What Are Your Holiday Traditions?

 I was thinking today about holiday traditions — what we do and others do...

It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without:

- Hosting Christmas Eve. My grandmother hosted, then my mom, then we took it over. My aunt and uncle might prefer that we all spent Christmas Eve in Hawaii someday (hey, that's not a bad idea...), yet here we are. The whole meal, starting with a specialty cocktail, then we open Christmas crackers, then the meal including lefse (Patrick is, after all, America's Best Black Lefse Maker), then presents, and everyone takes home a bottle of wine (that was my dad's tradition we carry on).

- Giving the pets cream so they talk on Christmas Eve. And of course stockings for the animals.

- "Little Christmas Eve" —  aScandinavian smorgasbord with my aunt and uncle and cousins and their kids.

- An Advent calendar.

- Decorating the house (some years more than others). Today I did the back window boxes and I like them. And ALWAYS a real tree.

- Seeing a live Christmas show (at least one). Of course, this is on steroids since now Patrick works a Christmas show. But this year we have seen Solstice, and The Velveteen Rabbit, and Beatrix has seen The Nutcracker, and we still hope to get to The Snowy Day. (the pic is from when Beatrix was IN The Nutcracker with her friend Flannery, who danced Clara this year for the second year in a row!)

- Norwegian dance, including Baking Day and dancing at the European Christmas Market. Thanks, Sasha, for the introduction all those years ago!

- A Secret Santa exchange with various groups of internet friends.

- Seeing some kind of holiday tv show. It started the year we went to try to see the Christmas Train when Beatrix was tiny, but it was bonkers and we could not find parking, and she fell asleep in the car, so we came home to watch The 12 Dogs of Christmas (if you haven't seen it, you should check it out).

- Shopping at small holiday craft markets.

- Some kind of donation to charity; this year was a toy drive, a food drive, a targeted drive for families at Beatrix's old school, and I think we might chip in some money to a friend's effort to directly buy generators for people in Ukranian towns whose electricity has been out (let me know if you want in on that).

- Holiday parties. Damn, I missed these during covid. It's been nice to have some back this year.

- Baking, at least enough to have some to do a cookie exchange with. My mom used to bake 20 different kinds of cookies; I rely on cookie exchanges and everyone seems happy enough. (disclaimer: this pic is actually from Baking Day at Norwegian dance, but you get the idea...)

- Driving around to see Christmas lights. Sometimes my mom used ot rent a limo to take us around, but I'm fine just driving and looking.

- Playing Patrick's "A Christmas List" mix. It's a work of art.

- Fraser fir candles.

- An eggnog coffee drink out somewhere.

- The Year-End challenge at Yoga and a Pint. Viv is the absolute best...

- Visiting my mom's grave on Christmas Day.

- "All is Calm" on Christmas Day — AND YOU ARE INVITED! We started this is 2018 and then there was this pandemic after the 2019 version but it's back. Christmas Day afternoon we put out some snacks and light a fire and hang out and read. You can stop by, and talk quietly, or read, or just hang out. It's the ultimate in Christmas mellow.

Things We Do Sometimes But Not Enough - Or We Want to Try:

- A Yule Log. So tasty, and my family's holiday missive used to be "The Hanafin Yule Log."

- Sending holiday cards. We just don't often get around to it, but we love the ones people send us. This year I did a mini exchange with my #uglydogs group ( a dog mashing group I met on Twitter) which was really fun.

- Making caramel corn from my friend Geri's recipe. So good!

- The British Arrow Awards. We've gone once in person and one or two time streaming. So much fun!

- Holidazzle — I can't believe I have not been since we would ALWAYS go to the 8th floor of Dayton's and have dinner and see the parade.

- Holiday lights events. We did Bentleyville one year and Glow last year and this year did the New Orleans drive-through at City Park.

- Going out for holiday cocktails. We have not been to Miracle at Lawless since it started.

- Luminaria on Summit and in Crocus Hill, less of a tradition now....

- Obviously we don't do the tiny kid things like Santa Tracker or seeing Santa now, but I miss them. Thinking of taking Brutus to see Santa.

- One of my clients used to have a really fun Christmas party, and I miss that.

- We don't tend to do Christmas lights ourselves; there's not good outlet outside and I don't think of it when it's warm and others are hanging them.

- Some year it would be fun to sneak away for a few days before/after Christmas to a cabin in the woods (or maybe the beach...)

- Ugly Christmas sweaters. I have one, just never think to wear it.

- Making Christmas presents. I always have big dreams, but never seem to have the time.

- Gingerbread houses.

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What about you? What are your "must dos?" Your sometimes? The things you would just as soon jettison?