Holiday Traditions - Setting the Scene for Beautiful Memories

Ahh…it’s the holiday season again. Time to bring out the decorations and plan for those wonderful moments you’re bound to capture on film. It seems like just about every family has traditions unique to them at this time of year. Our goal is to give you some ideas to capture those traditions in your scrapbooks.

In my family, one of our favorite traditions is Christmas morning breakfast. It’s the one time of the year my husband does the cooking (well, if you can call it that), and the kids love it. What do we have? Not big fancy spreads of breakfast casseroles; pancakes and waffles stacked a mile high. No, we have chocolate milk and toast! It’s a tradition that’s uniquely ours and we love it! Even with morning hair and us all in our pajamas, I’ve captured the moment on film. It’s such a fun time for all of us and a great way to start Christmas Day.

I asked other scrapbookers what their traditions were at this time of the year. It’s fun to see how each family celebrates their holidays:

Wendy Anderson of Utah writes:
“We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve (PJ's, of course). We put out ‘Reindeer food’ before we go to bed. We take plates of homemade goodies to family, friends, and neighbors...a few days before Christmas.”

Kathy Rerek, a Jewish scrapper, writes:
“In my family, we all get together at my Mom and Dad's one night during the eight nights [of Hanukkah]. We light the candles and then open a huge pile of presents. We go from the oldest to the youngest in order until all the presents are opened. It's a huge test of patience for the little ones, but it's usually fairly amusing. We then have a huge family dinner.”

There are all sorts of different traditions and events surrounding the holidays. Here are some photo opportunities you might want to try to capture this year:

• Christmas parades and concerts


• Decorating the tree


• Opening presents


• Children playing dreidle, a popular game among Jewish children during Hanukkah


• Preparing latkes (potato pancakes), a traditional Hanukkah treat


• The Christmas feast


• Lighting the menorah


• Children writing letters to Santa


• The gifts


• Christmas Eve celebrations


• Close-ups of Decorations


• Christmas lights

No matter what your faith, or even if you don’t have a particular faith you associate with, the holidays are a special time full of family and fun. Here are some layout examples to get you started creating your own holiday traditions!

Happy Holidays! Don’t forget to upload your Holiday Tradition layouts to the gallery so we can all enjoy them!

Special thanks to the following scrapbookers for sharing their traditions and layouts with me: Wendy Anderson, Kathy Rerek, Alyson Levin, Melissa Ackerman, Marni Kaner, Beth Moncher, and Allison Landy.

More Layouts
Sing a Song of Christmas by Becky Thompson
The Great Dreidel Spin Off by Allison Landy.
Olive Christmas by Becky Thompson
Christmas Style by Becky Thompson
Hannukah Traditions by Alyson Levine
Hannukah 2001 by Alyson Levine
Dreidel by Alyson Levine
Thompson Family Christmas Eve by Becky Thompson
Charming Chanukah by Marni Kaner

Contact Becky Thompson with comments or questions about this article.

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Related Links:  Holiday Layouts *Without* Photos  Food For Thought  Holiday Traditions Gallery

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