Robison Family Christmas Traditions

Joelle . Here are a couple of my favorite Christmas memories. Every year Mom would say that she is going to keep this Christmas a small one, but every year there were a mountain of gifts ... more than we could think to ask for. Now that I am a parent I see how much joy it brings to find the perfect gift for one of the girls and be more excited about giving that than anything I could possibly receive.

I love the big breakfasts dad would make. I have bought everything right down to the blueberries so that John can do the same.

Here is one funny memory. I can clearly remember laying in bed trying to sleep, but just being way too excited. Justin tip-toed into my room and said that he had "accidently" snuck into your closet sometime during the day and he had seen some cabbage patch kids, one with a pacifier.

I want you guys to know how much I enjoyed everything about Christmas when I was young. I remember everything being just perfect, and now I know how much work it takes to make a perfect Christmas. I hope we can spend a holiday with you guys soon." Love Joelle

Justin . "Mom's Christmas Eve dinner feasts (it was like having a 2nd Thanksgiving every year), and here are the others:

• Opening a present or two on Christmas Eve

• The thousands of white lights on our house on south drive
  

• Driving around to see the lights

• Making the rounds to ward members homes on Christmas eve

• Singing carols, eating treats (Mary kay cookies/ Nanaimo bars- yum)
  

• The Musson's Christmas lights & their Christmas parties

• Our late night appetizer & present party the past couple of years
  
  
• Christmas 'cracker' (popper) things for dessert
  
  
• Santa's footprints
  
  
• Lining up to go see what Santa brought
  
  
• Fun stocking stuffers (oranges, chocolate, Toblerone, magazine..)
  
  
• Entenman's coffee cake or cinnamon rolls while waiting for the action on Christmas morning
  
  
• Dad's famous breakfast with blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage
  
  
• The present piles with different wrapping paper for each person
  
  
• The little kids/babies the past few years

Jennifer . "I think our Robison family Christmas Eves are the best in the world. I especially miss being with you on Christmas Eve. My favorite memories were when we would go and deliver goodies and visit with different people in the ward. Dad would dress up as Santa and sometimes the Gilmours would come over to sing 12 days of Christmas. That was always my favorite song to sing because we each got a part.

I loved having Christmas dinner and opening the Christmas Crackers. I also loved visiting the Mussons. I really miss those Christmas Eves. I hope we can find some fun traditions like you did for us.I also love mom bringing up cream cheese coffee cake while we waited at the top of the stairs."

When we lived in Millcroft, and when it was a white Christmas, it was fun to go to the golf course and sled or cross country ski as a family.


Jeremy: Our Traditions - On Christmas Eve, we are opening 1 present each of the givers choice, and tonight we open our family PJ's to wear.... Some time today we want to read the christmas story in LUKE.... and maybe watch the LDS Christmas dvd that was made a few years ago (i love that one)....
We would also like to sing Christmas hymns/carols.... and lie down under the tree with Sylie and read some fun Christmas stories...
Maybe tonight we can also discuss what we would each like to give to the Lord in a spiritual sense....
In the morning we will have a Christmas breakfast (blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage, cinnamon rolls, fresh squeezed OJ)...
We will then go to our stockings that are already filled and hanging.... We will also open presents taking turns.

My Christmas Memories. I thought it was awesome how Santa's foot prints were made of magical snow that wouldn't melt... and how he would eat and drink the milk and cookies we left out for him... I remember Justin and I trying to scientifically convince Jamie that santa was real... we even pointed out the window of our room in Millcroft at some lights in the sky that were blinking, and said it was the rain deer.
I loved waiting at the top of the stairs in our birth order, being frustrated when Jamie would only walk slowly down the stairs as a little child...
Even though sometimes we would be stuck waiting at the top of the stairs for "unknown reasons" ...it was fun to be entertained by orange juice while waiting.... (which kid started that request/tradition?)
I loved the anticipation to open the gifts by having to wait my turn... most of the time I would have the gift already unwrapped secretly while waiting so all I would have to do is pull off the paper... (sometimes Jamie would catch me and try and tell on me)...
The Santa Clause concept is amazing... I can't wait to see Sylie's reactions.

Jameee's Memoires. The things that I remember go right along with the rest of the siblings. Every year we expected it to get smaller and smaller due to mom's "we are making this one small" but they were HUGE. so many presents around a beautiful, huge tree. I have no idea how much time mom and dad put into that room, but it always looked so good. I remember one year we had the great idea to ask mom and dad to put up a paper wall in the entry to the big room, so that we could rip through it like a high school football team. I remember it was there, but that it wasn't as cool as we all imagined. but props to mom and dad for doing it, it looked like a lot of work.

I really don't remember when I stopped believing in Santa. I think it was when I was really young, because I don't have any Christmas memories of believing in Santa. I bet Jer would tell everyone that I always believed, but as we all know from the power-wheels incident, I am a sucker for the crowd psychology, whatever they would tell me I would at least pretend that I was game.

A few of my favorites -

• Ppening presents one at a time; taught me patience and I loved seeing what everyone else got. (Plus it made Christmas last like 80 times longer)
• someone told me that in their family they all just rush to the tree and open and it sounded so gay. So thanks ma and pa for not homosexualizing us to those traditions
• Musson's house, - I would always feel kind of out of place but it was fun
• Our Christmas lights in Roseland on South Drive
  
• Dads breakfasts... mmm.
• Christmas naps
• We saw the "preachers wife" on Christmas once at a Movie Theatre, that was cool
• Christmas crackers! and then trying to trade each other for the small deck of cards
• Stockings being sooooo packed
• Me at the front of the Christmas line every single year!
• I dont know, it was all soo good.

Remember last Christmas (2006)

Joelle and John Traditions :

Joelle and John have John's mother nearby. They have a great tradition of having a Christmas gathering with her and then plan to have their own gathering on Christmas morning. The big crisis that loomed in the family last year was the fact that Santa's bags were packed and Grace had changed her mind that she wanted something different from Santa than she asked for up until (December 23 ^rd). " So Christmas eve, they had the traditional fancy dinner at Jeane's house. The kids always have brand new pajamas to open, and they read and acted out the Christmas story from the bible. Christmas morning Santa left magic snow footprints (Grace asked about 5 times if the magic footprints would be there again this year). They had a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausages and eggs." (Joelle)

Justin and Lisa Traditions

Justin and Lisa are far away from both sets of grand-parents. They had Christmas on their own and then headed out to Lisa's home in Minden, Nevada the day after Christmas. " We went to church on Christmas Eve Day (long sacrament program, nothing else). They had crepes for breakfast. Then they made a snowman and played board games. They had prime rib dinner Christmas eve at 5:30 then chocolate pie dessert. then they opened 2 presents each (1 PJ's, one random). Then went on a drive to see the lights. Then they read our last Christmas book and drank Vita-mix hot chocolate, then it was off to bed. Santa came and the kids got up early and lined up and saw what Santa brought. They then had a big blueberry pancake breakfast with eggs, sausages and then play with toys, eat leftovers." (Justin)

Jenny and Jason Traditions

Jenny and Jason have the luxury of having Jason's parents close by. (Christmas eve), they had a cozy day watching a nice DVD, having hot chocolate, reading stories, and they even built a Mo and Bumpas pair of snowmen. Christmas morning they will celebrated Christmas in a big way with Jason's family. " On Christmas Eve they went for a drive to see the lights, just like I (Jenny) used to do when I was younger. We also let Taylor open one present. I wish we could do the magic footprints, but Santa is coming to Jason's parents house, so I will decided to try and do that next year. (Jenny)

Jeremy & Karenin Traditions

"Today (December 24, 2006) we opened one present each of the givers choice, and at night we opened our family PJ's to wear.... During the day, they read the Christmas story in LUKE.... and watched the LDS Christmas DVD that was made a few years ago (I love that one)....
We also like to sang Christmas hymns/carols.... and laid down under the tree with Sylie and read some fun Christmas stories...

Christmas Eve we also discussed what we would each like to give to the Lord in a spiritual sense....

On Christmas morning, we had a Christmas breakfast (blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage, cinnamon rolls, fresh squeezed OJ)...
We will then went to get our stockings that were already filled and hanging.... We also opened presents taking turns." (Jeremy)

Mom and Dad Christmas Memories

Mom. We always had A big Christmas at my Grandparents house (Mamaw and Papaw - Barbara's parents). Mom and I lived nearby, her sister Nancy and her family did too. The Worls would drive in from Indiana on Christmas Eve. We would have a big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve - turkey with all the trimmings. Each year there would be a debate on what stuffing went in the turkey - regular or oyster. Regular always won (thank goodness). There would be 15 of us (at least) for dinner. We always sang the 12 days of Christmas while washing the dishes.

Mom and I would go to our apartment to sleep, sometimes with an extra cousin to sleep over, and we would go to Mamaw and Papaw's house first thing in the morning. Papaw always had some of his special sausage cooked for us. He owned a meat packing company in downtown Chicago and would make a special recipe to give out for Christmas. Grandchildren had to stay out of the large living room where Santa had left mounds of presents. This involved blindfolds and other creative solutions since the living room lay between the bedrooms and the kitchen. The presents surrounded a gorgeous white Christmas tree. My grandparents liked HUGE Christmases. Mamaw would shop all year in what she called her 'sucker' magazines for unique gifts. About a fourth of the large living room would be full of packages with elaborate unwrapped toys for the 6 grandchildren. We opened presents all at once so there was lots of noise and calling out of 'Thank you's". For the rest of the day we would play with our toys, eat leftovers, nap, and visit. My Grandparents loved to play games - so we always did that. Christmas was such a big deal. I remember papaw's invention for wrapping presents - he outfitted a card table with stands for ribbon, tape and paper so he could do all the wrapping efficiently.

Christmas was a wonderful time for our family. We loved the spirit of generosity and the special feeling of being all together. But it was all about Santa Claus. We never talked about religion or the birth of the Savior. I loved the feelings of those Christmases but I have learned there is so much more when we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

After my Grandparents' death, my mom continued the big Christmas tradition. She loved to find fun presents in catalogs or on the internet. I will always treasure the beautiful necklace she bought for me before she died. She joined our family every Christmas and saw that we did it right. I loved the feeling of preparing the perfect Christmas experience for the 5 Js. My favorite moments were setting up the wooden German nativity once piece at a time, sitting under the Christmas tree reading stories, acting out the nativity, and, of course, the procession down the stairs on Christmas morning.

Dad's Childhood Memories. When I was a little boy growing up on Christmas Eve, we would always recite from memory the Christmas story from Matthew and from Luke. After our family hour Christmas program, we would drive around and look at the lights. We would also leave out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. I loved to lay under the Christmas tree and listen to my Mother read stories. It was such a secure feeling being in that room with just family, and enjoying the lights on the tree. Christmas eve was the longest night of the year. I could normally fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, but not on Christmas eve.

It was so fun to get up around 6 a.m. when it was still dark and gather around the Christmas tree for opening presents. When we were younger, the presents from Santa were not wrapped. We would always open the Christmas stocking first. It was a tradition to have an orange in the bottom of the stocking because during the war they were such precious commodities. My father would make sure that we opened the presents one at a time and enjoyed the experience of giving. After opening the presents, we would go to the kitchen and have a traditional breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages. On Christmas afternoon, the boys and Dad would go to the Church gym for a game of basketball with another family of sons in the Ward.

Dad's Memories of Christmases with the 5 Js. One of the beauties of marriage is the blending of two cultures into one. I believe we took memorable traditions from the Robisons and combined them with memorable traditions from the Schultz family. A great tradition within the Schultz family was celebrating Christmas with the grandparents and all of the cousins. In your mom's family, the cousins would likely have Christmas a day or so early and then drive to Oak Brook to celebrate the real day with the grandparents. Their big dinner was on Christmas Eve, so they could enjoy every minute of Christmas Day without the fuss of a big dinner.

I still think of a stocking with an orange, a blue berry pancake breakfast after presents, a recitation of the Christmas stories from Matthew and Luke, and opening presents one at a time. When the children were younger, every Christmas eve Diane and I would stay up late assembling toys and making certain the room looked perfect. Over the years, we expanded our traditions such as putting up 3,000 little white lights in front of South Drive, or caroling to various member homes on Christmas eve, always ending up at the Christmas house of all houses...the one that looked like Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation...the Musson's home. I loved the tradition of collecting nativity scenes once most of the children were married and using that as our primary home decoration style. I loved "saving Christmas" for when we could all be together when it was the inlaw turn for Christmas. And I loved leaving a wonderful Christmas surprise on the steps of families who might really need something extra special on Christmas and then ringing and running or driving a way. It was wonderful, the year we postponed Christmas for Joelle, to host the single adults for Christmas dinner in our home. We also discovered what fun it was to have two Christmases rolled into one...the first would be late at night on Christmas eve when all the adults exchanged presents and the other on Christmas morning where we enjoyed watching the children open their presents.

While working for O. C. Tanner Company, a Christmas tradition for their officers was expanded to include Diane and me for several years. We would fly down to Salt Lake, stay at the Inn on Temple Square and at a wonderful dinner at the Salt Lake Golf and Country Club would get a bonus in cash under our plates as well as a beautiful piece of Jewelry for Diane. Every Christmas Eve, Obert Tanner would arrange for an elegant gift to be delivered to the home such as a suit or a cashmere coat. Obert C. Tanner loved Christmas and the experience was magical.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate Christmas based upon the following observations: 1) the incredible feeling of family and unity that occurs; 2) the way the world seems to pause and really want peace on earth even if but for a fleeting moment; 3) the special spiritual feeling that comes through music; 4) the extra attention given to the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and 5) the happiness that comes from being able to give in order to make someone else a little more happy.