures, postcards, maps, memories and a little love is added to each page.  Clare is currently designing and adding to volume 1 at the moment which I know will be followed by multiple volumes in the future. Our dream is this to continue as a family tradition but Isabella become more and more involved in each addition choosing the knick-knacks to adorn the pages.

I am sure there will be more events that become tradition as our baby girl grows up, but to start with, these are already magical.