One of my favorite parts about the holidays are the traditions.
Growing up my mom and I had many holiday traditions but my favorite, has always been picking one new ornament together for the Christmas tree. (However lately, the tradition has turned into us picking three ornaments: one my mom likes, another I like and one we both like.) This Christmas, I've been thinking a lot about the holiday traditions I want to start for my own household.
I've moved a lot since college. Between moving back and forth in the dorms, to my sorority house, to living with roommates, these past few years have involved a lot of moving trucks and cardboard boxes. However, now that I'm settled into my new apartment, I really want to make a home for myself and create traditions of my own.
Over the years I've accumulated quite a bit of Christmas decorations including a fake tree but I've been toying with the idea of getting a live tree instead. This weekend my mom and I picked out a tree for my parents house and I totally fell in love with the cutest Charlie Brown mini. I didn't end up getting it then, but I'm pretty much sold on the idea of going back to get it, or one like it.
It's funny. I was talking with someone about starting holiday traditions and they were completely confused as to why I would do that when I'm not married and don't have kids. Seriously? This is the best time to start traditions because I can do whatever I want-ha!
But in all seriousness, you don't have to be married or have kids in order to enjoy holiday traditions. It's all about creating your own happiness and doing things around the holidays that you enjoy and make the season just a little bit better.
Eventually, I suppose I will migrate my traditions to accommodate having a family, but for now, I'm quite content where I am today and the freedom I have to enjoy the holidays how I see fit.
These are the 6 things I want to do this year to begin creating holiday traditions of my own:
1. Buy a REAL tree.
2. Send holiday cards
3. Bake cookies from scratch and decorate them.
4. Drink hot chocolate by the tree.
5. Watch "It's a Wonderful Life"
6. Wear Christmas pjs and slippers, often (these are so cute! Oh, and these!)
7. Take Chistmas pj selfie (eventually will become family picture lol).
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SHOP THE LOOK//
Whether you are married, single, have kids, no kids what are some of your holiday traditions or things you do to make the holidays special? Share in the comments below. Maybe I can add something new to my list. :)
Im married with three kids and we are still struggling to come up with our own traditions. We often keep trying to go to our parents' places so we can still take part in the traditions they created. We really need to work on our own!
ReplyDeleteI love this post. It brought me some much needed cheer on this Monday. I especially love, "This is the best time to start traditions because I can do whatever I want-ha!"
ReplyDelete--Melissa
www.melissamchee.com
I love this! I was following your great photos on Instagram and it was totally getting me into the Christmas Spirit which I find is a bit hard to do when you don't have kids, or family nearby. I love your list of goals for the year - I may just have to adopt them all for myself too!
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos! We actually do all of those traditions you listed. Well, except the Christmas pj selfie :) But we always go as a family (I have 2 kids) to pick out a live tree, we decorate with Christmas music playing, drink hot cocoa by the fire, watch Christmas movies in our pj's and have sleepovers by the tree, bake cookies during the weekends leading up to Christmas, and we send holiday cards each year. I also create a new Advent activity calendar for the kids each year, always open one gift the night before Christmas, then we host Christmas dinner for our families at our house on Christmas day, and we host a New Year's Day pajama open house each year with our friends. We have a LOT of family holiday traditions, I could go on... :) Happy holidays!
ReplyDeleteNice list! I don't have many myself but I do always watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. (Maybe the CB tree can be one of your traditions - haha!)
ReplyDeleteWe're near our families, so we have our old traditions, but the only one I've insisted on every year is driving to a Christmas tree farm to "hack down" our very own tree. Or, I watch my husband do it. He's gotten more practiced, and I help carry it!
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