Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The world stole my Christmas traditions.

And I let it.
I let
new carpet, drought and a chewing puppy take my live Christmas tree tradition.
I let the internet take my all in one day holiday shopping tradition.
I let gift cards take my homemade gift tradition.
I let the cost and hassle of airline travel take my go home for Christmas tradition.
I let traffic and drunk drivers take my Christmas Eve light display tradition.
I let the Catholics take my midnight mass tradition.
I let pre-packaged healthy dog treat manufacturers take my dog biscuit baking tradition.
I let teachers take my Christmas craft and ornament making tradition.
I let Portrait Studios take my themed Christmas photo tradition.
I let email take my Christmas card mailing tradition.
I let Publix take my pie baking tradition.
I let The best of Celebrity Christmas Songs Live take my caroling tradition.
I let the secret Santa tree at the grocery store take my secret stranger gift tradition.
I let The South take my Frosty the Snowman building tradition.
I let gift bags and tissue paper take my pretty box in comics wrap tradition.
I let fancy restaurants take my invite them for dinner tradition.
I let the dry cleaner take my press Grandmother's hand embroidered tablecloth tradition.
I let someone pulling a name out of a hat take my give to all Christmas tradition.
I let time take my read a section of the Christmas story every night tradition.
Last year, I even let Medieval Times take my turkey roasting and serving tradition.


Are you like me? When the kids come home from school with that dreaded essay to write about family traditions, how do you react? I am embarrassed to admit I am a sell out. I think some traditions are more effort than they are worth-- when decking the halls means clutter and hanging ornaments is a battle between kids and putting up lights is a day long project that never seems to come out how we planned, and baking cooking and decorating them is another mess and the people you want to give them to just left on a cruise and the church has decided there won't be a late service because Sunday and Tuesday are too close together...

I know you should move at the pace of the world if you don't want to left behind, but I need SOMETHING to keep. I need ONE thing (besides my newsletter parody) to call OURS. To keep as a tradition from this year forward.

Can I borrow one of yours?





6 comments:

Churlita said...

We've had to change ours around as the girls have gotten older and have their own lives. WE still get a live tree and I'm taking a half day off on Friday so we can see a fun holiday movie and do some last minute shopping.

Badness Jones said...

We're still in the midst of making traditions for our own family....Hubs isn't that attached to his family traditions, but I am to mine and am finding blending all the families difficult. But I like baking cookies with the kids, and I love my real tree....my favourite tradition? One that might be right up your alley? (Given the 'pornament' thing and all...) The yearly 'christening' of the Christmas tree....after the kids have gone to bed of course!

The Lady Who Doesn't Lunch: said...

You can borrow a couple of ours:
1. Shrimp cocktail on Christmas Eve with lots of horsradish in the sauce.
2. Strong bloody mary's on Christmas morning with jumbo olives and extra celery.

We also watch that channel on TV that shows nothing but a crackling fire.

Victoria said...

We tradition ourselves right to the edge! (And love every insane moment! LOL!)

Oh, and Badness - doesn't everyone "christen" their Christmas tree? *grin*

Karen MEG said...

There is just so much *stuff* going on this time of year, it is hard to really think of things to hang on to. A very thoughtful post.
I love Christmas morning when the kids are opening presents, and one of the things I most look forward to for myself is a big whoppin' piece of my sister-in-law's awesome coffee cake, with a nice hot coffee. I think sometimes we've even had champagne and orange juice. Hey, maybe I'll have to do that this year, as we're hosting!

Unknown said...

Fun holiday movie- that's my idea of a good tradition. My son wants to rent all the Tim Allen Santa Clause's and do a marathon.

Oh yeah, the tree christening sounds promising.

Bloody Mary's and shrimp. You speak my language. done. At our gift exchange someone gave one of those crackling fire dvd and matching music sets, I can't stop thinking about it.
I may start the mimosas early. i bought a coffee cake for Thanksgiving morning and it looked more like cinnamon buns- not that anyone complained. i need my own recipe I think.

thanks for all the input, though I might be dead by Xmas...