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Christmas is my personal favorite time of the year. It is a time that I have always treasured, as it has held many treasures for me.

As a child, I couldn't wait for Christmas to come. I remember anticipating the glow of a red light in the sky, signaling the the arrival of Santa Claus and his eight reindeer. I loved to watch Rudolph and Frosty on the television at night, snuggled under a blanket on the couch. I loved picking out the family tree and decorating it with our favorite ornaments...oh, the memories!

Our Christmas tradition was to get a real tree. We would usually buy it from the local Boy Scouts, and our entire family would go to pick it out. My favorite year was when we moved into our log home, which my father had designed. It had high ceilings, which enabled us to get a tall and wide tree. It was a beautiful tree! I love the smell of the fresh pine when you walk into a home with a real tree. Ah! Tradition! The part I remember most about our tree, however, was the traditional overnight soak! Dad would insist that we soak the tree in a bucket outside the front door of our home at least overnight...I guess it soaked in more water that way and wasn't as dry as it would be if we brought it inside immediately! I asked my Mom this year if he still held that tradition. He has! I'm happy to say that my husband does not hold that tradition, so we are able to put our tree up the day that we get it, now. We have set our own family tradition of cutting down our tree, also. It brings such great joy to me to watch my children run through the tree farm to find the perfect tree, helping Daddy with the hand saw and dragging it out. Of course, Dad sets up the tree, and he loves to cover it with lights. Then, the children and I decorate it, and we finish it off with tinsel, which is my husband's tradition. (I could personally do without the tinsel, but we combined traditions, and it's the love that counts.)

The next tradition is the presents. Growing up, we were allowed into our stockings when we woke up, but we had to wait for the adults before we could open the ones under the tree. Talk about torture! Grandpa had to have his cup of coffee, and Dad took what seemed like a year to get around in the morning on Christmas (of course, we were dragging them out of bed at 6:30AM, filled with excitement). As adults, my husband and I have honored this tradition and upheld it. Our children are allowed to open their stockings, but they have to wait until Grandpa and Grandma and Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma arrive before they are allowed under the tree. (And I thought we had to wait long as kids!) We also began a new tradition (I think this one comes from my husband's side) of opening one present the night before...on Christmas Eve.

I remember traveling a lot as a child at Christmastime. We always were going from house to house, between Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Friends of the Family. We seem to uphold that tradition even now, as we go from our house to other relatives, friends of the family, and such.

Christmas Eve we attend Candlelight Service at our church, honoring the most important aspect of Christmas and our entire reason for the season...the birth of our Savior, the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. This is the greatest of all of our traditions, and the most savored. We have instilled this into our children, also, reminding them that Christmas is all about the Christ and not all about the presents and hubbub.

I savor our Christmas traditions. I look forward to them every year, and I adore how we've been able to combine traditions from both mine and my husband's childhoods. Where would we be without traditions?

Learn more about this author, Alycia Morales.
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