"Oh, Kaye!" chats about holiday traditions

There are traditions and there are traditions.


There's Johnny Mathis singing a beautiful version of O Holy Night






Or the newer tradition of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band singing Santa Claus is Comin' To Town.

If you've ever seen Bruce Springsteen in concert during the winter months, you've probably danced along with this one.

I saw his winter show in Atlanta many years ago.  One of the best concerts ever!  When they started singing Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, all the lights in the house were turned on. 

Everybody was dancing.

And I recall doing a few turns with an Atlanta police officer.

It was a night to remember.








I'm one of those people who loves Christmas.  I am a complete sucker for tradition, and love that the holiday season is filled with beautiful, meaningful traditions.

And, of course, there are those wonderful, fun, meaningful and oh, so silly family traditions that you alone own, and some other folks just will not understand - like our purply-pink Christmas tree I put up in addition to our more old tradition green tree.

Another includes Mother and Donald and I donning goofy headgear sometime during the holiday while we play a wicked hand or two of Canasta

Harley doesn't care much about playing Canasta, but we don't want him to feel left out

Actually, you may have noticed, some of us enjoy this tradition more than others.  This is not one of Harley's favorites.

Whatever we believe, however we celebrate, we all have ways of honoring our traditions.  They, in turn, serve us well.  They help us share a feeling of bonding with our own history and roots, and a sense of belonging.  Cultures are kept alive by tradition.

There's one pretty big Christmas tradition that has changed at our house.

While we do still celebrate and exchange gifts with our family, Donald and I no longer exchange Christmas gifts.  We started a new family tradition a few years ago when we agreed to do what we could for a family in need.  It's become a tradition of importance to us.

Truth be told, we could be that family some day.


A tradition that is, however, still alive and well at our house is the decorating.  For me, one of the best things about the holidays is having the house decorated.  Oh, how I love to decorate. 

 Admittedly, that too is less than it once was.  Packing it all up to put away reminds me I'm not as young as I once was.  And since I hate being reminded of that little fact in such a rude way, I get around it by not putting out as much.  

Every year I go through this - I start pulling old and much loved Christmas ornaments out of the storage boxes and I'm flooded with memories of where each piece came from.

Many have been given to us by friends and family.

Many we've bought while traveling.

And each has a memory.


I'm betting I'm not the only one.  How 'bout it, Reds?  Do you guys take a few trips down memory lane while decorating?



And, of course, there's the cooking and the baking.  While not much a cook, truth be told, I do love cooking during the holidays.  But I love to bake, and I love to make candy.

Another tradition I love is one of sending Christmas cards (although I haven't quite gotten around to doing that yet this year).  

So.

I'm taking today as an opportunity to send each of you a big ol' virtual Christmas card to let you know how much you mean to me.  

And to thank you for yet another year of allowing me to come here each month sharing my words, sharing my images, my opinions and my feelings.  It's an honor and a joy.  

So, dear Reds - 


Here's your Christmas card filled with images from our house to yours -  

Merry Christmas and much love to you & yours!

This little angel tree topper has graced every tree we've had since 1985, which was the first Christmas Donald and I were together.

and now it's your turn -  

Let's hear about holiday traditions from your house, Reds!