I’m not really religious but I like to keep Christmas traditions (old or new). There’s no need for something to be centuries old to consider it my tradition. For example, the last 7 years I’ve been making the same New Year’s Eve dinner dish and I reckon it is my little personal tradition.
My Christmas tree decoration is another tradition I love. Everything in my tree means something for me, they are not random ornaments bought at random times. There are a few vintage ornaments my grandma had, there are handmade ornaments friends have made for me, handmade ornaments from around the globe that I acquired from Christmas ornament swaps, each with its own story, christmas themed softies that I’ve been collecting since my teenage years. There are also various objects that were not supposed to be ornaments but I’ve made them into one, like this Hello Kitty cookie I got from a vending machine from my trip to Japan.
Of course our cats love the tree. Not all of them. Some ignore it. Some occasionally play with the ornaments and a couple of them go berzerk ove r it and it always ends up in a christmas tree tragedy laying on the floor.
Another tradition I love is baking Traditional Greek Christmas cookies, like melomakarona and kourambiedes. You really can’t have Christmas celebrations without them. Nope.
I also love to add christmas decorations around the house, like this big fabric bow above the pantry shelf:
and random decorations that compliment my standard dustables above the fireplace:
And my newest tradition is to try and photograph all my animals wearing this Santa Claus hat for pets, including the bunny:
Hope you had good times, whatever your traditions are, and wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2012!