New Christmas Traditions

But the last year we’ve started a couple of new traditions. One is that we do not buy many (if any) Christmas presents for each other within my immediate family. Instead we pick a “Christmas Angel” from http://angel.jcpenney.com/angeltree/ and go shopping for a child or two. Last year we wrote stories about who we imagine these people to be and read them on Christmas morning in lieu of opening a million presents. It’s amazing and I love this new tradition. It’s fun to shop for kids who really need it. It’s awesome knowing that somewhere on Christmas morning, children are experiencing a brighter day because of my family. I highly recommend this.

Last year (and I’m kinda letting out a BIG SECRET here, but I want to pass the idea on) we did something called “Random Acts of Kindness”… I made up cards and my Mom, Casey, and I went about spreading holiday cheer. We sent random people flowers (I literally picked people out of a phone book and sent them flowers). We paid for tolls for the people behind us (and had the toll booth people give the next person a card that said “You’ve Been Hit By a Random Act of Kindness! Pass it on!”) We paid for people’s coffee behind us. We walked up main street and filled parking meters that were about to expire. I mailed out Dunkin Donut gift cards to people I picked out of a phone book. We bought Andes mints and put them in random people’s mailboxes. This was the most awesomest adventure EVER. We all giggled nearly every day about the surprised responses we saw, the imagined responses of people just receiving these random gifts in the mail. In all, over the month of Decemeber we committed over 100 random acts of kindness. It was SO much fun. Again, I highly recommend this.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Let the spreading of joy begin!