Holiday traditions. Every one has them. Some are simple little things like making sugar cookies, lighting a menorah, putting up a tree or sending cards to family and friends. Some are more elaborate and involve creating living nativity scenes or assembling the greatest collection of holiday lights imaginable to put outside your home.
In our home, the Christmas season begins on Thanksgiving weekend when I lug countless plastic totes filled with decorations from the basement. The lugging of said totes up the stairs is not really all that bad, it’s the taking them back down the stairs after Christmas that is the killer, because it signifies the end of another holiday season.
But it is also a good time to rearrange the basement, which seems to require at least a quarterly overhaul each year.
This past weekend we checked off one of those traditions, the baking and frosting of Christmas cookies. My wife has deviated from the traditional sugar cookie style and has instead opted for molasses cookies in recent years. At first I was very much against mucking with the recipe, but I have to admit, these cookies are pretty tasty.
Mixing up tiny bowls of colored frosting is always an experience for the kids to enjoy. What color combinations will they come up with this year? And how long before the food coloring being added simply turns the snow white frosting into a drab shade of gray?
Most years, we have an overflowing table full of cookies waiting to be frosted. Our kids always start out eager and ready to tackle the pile, but somewhere after cookie No. 6, they start to lose interest. Or maybe it’s because they start getting a sick belly from licking all the frosting off their fingers or eating the “mistakes.”
This year, we were smarter and cooked fewer cookies. My waistline will appreciate that in the long run as I wind up eating the bulk of them anyway.
The girls also decided they wanted to help make a loaf of pumpkin bread to give to the local police officers. I saw the finished product and the note attached to it, saying “for police men and women” which was just adorable. But I wondered if the police department would think it was a suspicious package and destroy it. A quick chat with Lt. Dan Pelletier Monday morning went a long way to straightening that out and they will be delivering the snack soon.
A relatively new tradition has caught on in a number of homes called “The Elf on the Shelf.” This family tradition started in 2005 when a children’s book of the same name was published. That book tells the story of how Santa needs assistance with his naughty and nice list and therefore enlists the help of a “scout elf” to monitor children in their homes from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
The purpose of the scout elf is to watch the children’s behavior and report back to Santa each night after the kids go to bed. In the morning, the elf is found in a different, often comical location to further promote the aura of magic.
Surprisingly, we had resisted the urge to join the fray for several years. That changed this year when my wife, rightfully so, felt we needed a little extra holiday joy this year. That is when “Joy” joined our family and has been a popular hit with our 8-year-old. She races down the stairs each morning to see where the elf is positioned and if she left any notes.
Joy’s arrival was supposed to be a surprise, but our savvy daughter stumbled her way on to Amazon and was looking at elves and other holiday items when the site so nicely noted to her “you placed an order for this item on Dec. 1.” So note to self, in the future, log out of Amazon to avoid similar circumstances around birthdays.
So far, our scout elf has been pretty tame compared to others I’ve seen photos of. We’ll have to see if the silliness gets kicked up a notch in these final few days before Christmas.
What are some of the holiday traditions you share with your family? Drop us a line at the newspaper to share them.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect that of the newspaper. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.
