Christmas Traditions

Here in Belgium, it is traditional for children to celebrate St Nicholas on December 6. The tradition goes that St Nicholas keeps a record to see if the children have obeyed their parents, were nice to their siblings, and were generally “good” throughout the previous year. On St Nicholas Eve (December 5) children put their shoes or a small basket near the hearth or beside the door with carrots, turnips, and a sugar lump for the saint’s horse and a glass of wine for St Nicholas (we are in Europe, after all). In the morning the offerings have been eaten up and replaced with chocolates, cookies, fruit, and small toys. Traditionally, no names are put on the gifts – they are meant to be shared by all the children in the household.

The idea of celebrating something “Santa-ish” on December 6 so that we can focus on Christ’s birth on Christmas is very appealing to me. Also, the idea of reinforcing sharing during a season ripe with a “wonder what I’m gonna get?” mentality seems worth considering.

The thing is, our family is trying to come up with some Christmas traditions of our own this year. Always before, we would make the trek back to Iowa to celebrate with both sides of our family. Since everyone lives minutes apart, it was enough of a task to make sure we got to each side’s festivities in turn and were equitable with our time. Since we were never “on our own” for Christmas, our traditions were our family’s traditions.

Now we are thousands of miles away and that trek to Iowa just isn’t possible this year. So, we are trying to come up with something that will make our Christmas time special. Something that our kids can look back on someday and say, “we always do _______ at Christmas!”. I have no idea yet what that blank spot will be, but we are working on it.

It is a little crazy to think that "T" and I have been married over 12 years and this is the first time we have had to think about this. But this is the first time we have been unable to get back to our families, so... now is the time.

Will we have a breakfast smorgasbord like my family or will we have a muti-soup lunch theme like "T's" family? I don’t know. Since the kids are so little, I think we will have a “no presents out until Christmas morning” thing - just to make sure nothing gets unwrapped early. Everything else is still up for grabs.

Whatever we come up with, I can only hope that years from now our kids appreciate our traditions as much as "T" and I have savored the one’s our parents gave to us.