Guest Post - Post-Holiday Traditions
Today I have a special guest blogger, Natasha, who I "met" through Twitter and blogging. She is a delightful, beautiful young woman and I truly appreciate the relationship we've developed over the last couple years through these avenues. Today, as many of you will probably be bustling around getting ready for Christmas, Natasha is going to talk about her traditions and experiences after the Christmas Eve/Day madness. Enjoy!
Hello. My name is Natasha and I blog over at Small & Charming. Stevie was nice enough to let me occupy some space here and blog. After a couple of deliberations, Stevie (who is celebrating her first Christmas as a married woman) asked me about a subject that is rarely talked about: after-Christmas traditions. I don’t have quite many of them that I do consistently, but I thought I would talk about my wonderful history of previous after-Christmas memories.
When I was a young girl, my family and I had the same Christmas traditions that most families have, but I always knew that my family had the potential to be a little off the wall with the way things worked. Sometimes, the biggest thrill on Christmas morning was sneaking out of my room after all of the gifts were wrapped and under the tree to sit in front of them and anticipate what I had received. Those moments, the time in which I could successfully sneak past my sleeping parents to see how well my siblings and I had done in the gift department, was sometimes better than actually opening the gifts. I suppose my imagination is one of my best traits.
My after-Christmas traditions are a lot more varied and somewhat innovative as I got older. If you were the middle child in my family and under the age of 16, you stayed at home and gorged on leftovers while basking in your new dolls or movies because the candy and food in your stocking was eaten on Christmas day. Being 16 meant that things had changed dramatically in my family, though. There had been a shift that caught everyone off guard and suddenly, I was aware of my mother’s health and the income shifts that I was normally oblivious to. That still didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself.
When I was 16, my Christmas actually took place the day after Christmas. My mom used to always say that whatever we didn’t get on December 25th was something we could get on December 26th. However, I don’t remember ever going shopping on December 26th until I was 18 and armed with $175 cash from my parents. I nearly froze my fingers off, but I didn’t care because I was getting my first CDs, really good food and giving my sister money to rent movies.
The following year, my mom took the words Holiday Season to the next level. Maybe it was because my siblings and I were getting older, but I think that my mom felt a little more comfortable not celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day if there wasn’t any way to do so because of finance. I know that I was pretty flexible about not having a big tree and presents underneath it if someone promised me stuff or gave me food (and I am still that way). This was the year when my mom came up with the best tradition we never did again by combining Christmas and New Year’s. We gorged on McDonalds and my mom gave us our gifts, which included the latest Stephen King book (that my sister had asked for). Then, we brought in the New Year by happily watching music videos. I call this tradition/event “New Christmas.”
The older I became, after Christmas traditions became few and far between (although I’m totally doing New Christmas from now on) but when I got married, I ended up starting the tradition I still do to this day. Our Christmas sucked that year and my husband decided to take a walk at 11 p.m. Since I had nothing to do, I went with him and somehow, we ended up buying lots of gift wrap and bows for almost $5. Then, we brought it home and talked about how we were going to use our new bounty on next year’s gifts.
Whenever a store is open on Christmas day, I tend to take a walk and pick up as much Christmas supplies (gift wrap, bows, lights, ornaments, and cards) that I can possibly buy and bring home without falling over. That way, I’m prepared for the next year and don’t have to spend full price on anything when Christmas rolls around again.
There are my not so brief, pretty lame after-Christmas traditions, but what I want to know is this: What do you do after Christmas?
P.S. Have you entered my giveaway to win a holiday set from butter London?
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