I Dream Of Macy's Christmas Windows

We often hear about family traditions and I certainly talk a lot about them, but I have realized that over the years I have developed several of my own personal traditions.  I am sure many of us have those things that we just have to do every year or so and they are often called habits or something else but most are really traditions.  I love my traditions and have been faithfully celebrating and finding these every year on my own.

I've been married before and, of coursed, lived with my parents when I was growing up; I never thought much about how they would say I was boring for wanting to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  Not a soul in my network thought it would be fun to watch It's A Wonderful Life for the 50th time but I faithfully watched my old movies every year, even as a kid.  I didn't even think much about how people would dismiss my desire to see the Macy's Christmas windows and they were disgusted to even think of going into the city just to see the lights.  But I still, to this day, watch old Christmas movies right after Thanksgiving and I still love the parade and I dreamt every year of going to see, first hand, the Macy's windows; that is until a few years ago. 

My first holiday with my husband, Terry, started with some challenges; I had just moved across the country and had mixed emotions about the coming Christmas season.  I missed my children and it since we just moved couldn't fly back to see them.  It was also a huge cultural adjustment.  The differences were more than I had expected since we were still in the US and I hadn't moved to a new country for Pete's sake. While I was a little sad in the beginning I soon discovered something truly amazing about us as a couple.

I hadn't shared with Terry my little traditions because over the years you just become so used to friends and family thinking they are strange or hokey you stop mentioning them.  As I made plans for Thanksgiving that year he mentioned watching the parade, what!?   I almost thought I didn't hear him right.  We started talking about how everyone always thought we were silly for watching the parade ever year and how we remained steadfast despite having to watch it by ourselves.  For the first time Terry and I watched the Macy's parade with someone willing and excited to join us in our personal traditions.

'Holiday traditions...Here Comes Santa Clause' by postcardsintheattic

The Macy's Parade and Christmas windows are a huge part of my holiday traditions.

Santa Claus And His Elf... valsphotoart $30.00	Santa balloon at Macy&#... RobertPLangdon... $3.50	Even More MACY's TH... KreativeStiles $20.00	2.25" Magnets-Macy... rogueradish $16.00
Chicago Holiday Scene C... ArtdeJoie $2.95	Macy's Day Parade- ... JRoseArt $6.00	Fine Art Photography - ... MarcysPlaygrou... $15.00	Vintage Marshall Fields... mammothcurios $400.00
Fine Art Print Reproduc... GwenMeyerson $18.00	Original 1935 New York ... ryder $16.00	Vintage Gold Key Comics... CharmingPony $2.50	Santa Animal Parade wit... LoriCrossStitc... $200.00
Polymer Llamas Waiting ... Llamatique $30.00	Wall Art. Winter Parade... cagneyandfrien... $11.20	Spray Gun & Tin Man Col... moregood $4.00	Believe- Christmas in N... MelissaLoraine $8.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

H2 style="FONT-FAMILY: sans-serif; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; FONT-SIZE: 16px">'Holiday Traditions...Christmas classics' by postcardsintheattic

My favorite classic Christmas movies

White Christmas Recycle... Momsmedia $8.00	Vintage Movie Poster - ... VintageCanadia... $99.99	Magnet- Miracle on 34th... CrossEyedCatGi... $3.50	Miracle Ornament ThreeDegrees $4.00
Chevy Chase National La... DonnasCraftsnC... $3.99	Is Rusty Still in the N... omghidanielle $1.00	George Lassos the Moon ... teaessare $15.00	Scrabble Tile Pendant ... ziggles $5.95
How the Grinch Stole Ch... BubbleRoll $14.99	Grinch Steals the Chris... createhumankin... $24.00	1958 Rudolph The Red No... TheIDconnectio... $15.00	Christmas Classic "... anamgifts $16.50
Vintage A Charlie Brown... ALLTHINGSSNOOP... $7.50	Charlie Brown Christmas... noteableart $15.00	The A Christmas Story M... nukes $1.00	A Christmas Story VHS t... sallysSerendip... $5.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

During that first year I found that we both love It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street, and National Lampoon's Christmas; we watch them every year at least once.  Every year we decorate our tree and home the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the day after New Years.  And best of all my dream to see the Macy's Christmas Windows did not seem silly to him at all.  The very next Christmas he took me to Chicago to see their Macy's windows, until then I thought it was only done in New York City. 

My personal traditions have been so important to me that I didn't give them up even if I had to do them by myself and even face a little teasing. My traditions help me get into the Christmas spirit and simply made me feel good. But now these traditions are so much more important to me because they are no longer just my personal ones but they are true family traditions.

Happy Holidays

This years Macy's Windows

Wish Lists and Letters To Santa

While I was growing up letters to Santa were a must if you were going to be guaranteed any in put on your Christmas gifts.  As soon as I was told that it was time to make the list it was as if the starting gun went off.  Making the list meant that Christmas was on its way!  Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and everyone that I hadn't seen for months will be busily chatting around the family table soon.  We would be baking Christmas cookies and singing carols in no time.  Decorations and street lights will be going up soon and day dreaming would become a irresistible pastime.  It was a chance to dream of grandeur; Santa would get my letter and list and I would have wrote it so well that he would cheerful bring me every last toy and trinket on it. 
At that time the Sears catalog was still huge and both they and JcPenny would print their Christmas series called the Wish Book.  These brightly colored books were amazing; hundreds of pages covered in pictures of every toy you could imagine.  Even if it wasn't a toy the item intrigued me because at that time we didn't really have super stores.  Many of the featured items could only be purchased through the catalog so they were unique and never seen on the store shelves.  As a small child it was easier to believe that Santa brought your gifts because there were no Walmart emblems on the packaging.

Once I was blessed with having my own children I always asked them to make a letter to Santa and their own Christmas list.  Gone were the days of thick dreamy catalogs but there were so many other stores contributing to the clutter of advertising that I would be able to gather together a pretty impressive pile of magical fliers.  When they were too little to write out everything I would help them with the letter and then give them scissors and glue.  Their little collages would be choppy and hard to make out at times but most of the time it sent a clear excited message; Christmas is coming!
It seems that many kids do not make Christmas lists or even write letters to Santa any more.  They take for granted that they are going to wake up on Christmas morning and all they wanted will be there.  I am not sure how that tradition goes now maybe Santa has taken to bugging each house and that is how he knows but I think that there were many important things going on when we made those lists.
Growing up, writing those letters gave me and my kids an element of magic and anticipation, it was something that you looked forward to as it kicked off the holiday season.  I also found that those were perfect teachable moments; my kids wanted to spell everything right, they wanted their handwriting to be perfect and I can't forget to mention it also gave me a moment of peace and quite.  Fortunately my kids never questioned why they didn't get certain items from the list; it was understood that it was a Wish List. But to keep them encouraged I did make sure at least a few of those things on the Wish List would arrive on Christmas morning. 
I hope that more families will be able to find the time to teach this fun holiday tradition to their kids and please, as a favor...Don't have them text Santa the list.

Have a blessed day.