Everyone has their own holiday traditions which they grow up with and can recall from their youth.  When you get older, get married, have your own children, you create new traditions.  Perhaps you keep following some of the traditions from your collective childhoods, but, for the most part, you create a new legacy of traditions to observe with your ‘new’ family.

For me, growing up, we had any number of traditions.  When I discovered ‘the truth’, I went with my mother to our uncles house.  Where the presents were hidden, to help her wrap up those intended for my little sister and brother.  I felt so important, grown-up and so thrilled that I had a secret that only my mum and I shared, and no one else.  For a small child, that’s magical!

When we got a little older, our Christmas Eve tradition became Chinese food (after we eventually talked our parents in to giving Chinese food a shot).  Most of the Curran family were on-board with the opening of one single present each on Christmas Eve – my dad would always object, and he’d be bullied in to opening a present by the rest of us! LOL!

On Christmas morning, my brother, sister and I would get up before the crack of dawn and hit the living room.  Our Santa presents were always separated in to piles at separate places around the room, so, when we got older, that’s what we did.  My sister normally arranged the presents from under the tree into individual piles, Helena, Rowan and I would then tear them to shreds (we’d each pick up one present, open it together and repeat).

When we’d finished, we’d gather up our parents presents, haul them upstairs and burst in to their bedroom, dropping their presents, essentially on their heads and sitting expectantly and impatiently while they opened them.  My dad was a painfully slow present-opener, he was always too slow for us, so we ended up ‘helping him’ and flashing his presents at him.  He normally didn’t like very much of what we got him, and never really pretended to either, the challenge was always could we get him a present he actually wanted! LOL!

When we got even older, and we were all in our teenage years, one present at midnight on Christmas eve, snowballed in to pretty much all presents (much to my dads displeasure, as you could have guessed I’m sure!)

I have very fond memories of Christmas as a child, in spite of the fact my parents were never very well off, they always made Christmas fantastic for us.  They scrimped, saved and sweated blood and tears to get us the name brands, popular toys and the never ending list of stuff that we wanted from year to year.

Col tells me he had his own childhood traditions, Christmas morning was the time for Kelloggs variety pack.  During the year, it was pretty much plain cereal all round (as the ‘nice stuff’ was always more expensive, I know for us, we were sick to the sight of Kelloggs Cornflakes cause it was one of the cheapest cereals on the market) so on Christmas morning it was a real treat to have a variety of cereals.

His dad went in to the living room and lit the fire, the boys weren’t allowed in to open their presents until he was done and had opened the living room door for them to come in – again, like in the Curran household, the presents were separated into individual piles around the room.

Now that Col and I are older, and married, and although we don’t have kids yet, we are starting to create our own traditions.

We have only had a couple of Christmases together, so we haven’t yet created a long line of traditions, but we’re working on it.  We eat Chinese on Christmas Eve (why mess with a good thing?), we open one present on Christmas Eve, in which Col plays the role of the grump – very akin to my father in the ‘old’ days and I continue to play the role of an impatient, over excited little child.

We end up having a mock argument about opening presents early, he resists and we ultimately end up opening a present early and, finally, after my surgery last year, (and due to my lack of patience), he became the tree put-er up-er and take-er down-er, cause the lights tangling and trying to sort the decorations out make me throw tantrums like a two year old.  I do better at the delegating side!

I’m really looking forward to our Christmases together going forward as a family (yes, we count as a family!) it’ll be interesting to see what other traditions we start (or re-start) throughout our (hopefully) many, many Christmases to come!

Feel free to share with me your favourite holiday traditions that you observed as a child or even now, as an adult!