It’s almost everyone’s favorite time of year, and it certainly is up there for me. Although there aren’t fireworks on Christmas, family traditions keep me in the spirit.
Because we’re all suffering through final exams and cramming our heads with information that we “should have been studying all semester long” (never quite mastered that), it’s easy to put Christmas on the backburner. If it weren’t for some holiday-crazy friends putting up trees in townhouses and stringing lights, I could see myself returning home as Charlie Brown after finals. Thanks guys.
But I’m not letting those pesky tests ruin this season. I can’t wait to race to my cousins’ house in snowy Vermont, December 21 (at my grandma-pace of a steady 55 miles per hour), to spend Christmas with my family and cousins. And there’s no way that just because I’m 20, I’m letting go of the Christmas spirit quite yet. They’re silly things, but the traditions I love seem to bring me back to a time of Cabbage Patch Kids, Skip-It, slap bracelets, jellies, Rainbow Bright and My Buddy.
Putting the angel on the top of the tree has always given me that warm holiday feeling. I suppose because I was the only girl in the family, my Pa let me climb up the ladder and onto his shoulders, almost tumbling into the tree, year after year. Okay, so I can’t climb on anyone’s shoulders easily anymore, but I still get that angel up there.
Every Christmas, my brothers and male cousins got Hess trucks (remember the song? “Na, na, na, na, the Hess truck’s back!”) Even though the receivers are all six feet tall now, the Hess trucks showed up under the tree last year. I have to admit, I can’t wait to find out whether the boys will get pickup, dump, or fire trucks this year.
My Grammie made all thirteen of us stockings at birth, or when married into the family. Every Christmas Eve, we take turns putting our personalized stockings up the staircase (there are too many of us to squeeze them on the fireplace). It wouldn’t be Christmas for me without these.
I know that most of you will be arriving home this year on the verge of mental breakdowns from stress. But remember, you’re allowed to step out of your college life role, and step back into the life of a kid. Bring your own family traditions back. It’s amazing how easily it can put your whole family back into the Christmas mindset, even if everyone is growing up.
So always put out cookies and beer for Santa (I found out this wasn’t a normal tradition in third grade). Make hot chocolate and see who can pile on the most marsh mellows without overflowing the mug. Play Pictionary and charades until someone cries (admittedly not our best tradition). Make igloos in your backyard. Just don’t let yourself forget how it felt to run down the stairs Christmas morning, to find all of your My Little Ponies in a new barn, or a stuffed animal of your favorite dinosaur, Little Foot.
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