It’s not that I’m Scrooge or The Grinch, I just don’t like the fact that society starts Christmas before Halloween even ends.

As a child, Christmas started on Thanksgiving Day. After all the food was put away and the dishes were clean, the aunts and the uncles would drag out all the Christmas decorations and decorate my grandparents tree and we’d watch those silly family home movies. At home, my parents would put up our Christmas tree sometime the following week.

On Christmas Eve, the entire family would gather at my grandparents for dinner. After dinner, they would open all their presents from the family and hand out Christmas cards to everyone. The grandchildren (ten of us at the time) received $5 in their cards and it was as if it were a million bucks! Then at home, my sister and I would try to outwit Santa and stay up late, which of course never worked.

On Christmas Day, my grandparents would open the gifts they got for each other and then get in the car and go visit all 6 of their kids and their family to see what everyone got. There was nothing better than showing off all the stuff you got to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. After they left, my mom had the tree down, packed up, cleaned up, and put away in seconds.

As we grew older, the holidays at my grandparents grew sparse. The grandkids were getting married and had in-laws to see and work weeks went from 40 hour weeks to 80 hour plus weeks.

When my sister got married and started her own family, my parents respected their decisions to start their own traditions and besides they were on the road, traipsing across the US in an 18 wheeler making a living and enjoying the travel.

Now, my sister and family do their own things, things with their in-laws, and my dad is insert-whatever-state-he-is-in and my mom watches over us from the Universe. I watch Mythbusters marathon, drink wine, and eat chocolate chip cookies. These are our holiday traditions.

We don’t love each other less. We might love each other a little more for it. There’s no family meltdown during the holidays, there’s no judging of what you did over the year. We check in with each other and see what Santa brought the nieces, make sure we’re all okay, and say I love you when we get off the phone with each other.

The holidays weren’t a huge deal to me growing up. My parents never made it about what was under the tree, but what was in your heart.

In my heart, there’s love for everyone in the Universe. Merry Christmas to all.