I was lucky enough to take part in the memorial service at Mansfield and District Crematorium this year and the theme was keeping Christmas traditions alive. I spoke about how me and my sister have fused together some of our old family traditions with new ones that we've created.
Christmas was (and indeed still is) a big deal in the Trinder household, we could out Griswold the Griswolds - we loved it! We would all decorate the tree together, me and Lucy would fight over who would put one particular decoration on the tree, his name is Red Whisker and he featured in stories dad used to tell us.
Our Christmas traditions were that on Christmas Eve we would always have a Chinese meal, Christmas day lunch was at 1pm and we'd watch whatever the big film was at 3.10pm after the Queen's speech.
After mum and dad died, Lucy and I discussed whether we should bother with Christmas, but we both knew that not bothering was never going to be a real option. We decided we would try and create something that was a nod to the old school Trinder Christmas and yet incorporated new things.
We still fight over Red Whisker, we still have a Chinese on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day, lunch is 1 (ish) but we have develped .new Christmas traditions too.
On Christmas Eve morning we have friends around for breakfast and swap presents. Our friend Gav gets dressed up as Santa and we FaceTime other friends children who are all giddy that Santa has taken the time to phone them on Christmas Eve. It is truly magical.
Then when everyone's gone, Lucy and I watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and drink something fizzy whilst we open our Christmas Eve Box. Just because we are in our 40's doesn't mean we can't have a Christmas Eve Box!
The best thing in the box is our Christmas Eve paintings. We've been doing this for 7 years and the idea is basically what it says on the tin.... we each paint a picture for each other.
The rules are as follows.
It has to hang on your kitchen wall for 12 months.
You can't paint anything rude.
So far, we've never painted the same thing. It's become "our thing", our friends are always excited to know how they've turned out. In fairness I get the better deal as Lucy is a great artist and I can't paint the night sky, but it's fun, it makes us smile and it's something totally new.
Below are the ones we've done over the years.
Developing new traditions doesn't mean we don't still miss our parents and gran, but it's helped us deal with Christmas. We will always miss those no longer with us and at some point, there's a few tears, but we raise a glass and laugh about the fact that if we'd started the painting tradition whilst mum had been alive, we'd all have had a paiting featuring stickmen - she was a worse artist than I am!
What are your family Christmas traditions?
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