Note: Welcome to Marriage Minute, a new feature of the Chelsea Q. White Photography blog. Once a month, I’ll be sharing a marriage tip, article or story to help encourage you in building your marriage. You can see past posts here. Please let me know your ideas and feedback in the comments!

This time of year, it’s all about traditions, isn’t it? It’s a heavy focus and for good reason: We only get Christmas once a year so there ought to be rhythms and routines that define it.

As Logan has grown, I’ve started thinking more and more about traditions I’d like to set for our family. To be clear, simplicity is the name of my game, but I know there are special things from my childhood and Travis’s that we’d like to carry forward.

But what if you don’t have children yet? Or what if your babes are too young for the big-time Christmas stuff? I say do it anyway.

Our wedding was at the beginning of December and by time we planned our wedding, executed it and got back from our honeymoon, we were exhausted. We wanted to set our stake in the new family we had just created rather than running ourselves ragged for the remainder of the season.

So we decided to be together, just the two of us, on Christmas Eve. Due to a lack of planning, we were left scratching our heads around 3 p.m. that day about what we were going to eat for dinner. Turns out the most common restaurant open were Thai restaurants. So we found a place, ordered two Pad Thais and popped “Christmas Vacation” into the DVD player.

We enjoyed it so much that we did it the following year. And we still do it to this day (though the day differs depending on travel plans; but we always make sure to set aside a day for us to celebrate our Christmas together, even if we don’t exchange gifts).

It doesn’t require a lot of thought or planning and in fact, this happened originally by accident and a lack of planning. But it’s something I look forward to and I can’t wait for our kids to join in. 

Creating traditions, even if it’s just the two of you, doesn’t have to be over-the-top. All it takes is something that’s special and significant to you.

Do you have any Christmas traditions already set in your adult life? Things you want to carry over from childhood? Let me know in the comments!