{31 Days to a Stress-Free Christmas} Day 18~ Family Traditions Gone Bad

Nothing ruins family traditions more than being unprepared. It is not fun to wait around endlessly while mom or dad searches every nook and cranny, on Christmas Eve, for the special movie that the entire family watches together every year. (which we still haven't found)

 We have several family traditions that we do every Christmas Eve. One is to build a gingerbread house together. Several weeks before, I start gathering things like gum drops, peppermints, etc. and put them in a tub of some sort so they are ready to pull out for the decorating. Some years we buy a ready made kit and other years we have made the gingerbread ourselves. If I am making the gingerbread I make it several days ahead and cut out the house pieces. This I learned because 2-year olds don't wait patiently for gingerbread to be baked before decorating. Our excitement spiraled down to whining and total loss of interest.  

Delegate

Another tradition from my husband's family is making oyster stew when we come home from our Christmas eve service. To avoid the stress of worrying if I am going to buy the right things, which oysters to get- I have turned this over to my husband. He goes to the store on Christmas eve morning, purchases what he needs, and makes the stew when we come home from church. This delegation came about as a result after a disastrous pot of stew was made with oysters that were full of sand. Enough said. 

Every year since we have been married, we have watched the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas eve. When our children were younger, we put on the cartoon version of How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was a disaster last year after we told Abi that she could watch it while daddy made the stew and then it couldn't be found anywhere. I never want to go through that disappointment again when it was something I could have prevented by having the movie set aside. 

Each night of Advent, after our reading, we have Abi pick one of the Christmas cards that was sent to us the previous year, and we pray for the sender and their family. The year I lost the cards from the previous Christmas was a big disappointment. Now, when we pack up the Advent stuff, I gather the Christmas cards that came in that season and store them right in the same box. 

So take a few minutes this month to think through the traditions your family has and what things you can do or gather together ahead of time to be ready to go. If you have been thinking of beginning any new traditions, now is the time to think of the things or the time you will need to start them. Traditions are memory makers. I don't want the memory of our special family times to be tainted with short tempers, arguing, or poor planning.