I have a lovely Christmas tree filled with many special decorations. The reason is because every year, after the tree has been erected, my daughter and I have a special outing and buy a few really nice decorations. Over the years we’ve built up a tree filled with quality decorations that mean a particular something to our family.

My son is a drummer, so one year we bought a drum set decoration. Then in addition we bought other instruments to go with the drums.

When we had a dog, we bought a heart shaped decoration with a picture of that breed of dog on it.

One year my daughter chose an “I love my dad” decoration, because that is what she felt. This year we have added a Yellow Submarine and Sergeant Pepper’s Drum to our Christmas Tree decorations because my daughter is the biggest Beatles fan I know.

Just the little tradition of putting up the tree and then shopping for tree decorations that are much loved and specific to our family is something that has become a well-loved tradition in our family.

Do you have any traditions?
Maybe you like to drive round the neighborhood on Christmas Eve playing carols and looking at the lights. Or maybe you yourself put Christmas lights on your home for others to enjoy. In our neighborhood there are a few homes we don’t miss seeing, and even one with Santa.

One tradition is to light advent candles, one each for the four Sundays of Advent. Each week you have one more candle burning until the Sunday before Christmas you light 4 candles. Or you can get one advent candle that is marked off with 24 lines and burn a little each day until Christmas.

The advent calendar is popular with children. This is usually a rectangular card with windows that can be opened, one each day until Christmas. Usually the windows have pictures behind them, but sometimes they have a little something behind them, such as chocolate or small Lego pieces. Now with the Internet fully available there are even online advent calendars.

We usually have a fire in the fireplace every evening from Thanksgiving to New Year. We snuggle together with blankets and hot chocolate, and sometimes we roast marshmallows too.

Going to church is part of many people’s traditions as singing carols is for many what Christmas is about. Many churches hold special Christmas services thought Advent, and also a Christmas Eve service.

There are many things you can do each year to remember Christmas for the future. It’s not too late to start a tradition. Just do the same thing every year for a few years and your tradition will begin.