I recently saw the animated movie Coco, with a (long) Frozen short in front of it, and both of them focused on the importance of family and family traditions. Since it’s Christmas time, I thought I would take that inspiration and share some of my family’s unique holiday traditions! 🙂

Christmas Disco

Groovy, man! This record (yes, an actual vinyl record, an archaeological artifact from the prehistoric past) was purchased by someone in my extended family, and ended up in a stack of albums at my grandparent’s house in the 80s. My grandpa made a cassette recording of it, and we’ve been listening ever since. 😀 Some people hate disco, but this album takes Christmas songs and gives them an energetic, upbeat, happy sound that I love. It’s not outdated, it’s RETRO! /hipsterglasses

Part of my family used to live in a town about fifty miles away, and every year my mother, brother and I would drive up to visit on Christmas Eve. We would play these songs in the car on the ride up, while we looked forward to holiday dinner and visiting with our cousins. My favorite trip was the time we were so behind on wrapping gifts that my brother and I were trying to do it in the car as my mother drove on the way up. Ever wrestled with rolls of wrapping paper in a compact car at 55 mph? XD

I don’t own a turntable, but I actually kept an old-timey cassette player for a long time just to play this tape during the holidays. PS, I listened to this album on Youtube as I was writing this post. 🙂

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Whitman’s Sampler

The gifts we got were different each year as we grew up, but there was always one gift that we were 100% guaranteed to get no matter what — a Whitman’s Sampler. This box of chocolates comes in a distinctively shaped box with old fashioned cross-stitch graphics, and has two levels of candy inside. It was always easy to identify even when wrapped, because of the specific size and shape of the package and the grooves around the top and bottom of the box that could be felt through the paper. Even better…my uncle would always cut the cling wrap on top and slip in a $20 bill! We would open the Sampler first, and snack on the chocolates as we opened the rest of our gifts.

At some point the rights were purchased by another company, and the chocolates inside changed. So the family has mainly switched over to the Russell Stover gift box in modern times. But I’ll always remember the joy of finding the Sampler with my name on it under the tree. And I actually get reminded throughout the year; we saved a bunch of the boxes because they make excellent storage containers!

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Handmade Stockings

When I was in middle school or so, my grandmother began teaching me how to sew. I was really into it, so when December came around I decided to make us some fancy stockings. My mom, brother and I each designed our own stockings, and I cut the felt and sewed them together. I had recently found a bag of assorted sequins at Big Lots, so I blinged them up as only a pre-teen can do! 😉

I still have these stockings, and I display them every year as part of the living room Christmas decorations.

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This has been a little peek into my family’s personal holiday traditions, that have brought us lots of joy through the years. What are some of your special traditions? (And have you seen Coco yet…because you really should!)

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