Christmas Traditions

It was always a tradition in my house to watch Santa and "Kakeman" on Television. Every afternoon I would sit by the set and watch Santa walk around the workshop talking about different toys. Off and and there was ALWAYS Santa and Kakeman, or when they moved to a different television station it was Santa and Toyboy. I would grow older and the show would still be around. By the time I had my own family in 1993, Santa was no longer on television. The person who portrayed Santa on television had died that year. My kids could no longer see Santa on television. One of the stations (KAKE) brought back old tapes of Santa and Kakeman, but it just wasn't the same!

Now this year Santa and Kakeman are back on the air. After a fifteen year abscence, he is back in the form of the son. This year the show has only been on for 8 days. There are new updates to the show such as a toy chute, and now Santa can receive e-mail letters!! There are things that remind me of the old show, especially when Santa "sings." I know that this is the old Santa of my time. Yesterday, new Santa read the real Christmas Story from the Holy Bible. I loved the work on this show. Hopefully next year the show will be back. Even though now both of my kids are so old and cannot relate to this show, I still watch it. It's just one of those traditions. It maybe Pagan, but that's okay.
------
Other Pagan traditions would be putting up a tree. When do people put up a tree? I put my up the day after Thanksgiving but usually I take it down way before New Years. Others probably put theirs up just before Christmas and take it down after New Years. Everyone has different traditions.

When I was growing up, I can remember that we could open one present on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day. Our Santa never wrapped presents! (I think the elves didn't have time to wrap them!). That was a tradition that was changed. Santa over here DID wrap presents, it was just the stuff in the stockings that weren't wrapped.

Another tradition was that we had to wait until everything and I mean everything was just right. If I woke up early, I had to wait on my older brother (who most always slept late). We had to wait until my dad turned the lights on the tree and got his camera set up before we could rush into the room to see what was under the tree. We did a form of this when S and J were younger. Now, we don't even record them coming out to check out their stockings. They have grown out of this.

My great aunt and great uncle used to serve a Norwegian/Swedish dish around Christmas time. This is because my Great Uncle Hermann was Norwegian. They would serve Lutefisk. I remember my cousins having this dish. I often wonder if Steve serves this to his wife or is that a by-gone tradition in that family?

My plans are to serve omelets for Christmas Breakfast, that is if they want it. I can't have eggs as I am allergic to them. But I don't mind frying up the omelets, it's fun!
-----
Another tradition that we did start when the kids were younger was going to Christmas Eve services. When we attended church in Kingman, their church would have a "talent show," of different musicians. We would hear them play flutes, sing, play keyboard, or a variety of things. When we came back to PV church, we had/have a Candlelight/Communion service. We really enjoy this!
----
What are your traditions during this time of year? Have you thought about starting something new?