Kids

Are you establishing traditions with your family?

Traditions are those fun events, activities, and practices that we do together to create memories. Great memories are what connect us and make us more than acquaintances. Traditions lead to great memories that make us family!

I love to hear about the traditions of other families. Many of my own family traditions have been “stolen” from my closest friends. I thought it would be fun to share a few of our staff’s favorite Christmas traditions.

Feel free to take them and make them your own!

CHRISTMAS TREE
Anna Rau – UpStreet Production Director
When it’s time to decorate my family’s Christmas tree, everybody sits in the living room with fun Christmas music and maybe the football game on (muted), for the guys. We open the boxes of ornaments and all unwrap the ornaments one at a time. The memories that surround each ornament are so priceless. Each year, my mom has gifted all of the kids with an ornament. Now, we all have our own sets of ornaments that we open and place on the tree in addition to the classic ornaments that have been around for 20 or more years. I absolutely love the memories that are wrapped up in decorating my family’s Christmas tree. It’s for this reason, that even when I lived states away, I made a way to be home on the day my family put up the Christmas tree.

READING BOOKS & THE CHRISTMAS STORY
Anna Rau – UpStreet Production Director
In the evenings of December, amidst the rush of the holidays, we’d try to slow the night down with all the lights off in the house except the Christmas tree and the little village set. Then, with hot tea and hot cocoa in Christmas mugs, we’d scoot in close to read classic Christmas books like ” ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” “The Best Christmas Eve Ever,” and Luke 2 - the real Christmas story. Those nights reading together are such peaceful memories of my childhood. Through the years, my family has collected Christmas books that sit in a basket next to the tree for easy access any time one of us is looking for a step into nostalgia.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?