This is about Christmas with Sylvia’s family.  They have always made it an important part of the year.  Sylvia’s mom would save all year long to buy presents for everyone.  Starting around June she would buy an extra bag of sugar with the groceries, when she could afford to do that.  She also bought Karo syrup, brown sugar and chocolate chips until she had about 100 pounds of ingredients stashed away.  After Thanksgiving she would start making candy.  And she made lots and lots of it.  Everyone got a big box of it for Christmas.  When we sat down to eat, it always had to be at one table, which usually comprised an assortment of tables end-to-end and stretching through two long rooms.  After the meal was finished and the tables cleared the rest of the afternoon was taken up with a gift exchange.  It took quite a while to open the presents in turn and for all to ooh and aah over each one.

Mom & Dad  —  Christmas 1992

 This will be the eleventh year without Mom, and we miss her greatly.  We tried to carry forward the old traditions, but it just wasn’t the same without her.

The Christmas gathering is still one of the highlights of the year.  Sylvia and her sisters still make Christmas candy, but in much smaller quantities.  We no longer do the gift exchange.  Some bring Dad bird seed for his bird feeders and others do a little something, but he doesn’t want things for himself.  So someone will make a donation in his name to provide a critter to a needy family in a third-world country.  Or perhaps the donation will provide clean water or sanitary facilities for someone else.

In his sweet gentle spirit, Dad has reshaped the focus more into a celebration of togetherness and sharing.  We separate the tables to make it easier to move around.  When Mom and Dad were the only senior citizens present, it was easier to navigate the crowded passageways.  Nowadays, we find it easier to use several tables spaced so that folks can make their way around with less effort.

The last few years, the highlight is going around the group sharing something new from the year that is ending.  In recent years, I’ve shared snippets of family history.  (One of my favorites, and I’ve shared it here before, is of Dad’s great granddad taking his pregnant wife and two daughters to visit her parents.  He returned home, packed a few things and left a note in Norfolk, England while he boarded a ship for America.)

We’ll be getting together with Bryant, Barbara and Briana on Sunday afternoon.  That’s our family tradition.  Briana will be flying out to Mexico on Monday, and that’s why they will not be with us at Sylvia’s dad’s place on Monday.

What Christmas family traditions do you have?

Leave a link to your blog below.