In our family, Kathryn is our historian and tradition monitor. She’s the one who likes to pull out the old movies when everyone is home and reminds us of the various traditions she’s noted throughout her lifetime.  From an adult perspective, sometimes it is surprising what has become a tradition but then again I remember stuff from my own childhood that I might think of as a tradition but my parents might not have.

The first rule around the holidays for Kathryn is “one holiday at a time.” There is no mention of Christmas lists or playing of Christmas music before Thanksgiving for her. She doesn’t like how Thanksgiving gets pushed to be back burner as everyone races towards Christmas. I played a bit of Christmas music in the car, when she wasn’t there, during Thanksgiving week. A song here or there isn’t going to cause me to not cook turkey for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving comes with its own set of traditions, mostly centered around food. We can add dishes, but not take any away. My stepson Jonathan has his own Thanksgiving tradition. He likes to say things like he hopes the turkey isn’t dry this year. This has been his (annoying) tradition for quite some time. I don’t remember, not does Mike, any dried out turkeys served here but Jonathan enjoys the torment. As I tell him, that’s what gravy is for – pour it on and enjoy. This year he did say the turkey was good and took a fair amount home with him. Maybe an end to that tradition?

Now that Christmas season is here, we must carry on a few more traditions. While everyone else in the world seemed to be out buying and then decorating their tree the day or weekend after Thanksgiving, the Motleys were not. When we had cats, we used to wait until the last possible moment to put up the tree thus giving them less time to climb or knock down the tree before Christmas. Even with them gone, we wait a week or two into December to get the tree and then we get it on a Thursday because that’s the tradition. Mike’s tradition is to wait until the coldest, windiest day to put up the Christmas lights. No lights are up – hasn’t been cold enough yet!  

 Every year we set up the nativity set my family had when I was growing up. My sister and I would fight over who would put up the angel. No one fights me to put up the angel anymore. In fact, with the older three kids out of the house, there’s no one to fight with Kathryn over lighting the advent wreath candles either. What are the holidays without a good tug of war over matches or crying episode because of an angel?

I think holiday and Christmas music is one of the greatest traditions of this time of year. Songs seem to be in 3 categories – religious, holiday but not religious and campy/awful. I like songs in all groups and I thought it would be fun to share a song a day – a musical advent calendar of sorts – of my favorites. Tonight I’ll begin with a traditional song sung in a more modern way. Enjoy!