Thanksgiving has finally arrived and now thoughts can turn towards Christmas. That is, unless you have already been thinking of Christmas since Halloween. I on the other hand am following Nordstrom’s lead. In case you missed it, Nordstrom had a sign that said the store wouldn’t be decking its halls until November 27th because it liked the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time.
But now the time is here and I am ready for some Christmas spirit. I was thinking today about Christmas traditions. My family and I have a somewhat odd one – on Thanksgiving, we watch two shows – National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and the turkey drop episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati.” No matter how many times we’ve seen it, my dad and I always laugh until we are in tears when station manager Arthur Carlson says the famous line “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”
We have a few other traditions that we do. If my sister is in town, we usually go Black Friday shopping together. I like the fun of getting up early and being in the crowds, but as I get older, I realize I need less of the stuff the stores are offering. And after reading this year’s stories about people being pepper sprayed, I am becoming a bit leery of the whole thing.
We usually try to attend church on Christmas Eve as a group (which is quite an undertaking since we are three blended families) then come home to have a meal together. We always open one gift each after we return home. We used to a holiday movie afterwards (Holiday Inn is my personal favorite), but now that everyone has little ones, that usually gets cut out.
What gets you in the Christmas spirit? Do you have a favorite holiday film? Do you have a local event you attend with your family?