I love Christmas! It’s one of my favorite times of the year because I have many traditions that make it special. My three favorites:

1. The Christmas scrapbook. We received a Christmas scrapbook as a wedding gift so that every year we could add a page. We include pictures and our Christmas letter for each year we’ve been married. Even though we only have a few pages at this point, it is still fun to reread our letters and reminisce about holidays gone by.

2. Reconnecting with loved ones. I love sending out Christmas cards every year. There are many people I don’t get to see nearly often enough and every year as I go through my list and write notes to them, I genuinely pray for them. Even better is when we get together, even if it is just once a year. I went to several Christmas parties this year and it’s always a pleasure for me to see old friends and extended family.

3. The yearly letter. I have a tradition of writing a letter to myself in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I store it with my Christmas decorations and read it a year later. In it, I express what I’ve learned and what I hope to learn in the next year. It’s always interesting to see where I’ve been and what God has done in my heart in a year.

What are your Christmas traditions?