It's a Tradition!

Every year during Christmas, my family and I have a set of Christmas traditions. Unlike most family traditions, I do enjoy having them. I guess they are traditions that I could pass down to my family and my families family. I've even created my own kind of traditions.

The Santa Hat- Every Christmas Eve, my family and relatives pass around a Santa hat to eachother. Whomever has the hat is the house that we go to for Christmas Eve. If my dad has the hat, Christmas Eve would be at our house. My uncles and cousins would come over to open presents and spend time with one another. Also, the one with the hat is the one in charge of passing the gifts to the person whom it belongs to. After the night is over, we would pass the hat to the next patron. The cycle never changes, neither does the order of who has the hat next. As always, there has to be some sort of catch. If the man of the house has to wear the hat, then the youngest child of the family has to wear the embarrassing reindeer antlers that not only look lame, but also light's up for more total embarrassment. Can you guess who the youngest in my family is?

Youngest to Oldest- When Christmas day arrives and my family and I are gathered around the tree to open presents, we go from youngest to oldest. To go in order, it would start out with me, then my brother, my mom, and finally my dad. Of course, we get gifts for my cat as well. However, in cat years, he's older than all of us, so he always goes last.

The Prayer- Before we ever open gifts, my family says a little prayer. We just simply thank God for another safe year and for watching over us.

Jingle All the Way- This particular tradition is something my brother and I made up on our own. For as long as we can remember, Jingle All the Way, has been our favorite Christmas movie ever. The movie is about a guy named Howard, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has to find a popular action figure known as, Turbo Man, for his son Jamie. However, Howard waited for the last minute to buy the gift, thinking that there would be plenty of them in stock. He goes from store to store in search of the toy only to be in competition between him and a mailman, played by Sinbad. So, every year, my brother and I sit down and watch the movie together.

New Years Eve- Like Christmas Eve, my family goes to one of our friends house for New Years Eve. There, we would play family games like Taboo or Pictionary. We would be with all our good friends and have a joyous time together. Over the years, it has gotten to be a little more difficult for us to fulfill this tradition. Recently my friend, Matt, moved away and a lot of the kids, like myself, have grown up. We have jobs that get in the way of activities and some of us have moved away for college. We try our best to keep the tradition alive.