All of us have holiday traditions of some sort. Some are quite obvious, and others are very subtle. These traditions can help your foster or adopted child feel like part of your family.

While Hannah and I put up the Christmas decorations we talked about some of the traditions, and we talked about some others with my Mother-in-Law when she was here last weekend.

I’ll explain some of our traditions, and please feel free to tell us about yours.

Ornaments – Each year I buy a new Christmas ornament for each of my kids (yes, even Kory and Mackenzie). They go on my tree every year, and when the kids are old enough to leave and start their own homes with their own trees, the ornaments will transfer to them. The child sometimes chooses the ornament, and sometimes I choose them. They reflect what the kids interests are at that point in their lives, so it is also a chronicle of their lives.

Baking – I love to bake, and I bake far more than necessary and give much of the bakery away. One of the things I make is a cookie called SANDBAKKELSE. I posted the recipe here. This is a recipe I learned from my Mother-in-Law, and it was passed down through the generations to her. I have passed this tradition to Sammy and Hannah as well.

A special candle – My husband has a small family, and they are fairly well scattered across Texas. If you’ve never visited Texas, the state is as huge as it looks on the map. One year we went to visit my best friend in Houston, then drove partway across the state to see Larry’s parents, and the drive took ten hours. Since it’s difficult for us to be together for Christmas, even if we’re in the same state, we have a candle that we light at a specific time and day. This brings us all together in spirit, since we can’t be together in person.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” – This is my all time favorite movie, and certainly my favorite Christmas movie. I watch it every Christmas Eve. This year I will not be able to since I have several commitments at church, but I will find time to watch this at some point in the next seven days.

Wrapping paper fights – OK, this I just plain silly, but we have fun doing it. I blogged briefly about my Aunt who passed away from cancer. She is the one who started this tradition. Her life was very difficult and she struggled through virtually every bit of it. This was her way to be silly. The longer someone is in our family, the more they pick up on the techniques involved in this. If you know this tradition, you begin your pile as everyone is opening gifts. You look for the heaviest paper since it will wad up the best and make good balls. Tissue paper is frowned upon since it doesn’t fly as well. You do need to be careful of the candle as the paper balls begin to fly. Everyone participates from the oldest to the youngest. Teams are formed and barriers are built. It becomes somewhat like an indoor snowball fight.

Good plates – When we eat holiday meals, we always eat on our “fancy plates”. It is a special occasion if it is just the three or four of us.

What traditions does your family have?

Photo credit – Our Christmas tree with it’s assortment of meaningful ornaments