Christmas Tradition and Why It's Necessary

Sometimes it seems daunting.  The idea of dragging all the Christmas decorations out of the basement, up the stairs, to hang, arrange, primp and fuss with, only to do it all in reverse again in a few weeks.  It's a lot of work.  In my line of work, the possibility exists that I could assemble and decorate at least 10 trees before I ever start on my own house.  It would be easy for me to say "forget about it".  But why do I do it? It's tradition, and in today's world, tradition doesn't seem to have the same pull it used to.  Yes, I am admitting it right here and now.  I DON'T THINK YOU HAVE TO QUESTION EVERY LITTLE THING IN THE WORLD.  IT REALLY IS OKAY TO DO SOME THINGS JUST BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS HAVE.
Traditions connect us to who we are and where we have come from.

There really isn't a day that goes by that something I see, something I might hear or smellwill take me somewhere else in time.  Somewhere, when ,(dare I say) life was much simpler. 
 
Most of my early Christmas memories revolve around family.  The Christmas season began, officially with the arrival of the JCPenney Wish Book, along with Sear's and Montgomery 
Ward.  I would search the pages for hours deciding which gifts I had to ask Santa for and then after the Thanksgiving dishes were cleared from the table, I would set about making my list.  Catalogs spread open, I would carefully craft my list with page number, item number, color choice (if necessary) and perhaps any other comments necessary for Santa and all the other gift givers.  
I don't remember whose tree was up first, but we always helped my Grandma Cleer decorate hers.  It was an artificial tree that had these long pieces that had a lot of branches connected to them, you would just place the hooks in the ring and plop the top on and in no time flat....Christmas tree.  I have so many vivid memories (pretty good for someone my age) and one of them is laying inside the empty Christmas tree box watching "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" on her console tv that had push buttons (like a radio) to change the channel (all 4 of them).  She had an angel that was made from paper and it had these silky hair things that for some reason I remember being dangerous....that could be a not so vivid memory, but in my mind, you weren't supposed to touch the hairs....or maybe you weren't supposed to eat them....I don't really know.

The tree at our house was also artificial....my nosey sister discovered that the empty box made a wonderful spot for hiding Christmas gifts from nosey children....or should I say girl children.  I didn't have to worry about being nosey, my private detective sister would fill me in on all the goods she discovered.  Our stockings were always hung on each side of the window on the hooks that held the draperies back....I mean we didn't have a fireplace (except for one of those cardboard ones) so where else could they go?  
Which also always brought about the question....."How does Santa come down our chimney if we don't have fireplace for him to get out?"  We had lots of plastic Santa figurines that lit up and even a Frosty the Snowman, which I still have in my posession today.  We received what seemed like truckloads of Christmas cards.  We would tape them all around the doorways into the living room.  People just don't take the time to write a card these days....sad.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandma and Grandpa Utsinger's house.  All my dad's siblings and my cousins crammed into their little pink house,  My Grandma would always have a canned ham and a pink angel food cake with silver dragees covering it.  I have another vivid memory of that time.  We had left my grandparents and gotten home and I remember being outside waiting for my dad to unlock the door and thinking how bright and calm the sky was.  Even then the world seemed peaceful.  Then as quickly as that Hallmark moment came I started to get a bit scared thinking about a stranger coming into our house as we slept, even if he was leaving a stash of presents......

Christmas day we would arise to find what Santa had delivered.  Well, my sister would arise and then wake me up, (why she was in such a hurry to get up I don't know, I mean she probably knew everything she was getting anyway) then  the calamity would wake my mom and dad up.  We would play with our toys, load up the one's that we couldn't last the day without and head to my Grandma Cleer's for breakfast.  Breakfast always consisted of Yum Yum Coffee Cake, and sausage links.....I don't know where that came from, but we still have it today (an important family tradition).  We would unwrap gifts and then play and nap until lunch which was always too much too soon.

My grandma had a cast of characters that lived in her neighborhood.  "Burt" lived across the street and every year he would give my sister and I those "books" of Lifesaver candies.  Peggy , my grandma's next door neighbor would knit us slippers, along with Mr & Mrs. B who would send over a tray of candy...most of it, while interesting looking, held no appeal to me ( I didn't have such a vast culinary palette back then).  My grandma would have shoe boxes filled with candies she had made...again, not much that interested me except the Peanut Butter Bon Bons.   Sometimes you could find a stray box of bon bons in the broom closet all the way up until Easter.   Late in the evening, exhausted from a long day, we would head home, another Christmas come to an end.

The point I'm getting at is that all these memories, all these things were part of my tradition.  They made me who I am.  We still have Yum Yum Coffee Cake and sausage links every Christmas morning at my mom and dad's.  We head over to my sister's where we made a change to our tradition last year.  Since we wanted to change our tradition of feeling stuffed and miserable all day long, we now have soup and sandwiches for Christmas dinner.  But within all these things are the people who got us to this place, Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends, who we would gladly give up all our gifts to spend another Christmas with.  They are with us, laced inside those traditions, their faces and laughs are reflected in all those old baubles we hang every year.   Their wisdom and love are in every cookie we bake or bon bon we roll.   They are never far.  That's why traditions are necessary.  Embrace the ones you have, begin new ones, just make sure you have them.
Merry Christmas!
Enjoy the people around you.
xo
Greg