Favorite Christmas Traditions

· Every year as a family gift to each other, we choose a Christmas show to see together such as the Nutcracker Suite, the Dallas Symphony Christmas show, or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This year we plan to see Manheim Steamroller.

· I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where one of my sisters still lives. Every December she sends us a “box of Oregon,” complete with Tillamook cheese, dried salmon, and a wreath for the door. Every time the doorbell rings, we inhale that fresh Douglas fir and think of home.

· Wherever we travel, we purchase a decoration for the tree. Now when we decorate, every ornament reminds of us of a place we’ve visited together. Decoration day is full of "Hey, remember our vacation in Sedona?" or "Here's the one from the year we backpacked the Grand Canyon."

· We wait until midnight on Christmas Eve to set the baby Jesus in the manger scene, and we wait until December 6 (Epiphany) to place the wise men on the scene—after we’ve removed the shepherds. From early December through January 6, the wise men can be seen slowly inching their way toward the crèche (on a nearby window sill or counter).

· When sending Christmas cards, we make it a point always to write something personal at the end. Every friendship deserves at least one line per year.

· On Thanksgiving and Christmas a new puzzle appears on the breakfast-nook table—provided either by our family or my sister’s. After the big meal, we all sit around that table and visit while putting it together. Sometimes if we don’t finish it that day, my brother-in-law will ask if he can come over and keep working on it.

· Our church prepares Christmas boxes (like Samaritan’s Purse boxes) for our sister church in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, as well as the mission they run. About every other year our family makes the trek down to the border (seven or eight hours) to deliver them. Even before my daughter had taken Spanish classes, she could communicate. As she told us, “A smile works everywhere.”

· Dessert between Christmas and New Year's Day always includes steamed pudding cooked in a #1 coffee can and drenched in rum sauce, just like my great grandmother made it.

Do you have a favorite tradition or two?