Christmas 2016 – What Are Your Holiday Traditions?

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Every family has traditions, whether they be holiday-related or not. One of the most interesting things in a new relationship is finding a way to combine those traditions together, and create new ones of your own. Since our families live so far apart, we find ourselves hopping back and forth between them, leaving very little time for ourselves and to come up with elaborate new traditions. We started small, and for our first Christmas together, we decided that instead of spending a ton of money on potentially useless expensive gifts for each other, that we would put the money towards saving up for a down payment on our future home, and buy each other an ornament for our Christmas tree instead. Christmas 2016 was no different! Our rules are that the tree ornament has to be a piece that supports local businesses, hopefully handcrafted, and that there is some sort of meaning behind it rather than just a generic or ‘pretty’ ornament. This way, once we finally have our home and spend our first holiday season in it, we will have a collection of beautiful & sentimental ornaments hanging on our tree, telling the story of US through its decorations. After all, the spirit of Christmas is all about enjoying the company of friends and family!

Christmas 2016

sea-glass-ornament-seashell-starfish-shell-ocean-tree-ornament-gift-ideas-DIY-seaglass-craftThis year, I took it up a notch and actually made the ornaments myself from supplies I had picked up on my vacation down south (went without him). Who doesn’t love seaglass and shells and starfish! Of course I couldn’t wait a whole 7 months to gift them, so I caved and gave them to him then, so come Christmas I had to find something else as equally awesome. And of course they got put away and forgotten about once Christmas Even rolled around, so you’ll have to come back next year to see them in action.

This year we were at my parents’ new house to celebrate, so we took a few moments to step aside from the hustle & bustle to do our exchange just between the two of us. This year’s offerings were just as special and full of meaning, and I am so happy that we have started this little tradition of our own.

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My parents are super sweet, and participated in our growing tradition and got us another ornament. If you know anything about me it’s that I love squirrels, so this was a nice surprise!

Christmas 2015

Since I didn’t have this blog set up last year, I figured I’d include the beautiful pieces from last Christmas too. Just because they are sentimental doesn’t mean they cannot also be pretty!

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My mom even got us a little tree ornament frame to celebrate our first Christmas together 🙂

I wonder what next year will bring!

stephanie de montigny SdeM handrawn initials ottawa blogger