This Family's Christmas Ornament Tradition Is Truly Heartwarming
Every family has their own traditions. Some are passed down from generation to generation, and others are brand new.
Whether you hide a Christmas pickle in your tree, stuff stockings or throw an ugly sweater party each year, all traditions tend to have one thing in common — the people you share it with.
Our traditions hold so much meaning because we keep them with the ones who matter most. Mom or dad. Grandma or grandpa.
Aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, neighbors, new friends, old friends… those we love make our traditions matter.
Kavita Varma-White knows this well. A senior editor for TODAY.com, Varma-White shared a story that will warm your heart and may just inspire you to start a new tradition of your own.
Every Christmas tree is different. No two are alike and the same goes for the decor. From perfectly placed and matching balls to popsicle stick ornaments, trees are an expression of each person or family.
For Varma-White and her husband, Christmas tree ornaments are a scrapbook of their many years of life together.
It all started the year they met, she wrote on TODAY Parents. It was their first Christmas together and they had very few ornaments.
The following year they got engaged and their new tradition began. “Instead of buying gifts for each other, we decided to increase our paltry assortment of decorations,” she explained.
“We’d both get the other an ornament representing something significant from that year,” she continued. “It would be a fun surprise on Christmas day.”
That first Christmas went so well, with each giving the other an ornament that represented their work lives, the pair decided the tradition must continue.
Soon they were married and had children. They traveled and changed jobs. And each Christmas brought with it new symbols of that year.
“In 1998, we found out a few weeks before Christmas that we were expecting our first child,” Varma-White wrote. “He gave me a beautiful glass ornament that said ‘Curiosity Shop.’ Under the windows, he wrote: ‘Boy? Girl? Twins?’ We had a girl nine months later.”
“My ornament next Christmas was a minivan that said, ‘Future soccer mom.’ (Our girl did become a soccer player, and I drove many a soccer carpool! How prescient was that?)”
“I hope it’s a tradition they will continue when they have families of their own,” she wrote of her now-teenage children.
This family has spent over two decades growing and laughing and loving life. Their Christmas ornaments represent that life. What a wonderful tree that must be. It holds so much meaning.
What do you think of this simple yet profound Christmas tradition? Do you have any traditions of your own like this one?
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