New Christmas Traditions by Suzanne Winslow

Like many people, I grew up with a lot of Christmas traditions that I passed on to my children when they were growing up. Traditions like baking cookies, cutting the Christmas tree, visiting Santa, and celebrating with family and friends on Christmas Eve. My husband and I were in our early twenties when we started our family of six, so we sort of transitioned from being kids to having kids, with little time in-between.

Now, our four kids range in age from twenty-seven to thirty-four. Two are single, two are engaged. None of them have children. Three live in different states, all far away. And we’ll see only two of them this year.

All of this to say, Christmas is an ever-evolving holiday in our family. I bake a lot less with no one here to eat a season’s worth of cookies. We have artificial trees instead of a real one, and Christmas Eve is much quieter now.

So, how do we celebrate the holiday with only adults and in much smaller groups?

First, I’ve started a new take on a favorite tradition: the advent calendar. Our advent calendar is now full of game night/date night ideas. My husband and I divide the days and come up with different ideas for each one, taking weekdays and weekends into account. Some of the ideas are a throwback to the past, like driving to see Christmas lights and watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Other ideas are dart games with cheese and crackers, board games with a Christmas cocktail, a straight-up Christmas cocktail night, and holiday events at our favorite restaurants and wineries. Every morning, we open the activity for the day, and then look forward to whatever it is we’ll do later that evening.

I make the advent calendar using a wood soda crate and I store the ribbon, bow, and all the rest to reuse the following year. Super easy and lots of fun!

Another new tradition is picking one night to sleep by the fire next to the Christmas tree. We inflate the air mattress and make up the bed with a big, comfy comforter and pillows, and watch movies before we go to sleep. You can certainly do this with kids too.

Lastly, we have a fancier menu. If it’s just the two of us for Christmas dinner, we’ll splurge on steak and scallops and a nice bottle of wine.

If you’re curious about the advent calendar, follow me at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSuzanneWinslow/ to see this year’s ideas.

When I’m not celebrating Christmas, I’ll be editing Backfire, book three in my Smoke and Fire firefighter romance series, releasing in 2024. Burned and Bail Out, books one and two, are available in Amazon and Kindle Unlimited now.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!