Traditions

To most people who know me (and maybe even those who don’t) it is no secret that I do love Christmas. I love the celebrations and precious time with family off course, but one of my favourite things is how cosy and atmospheric the house feels this time of the year. Traditions made over the years as a family is so special, from gingerbread house making and all the other baking, hanging up all the decorations together that we have collected over the years, the same songs that fills the house and the old cards the kids have made over the years that still gets put on display. Some traditions are cultural off course. Might be deported for saying this, but turkey really isn’t my favourite. And the fake Christmas trees, surprise surprise, not my cup of tea. Considering that the tree gets put up in this country at the beginning of the Christmas period (many people have already done it this year to brighten up the last bit of a bit of a bleak year), I guess the fake tree became a must. Nothing worse then a sad looking droopy tree when the big day comes around. When I was younger the Norwegian tradition is to get the tree in on Little Christmas eve (23rd of December). We would then go to bed and my dad would decorate it with the lights, baubles, glitter, cotton (as snow) and Norwegian flags. When we woke on Christmas eve (which is the day we celebrate) the house had been transformed into a Christmas wonderland.

Anyway I am digressing, because this wasn’t meant to be a post about all things Christmassy. We will though, according to our Howes family traditions get the house all dressed up this weekend ready for 1st of December. This post was more me pondering the concept of traditions, and how strongly you can be invested in them, or not. Obviously this time of year we see a lot of this around. Traditions contributes to a sense of belonging and can also give a lot of comfort. So this year as our flights back home to Norway got cancelled I thought about the things I would miss by not being able to go home, but I also thought a lot about the things we do here in our family home that brings us together and that we appreciate. In a moment of wanting to make our home even more Christmassy, I did an impulse shop. I bought us all Christmas duvet covers, stylish I thought. But for some adding to traditions, tweaking and changing them up, is not as welcomed as you might expect. I am pretty sure my boys definitely will not carry on this new tradition.

Anyway – I LOVE my new Christmas duvet cover, and maybe if I had bought the ‘Mickey and Minnie kissing under the mistletoe’ one for the boys they would be more into it.