Christmas time is important. Not just for religious reasons, especially for my family. My family is not religious at all, but we still celebrate Christmas. Not for the presents, but to spend time with each other. One year that was extremely important to me was last year.

Right when December started, we started decorating our tree together. It’s an important family tradition and usually we just randomly put ornaments on the tree but this year I decided that I wanted it to be coordinated. We got out the golden ornaments and randomly hung them up first, making sure that they weren’t too close to each other, but that they weren’t too far apart from each other.  Next, we picked the shiniest red ornaments we had. They were a tad smaller than the golden ornaments, but they had the same shine. We placed them, making sure to keep them closer to the golden ornaments, but make it look like we didn’t plan it out. The last ornaments we get out are smaller than the rest, and have glitter scattered on their white surfaces to make it look like snow. We hang them up near all the ornaments again, making it look like we randomly placed them. It took us a little longer than anticipated, with a whopping total of two hours. The last step is to put the star on top. As a family, we decided on the smaller, golden star. It isn’t as large as the other ones we had, but it doesn’t fail to beautify. We decide that that’s enough for the day, and we go back to doing our own thing, not forgetting that Christmas is coming soon.

The next day, we all sit down in the living room together, taking out pieces of paper with pencils. We write down our own Christmas lists, writing down what we want for Christmas. It had been a family tradition since we moved from Canada, and we all plan on keeping it. Nothing exciting happens for the next few days, just small festivities and a little more decorating to “spread” the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Eve, the day before children wake up and sprint down the stairs to get to the presents that Santa gave them.  It is also the most important day in our series of Christmas time traditions. This year, I baked chocolate chip cookies to “leave out for Santa”, we actually ate them all at around midnight, my mother helped my father make traditional Russian food while my brother tried to help everyone but ended up sitting and watching us work. The Russian food consist of potato salad and a beet soup with a traditional Russian juice made of multiple, flavorful, berries and some boiled down fruits. We feasted together, my brother and I listened intently to my parents’ interesting stories of the past. When the clock hit midnight, we enjoyed the almost melting chocolate cookies while my brother made hot chocolate. By the time he was done with the hot chocolate, the entire kitchen was filled with a mouth-watering aroma that couldn’t be described. We sprinkled small marshmallows on top of the hot drink and toped it off with whipped cream and sprinkles. We soon went to bed, excited for what the next day would bring.

Right when I woke up, my brother was about to walk into the room to wake me. We didn’t bother getting dressed, wanting to do the gift exchange with my parents in our pajamas, and we walked down stairs. While we patiently waited for our parents to wake up, not wanting to disturb their sleep, we decided to watch “The Grinch”, my brother’s and I favorite Christmas time movie. We were half-way into the film when our parents made an appearance, dressed in casual clothing, holding items wrapped in traditional green and red wrapping paper. I handed my parents their gifts, as did my brother, while they handed our gifts to us. We quickly sat down in front of the tree, another tradition we had, and began to open our gifts. Everybody got what they wanted but it didn’t matter, because we were all with each other, and that’s what made us smile.