Holiday traditions are lovely and magical and joyful. They can also be stressful, when there is so much pressure to create Hallmark-worthy memories. And it is impossible to do everything. In honor of the current Christmas season, I present what I DON'T Do for Christmas.
10. Elf on a Shelf
This is something that has exploded in popularity the past 10 years. I am sure our children would love the Elf on a Shelf - trying to find the Elf each morning and seeing what surprises are in store is inherently fun and magical. However, as someone who once forgot to leave Tooth Fairy money three nights in a row, there is no way our family could implement this without it being an Epic Fail.
This is something that has exploded in popularity the past 10 years. I am sure our children would love the Elf on a Shelf - trying to find the Elf each morning and seeing what surprises are in store is inherently fun and magical. However, as someone who once forgot to leave Tooth Fairy money three nights in a row, there is no way our family could implement this without it being an Epic Fail.
9. Cookies for Santa or Reindeer Food
Sadly, neither of my children has believed in Santa (or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny) for several years - but when my daughter originally initiated this conversation about the reality of Santa Claus, her first comment was, "Does that mean that parents eat the cookies left for Santa??" I was surprised by this, given that we have never, ever, ever left cookies for Santa, or the new tradition of "reindeer food." Stores close on Christmas Eve at 6 p.m. and the thought of getting cookies does not enter my mind until well past that hour.
8. Take Down the Tree at a Reasonable Time
We consider ourselves the most awesome organized people ever if we can manage to take our Christmas tree down by Epiphany, on January 6. We have gotten better about this the past several years, but one year I think it might have actually been April before all of the decorations went away.
7. Save Wrapping Paper
Rather than attempting to save wrapping paper for re-use, it all gets thrown away and dumped in landfills in giant trash bags. This is because in many aspects of my life, I appear to have shockingly little concern for the environment.
6. Drink Egg Nog
I think that the idea of egg nog is nice - a fun, creamy drink that only gets brought out each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's. My opinion of the actual taste, however, is that it is....not so nice.
5. Start Christmas Shopping Early
Our typical tradition is to wait until after finals and semester grades are turned in before worrying about Christmas shopping, in accordance with our One Stressor at at Time family plan. This year, we are actually ahead because we did most of our shopping on Thanksgiving weekend, which keeps throwing me off...
4. Dress Up for the Holiday
I love looking at pictures where everyone is wearing sweet holiday dresses and matching outfits and looks all fancy. Our family is just like that, only the opposite. Instead, we have instituted this new tradition where everyone in our family wears Matching Dragon Pajamas on Christmas morning. Just because.
3. Write Letters to Santa. Or visit Santa in the mall. Or really, just about anything involving Santa.
Okay, neither of our children believe in Santa now - but even when they did, neither of them ever visited Santa....because who wants to spend more time in the mall than absolutely necessary during the Christmas season? It shows how strong the societal norm is toward Santa that our daughter was a strong believer for nearly 9 years when we put zero effort into anything Santa related.
2. Read The Night Before Christmas (regularly)
I asked my husband a while back for suggestions on what our family doesn't do for the holidays, and he said that we don't read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. I was shocked because I consider this one of the things we actually *do* do, but he had the good point that it is pretty hit or miss, and mainly miss. So even holiday traditions that I think we do, we actually don't....
1. Put Christmas Lights on the Outside of our House
Okay, this is something that until this year we did - but haven't gotten around to yet in our new house, since the weather has been challenging any time we've had the thought of putting up outside lights. Our children (particularly our son) are convinced that we will Never Ever Ever Put Up Lights Because We Hate Them. So I guess this is something that we are not doing this year, either, HA!
What holiday traditions do not participate in?
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