My Christmas Traditions
By Petra
I think almost everybody loves Christmas,
right? There is so much to look forward to when we start preparing for the ever
so magical season.
The cold weather, snow, the gorgeous
Christmas decorations, Christmas carols, the rush to get the best possible
presents.
But Christmas is also a time for rituals
and traditions.
When it comes to my family, we have a blend
of traditions that has been handed throughout the generations but we also bring
something new to keep long lasting family rituals fresh and fun, especially for
my two little bookworms who after opening their vast array of presents, are
already asking for what we are planning for next year’s Christmas!
As a little girl, I use to wrap up warm, and
the whole family would go for a search of the perfect Christmas tree! I still
remember the amazingly magical time. Freezing cold weather, lots of snow and us
trudging to our piece of enchanted woods to get the biggest tree we could get
our hands on, then decorated and soon after enveloped with piles of presents.
When I grew up and moved away, on some
occasions, I celebrated Christmas with friends from all walks of life. There
was still the traditional Christmas dinner (more or less), but a few other traditions
were brought to the table, and I thoroughly immerse myself in learning about
different ways people celebrated Christmas.
I celebrated Christmas with friends from
Sweden, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia (that’s where currently I live
with my family). There was certainly never a dull moment when I was in my
twenties celebrating Christmas in cosmopolitan and cultural London. Whether I
had "traditional" Swedish porridge with raspberry jam after a full on
Christmas dinner (fascinating!) or enjoyed a seafood platter with my Kiwi and
Aussie mates (followed by a wide variety of mixed beverages).
Nowadays my little family celebrates
Christmas with a blend of traditional and modern Christmas traditions. Our
Christmas traditions are affected by hot summer weather here in Australia. My
little bookworms were born here, so they are used to celebrating Christmas in
summer with both, hot lunch (the ham and turkey) and cold (delicious Australian
seafood and crustacean) Christmas dinner followed by opening or shall I say
more like ripping the paper off the presents and scooting down to the beach to
spend whole afternoon splashing in the cooler waves.
We agreed to have an artificial Christmas
tree in our home because let’s face it the traditional spruce is hard to find
around here but I still bake basket full of traditional Christmas biscuits with
the girls, and we watched all favourite Christmas movies and decorate the
Christmas Tree with a mix homemade ornaments and on-trend baubles ( I am a bit
OCD about the colour coordination of baubles) and as my little bookworm grow
bigger they invent their little Christmas tradition that is thrown into the mix
of our already established family rituals. The girls make their Christmas books
every year to tell their Christmas story and create a present for Santa
(because he gives out lots of presents but does he actually get his Christmas
present?)
I still little bit miss the sparkly
atmosphere of cold European Christmas. My husband's family celebrates Christmas
in July (because July is winter month but I think 22 degrees still doesn't
count as cold winter day!)
I
hope that next year my family will experience Christmas in the snow. It will be
a first for my little ones, and I think they will enjoy it immensely.
Have a gorgeous Christmas everyone!
Petra - The Nest of Books Review
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