They don’t call Christmas the most wonderful time of the year for nothing! Spending time with family and friends is what makes it so special. As MJD and I are getting ready for our first married Christmas, I’ve been spending time thinking about all the Christmas traditions I’ve had with family and friends over the years.
One of my favorite and most dear traditions is the Seven Fishes Feast my family holds every Christmas Eve. My mom and dad put together an amazing dinner every year filled with seven delicious fish dishes. My favorite is the lobster with linguine, but I seriously love them all so it is very hard to pick. It’s easily my favorite night of the year, being with family and enjoying the absolute labor of love that goes into all the dishes is so special! This is a tradition I sincerely hope MJD and I will be able to keep up as we start a family of our own someday.
In high school, my best girlfriends and I started hosting a Christmas party each year. It started out early on as a pretty tame event of having friends over to watch movies and eat Christmas treats. During our college years, it may have become a bit more rowdy 🙂 (Sorry Mom and Dad!). One requirement of the party, however, is wearing Santa hats and taking pictures in front of the Christmas tree. We do it every year! This year will be the first year since high school that we won’t all be together around Christmas (we are in different cities), but the tradition is so important to us that we’re finding another weekend to get together for our Christmas celebration. You better believe the Santa hats will be involved!
Having grown up around the Philadelphia area, Longwood Gardens is a must visit to get you in the Christmas spirit! Formerly one of Pierre DuPont’s private estates, Longwood Gardens is a 1000-plus acre property with amazingly beautiful outdoor and indoor gardens. At Christmas time, the outdoor gardens are decorated in thousands of dazzling lights and the outside fountains are set up to give a water show set to Christmas songs. The most amazing part to me however is inside the conservatory which is decorated differently each year and always takes my breath away. The picture above doesn’t do it justice at all! I always try to make it to Longwood once during the month of December. If your holiday travels are taking you to the area, you must check it out.
What are your Christmas traditions? I’d love to hear all about them!
I’m so excited for our first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs! We can’t wait to start having many Christmas traditions of our own as husband and wife!
xoxo, Jenna
I think you and MJD have started your own special tradition with the volunteering you are doing in the city on Christmas Eve. Xox
Thanks Madge! We can’t wait to see you soon! xoxo!
What great traditions you have! We have so special traditions with our girlfriends too , we used to do a cookie swap now we do a Yankee swap. We may have to start the Santa hat tradition – so fun! Merry Christmas ! xo