Christmas Traditions

Traditions abound around the holiday season…picking out and decorating a tree, writing letters to Santa, making Christmas cookies, caroling, driving around to see the light displays, watching holiday movies, and spending time with people you love. Over the years our traditions have changed and I’m sure some of yours have too.

Searching for our Christmas tree, 2005

When I was growing up, my grandparents on my mom’s side were divorced and remarried which established some of our family Christmas traditions. (My dad’s parents spent the winter in Florida so we didn’t usually see them at Christmas.) We would attend Christmas Eve service with my grandpa and his family, followed by dinner and presents at his house. Christmas Day was then spent with my grandmother and her husband at our house. They would come over early in the morning for gifts and stay through dinner. I loved these get-togethers and all the people involved. We continued these traditions into my adulthood until my mom passed away.

At the beginning of our marriage, my husband and I tried to keep our family Christmas traditions alive by spending time in the Upper Peninsula with family, his mom and siblings in Detroit, and his dad and family in Kalamazoo. This many-mile triangle became too difficult to sustain once we had kids so we began alternating holidays…a new tradition. One year would be a Kari Thanksgiving with my family and a Sitkins Christmas with my husband’s family. The next year we switched. This tradition has continued for over 20 years, although in smaller gatherings due to life’s cycle.

We created our own traditions with Kyle and Elliott that ended once they moved out (or maybe when they were in high school, see side note)…finding and cutting down a tree, decorating it with Christmas music in the background, Christmas stockings before gifts, and eating monkey bread on Christmas morning. (Side note: Just because you have a tradition does not mean everyone enjoys it the same. I loved decorating the tree together, but I found out the males in this family did not feel the same!)

12 Days 2021

One family tradition I try to keep alive is the 12 Days of Christmas. Our version of the 12 Days is different from most. It begins on December 14 and each gift corresponds to the day…a pair of gloves could be day one (1 pair) or day two (two gloves) or day 10 (10 fingers). When the boys were young, it was much easier because they lived with us and many of the days were food items they wouldn’t normally get. These included Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, candy, bags of chips, and pop. We also gave them things like a $5 gift card, four quarters, 11 oz. of Pringles. Days 7 and 11 were often the hardest so we sometimes created coupons for movie rentals, books, or other things/activities we could do throughout the winter. As they got older, we added items like socks, deodorant, protein bars, and gift cards for fast food. My 12 Days of Christmas skills are being challenged even more now that they live on their own.

The Sitkins’ 12 Days of Christmas began when the boys were very young. I was a stay-at-home mom and was always looking for something to keep them busy (and learn in the process). The kids and I made things for Fred (their dad) that corresponded to the day…a wreath ornament with eight green balls, five songs they sang on a cassette tape, one play they performed, a coupon for three snow shoveling jobs or 10 back rubs, etc. After a couple of years, we started the 12 Days for the boys, and at some point, abandoned Fred’s but kept the tradition for Kyle and Elliott.

As our children move further into adulthood and have significant others, we will adjust to their schedules and the holiday traditions they create. One of those adjustments will be to the 12 Day of Christmas. They don’t know it yet, but one day the 12 Days tradition will move down a generation. Whether your traditions are just beginning, spans generations, or changing, I hope you find joy in every one of them.