Tradition is a word used a lot this time of the year.
Obviously people have traditions during different times of the year, but
Christmas is so big that it’s hard for anyone one year to just be like, “Oh, I
think I’ll skip everything about Christmas this year.” It’s not like in the
movies where the hard-working, non-observant parent tells the kid they won’t be
home for Christmas and the squirt whines, “But it’s a traditioooonnnnn.” Even
my helluva-inconsistent family keeps some things sacred in December.
For a few good years now, my family and I have had the
tradition of, after Christmas Eve service at my church, getting Tomaso’s Pizza
and watching a movie together. The pizza, I’m sure, is just so that my mom doesn't have to cook/put anything from the freezer in the big, hot box in the
kitchen I don’t go near, but the movie is just something to keep the fam
together for a little while during the most hectic season of the year.
These movies rarely have anything to do with the next day,
although I’m pretty sure what we had in mind when this tradition was made is
that every year it would be a Christmas movie. (But frankly, the only two
holiday movies we owned would’ve gotten old very quickly). Since we usually
need a consensus on the choice of movie, it can definitely take a while to
choose one. (Ah, the traditional Christmas Eve pre-movie fight.)
A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation (both eighties movies that my parents swore were the bee’s knees
when they showed us that were really just weird, if not slightly disturbing and
awkward) were included in the first few years, I think. After that we ventured
out to Over the Hedge, Wall-E, and Up. This isn’t a time
for hard-hitters, but it’s still nice for us to all sit together and all of
that sappy shit. Also, the fact that we’re pretty much just sitting and staring
at a screen drastically minimizes the chance we’ll start fighting. After the
movie ends everything is free game, though. (Ah, the traditional Christmas Eve
post-movie fight.)
Traditions are a pretty awesome thing. They let us
reflect on the good times we’ve had and, for all of you obsessive-compulsives
out there, set up a pattern that shouldn’t be messed with. Otherwise you get
things like silver Christmas trees, which are just a crime against nature.
I totally get what you're sayin, gf. But really, we have a tradition that's spanned 3 generations so far of eating chicken chow mein on Christmas day. No one knows where it came from, but it's always done. Lemme just say it's not the best. We also always have a birthday cake for Jesus though, and no one complains about cake except for Satan.
ReplyDeleteTraditions are fun, yo.
Satan's obv just jelly. Not a lot of people celebrate his bday, the fifteenth of November.
Delete