There were a lot of things I never thought about before I got married.
The challenges of sharing a bathroom. The importance of a door to your bedroom. Most of all, traditions.
We all have those annual rituals done as a family. For my husband, it was formal family pictures and Star Trek marathons. For mine, it was dressing up to open Christmas gifts and a formal dinner.
None of those traditions have managed to stick in our own little family (though we are better at having someone snap a quick picture of the three of us during holidays/special events).
We stumbled into some traditions and purposefully created new ones for the holidays. And with it being Rho’s first Christmas, I’ve gone a bit tradition-mad.
‘Tis the season, no?
One hangover from my childhood Christmases that we’ve adopted is the practical stocking stuffers. My mother used to place new toothbrushes (enough for the year!), toothpaste, and other regular toiletries in everyone’s stocking. As a child, I thought it was the Scrooge-iest thing one could do.
As an adult, I kind of love it. It also lets me replenish my favorite Wander Beauty, TULA, and Glossier products. Double win.
We’re unabashed science fiction/fantasy fans in this house, with my husband raised on the genius of Roddenberry and my upbringing on George Lucas’ fantastical imagination (Star Trek and Star Wars, respectively). During our first Christmas together, I stumbled upon these holiday Star Wars plush dolls. And promptly declared “Star Wars Christmases are going to be our thing!”
Thankfully, my husband was game.
Every year we add a new item to our Star Wars Christmas collection. We own nutcrackers, tree ornaments, and now stockings. Our holiday pajamas (something we adopted last year) are also Star Wars themed. And to appease my “Star-Wars-isn’t-real-science-fiction-it’s-fantasy” husband, we’ve begun to add the annual Star Trek ornament to our collection every year.
I can go overboard with the holiday shopping (and have!), which lead to our holiday gifting rules this year. Each person is given a book, a gift from their wish list, and a surprise gift from everyone. Stockings, as I mentioned before, are filled with toiletries to start the new year. Holiday pajamas are opened on Christmas Eve and worn while we eat cookies (these are my favorite to make every December) and watch Home Alone. We also make a donation to a worthy organization on Christmas Day, before the present opening begins. It starts the day on an even happier note.
I’m not putting up any gift guide posts this year. Instead, I copied my good friend Victoria and created this page featuring my favorite gift picks and top 3 selections for the various people in your life (wine lovers, workaholics, kids, tech geeks). I’ll be adding hostess gifts and stocking stuffers to the page throughout the week. If I’m missing a certain person you have a hard time shopping for, leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to address it!
