Christmas Traditions Parsons Style
I don't know about you but Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I mean, it would be nice if we would get snow on Christmas but that's a lot to ask here in Virginia. With all of the busy shopping and crazy traffic, we have to stop and smell the hot chocolate, right?!
Growing up, my parents engrained into our heads that traditions are very important. Life without traditions would just suck.
I always thought my dad as the real Clark Griswald. He always found the time to go pick out a real tree (real is the only way to go :) and he always took us to the Botanical Gardens Christmas lights. My dad always gave me a snow globe for Christmas. I had to put a stop to it when I turned 30. I can't store that many snow globes :) sorry dad!
Growing up with divorced parents, I got two Christmases. I would spend time with my mom and stepfather on Christmas Eve then, I would be at my dad's on Christmas. So there were many traditions between my two families. In our family now since Victoria's dad and I are not together, we split up our time too.
Now that I am old (not that old haha) and married, we have come up with our own traditions: some I grew up with and some new.
What starts out our celebrations is picking out the tree. Usually we go to a tree lot but this year, we stepped it up a notch, We went deep into Suffolk and found a family owned Christmas Tree farm where you must cut your own tree down. That was a blast and a nice workout for my husband!!! It was so much fun. We are making it a mandatory tradition every year!
I think he felt very manly after this:)
Every since Victoria was a little girl, we always find the time to bake a crazy amount of cookies. This year, only the chocolate chip cookies tasted good!
And to carry on my childhood tradition, we always, always go to the Christmas lights. Throughout the years we noticed that Boss particularly loves the lights. He looks forward to it every year!
What would Christmas be without traditions? What would life be? I don't want a life without them. No matter who's family or what holiday your celebrate, I find it very important to carry on traditions so that your children can carry them on to their family when they have their own kids! I remember my dad always taking me to Coleman's Nursery when I was a kid, They had an amazing light display with puppets and the best Santa. We would walk around with hot cocoa/hot apple cider and adore the beautiful displays. To this day, Coleman's Nursery is one of my favorite childhood memories. When Coleman's shut their doors for good years ago, a piece of my heart went with it. I was only able to take Victoria there once but she was little, she doesn't remember.
Bottom line, no matter how little the tradition or how big, it is special because it is something that parents can share with their children. It fills every ones heart up with joy and life can stand still for just those moments.
We even watch Krampus on Christmas Eve! (I know, weird)
What are some of your family traditions? I would would love to here from you! I hope everyone was the merriest of Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Here's a little picture of Victoria and I when she was a little girl making sugar cookies. We were in a crappy, tiny apartment at the time but she never remembered that. She remembers baking cookies with her mom.
