This Year, Start A Clothing-Related Holiday Tradition

Every Christmas, my wife buys matching pajamas for all the members of the immediate family. It has become our family tradition that on Christmas Eve night, we all wear our new pajamas while we engage in Christmas-y things like toasting marshmallows or singing carols.

The tradition itself is very nice. Not only do I get to replace an old set of pajamas, but we have years-worth of nice pictures of all of us in matching jammies.

Traditions are important for children. I’ve said it before, but kids don’t really have much during the year to look forward to. More importantly, kids don’t have the ability to CREATE (for themselves) things to look forward to.

As a busy adult, you might not have much on the horizon to look forward to… but you could create those things if you wanted to. You COULD book a vacation. You COULD buy yourself something nice. You COULD quit your job and pursue your crazy dream.

As a grown-up, you have that agency.

But kids don’t have that. So, even if they have school vacations or playdates coming up, they don’t have the control over their own lives to create “special things” for themselves whenever they want. They’re at the mercy of the kindness of the adults around them to think about them and do those things for them.

That’s why days like Christmas are so important.

Christmas is special on its own, of course. But we parents can make it even better with the little traditions we build into the season. And those traditions will form the scaffolding of their memories because the traditions will be the things that happen over and over again.

Sure, they’ll remember “Christmas with the family” but, more specifically, they will remember going to the same farm every year to get the tree. They’ll remember helping Mommy decorate the tree while Daddy sits in his chair and watches (I don’t like decorating). They’ll remember cinnamon buns and bacon on Christmas morning and oranges in their stockings. They’ll remember a fire in the fireplace or the Yule Log on TV.

They’ll remember the things that happen every… single… time.

Some of these traditions happen by accident as they are held over from when we were kids and just feel natural for us to incorporate into our own families’ Christmases. But some will be consciously created with the specific intent of being a “tradition”.

Having your own family is the perfect time to start traditions that YOU like!

Clothes are a great medium for those traditions since you don’t really need to DO much of anything. My wife’s pajama tradition is a more labor-intensive example of a “clothing tradition” since she needs to do the legwork of finding everything in the proper sizes, but most of the time, a clothing tradition can be very simple.

I’ve written before about how my fairly new tradition is wearing my green, bulldog tie on Christmas (after we do presents, of course, as we don’t want to make the kids wait). It began last year as a way to remember our beloved dog who passed away the October prior. My wearing of the tie accomplishes two things. It’s a way for us all to always remember her but it’s also a way for me to signal to my kids that the day is special. It’s a visual reminder to them that this day isn’t like all the other days of the year.

When kids see the adults mark a day as special, it makes the day more special for them. And remember, kids don’t really have much going on in their lives, so any special day for us adults is REALLY special for them!

The holidays are always very busy for us all. Starting a clothing-related tradition, though, is very easy! The tradition can involve multiple people (like my wife’s pajama tradition) or it can just involve you (like my tie tradition).

But no matter what form it takes, the tradition you create will seep into your children’s memories. Over time, those traditions are going to be what they consider “Christmas”. The memories of Christmas will be stronger overall due to the traditions you’ve created and because of that, their excitement and anticipation of the day will be stronger, too.

Basically, traditions will make Christmas better for your kids and clothing-related traditions are easy to do.

Here are some examples of clothing-related traditions you can start just so you’re not just thinking about pajamas and ties…

Maybe start a tradition of having a Christmas-afternoon snowball fight with your kids! You can bust out the same mittens or gloves each year if they’re particularly conducive for the activity (like being waterproof or having good grip). Your kids will know that when Daddy pulls out those gloves, he’s ready to rumble!

Wear the same coat every year to go get your Christmas tree. Buying a tree can be a somewhat messy endeavor, since you might have to hold, turn, and shake it to make sure it looks good. You might also need to cut some branches off the bottom before you haul it into the house. Some people even cut down their own trees. Certain coats are better suited for this than others. Wear something made of canvas or waxed cotton which won’t catch branches in the threads. Your kids will know that this is your “working outside” coat and will associate it with getting the annual Christmas tree. The coat may even smell like sap or woodsmoke and have pine needles in the pockets.

On Christmas morning wear a bathrobe while your kids open presents. I bet your kids are used to seeing you in a t-shirt and gym shorts in the morning so it would be markedly different if you were manning the wrapping paper garbage bag in a luxurious robe while drinking your coffee and secretly eating the chocolates from their stockings.

After presents are done and you change out of your loungewear into something more respectable, strap on the watch that you only wear on special occasions because Christmas IS a special occasion!

These clothing-related traditions don’t require a big song-and-dance. Your kids likely won’t even really realize they’re happening most of the time. Sure, you can mention that you’re wearing your nice watch today because it’s a special day, but your kids will be too focused on presents and pie to really care too much about it.

But as the years progress, they will start to expect those little things. They’ll think about Christmastime and realize Dad wears that special something each year. Their memories of Christmas and the things your family do together will be that much more vivid because the image of you, in some sense, will always be the same.

I hope you and your family have (and are having) a joyful holiday season!