The holiday season is a time when family and friends gather together and do the things they enjoy and have done for years and years before. Some of these holiday traditions are similar throughout different families, like putting up a Christmas tree or lighting the Hanukkah Menorah, but some traditions have become staple to specific families or cultures.
I asked the readers and staff of Texas Forest Country Living and others in the community what their family’s holiday traditions are. Here are the results.
East Texans
“When I was growing up, we always put our Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve, went to church, and read the Christmas story from the Bible,” said Lynne Hollowell, teacher and mother originally from Lufkin, now living in Brenham, Texas.
“My favorite thing about Christmas, these days at least, is when my parents put up their Christmas tree. Mom always makes ginger snaps from scratch along with her own, special hot-chocolate. Dad always turns on Cast-in-bronze’s Carol of the Bells,” said Henry J. Wright, father and residential installer at Ferrara’s Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc from Huntington.
“When the kids were home, on New Year’s Eve we would always get in the car and have hot cocoa and go see Christmas lights. Now I see my son continuing that with his kids. One [tradition] that we have continued is stockings. Grandaddy wouldn’t let that end when the kids left,” said Kathy Conn, mother, grandmother, and office manager at Media Services Group from Lufkin.
“It’s already happened, but I love taking my toddler son Kyle to the Old Town Bethlehem,” said Rae Ann Huggins-Ledbetter, a mother and music teacher from Lufkin.
“My husband Oscar and I always get Guatemalan style tamales for Christmas dinner. I love not having to cook, and it’s a way to incorporate his culture into festivities as well,” said Vanessa Arevalo, originally from Lufkin, now living in Boston.
“We go caroling on Christmas Eve and give out Candy Canes,” said Marsha McKneely Ault, homemaker and grandmother from Nacogdoches.
Staff of Texas Forest Country Living
“Our big holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve we call everybody in our family so that we could be the first one on the phone to shout at the other person, ‘Christmas Eve gift!’ We recently found out that it is a Welsh tradition. And we have to sing Jingle Bells before we give gifts,” said Content Manager Misty Boggs.
“Decorating ginger bread houses as a competition with my family is fun. We like to go see Christmas lights, too. A lot of times we always end up somehow playing a board game or making a puzzle. Me and my cousins will play some sort of online game together. It’s just bonding moments,” said Web Manager Brandon Morgan.
“Christmas Eve is spent with my family, and then Christmas day is spent with my in-laws. We’ve done that for the past four years. Every Christmas Eve my family goes caroling. We’ve had that tradition since I was a wee little one… When I was a little girl when we visited my grandmother we would always eat pizza and nacho cheese. We have continued that tradition even though my grandmother has passed away. It’s a special way for us to honor her every Christmas – the holidays were her favorite.
“When I was little, all of our cousins would gather at my grandmother’s house. And we would chant “tonight, tonight, tonight” meaning we wanted to open the Christmas presents that night. Later that evening we would make a train of people from my grandmother’s ‘junk room’ to her living room and pass presents from child to child along the train. It was such a fun tradition to do every year,” said Publications Director Megan Whitworth.
“I drink eggnog, eat cookies, light Christmas trees, decorate the house, relax, and eat. We do a family Secret Santa, as well. On Christmas Night, we all have to guess who we got our gift from,” said Intern Josh Robinson.
My family really likes to personalize Christmas, so I have many favorite traditions. We make these chocolate and crunch cookies with powdered sugar we like to call “poo-poo cookies” because of the way they look when they are being rolled. We also like to open one gift on Christmas Eve. We always have many, many stockings lined up along our fireplace mantel, and we always tell the Christmas story using a plush Nativity set that my late grandmother made. One of the characters in the set has a hole in it, and it often leaks the beans that help it stand straight.
One tradition I have created myself is that I buy each of my siblings and their significant others a ridiculous ornament. It has to be deformed, really gaudy, or have some other sort of outrageous quality to be good enough. This tradition has lasted three years, and I am expanding it this year to my future siblings on my fiance’s side. I bought over 15 ornaments this year, and I do not regret it.
Whatever your holiday tradition may be, treasure it this year. The holiday season is not about one specific thing, it’s about an amalgamation of family, friends, religion, giving and receiving, sacrifice, and love. Make it the best holiday season you can, and don’t forget to share love to those you care about the most.
