Uncommon Holiday and Christmas Traditions

What does the holiday season and Christmas mean to you? If you pose that question to the majority of people more than likely you will get a pretty typical answer. A cookie cutter response is what most people would expect. The holiday season is filled with holiday cheer. That is what we generally see on television. All the shows portray Christmas Eve caroling in the neighborhood from door to door and spreading that cheer with everyone around us. I have to admit this is what I grew up with as the perfect holiday season. A home with mother, father, children and a host of extended family and friends was the way we celebrated the holiday season and Christmas. I grew up believing in Santa Clause and all that comes along with what that means. My family exchanged gifts and pulled out all the stops for an elaborate holiday meal. As I grew older I realized that all the pre holiday madness and mayhem did not live up to the expectation. After Christmas dinner and the opening of the gifts there was always a sense of sadness. Months of time invested into a culmination of approximately a few hours. I continued to grow weary of this tradition. I have to admit when a family has small children the holiday season and Christmas take on a totally different meaning. As my immediate family, brothers and sisters, began to have children the holiday season and Christmas became fun to see the wonder of Christmas through their eyes.

When I married, my husband and I had to decide what our holiday and Christmas traditions would become. It was not as if we sat down and discussed what type of traditions we would make our own but they just seemed to develop over time. I of course thought that our family would in turn become that of the traditional American family. Our holiday and Christmas would be filled with the same traditions as our families had, Christmas carols, decorations, Santa Claus, exchanging of gifts, friends, family, and elaborate holiday meals. Why would our holiday season and Christmas traditions be any different? Well there is a saying that sometimes things don't work out as planned. When we found out that we were not having children of course that destroyed our plans of having traditional holidays and Christmas. Rather than sulk in our lost dreams we needed to decide what our new traditions would be. The first year after moving across country and not being surrounded by any family we really needed to reevaluate our situation. My husband and I are both originally from the south and we began to miss some of those southern traditions by living on the West Coast. Our new found friends in California were not very familiar with Southern cooking so we had a light bulb moment. We should combine the two worlds. We decided to have a Southern holiday party. We invited our West Coast friends which have become our new family to a holiday dinner party filled with all of the Southern staples. Our friends tremendously enjoyed all of our southern foods. I can recall one of the most hilarious moments was when a friend asked us what was cabbage. I couldn't believe that they had never tasted cabbage. This has now become one of our new holiday and Christmas traditions. We organize and plan this party and our friends look forward to this festive event every year.

Our second tradition since moving to the West Coast is to attend the annual Lakers basketball game. The first year my husband gave me tickets to the game I thought to myself who really spends Christmas day at the Staples Center watching Kobe Bryant. Doesn't everyone spend Christmas Day at home with their family? I was a little hesitant but reluctantly went to the game. Upon entering the stadium we were among an enormous amount of people that could have cared less that it was Christmas by eating hotdogs and pretzels and drinking beer. I have to admit that I still think this is a little strange but soon got into the spirit of the game and thoroughly enjoyed myself. For four years we have made this our tradition. We still prepare a traditional Christmas meal. I don't think I would ever get accustomed to hotdogs and pretzels for Christmas dinner at Staples but immediately after having dinner we head out the annual Christmas basketball game. Go Lakers.

Although our holiday season and Christmas traditions are not typical they have become our tradition and that is exactly how we like it.