Hollidays+ traditions.

As i was growing up i had 5 siblings my Mom was a stay-at-home mom so understandably money was always tight no matter how good a job my dad had. When we needed new shoes or our pants had turned into floods my mom would ask " Can you wait for Santa to bring those? Isnt the Easter bunny coming soon?  Your birthday is only a month away. Or can you wait till school starts to get new clothes?" I hated it back then but now that i have my own baby I realize she wasn't doing it to be mean or because we didn't necessarily have the money. She did it for 2 reasons #1 She didn't want us to be spoiled or expect to always get new things #2 She was saving all of that money to make Christmas, Easter, and Birthdays extra special and exciting. And it worked!!! I believed in Santa till i was 12 years old because when we would go up stairs to see what Santa brought on Christmas morning there was no way my parents could afford that! ( sleep is an under statement we didn't sleep ) We would "wake"my mom and dad up EXTRA early usually around 2 in the morning so we could see what Santa brought. The reason wake is in quotations is because now i know we never "woke" them up. By the time 2 had a rolled around they were just finishing putting everything out ( Santa never wrapped at our house) and they hadn't gone to "sleep" yet. And quite honestly we never really had either we were so excited to get new toys, clothes,shoes and candy that we couldn't sleep.
My mom was also big on traditions The Day after thanksgiving we would decorate the whole house in Christmas decorations and they would stay up till new years. Every DEC. 5 us kids would spend hours upon hours perfecting our wish lists and when it got dark outside we would put our lists in our shoes on the front door step, and at night Santa would come and take the list and leave a little treat in our shoes. On Christmas eve we would all gather in the living room and sit around for hours talking, eating junk food and toasting with sparkling cider. At the end of the night we would get to open one present always PJ's and we were told to get dressed right away. We would chat for alittle longer then go to "sleep" on Christmas morning we would line up on the stairs according to birth order and and we would walk into the front room to an unbelievable amount of clothes toys and candy. We would spend the rest of the day playing, eating nothing but junk food and being lazy. It was the best!!!
I also realize now that Christmas time was a time that my mom looked forward to more then we probably did. She enjoyed buying lots of gifts for us and not expecting anything in return. She loved playing Santa and just seeing our eyes light on Christmas morning when we walked into living room full of everything we had asked for and more.
And this is what i want for my children, i want them to be so excited they cant sleep and for them to believe for a really long time because "There is no way mom can afford all this!" We are going to keep all of my moms as well as start our own traditions. One being I'm going to wrap 24 Christmas books and put them under the tree and every night (starting Dec. 1) We are going to read one,talk about it and what Christmas is really about.The one to open on Christmas eve will be extra special it will have the night before Christmas, along with hot coco, a Christmas movie, popcorn and new slippers for everyone. I'm also planning on buying an elf on the shelf and doing that every year. My goal is to make this time of year extra special, remember able and something the kids look forward to each year.
LET THE BUYING BEGIN!!! :-D