Holiday Traditions!

One of the best aspects of the holidays is family traditions. We treasure memories of younger days, and we create new ones each year. Here are a few of our favorites:

Vito Giammanco

Our family tradition is we put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving and leave it up until the day after New Year’s. We always buy new ornaments the day after Christmas at half price and have a new theme each year. This year’s tree has a “rustic” theme, featuring burlap and denim.

Kristin Miller

My favorite holiday tradition is sipping sherry on Christmas morning with my Nany (Mom’s mom). Whether you were 5 or 50, everyone got a little glass, specifically Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry! Now that she’s gone, we keep the tradition alive by finishing the bottle!

Shannon Moore

Christmas traditions are Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparents and Christmas morning at our house. New traditions being started are a “Thankful calendar” like an Advent calendar, and opening gifts in matching pajamas.

Matt Fischer:

A tradition I started in my adulthood is Christmas Morning Mimosas. Lauren and I have multiple Christmases to go to and it can be quite hectic for us. We start off at my family’s, where the mimosas take place. My family is easygoing but we are all very loud (this makes sense if you know me) so the mimosas are a great way to keep in good “spirits” and take the edge off the very long day ahead.

Rick Cundiff

When I was a kid, we opened presents on Christmas Eve. Santa Claus appeared at my grandparents’ house every year, bringing presents for me and my two first cousins. And he knew our names! Later, as we visited other family members. Santa would appear at their homes too, with gifts for other kids in the family. And he remembered our names, and seeing us earlier!

For some reason, my Dad always JUST missed Santa’s visits ….