In my household, Christmas is the most important time of the year. We have various traditions that could be seen as typical, and could also be seen as different.

When it comes to Christmas in my family, we place decorations at the top of our to-do list. If the house feels festive, everyone in the house feels festive. It brings so much joy to anyone that enters our Christmas wonderland.

We begin by putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. The tree will be fully decorated at some point near the first of December. Slowly over the rest of November, we tear down our fall decorations and replace them with our holiday decorations. First is the fireplace. Then the entertainment center. Then all in one day the Christmas decorations finish taking over the house. Our bathrooms, kitchen, and bedrooms are decked out in red and green.

Another family tradition is watching Christmas movies.

My family takes great stock in which movies we watch during the holidays. We watch each movie in a specific order and occasionally on a specific day. The movies we watch are Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, a Christmas Story, the Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Polar Express, White Christmas, Scrooged, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Home Alone, Elf, and A Year Without a Santa Claus.

First is Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. We watch this classic film on Black Friday after we return home from shopping and have taken a nice nap. Then we watch Frosty the Snowman, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express, White Christmas, Scrooged, Home Alone, Elf, and A Year Without a Santa Claus in no particular order throughout December. Finally, on Christmas Eve, we watch a Christmas Story (my dad’s favorite movie), Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and The Santa Clause on Christmas Eve.

Every year my grandparents take my brother and I to visit Kraynak’s in Hermitage PA. As many may know, Kraynak’s is a store and display for holiday decorations. They have a walkthrough Christmas wonderland, and at the end of it, you get to see Santa.

In the beginning, you encounter a line the size of a football field (exaggeration). After you wait at least an hour the store is your first sight. Once you make it through the store you can finally enter Christmasland. In this walkthrough display, there are various rooms made to look like Christmas scenes. They vary from children opening presents on Christmas morning to Santa and his reindeer on the roof the night before. At the end of the walkthrough, every child’s holiday dream comes true, you get to meet Santa Claus! Children sit on his lap, tell him what they want for Christmas, get a candy cane from an elf, and walk back through the store. Every kid goes home feeling so much joy they can’t even contain it.

The final essential tradition on this list is baking my grandmother’s infamous Christmas candy cane cookies. Every year since before I was born my father’s mother (my grandmother) has baked these delicious, soft, sought after, can’t ever get enough of, cookies. They are my favorite. They are made of cake mix, egg, butter, and cream cheese. 

The recipe and instructions on how to make these incredible cookies. Comment down below if you try to make them!

Recipe:

• 1 Box of white, moist, cake mix
• 1 egg
• 3 ounces of cream cheese
• ¼ cup butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a medium-sized bowl cream together the butter, egg, and cream cheese
3. Add in the cake mix ¼ cup at a time
4. Once a dough has formed, split in half
5. Dye the first-half red, leave the second half white
6. Split each half into smaller, equal pieces and roll into thick “snakes”
7. Then twist one red and one white piece together (without combining the colors) and curve the top half to create a candy cane shape.
8. Repeat this until you run out of dough.
9. Place parchment paper on a sheet pan, and place dough on the parchment.
10. Bake in the oven for 7-9 minutes until done.