My wife did not think I was in a properly festive frame of mind to pass along a proper Christmas message this week (I think the term "grumpburger" was used at one point), so she offered to send some cheer your way.
Since my wife the Christmas Crazy has more holiday spirit than anyone else on this planet, I thought it might be a good idea. From Krista:
The Christmas season has always been my favorite time of year. I love seeing Christmas lights on houses, trees through front windows, and wreaths on doors. I love the smell of freshly baked cookies, the sound of family all trying to talk at once, and the sight of so many people I care about coming together at one time. I love seeing wrapping paper all over the floor and kids scattered among the mess excited about their new treasures.
Every Christmas is new and exciting for me, and special in its own way. But it's the traditions that make Christmas different than other celebrations.
As far back as I can remember, the women in my family have gotten together a week or two before Christmas to dip chocolate. We dip cherries, pretzels, homemade toffee and anything else we think might be tasty covered in chocolate. We divide up the chocolate and give the candies as gifts. Anything we have left over is dessert on Christmas Day.
Jeremy's family loves Christmas cookies. His grandmother spends one entire day baking sugar cookies in Christmas shapes and covering them with a mound of homemade icing. To Jeremy, it isn't Christmas until he has had at least one Christmas cookie (or 20). His grandmother always sends us home with a bag of cookies that are supposed to last a few days more, but they never do.
Every child in my family had a handmade Christmas stocking. My mother, who couldn't learn to sew on a button, made stockings for my brother and I out of felt and sequins. Jeremy and I now have two boys, and although I have to admit that their stockings were a gift from a close family friend, they too have handmade felt and sequin stockings hanging from our mantle waiting for Santa to arrive.
We celebrate Christmas Eve every year with Jeremy's family at his grandmother's home. We will likely be greeted at the door by the excited voices of the kids, waiting to track Santa on TV. We will eat way too much food, including at least two different kinds of stuffing with Christmas cookies for appetizers and dessert. There will be a fire in the fireplace regardless of the temperature outside, and then there will be a mad dash to the Christmas tree to open presents. Once everyone is full and the wrapping paper mess is mostly cleaned up, the real fun begins. The entire family will play games together late into the night.
On Christmas Day we celebrate with my family. We will once again eat until we can't imagine eating anymore, and this time we will finish with something dipped in chocolate.
We talk, usually all at once. The games in my family start when the presents are exchanged. We go one by one and the order changes every year. Sometimes the order is determined by age, sometimes alphabetically by middle initial, and sometimes we simply go counterclockwise as we sit around the living room.
Every year, the presents themselves are a surprise. My family is full of pranksters, and we tend to get joke gifts for each other in addition to thoughtful gifts.
My brother once received some money from my aunt. Every dollar he got was in the form of nickels and pennies that had been covered in honey, oatmeal and syrup and dumped in a can. He turned around the next year and gave my vertically challenged aunt stilts made out of empty bean cans and rope.
One year it was my mother who was in charge of bringing the cherries to dip on our chocolate-making day. She brought about 10 times too many, and it became the joke we kept going back to that Christmas season. When my mom opened her gifts that year, everything she opened had cherries on it. We enjoy making fun of each other and taking time to be together.
This year, I get to start passing these traditions on to my boys. I hope that one day, they look forward to this holiday for the same reason I do. Because no matter what happens during the rest of the year, I know that Christmas will always bring our family together. Whatever your Christmas traditions are, I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy ours.
"For Christmas is tradition time
Traditions that recall
The precious memories down the years,
The sameness of them all."
Helen Lowrie Marshall
Jeremy A. Corley is the managing editor of the Van Alstyne Leader and The Anna-Melissa Tribune. Krista Corley is his wife of eight years.