traditions | The Stuff of Our Life

We love Christmas. C LOVES it. When the Christmas decorations went up in our local shopping centre on November 1 she was over the moon.

Our family tradition (as in, what I was brought up with and brought to our family) is to put up the Christmas decorations on Advent Sunday. C wanted to do this straight after breakfast but OH that’s when we watch the new Bluey and then I take E for a walknap and then actually I need to find new homes for some things. We have a lot of glass jugs and vases and bottles and they ALL live where the Christmas tree goes (on top of the dresser, because, kids).

Thankfully, E settled easily for her lunch nap and slept a respectable amount of time. New homes were found for all the things, but it was still not until after afternoon tea that we managed to go down to the garage to collect the tree and decorations.

Now, I know some families are really precious about the tree and decorations. And honestly, having seen some of the results, I can understand this. But I’ve always been fairly happy to let C help as much as she wants with guidance where necessary. This year was notably different from last year: C was much more aware of balance, and hanging space underneath, and her ability to attach an ornament (and even to unwrap it carefully from a box) was much greater than last year, and her reach – well, she’s very tall. And this was all extremely helpful especially when we had reached E’s limit and she needed to be held close to the interesting events taking place and so I couldn’t do anything at all to help and so it was all up to C.

I am pleased to report that no ornaments were broken or damaged in the process, and no arguments were had over placement of ornaments. C desperately wants to see the Christmas lights flashing but she’ll have to be patient and see that in the morning. (It’s daddy’s job and he just hasn’t had time yet.)

Apart from Christmas lights, we also have the nativity set to put out, and there are plans afoot for more crafting. My favourite!

There is so much I have loved this year. Seeing C doing her best to carry the tree in its box as far up the stairs as she could. Watching C’s face light up with the sparkly ornaments, the pretty ones, the funny ones – an Olaf with kicky legs! A daddy sheep! As well as the violin ones, the sparkly ones, the beautiful ones. Watching E wonder at this new thing and reaching out to try to touch and feel and explore. Knowing that this Christmas in just a few weeks will be special like no other.

Admission: I’m not a huge fan of Halloween. I’m not a huge fan of dressing up, or seeing loads of ghosts and witches and zombies and ghouls. Or worse, oodles of princesses and fairies and mermaids and just any costume. I’m not a huge fan of being scared, or tricks that give a thrill, or scary movies that frighten me silly.

I am, though, very much a fan of observing the things that make up the rhythm of a year. Doing certain things only at certain times of the year. And, although my family didn’t do Halloween when I was growing up because it was ‘too American’ I am married to an Irishman and Halloween is, actually, Irish.

Hello, Halloween.

This year, as well as doing daycare dress-up, we’ve done some craft and some food and talked a little bit about some of the Irish and Scottish traditions of Halloween. Including the origin of the jack-o-lantern which was enough spookiness for me for this year thank you very much.

Dressing up:

C chose to be a ghost this year. The last two years she opted for black cat (yay for reusing props!) but this year when I asked what she wanted to be, and told her she could be a black cat, or a pumpkin (please no) or a witch or a ghost, she was very excited about the ghost option. Easy. One white sheet I was wanting to repurpose anyway, folded, cut into a circle, head hole cut out a little too big so pleats sewn in, tassels cut in so she could be extra spooky when she ran, eyeliner to make ghostly eyes (Glenn is great at applying makeup). I had to laugh to myself when we got to daycare and the teacher who greeted her asked if she was a ghoul or a friendly ghost and C really didn’t look enthusiastic about being a friendly ghost. She wanted to be a scary ghost. Gold.

Craft:

We made paper jack-o-lanterns, and bought some battery-operated candles to put inside. (I’m very happy that $3 for 6 candles was actually the only purchase for the whole Halloween.) C was quite happy cutting along the lines to make the lanterns, and then insisted on cutting her tape to tape them together.

Food:

On Saturday we made chocolate cupcakes, and decorated them on Sunday. Icing dunked in ground pistachios then adorned with candy eyeballs and fondant tongues = monsters. We tried to make pumpkins with fondant and icing but they looked more like sad St Patrick’s Day flowers or something (very Cake Wrecks) so we turned them into orange monsters instead. And, thanks to Pinterest, I found Barmbrack bread. An Irish bread baked around the time of Halloween, that Glenn remembers having as a child. The enjoyment I found in baking it told me it will be a staple of our future Halloweens. Not just the act of soaking fruit then mixing dry and wet ingredients and baking in a loaf then slicing and toasting and eating with butter while drinking tea. It’s more than that. It is the making of something only at a particular time of the year, part of the rhythm of the year and the rhythm of our life.