Do you have cherished family activities during the holidays? Ours begin with a Thanksgiving weekend tradition I’d like to share with you!
I don’t know about you, but I love Thanksgiving, spending time with family, and enjoying yummy food!
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What’s not to like?
What’s even more exciting?
The fact that it kicks off the Christmas season!
My very favorite time of the year!
And today, I wanted to take a moment and share one of our favorite holiday traditions that happens every Thanksgiving weekend!
Putting up our family Christmas Tree
We usually visit Rich’s family on Thanksgiving!
Before we leave, I put up our family tree.
It’s prelit, and I add garland and the topper, so it’s ready to decorate when we return home!
The first gift of the season
Before we decorate the tree, each family member opens their first Christmas present!!
An ornament that symbolizes something they like or a significant event that happened during the year!
Last year, my ornament was in the shape of Mickey Mouse, and it was personalized with the words: “Moved to the Magic” to commemorate our move to Florida.
But before we hang our ornaments on the tree, we have a family tradition to perform!!
a special tradition
We read a book and place a sentimental ornament on the tree!
In 2003, on a trip to Gatlinburg, Rich and I found this book and ornament at our favorite Christmas Store!
The book gives a brief history of the legends of Santa Claus and ends with him paying tribute to the birth of Christ on Christmas.
It’s a great reminder of what the real reason for the season is!
After we read the book, one of the boys puts the ornament of Baby Jesus and Santa on the tree.
The boys always remember whose turn it was to put the ornament on!
Here’s a scrapbook page of us in 2003!
Look how young the boys are and how dark Rich’s hair is, lol!!
A box of ornaments
Now it’s time to decorate the tree!!!
Each boy has a box filled with the ornaments he made and the ones we gifted them!
Here is Harrison with his box!
And Griffin, holding his box!
We’re sad not to have our oldest son, Evan, home during Thanksgiving!
He was happy for us to hang his ornaments on the tree for him!
When he arrives for Christmas, he can enjoy seeing them!
So many memories
It is so fun to pull out an ornament and remember the story of how or why we acquired it!
Each one carries so many heartfelt memories!
From vacations and adventures, we have been on.
To massive events like getting braces or graduating from high school!
We have so much fun decorating our tree together!
I’m happy the boys still love and enjoy this tradition!
And someday,
when they move out
and have a tree all their own,
they’ll have a box full of Christmas decorations
and a heart filled with fabulous memories!
Now, it’s time to grab a box of tissues and some wrapping paper!
After all, I have ornaments to wrap!
I hope you enjoyed hearing about our Thanksgiving weekend tradition!
Do you have traditions in your family? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
And before I forget, I want you to know how thankful I am for each of you!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
Blessings, Donna And Rich
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What a nice tradition of adding ornaments to your tree. Our kids are grown and gone so I feel your pain in thinking about them having their own traditions. But take it from me, there will be new traditions for them and their families and you will be part of those new traditions too!! Happy decorating! 😊
Thank you Cindy for those sweet and encouraging words! Happy holidays!
This is such a fantastic family tradition, Donna! I’m definitely going to pass it along to my sisters as well. It’s always so much fun to look back on Christmas ornaments and remember what season of life you were in when you gifted them to each other. Hope your holiday season is a blessed one, CoCo
Thanks, CoCo! This is one of my favorite holiday traditions because it brings back the happiest memories of our life!