I believe in tradition.
Growing up with some family traditions gives you a strong foundation. Because you know what to expect. You get excited about little things. You look forward to these little things happening. And as you grow up, you share these traditions, these ways of doing things with others.
Sure, you adjust. You are flexible as you need to be based on events and people and time.
Traditions are a guide. Traditions give you a place to start.
And I believe with all of my heart…that you don’t … “monkey with tradition.”
A line I stole from the movie, ‘Mystic Pizza’, and made it one of my life’s ambitions.
I am the glue. I am the memory. I am the keeper of the tradition.
I feel a responsibility to keep them going. To keep them alive. Even if no one notices or is even paying attention, it is important to me that we keep doing these things.
So here is a list of our random family holiday traditions.
That should never ever be monkeyed with.
Ever.
Christmas:
1. We open all of the family presents on Christmas Eve.
2. Santa brings unwrapped presents on Christmas morning.
3. Our elf on the shelf is named, Holly. I know, he has a girl name, but he’s a boy. Elf’s do that sometimes. Apparently. Especially when they are named by 5 year old girls.
4. Holly shows up on the first night that the Christmas tree lights go on. That’s how he knows to come.
5. The tree always goes up after Thanksgiving and usually comes down after New Year’s Day.
6. On Christmas Eve, the kiddos get to hug and kiss Holly goodbye. But he must be on the tree before bedtime so Santa can find him and take him home.
7. You may not go downstairs on Christmas morning before Momma. She must get the picture of the kiddos at the top of the stairs in full excitement mode. It’s a Momma Rule. And Momma Rules can’t be broken.
8. We will have Monkey Bread for breakfast on Christmas morning. And we eat our Monkey Bread off of little blue Snowman plates. That is the only action those plates see all year.
9. We drive about 45 minutes to see Santa each year. We meet family friends for lunch and listen to THE Santa sing songs, play guitar and tell stories. It is pure Christmas magic. We believe.
10. We will always give our friends an ornament of some sort as a Christmas present.
11. We will always give a photo calendar to our Nanas, Maws and PawPaws.
12. There will always be 3 new ornaments added to the tree each year: one with a picture of X, one with a picture of Y and one with a picture of me and Felix together. Each with the current year engraved on it.
13. At Maw Betty’s house, we will always hang the “Horton Balls”, handmade ornaments with each person’s name on one. New additions of babies or unions are added each year.
14. We open presents one at a time. Sometimes we clap for each present. But not always.
15. We watch the TBS 24 hours of A Christmas Story for … well, almost 24 hours. I’m actually sad when it is over.
New Year’s Eve (My favorite holiday):
16. We bring the neighbors some oranges.
17. We eat 12 grapes at midnight.
18. We make our Family Mind Map of Goals for the new year.
Valentine’s Day:
19. Is always Family Fondue Night! A night for us to stay in and enjoy each our family, while dipping random food into chocolate.
Fourth of July aka Y’s Birthday:
20. Fireworks. No matter where we are. Fireworks.
Halloween:
21. We use the classic plastic pumpkins to go trick or treating. No bags or pillow cases for us.
Thanksgiving;
22. We go to an indoor water park on or around this holiday.
Birthdays:
23. You can have Monkey Bread for Breakfast if you would like. You always get to choose the food for the day.
24. There will be a sunrise walk and photo shoot on the beach and I will make you hold up your fingers to show your age. Guaranteed.
25. There will be number candles on your cakes. Not just the number of individual candles, but candles (and sometimes even the cakes) in the shape of numbers. Because they are cool.
And because it is … tradition.
And…say it with me…“You don’t monkey with tradition.”
You just keep making new ones.
Merry Christmas, Action Worders!
mommyverbs 
Awesome traditions! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year MommyVerbs!!!!
And thank YOU for sharing so many of mine with me that I’m now sharing with mine. ❤
I too am the keeper of traditions. Thank for sharing your families traditions. Traditions are a funny thing. I always thought they originated from my past. I was very surprised one year to find out from my children that a new family tradition had been created. I was told that we always had corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast on New Years Day. Not exactly a light breakfast or a cure for a hangover, but so be it. Who an I to argue with tradition.