Christmas Traditions as a Young Adult
If you don’t already know, I’m a young adult. Aka I’m a college graduate in my early twenties, who no longer lives with their parents and may not have the time to visit them during the holidays. As a result, many of the traditions and activities that once were a large piece of my Christmas season are… null and void. -.-
- I can’t go pick out a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.
- I can’t help hang stockings by the fire while my mom decorates the tree, TransSiberian Orchestra-style Christmas music blaring all over the house.
- I can’t steal pieces of food while my parents do the real work making Christmas dinner.
- I can’t help set the fine china on the dining room table before we eat.
- I can’t have my parents help me bake cookies and set them by the fire for Santa(or burn a few so only my mom will eat them. >.> Classic that one.)
There are so many small, minor, barely traditional activities that I used to do when I lived with my parents. Yet, now I can’t. Partly because I don’t live with them and partly because they broke my hopes and dreams by telling me Santa wasn’t real. -.- Thanks for that one, mom and dad.
However, the biggest struggle as a young adult when it comes to the holidays is trying to figure out what to do. What traditions can I keep from when I lived at home? What traditions are still affordable now that I live alone? How much time do I have to bake those batches of cookies? How big of a turkey do I really need to make for myself (and perhaps some friends)? More importantly, how do I cook it?
Alright. So, maybe I can’t do the things that I used to be able to, but that just means I can make traditions of my own. I want to watch twelve movies to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas. I want to build a Gingerbread House every year and leave it until it’s hard as rock and can’t eat it. :p I want to set out a Christmas puzzle after Thanksgiving and put a couple pieces in every time I walk by. (It’ll be done by Christmas, right? New Years at the latest. :p) I want to see The Nutcracker Ballet every year at a concert hall.
I might not be a kid. I might have to finally accept that I’m an adult, at least during this time of year, but that’s not so bad when it means I can make traditions of my own. Even then, I can keep some of the old ones. I will work on that puzzle. I’ll bake them cookies and just pretend I’m both Santa eating them and the little kid surprised on Christmas day (because I’m just that awesome! :p) It’s just another step on the road to adulthood (which looks uncannily like the yellow brick road… huh.)
| Movies To Watch 1) The Santa Claus 2) 3) 4) 5) Love Actually 6) Home Alone 7) Home Alone 2 8) Nothing Like the Holidays 9) 10) 11) Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer 12) |
Activities To Do 1) 2) 3) Build a Gingerbread House 4) Visit Christkindlmarkt 5) Ice Skating 6) Hot Cocoa by the Fireplace 7) Build a Snowman 8) Snowball Fight 9) Complete Holiday Puzzle 10) Read ‘A Christmas Carol’ 11) Christmas Party 12) Participate in Secret Santa |
As a young adult, how do you celebrate Christmas? Do you have a hard time sticking to old traditions? Or do you make new ones?
Melanie Noell Bernard 