Christmas Traditions…
December 16, 2004
Traditions are beautiful things. Especially around the holidays. I’ve been blessed to be in some places with rich traditions in the the past few years:
- Chehalis, WA: My mother “drug” (at least that’s how I viewed it, until I got smart) our family to Handels’ MESSIAH almost every year (the 3-hr version…no abridged versions for the Cleavelands). Now, it doesn’t really feel like Christmas unless I make it to MESSIAH. Also, my family always (and still does) make it to the Presbyterian church’s Christmas Eve Candlelight service. We still go even though we don’t go to that church at home anymore…it’s routine, it’s ritual…
Whitworth: We had many Christmas traditions at Whitworth, from dorm Christmas parties, to the school Christmas party (with the President serving punch), to the Candlelight service, to the Christmas choir concert (which was always amazing), caroling… - Wendell: The Wendell Community Christmas Cantata is something that, although the “cantatas” were always cheesy, I miss this year. I miss the little boys hitting each other in the choir, while the little girls pulled their dresses over their heads. I was the narrator my first year in Wendell, that was fun. While I was there, I brought back the church Christmas caroling, on the back of a flat-bed trailer with hay. It was great…we did get pulled over by the Wendell police the first year because we didn’t have any lights on the back…oops.
- PTS: The Choir Christmas Concert was wonderful last night - a service of lessons from scripture and carols and international music. At the end, everyone exits the chapel and gathers around the front while we look at the Christmas lights that Hodge (a dorm) surprised us with, and sing carols…holding candles…
What are your Christmas traditions…?
Posted in General
Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
December 16th, 2004 at 11:36 am
My wife and I have always spent the night at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve, even though we’ve lived in the same town for the past four years or so. Now we have a son and we are still planning on spending the night there. We normally watch a Christmas-type movie together, which used to be “White Christmas.” One year, however, we went to watch it and it had disappeared. We figured out later that my grandparents has borrowed it. So we did the best we could. We watched the original “Die Hard,” which, you will remember, takes place at Christmas!
December 16th, 2004 at 12:32 pm
Heh. Die Hard is may all-time favorite Christmas movie.
Christmas traditions at our house include the late service at church (always outstanding music, candlelight, etc.), breakfast of Eggs Benedict and Mimosas (Buck’s Fizz to the Brits…), no opening of presents till the morning of Christmas Day. Always a traditional English Christmas turkey dinner with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, little sausages, stuffing, etc. Lately I’ve taken to cooking turkey on the Weber charcoal grill because it works really well and it keeps the kitchen clear for all the other stuff.
Oh, then there’s the “try to put the Santa hats on the cats” tradition. Much like bull riding, the record for keeping them on is about 7 seconds…
This will be the second year in a row we go to see the Nutcracker ballet on Boxing Day (Dec 26) and that will probably become a regular thing. We have middle of the front row seats this year - I can’t wait :)
December 16th, 2004 at 3:33 pm
Dave, in addition to MESSIAH, my mom would also take us up to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s NUTCRACKER in Seattle. It’s fabulous - is this the one you are going to?
December 17th, 2004 at 12:46 am
Sorry, Adam…but “my also always(and still do)”???!!
Que estabas pensando hijo mio??
kind of a catchy phrase…’my also always’
ya really gotta proofread a little bit sometimes….
December 17th, 2004 at 1:47 am
Yes Adam, that would be the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle - now in the awesome McCaw Hall. To be honest, I liked the choreography and sets in Montreal ballet better from 20 years ago, but it’s still great.
December 17th, 2004 at 10:50 am
Hey, Adam. Nice to meet you in person last night.
Two more comments:
1. Don’t worry, my Mom still makes comments like that, too.
2. I read your “cantata” post…lol…I’ve done Camp Kirkland before. This year it’s Randy Vader & Jay Rouse, which is basically the same thing…endless key changes and what not. I wrote a post about the angst of choosing to do one of these things back in August. They can be very cheesy, but it gets lots of people involved and audiences SEEM to enjoy it.