Last updated on December 7th, 2022 at 09:34 am

Christmas Traditions. We all have them. No matter how silly they may seem to other people, we love them and would never change them. They belong to us and are embedded in our memories. Over time, these traditions can change – sometimes we grow out of them, but their memories can still be very powerful. That’s why it can be important to create new ones. As kids get older and don’t want to do those things anymore, you can find new Christmas traditions to replace them.

As “The Harper Girls” we’ve been lucky to have created Christmas traditions together. We have our own separate traditions within each of our immediate families, but we also have them together. One of those is Christmas Eve. We have spent Christmas Eve together since Jen was a small child. We’ve sometimes had to be in different places on Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve is always together. Here’s just one pictures of our Christmas Eve’s together.

Jen’s Christmas Traditions

Ever since I was younger, the day after Thanksgiving we would put up the Christmas tree. At my parent’s house, we would watch The Santa Clause at the same time. Nowadays, Mike, Eme and I will listen to Christmas music, and at some point we’ll watch the (very old) Pee-Wee Herman Christmas Special. 

Last December, Mike needed to have surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, which meant removing his top rib, and couldn’t lift anything for an extended period of time. 

I thought I would have to dial it down on the Christmas decorations, and instead I managed to turn it up a notch. 

I had to put up and take down our main Christmas tree myself, so my “compromise” was to not put ornaments on it. And instead, I bought and set up two more small trees in our house, for a total of 4 around our house. 

And I even got a couple holiday kits from AR Workshop and made a sign for the mantle and a standup advent calendar! 

Before Christmas Eve, we’ll spend a day with my husband’s family making Christmas cookies! We make traditional gingerbread, but with fun cookie cutters. Once the cookies come out of the oven and are cooled, we all get to decorating!

Christmas Eve we’ll usually spend dinnertime with my in-laws, and then after we go over to Aunt Dianne’s for snacks and to open some presents (depending on who is going to be around on Christmas day!). 

Since moving into our current house three years ago, and living so much closer to both our families, we’ve started hosting Christmas morning breakfast for everyone. 

Both of our families come over, and we have some easy to make breakfast casseroles, and enjoy spending the morning together. 

We also make sure to get a photo of Mike, Eme and I in our matching pajamas sitting at the top of the stairs. Mike and his family would always take a photo sitting at the top of the stairs Christmas morning! 

The rest of the day and next couple days are spent with our families! We alternate who we spend Christmas Day dinner with, so Christmas Day ends up changing a bit year by year! 

Plus, now that Eme is old enough to understand what’s going on, it’ll be even more fun creating Christmas memories together!

Dianne’s Traditions

Here’s one of the earliest and funniest traditions I can remember from growing up. It’s my dad taking home movies of my brother (Jen’s dad) and me waking up on Christmas morning. You’re probably thinking – what’s so funny about that? The answer is that we had to “fake” film it the night before! I never really asked why and to this day, I don’t know. I think maybe it was because we were too excited and impatient in the morning for my dad to get a good take? But I laugh every time I see those movies. They look real, but only those of us that were there know the truth!

I have to say that I think my Dad loved Christmas more than my mom. He was actually the one who trimmed the tree every year – with meticulous detail. I have, fortunately or unfortunately, inherited that trait. It takes me forever, but I love it.

Because my dad loved Christmas so much and had quite the artistic flair, he used to actually “paint” the large mirror in our house. I don’t know exactly how he made the colors (maybe food coloring?). But I know he used the product Glass Wax which was popular in the 1960’s. I went down a rabbit hole writing this to see what I could find about Glass Wax and found this article which has the original TV commercial about how to do it. My dad didn’t use stencils though – he actually painted them all freehand. This photo below is an exact replica of my childhood home that I are sitting in front of.

Fast forward to today and the traditions that we’ve created within our own family. One of our most favorite is the pickle ornament. If you haven’t heard of the pickle, the way it works is that the first child to find the pickle ornament on the tree on Christmas morning gets an extra present. And that’s (sorta) what we do.

I say sorta because my boys are too smart to have the pickle on the tree in the morning. They can be pretty competitive so they would scope it out ahead of time. So the way we do it, is that after all the presents are open, we sequester them in another room and then hide the ornament on the tree. We’ve had to institute a “15 second penalty” if they knock an ornament off the tree. They do get an extra present but what they really want are the bragging rights! We started this many years back and it now continues with the boys and their wives! You can learn more about the Christmas pickle here.

A couple of my other traditions involve decorations. I think decorations can be powerful memory joggers as well. I have loved “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” for as long as I can remember. It’s always been my favorite and probably always will be. We had a reindeer decoration (not technically a Rudolph) from when I was a child that I still have today. It’s one of my favorite decorations to put out every year.

That reindeer is always with “Elfie”, the Elf doll I have had, also from my childhood. I still remember the day I got it (and it’s been a loooong time). We were in a store like Home Depot and they had a bin of these for $1 (yep, I’m that old). I asked my mom if I could have one, which I didn’t do a lot. The rest is history.

Continuing on that Rudolph tradition, I have a complete set of the Rudolph Misfits stuffed toys that I collected over several years. A local drugstore chain offered them for several years and I managed to collect them all. So it’s tradition that they are on display every year. But the real tradition is that every year on Christmas Eve my brother re-arranges the display when I am not looking. I don’t know how he does it!

We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our Christmas traditions. We’d love to hear yours. Please tell us about your Christmas traditions in the comments below.

Make sure to check out Jen’s post on “Easy Holiday Family Outfits for Everyone”. Even if you’ve already taken your family photos, there are great tips for next year!

Are you still shopping for Christmas gifts? Well then we’ve got you covered with our Holiday Gift Guide Section!