I remember one time talking to a co-worker who had recently moved to Florida and how she didn’t feel the Christmas season as much because of our much warmer weather. However here is the thing about Florida when it comes to the holidays. People have no problem hanging up their lights and decorating their homes because they can do it in shorts and flip flops. No bundling up and fighting the forces of nature and cold to get everything holiday ready. Just a day after Thanksgiving and our block was full of white lights, colored lights, dancing lights, and blow up Christmas figures. It is a beautiful sight and for many holiday decorating is a tradition.
Everyone has their own traditions and happy memories when it comes to the holidays. Ever wondered what people around the world do as a Christmas tradition?
Christmas Traditions Around the World
- Australia – they decorate their houses with bunches of ‘Christmas Bush’, a native Australian tree with small green leaves and cream colored flowers
- France – Yule Logs made out of Cherry Wood are often burned in French homes. The log is carried into the home on Christmas Eve and is sprinkled with red wine to make the log smell nice when it is burning.
- Hong Kong – Every year in Hong Kong there is a ‘Winterfest’. It’s a huge winter party that involves the shops, theme parks and other attractions in Hong Kong.
- Egypt – Christmas Day isn’t celebrated on the 25th December but on 7th January.
Here at Shibley Smiles we have many of our own traditions that I would consider custom American traditions. One of those traditions began when I was a child. Every year I remember getting a pair of pajamas for Christmas. We always got to open them on Christmas Eve to wear that night to bed. To this day I LOVE to shop for pajamas. Pajamas make me think of home, relaxing, comfortable and happy. I can’t help but think this feeling was seeded in my mind due to the holiday memories.
This year I decided to commemorate my memories and feelings with personalized photo gifts from CVS Photo. A couple years ago my family received matching pj’s and we took a beautiful family photo for Christmas cards. So I decided I wanted to capture this memory along with the tradition of holiday pajamas in a keepsake to bring out every Christmas. I decided to create a pillow.
Personalized Photo Gifts – Photo Pillow
With the easy of ordering personalized photo gifts online from CVS Photo it only took a few minutes to create my keepsake. Since I knew which photo I wanted I didn’t even have to spend time looking for the perfect one. I added our name with a click of a button and many fonts to choose from. You can make gifts from photos from your computer, camera, smartphone, just about anywhere you have your photos.
My intentions were to pack this pillow away each year with the Christmas decorations but as soon as my youngest son saw the photo he asked if he could keep it. How can you say know to your child when they are excited about a family photo pillow! It made my heart swell and my keepsake turned in to mean even more than I thought!
