“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…..” yes, that’s the annoying song you will hear the entire Savelle family singing in the craziest voices we can belt out on Christmas Eve!

My mom has Christmas dinnerware with each of the Twelve Days of Christmas written on each one. We take our turns around the table singing our part and acting it out until we all chime in together – “. . . and a partridge in a pear tree!!!!!” (as loud and goofy as possible!)

Other traditions include my daughter and I wear matching pajamas on Christmas morning (OK….I’m cheesy, but the pictures are cute!), and waking her up Christmas morning with Rodney and me walking into her bedroom singing “Jingle Bells” and videoing the whole time! She loves that moment and counts down at least two months till Christmas. The places we sit in the den never change. The way we take turns opening presents and looking at each person’s gift is the same year after year. Traditions!!!

I read an article one time that said traditions are the “we always” of families, like “We always make hot chocolate Christmas morning,” or “We always watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and eat popcorn on Christmas Eve.” It said that traditions create a sense of warmth and security and even promote a sense of identity and a feeling of belonging. Family members have something to look forward to which gives them a sense of assurance in an ever-changing world.

So – if you have some crazy, fun, special, unique traditions….keep doing them! And tell me about them!!! I’m curious and I would love to hear what you and your family do each year. Who knows maybe somebody will want to adopt some of your traditions! Or maybe not…