I don’t know how other newlyweds handle their first couple of Christmases, but I’ll tell you how we did: we meticulously planned out every tiny little detail of how we would spend our Christmases together so that we could start many fabulous traditions that we would enjoy for years and years to come.
NOT.
What really happened was this: last year, we seemed to stumble upon some Christmas-y things (by a fluke, mind you) that were actually so lovely that we ended up solidifying them into “traditions” by doing them again this year.
For example, my boss last year gave me a smoked turkey as a Christmas bonus, and we ended up making a feast out of it and having our own little fancy Christmas dinner.
This year, we didn’t get any turkey, but we did buy a pot roast, light up some candles, and invite over the neighbors for a little Christmas feast. We would usually follow up the dinner with a Christmas movie, but this year, we decided to spend it playing games with those same neighbors instead.
Only two years in, and I already adore the fancy feast tradition.
Another accidental tradition is that Matt and I, due to the fact that we live about 90 minutes away from our folks and didn’t want to open our personal gifts to each other in front of our whole family, have had our own little Christmas celebration early (in our own little apartment), just the two of us, a few days before Christmas day.
Even though people are always incredulous that we open up all our gifts before Christmas day, I love the quiet time spent together in our own home, where we’re free to fully enjoy playing Santa to each other.
I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Lastly, you see that little red book up there in Matt’s hand? This is a semi-accidental tradition; you see, for Christmas last year, I had written a letter to Matt every other day or so for about 3 months, and then I gave him the book last Christmas. Since I wanted to do something special for him this year too, I decided to just add a letter and photos to the book (which I hadn’t quite filled up). I plan to add a letter to it each year.
What accidental Christmas traditions do you celebrate?
