Our children look forward to three things each Christmas morning; A fire in the fireplace, a stuffed animal peeking out of each of their Christmas stockings, and bacon.
Christmas Dinner isn’t something they spend much time considering. Traditions are significant to our children. The actual food we consume on Christmas isn’t. (Other than the aforementioned bacon, that is.)
So we make it easy on ourselves.
A couple days before Christmas, I make spaghetti sauce. On Christmas afternoon, I move the pot of sauce from our refrigerator to the range and warm it while preparing pasta from a blue box. Matt slices grocery store bread.
Dinner is served.
The tradition of “Christmas Spaghetti” may not be the tradition our kids are looking forward to, but it is a tradition. They do enjoy it and it simplifies our lives. Most importantly, it’s something we can make happen in most any circumstance (barring our stove joining the band of rebel appliances currently waging war against us.)
Our children from hard places cling to traditions. Each time a tradition transpires, their safety is reinforced. Trust is built.
A week before Thanksgiving, one of our sons asked Matt if we would be doing our “Thanksgiving Tradition” this year. Matt was perplexed so he asked our son which tradition he was referring to.
His response: Taking turns saying what we’re thankful for.
More than he was looking forward to the aroma of turkey, watching football, or pie, our son was anticipating the Thanksgiving tradition he’d come to expect.
This morning, Facebook reminded me of how “brilliant” we are at parenting with the following post from 2015:
Most brilliant parenting move we've made: The tradition of Christmas Spaghetti. If you set the bar low early enough, nobody knows the difference. In fact, we all prefer the freedom that accompanies simplicity.
While making spaghetti doesn’t really qualify as genius, simplicity lowers our family’s stress.
Complexity increases our family’s stress.
Simplicity + Tradition is an unstoppable formula in our family.
When we create complex traditions, we set ourselves up for repeated failure.
We set our children up for insecurity.
While spaghetti isn't their favorite food, there is no worthy substitute for Christmas Spaghetti as far as our children are concerned.
It’s simple.
And it’s our tradition.
I would love to hear about your Christmas traditions here or on Facebook!
