Bruce and I started a new tradition when we got married. Actually, a year after we got married because our first Christmas tree was a fake one I picked up at Goodwill and didn’t love. Bruce and I had grown up differently in the tree department. My parents always had a fake tree in the garage that we brought out the day after thanksgiving – no fail. Bruce’s family always had a real tree that they picked up from the local grocery store and set up some time after thanksgiving. When I went into marriage, I found a really great deal on a fake tree at Goodwill for like $20 bucks and I grabbed it because I had never thought about the idea of a real tree. When we set it up and branches were falling off and it looked pretty – umm, fake – Bruce mentioned a real tree and I jumped on board with that!
I am a tradition queen. Growing up my family always made fun of me for that and also created a heavily traditioned family! We would do something once and next year at that time I would be like “Aren’t we going to buy Chinese food and eat it on the red table cloth on the floor for Valentines day like we did last year? It’s tradition!” and my parents would be like “Of course!” because I am so cute and you can’t turn down family time! Many traditions I have clung onto over the years – birthday complements around the table, Christmas breakfast before our Christmas play before opening presents (yes, the kids had to reenact the Jesus story every Christmas – tradition!), Chinese food on valentines day, operation shoe boxes, corn beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July in Buena Vista.. and I could go on.
Bruce is the baby in his family and his family has had several tradition series. His mom ( I just love this lady!) is the tradition reinforcer and in a hilarious family of independent kids, she always got some push back but stayed strong. Now that she has two daughter- in-laws, we have joined forces with her and maintain the Mayberry traditions (like gingerbread houses!)
Moving into married life has been fun. I am no longer the kid creating the traditions but I am the lady of the house who gets to drag everyone else into traditions! Bruce is not a big tradition person – my reasoning “it’s tradition!” doesn’t work as well on him as it did with my parents but I have learned some from Carol ( my mother-in-law) everyone has fun and enjoys it if you just make it the plan and expect people to be there 😉 So I made the tradition of getting our tree at Rick’s Garden Center (because we love shopping local) and we set up for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving because I love that. And Bruce loves it. And if we have kids like me or kids like him they will still love it because it is cool. Also, if it is two years in a row, it just has to be tradition now! Check out our year #1 Christmas Tree journey!
PS: Obviously bringing friends with us on our tree hunt has also become tradition. Because we like people!
So awesome! I'm the same way – I'm a sucker for turning anything into a tradition. It just makes it so much more… I don't know…. sentimental? I mean, you can turn any occasion (like chinese food eaten on the floor) into a tradition. Right? Sounds perfect.
I haven't bought a live tree in years, what with living in NYC and all, but next year hubby and I are definitely heading to a tree farm! As a kid, (there were 5 of us), we took turns going into the woods near our house, and each year the next person in line got to point out and pick the tree, and my dad would cut it down and drag it home. Fun story: One year my youngest brother decided our tree would be the top 6 feet of a 30 foot high white pine. Well, luckily my dad had his tree stand climbing equipment (for hunting) with him, because you can't break tradition.
Oh I love these pics!! So wish I could've been there again 😉 I heart traditions too! They are my favorite!
it is so fun being married & getting to create new traditions! one of our Christmas traditions is listening to Behold the Lamb! like every day of December! haha!
so. fun!
I haven't had a real tree in years. i just don't feel like dealing with the upkeep haha.
Maybe one day when i'm married a real tree will happen 😉
(also, LURVE that wreath)
AND Chinese food on valentines day? i might pick up that tradition!
(i know a family who does chinese food for breakfast every christmas morning!)
ah how fun! we always go into the mountains and literally hunt for ours. I love traditions too! But my husband could care less…but I suppose he tries hard for me! 🙂
I believe the best christmas tradition is the tree!
I wasn't huge on traditions until getting married. There was something about it being my OWN family that all of a sudden made traditions important to me. And now that I have little ones….well the need for traditions has just multiplied tenfold!
too fun! We did real trees growing up, but since being married we go with out little fake tree, which I really like. We almost bought a real tree our first year of marriage, but decided it would be better to save the money and buy a fake one that we can use every year.
I LOVE traditions and I'm so glad I'm not the only one! My husband seems to like them too which is always helpful. 🙂 I feel like we're still figuring out our own traditions as a married couple but one of my favorites from my family is going to church Christmas Eve and then driving around with hot chocolate to look at all the Christmas lights! 🙂
I was born on Christmas Eve, so my favorite tradition is that my husband and I go to Denny's at midnight on Christmas Eve to celebrate my birthday and get a free grand slam. It's so sweet because Christmas Eve is such a busy day for us, and our Denny's tradition keeps my birthday from getting lost in the shuffle. We don't really have any unique Christmas traditions except for "special" ornaments that we get or make each year to represent something. My mom started it after we were already older kids, so now she is still going back and filling in some years. I randomly found a Polly Pocket ornament on the tree this year and said something about it. She responded with, "oh, yeah. That was your ornament from when you were six." I just laughed because I know she must have found it on eBay this last year. It's so sweet though that she is filling in the gaps so I will play along. 🙂