Cathy and I have several Christmas Tradition’s that we absolutely love. One of our traditions revolves around getting our Christmas Tree and putting it up with friends. The job of putting the star on the top of the tree always falls to me. We have traditions as they relate to gifts, our children, date nights and our church. Some of these traditions were started by our families and some of them have been created by us and they are just for us. These traditions are fun and help make the season special. Our traditions also help us keep connected, our love growing and our marriage strong. The power of the tradition is that we do them together and they have meaning and purpose. These traditions have become “our thing”. This Christmas Season, what is your “thing”? What are the traditions that you and your spouse engage in that help make the Christmas Season even more special? If you have a difficult time identifying any traditions, consider starting some this year. Here are a few possibilities:
For date night, drive around looking at Christmas lights. Stop and enjoy the lights, talking about what is great about this Christmas and what is great about your marriage.
Watch Christmas Movies together. Consider picking one that becomes “your movie”. For Cathy and I the movie we love to watch is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. (We watched it again this week!) It is the only time of the year I can watch movies that I have already seen.
Adopt a needy family and commit to making Christmas special for them. Consider getting involved in helping others.
Buy a special ornament that sums up the year. It could be an ornament that symbolizes a special milestone or event that happened for the both of you in the past year.
Bake cookies for your neighbors. After you have baked the cookies consider delivering them together as a sign of friendship and love to your neighbors.
Create a Christmas Eve Box. The box could include a bottle of wine, a board game, pajamas or lingerie, and snacks. Pull the box out after the kids have gone to bed on Christmas Eve.
Write a letter to each other. Exchange the letters on Christmas Eve and consider reading them to one another. The letter could share the highlights of the year, hopes and dreams for the upcoming year and express continued love.
Go to church. One of the most rewarding things that Cathy and I do every Christmas Eve is attend church together. It tunes us into one of the realities that drives our lives, and that is that Christmas is about a God that loves us so much that he sent a baby to be born in a manger 2000 years ago.
Pick a few of these traditions and commit to doing them the next couple of days and on Christmas Eve. You will find that these Christmas traditions are a lot of fun and strengthen your marriage. Also, if you know of someone who might benefit from these traditions, please share this post. Speaking of strengthening your marriage, if I can ever be of any assistance to you and your spouse, please know that my passion is helping good marriages become great, and healing broken marriages.