When I was a kid we had a bit of an elaborate Christmas celebration. On Christmas morning, after all of the gifts from Santa were opened, we packed up the car and drove to Tennessee to spend the rest of the holiday with my grandparents. The whole family came, from my great-aunts and uncles to all my cousins.
And after our Christmas dinner, before we could open any presents, we held a family Christmas cantata. I’m very serious. My grandfather read the Christmas story and each of us were assigned a carol to sing at certain portions of the song. Mine was Away in a Manger, as evidenced by this computer printout of the family cantata scheduled circa 1995:
I was always slightly perturbed that I didn’t get a solo. I mean, sure my second cousin Kevin was a voice major and all but I totally won the solo spot at our fifth grade graduation so I felt as though I deserved a chance at the Christmas cantata. I mean, my fifth grade teachers entrusted me with Whitney Houston’s “A Moment in Time” and so I could have rocked a Christmas carol. I could have taken over “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” which for some reason was mysteriously scratched from the program.
After all of the singing, we formed a circle and lit candles, which is why you should definitely read this post I wrote entitled That Time I Burnt Down Christmas.
Then we hung these things called Chrismons on the tree, which were little golden glittered ornaments that my grandmother made. She read out what each ornament represented and each of the grandchildren took turns hanging them on the tree. I have been pestering my grandmother for years to send me a copy of the Chrismons symbols, so that I could continue the tradition with Scarlette. And this year she surprised me by sending me the entire set of our family’s original Chrismons, along with the full Christmas night tradition.
I gave Scarlette the envelope to open because she loves “supwises” and she was so excited about new “ornymints.” 
I am so looking forward to bringing a piece of my own childhood tradition to our family’s Christmas celebration. While we won’t do the full family sing-a-long, I think having her hang the special ornaments on our tree on Christmas Eve will be such a sweet way to continue our Christmas tradition.
I tried to find a picture of myself with the Chrismon ornaments but they must still be in storage. So instead, please enjoy this Christmas picture from 1989 (I was six). This is what it looks like when you make four children 6 and under sing a full Christmas cantata and wait for hours before opening their gifts 😉
(Contrary to this picture, I do have very fond childhood memories of this Christmas tradition but this made me laugh.)
Scarlette with our family Chrismon ornaments, 2014
Macy’s is all about Christmas traditions and when they asked if I wanted to host a holiday giveaway I said yes because I mean, when people ask me what my favorite things are I’m all “MACY’S AT CHRISTMASTIME.” I pretty much stalk their holiday display.
They let me choose a holiday outfit from their holiday selection for Scarlette for this post and I picked this sweet Nordic-inspired snowflake top and cream colored corduroys because I like that it wasn’t overly Christmas-y and kids just look so cute in little adult outfits. For size reference, if you are looking for this outfit on their site, it is a size 24 months. Yes, my four year old is THAT small.
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