Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.

Since Joey and I started our family, I've really realized how different our family holiday traditions are. I am not talking about what we serve for holiday dinners (even though that is also different), but more so the traditions we had as children and how we celebrate holidays as adults. For Easter, Joey's family used to hide the Easter baskets and say they were from the Easter bunny. Joey and his siblings had to search for their baskets. Now, I think that's weird. First of all, I never remember thinking that our Easter baskets full of goodies came from the Easter bunny. That's just plain strange to me. My mom used to make our Easter baskets, put them on the dining room table the night before Easter, and we'd wake up in the morning and we'd have these nice baskets of goodies. As we got older, my mom started just filling a gigantic basket full of candy and it would be on the dining room table.

For Christmas, Joey grew up with the tradition that all of the presents except one came from Santa. In their family, ONE present came from Mom and Dad. WHAT!! Santa gets all of the credit? I don't really think that's fair nor does it make any sense. His family is also weird in how/when they open presents (sorry if any of you are reading this, but it IS strange). Their family gets together on Christmas Eve at one of the Aunt's houses. They have appetizers and then everyone (the adults) opens their one gift from their Secret Santa. They have this tradition where all of the adults draw one name (at Thanksgiving) and you HAVE to spend $50 on that person. Everyone sends out a list of what they want and then their Secret Santa buys off that list. First of all, I don't like that you have to spend $50 on someone so I rarely participate in this tradition. Then another tradition is that all of the adults have to buy a present for all of the cousins. Now, including Brynlee and Ainsley, there is a total of 14 kids to buy for! That adds up quickly. Then comes Christmas Day. Everyone opens presents at their own home with their families and then meets at another Aunt's house around 11-12pm to open the huge living room full of gifts that are from Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc. Then there's lunch.

My family is small. We never got together with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc so our family traditions are different. When we were little, we woke up really early on Christmas morning and opened all of our presents. Then we got to dig into our stockings. As we got older, we started getting together on Christmas Eve and having drinks, playing games, and hanging out. We open presents that evening. Then the next day, we'd come over for lunch and just hang out. Small and simple. We have started a tradition where we buy one gift  (no price minimum or maximum) for each person (except my mom always buys more) and we draw a number and you buy a "couple's gift" for whomever you draw. Since we are all married or in a relationship, we now have to split our holidays with our spouses. Being that my family is so small, it is very noticeable when one of us is gone. :/

This last Christmas, Joey and I chose not to participate in the gift exchanging because we had Brynlee and money has been tight. We knew that if we bought for everyone then we would have to get farther into debt just to pay for the presents. We are working really hard to get OUT of debt (well now we have taken 14 steps backwards thanks to Joey's hospital bills) and are trying so hard not to create any new financial obligations. Of course, our parents still bought us gifts and everyone bought gifts for Brynlee.

Back to traditions: even the food served for holidays is completely different. I am so used to only having turkey, ham, stuffing, etc (what I call Thanksgiving food) once a year...at Thanksgiving. Then we have something different for Christmas dinner such as Italian Christmas or homemade tacos, enchiladas, and other Mexican food. Sometimes we do a brisket or something like that. Joey's family has "Thanksgiving food" for almost all of their holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter...

One problem with the way Joey's family does holidays is that they have them all at the Aunts' houses in the DFW area which is two hours from us. So in order for us to partake in the festivities, we typically drive down and stay the night. I hope that we will have our own individual family traditions, too. I want Brynlee to be able to wake up on Christmas morning, wake us up, and beg to open her presents! If we are staying with the Aunts' in Dallas, then that won't happen.

How do you handle the difference in traditions? I am interested!