Christmas Holiday Traditions

Celebrating Christmas is filled with annual traditions, Today is officially Christmas and I thought I would give you a play-by-play of the days leading up to the big day and all the Christmas rituals that I have tried to instill for my daughter so when she is older she will have wonderful childhood memories to tell her kids and grandkids.

This year, My daughter decided she wanted to push the “granny cart”with our Christmas Tree. New Yorkers like convenience and it’s no different with buying our Christmas tree. I went with the closest “tree” stand which literally was 2 blocks away. There might have been a cheaper one somewhere but who cares, I wasn’t going to pay for delivery and trust me, I have pushed that cart for 10 blocks in 20 degree weather to save a few dollars and it is so not worth it.

Not a bad looking tree.  I would like to have been a little taller but oh well.

Notice the “fireplace” in back of the tree. Last year, we had our first Christmas staycation which meant no fireplace. We usually go to my family in Virginia, they don’t have one but two fireplaces. My daughter was concerned that Santa would not be able to leave her gifts if he did not have fireplace to come down in. Of course, I scoured stores and online to find this plastic one. This year, my daughter asked if I still had the “fireplace” so Santa could find her so he could give her gifts.

Here is my daughter showing me her top choice on her Dear Santa list- Cicciobello (an Italian import) was the number one doll that captured her fancy. That’s what I get for leaving the Toys R Us book out where she could find it.

Dear Santa Letter – You can’t really read it but the most poignant part of the letter says “I know you are real. Please write yes or no. Isn’t sad that second grade is when the kids start finding out that Santa isn’t real. Her BFF told her a few weeks ago that Santa wasn’t real and that her dad was really Santa. I, of course, had to interject that in our house, we believe in Santa.The funny twist to the story is that the mom told me that when her daughter asked her point blank if Santa was real, she just could not lie and told her the truth. Well that’s one way to go. PS the dad was not happy and wasn’t hoping to hang onto her believing for one more year.

This is the third year that my daughter has played “Mary” in the children’s pageant at my friends church.

I love New York at Christmas especially at night.

My annual Christmas Eve gathering with friends. While I would love to have a mega party and I have in years past, the last couple of years I have decide to simplify the event and invite really close friends. This year because my brother the foodie is living with us, he made the entire meal which dubbed “dinner appetizers.”

Dinner appetizers consisted of homemade pate, his famous deviled eggs with crabmeat, mozzarella, basil and tomato shish kebab, prosciutto and melon, cheese, olives, fruit and brie en croute.

A new tradition that we incorporated into the holiday season was making gingerbread house. Now admittely, we cheated with a gingerbread kit where the house is already pre-made and all you have to is put it together with icing and decorate. That sounds easy but it actually is not. Again not sure how one puts icing on the cake in a neat way without being a pastry chef but  my daughter did a pretty good job.

Cookies for Santa – usually, I buy all the ingredients but Trader Joe’s had a sugar cookie box set complete with pre-made cookie mix, cookie cutters, icing and sprinkles all for 99 cents. How can you go wrong with that price tag? It wasn’t as elaborate as last year but Santa will not mind, right.

That’s NYC Single Mom’s Christmas Holiday Traditions. I would love to hear yours.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!