By Jamie Smith of Jamie’s Thots

Every Black Friday our family would go to a family movie in the theater. We saw Home Alone and two Back to the Future movies during that tradition! You might be wondering what the candy canes are about. We had an antique Santa head candy dish that my mom filled with candy canes every year. Best. Christmas. Decoration. Ever. Except our Toilet Bowl Cleaner (read the blog to figure out that one!)

Growing old with our traditions

Every Christmas as kids my brother and I looked forward to the day after Thanksgiving almost more than any day of the holiday season (OK, I did. I don’t know what my brother thought).

Believe it or not, I didn’t know about the crazy “let’s go shopping at 2 a.m. in our pajamas” thing about Black Friday. For me, it was “family decorate the Toilet Bowl Cleaner and movie day.”

Yes, you read that right. Toilet Bowl Cleaner. Much to my mother’s chagrin, my brother noticed one year when we were both still pretty young (therefore still amused by such things) that our old, misshapen artificial Christmas tree had a startling resemblance to the shape of a wire toilet bowl brush before we reshaped the branches every year.

Each Black Friday it was family tradition to decorate the tree, put up our Advent calendar (and a few other decorations I’m sure but those were the important ones in my world!). We then would go to a family movie that afternoon. Over the years, I remember seeing the last two Back to the Future movies and the first two Home Alone movies on that special Friday.

Holiday place

Another major form of holiday tradition in our family was where we spent the holidays. We were blessed to have close relatives on both sides of the family living in Wichita so we got to spend holidays with lots of family.

Thanksgiving was almost always at “B’s” house. “B” is what we call my dad’s mom. Christmas was both complicated and special. We would go to B’s house on Dec. 23, spend the night (in front of the fireplace!) and then spend all day Dec. 24 over there. We would open gifts with that side of the family that night. Then Dec. 25 we would spend it with my mom’s sister and that whole side of the family either at my aunt and uncle’s house or our house.

In recent years, as my brother is now married with kids, we spend the night of Dec. 24 at my parents’ house with just our immediate family then both sides of our extended family come to my parents’ house for a big family meal on Christmas.

New traditions

As times have changed so have our traditions, it’s been a bittersweet experience. Some beloved traditions were hard to let go of, other times I’ve enjoyed the introduction and creation of new traditions. Sure, I miss those Christmas Eve eves (Dec. 23) by the fire but I love having a pizza-making contest with my parents, husband, brother, and sister-in-law. I will admit that I really do miss the Black Friday tradition from our childhood and I’ve told my husband that we will be getting the Christmas tree up at least over Thanksgiving weekend.

All this has helped reinforce something. Traditions aren’t about the food, the activity or whatever. It’s about how they make us feel.

It’s about feeling included.

It’s about having something to look forward to doing.

It’s about cherishing memories.

I think those three things are something that can always be a tradition no matter where we are or how old we get.

Jamie Smith blogs over at Jamie’s Thots where she shares about faith, family, fur kids and tons more! She’s also a small business owner—the name of her business is Jamie’s Notebook. Jamie tells folks that she grew up in Kansas but became a grown up in Arkansas. Her and her husband, John, live in Elkins with their two dogs and two cats.