My Favorite Christmas Tradition
When I was in middle school, my mom gave my brother and me a miniature Christmas tree. Every year we were given one ornament to put on the tree. The idea was that when we went to college or moved out we’d have our own tree full of ornaments and Christmas memories. And she was right! When I got married, my husband and I lived all over the place and never had a big tree–so my little mini tree was our only decoration. And I think it’s my favorite decoration we own!
I know I’ve told you about my mini tree before (because I love it so much!) but this year when we were opening up our Christmas boxes and sifting through the decor, pulling out Christmas DVDs and unwrapped our ornaments, I was so happy to see the most highly anticipated and oohed-and-ahhed over pieces were for our mini trees! Now everyone in our family has one–my husband’s is full of Snoopy ornaments, Lydia’s is mostly fairies and princesses while Asa only has 3 ornaments–a baby Pluto, a tin train engine and a sledding snowman. Poor little guy kept looking around for more ornaments to put on his tree!
The kids hung their ornaments with meticulous care. They were proud to be setting up their tree. I could see the happy ownership on their faces–these are THEIR trees! It actually makes me excited to think that one day they will take their trees (filled with ornaments and memories) to their first dorm or first apartment. I love passing on a tradition to them that my mom gave to me!
I think even little things like Christmas ornaments or special recipes or favorite Christmas movies when treated at as special traditions strengthen a family bond. And I think our mini trees do just that!
YOUR Favorite Christmas Tradition
Today I’m kicking off a Holiday Exchange with some other bloggers and Nestle. The next two weeks I’ll be posting some fun Christmas ideas, recipes (like how much do you want to make this brownie bites sundae?!), tips and more. Then I’ll ask you to exchange your ideas with us—and if you do, you could win some really great prizes from Nestle. (Like, really good stuff–and it gets better every week–think cashola!)
Today’s prize is a Family Movie Night Package including “A Christmas Story” Collector’s Edition DVD, 3 flavor pack of Ovaltine (which I’m pretty sure you can turn into hot chocolate!), Raisenets (yum!), a family sized dinner from Stouffers and cups from Edy’s/Dryer’s!
All you have to do is leave me a comment about your favorite holiday tradition and you’ll be entered to win! Isn’t that fun? The comments will be a treasure trove of fun Christmas ideas!
Of course, if you’d like to spread the word by 1) blogging your idea and linking here, 2) subscribing to my feed (so you don’t miss out on the rest of the Holiday Exchange posts), 3) tweeting something like: “Check out @oohamanda’s mini Christmas tree tradition and win a family movie pack from Nestle Family. http://bit.ly/ohtradition” or 4) facebooking about this post, I’ll be sure to give you an extra entry if you leave me an additional comment for each.
And don’t forget to check out the other fabulous blogs participating in Nestle’s Holiday Exchange–24/7 Moms, Southern Plate, The Mommy Files and Supermom Central. They are all sharing holiday traditions today—and hey, you can enter to win on their site, too!
