What’s Your Tradition?

What’s Your Tradition?

The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means “God is with us”).

Isaiah 7:14

Do you open your Christmas presents tonight or tomorrow morning? Les says, tongue in cheek, that “true Christians open presents on Christmas Eve.” Of course, he thinks that’s the way to celebrate because that’s what his family did growing up. I, on the other hand, grew up in a home where we always opened our gifts on Christmas morning. I still recall the excitement of waking up early and rushing downstairs to let the excitement begin.

So what’s our pattern in the home we created together? We open our gifts on Christmas Eve. Chalk one up for Les! Actually, it was a mutual decision, and after all these years I can’t imagine changing this tradition. We love it. The evening typically begins with an evening service at our church that involves singing some of the most sacred of Christmas hymns, followed by a scrumptious holiday dinner. Then we gather around the tree and distribute the gifts one by one.

Now, if you happen to be newly married, you’re likely still working out your traditions, but you’ll soon have them. And like a groove that we feel was made just for us, we all seem to find our own traditions that work in our home. Sometimes the traditions begin very early on. Consider Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose of Christmas. When he was just three years old, he asked his mom why they celebrated Christmas. She explained that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday. In a burst of preschooler inspiration, Rick concluded with a child’s logic that they should have a birthday party—with cake, Kool-Aid, and singing happy birthday to Jesus. And that’s what they did.

That little party began a tradition in the Warren family that has lasted over five decades. Every Christmas Eve they have angel food cake, complete with candles. But that’s not all. Besides singing carols and reading the Christmas story from the Bible, each family member takes a turn sharing his or her answers to two personal questions: “What, from the past year, are you thankful to God for?” and “Since it’s Jesus’ birthday, what gift will you give him this next year?”

According to Pastor Warren, these two simple questions have prompted some of the most profound and moving moments in their marriage and family’s history. They might be two questions we could all make a tradition of starting this evening.

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it “white.”

—Bing Crosby