Breaking From Tradition

Public Service Announcement!

It appears I left out some details about the custom initial necklace giveaway.

Here's my 5-year old wearing hers.  We chose a sort of art deco "C" and a little stamped disc that says "love."  Clio loves it so much, she keeps it in a little thumbprint bowl on her bedside table.

(At the same time, she hates having her picture taken.  I did my best.)

The giveaway is for a custom piece.  Annie will work with you to choose shape, size, the type of letter, etc.  Locals could do this in the shop, anyone else by phone or email.

More details about Mish Mash here.

Giveaway is open through Christmas Eve.  This would make a great gift for any of the ladies in your life.
To enter:

1) follow this blog
2) follow Love Your Space on Facebook
3) follow Mish Mash on Facebook
4) mention this giveaway on your blog or facebook

Leave one comment on this original post for each action above.
Winner will be chosen by random.org Christmas eve at midnight, just as Santa is setting down on roofs everywhere.

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When it comes to the holidays (or anything else, really), do you stick with ingrained traditions?  Or, as an adult, do you make your own?

My family has always been a Frasier Fir or, as back up, Balsam Fir kind of a family.  When we went to Mother Earth Gardens for our Christmas tree the other day, that's what I was looking for.  Instead, I was drawn to the tall, skinny, bare-branched pines--the ones that look straight out of Norway.  Or A Charlie Brown Christmas.  For the first time, I found myself wondering what kind of tree I liked.  And I have been buying my own tree for nearly twenty years now.

My girls, too, were drawn to the softer needles of a pine, and to seal the deal, the white pines were about half the price of the firs.  As it turns out, they are native to Minnesota so they grow easily and naturally here, while Frasier's chug water like a frat boy doing a keg stand, and they take a lot longer to reach maturity.

We brought home a huge, un-dyed white pine, and put it in the big window in the dining room.  It is the first thing you see when you open the front door.  I feel that my happiness level is raised by the presence of this tree.

It's funny: going with tradition means you never have to think about what YOU really want.  Sometimes that's easier.  This is the first year that my kids and I will wake up in our own house on Christmas morning, and it feels like an opportunity to create our own Christmas traditions.  Such a fun opportunity to think about our family and what we want Christmas to look like.  But daunting, too: creating all the magic is on us.

What are your holiday traditions?  Are they your own, or inherited?