A few days ago, I wrote a post called “Holiday Stress” which talked about how I wanted to make sure I did the things this year that are most important to them, so I decided to poll the troop. Well, the results from my family poll are in.

Here is how the five of us voted on the question, “What three things are the most important aspects of Thanksgiving and Christmas that have to be there for you in order for it to feel special?”

1. A Christmas tree–5 votes
2. Observance of Advent–3 votes (We love the Jotham’s Journey trilogy. Check it out for yours!)
3. Spending the day with extended family–2 votes
4. Stockings–2 votes
5. Opening one gift on Christmas Eve–2 votes
6. Quiet afternoon on Christmas for reading–1 vote

Not surprising to me, none of my family mentioned anything about Thanksgiving. That’s most likely because my husband did full time emergency medicine for 30 years, working 12 hour shifts, and many of them occurred on Thanksgiving Day. He often worked Thanksgiving in order to have Christmas Eve or Day off so we don’t have many special things to draw from.

So, now I have a framework for the holidays. None of what they said is hard to do and I’ll make sure we do them. Baking, candlelight services, and whatever else comes up will simply be “icing on the Christmas cake!”