Christmas Traditions: creating layers of memories and meaning

hey! Merry {almost} Christmas! are you here visiting from Betsy's Christmas Blog Tour? thanks for stopping by! i'm happy to share one of our family traditions with you- and while you're here, leave me a comment and tell me what's YOUR favorite tradition? 

for longer than i can remember, it's been a tradition in our family to celebrate Jesus' birthday with a birthday cake. we often do this on Christmas Eve, but there is a lot of flexibility on when we actually do this celebration. 

in fact, while talking with my Dad this week, i realized that i don't actually remember the beginnings of this family tradition. (kind of like cutting the tail off your Thanksgiving turkey. why? because that's what grandma always did...) i'm still researching in the recesses of my brain where this memory came from... (the cake, not the tailless turkey...) 

i'll keep you posted! 

meanwhile, here's a lineup of some of our Christmas Eve/Birthday Cake for Jesus Celebrations and Gatherings. 

throughout the years, the gatherings changed- some were quite elaborate (hoards of friends and relatives smashed into our tiny house along Penn's Creek) and some very simple (just our immediate family and a small cake.) when my oldest daughter, M, was 8 years old, she made a blue pottery angel one summer at Camp Susque.  thereafter, the birthday cakes feature the angel holding the birthday candle. 

also throughout the years, you can see that our family has grown! if you look closely, you can see the progression and growth of my 6 children, and my family! with 6 children, several now grown and married, along with the addition of 7 grandchildren, there are many happy faces celebrating and anticipating the arrival of the Baby Savior on Christmas morning! 

1990

the above picture would have been the very first Birthday party for Jesus. we lived in a very small house, and i would not doubt that there were 40+ people at this gathering! my oldest daughter, M, (1½) is the girl in the blue (aqua?) overalls, being held by her Aunt Esther. the twins, D & N, were asleep on the sofa. being only 3 months old at the time, i guess they were too little for cake! all the other children around the table are random 1st & 2nd cousins. 

1992

same small house, another large gathering. M, now 3½, is in the bottom left corner of this picture. D, the oldest twin, is 2½ and he's in the red sweatshirt. G, my 4th baby, is due in March, and he's actually born in the Blizzard of '93. 

2002

our lives changed quite a bit in the gap of the 10 years between these pictures. now i'm a single mom, homeschooling my 4 children, working a few odd/part-time jobs, and we live in the tiny town of New Berlin in central PA.(i'm sure there were more birthday cakes for Jesus, but no pictures, i guess...) M is 13, D & N are 12 and G is nearly 10. 

2003

this year we're celebrating with our friends, who have graciously invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner and some small gifts. with 8 children of their own (6 gathered at home in this picture) and my 4, we've a big crowd, so good thing it's a big cake! 

2007

big changes again, as shown in this picture here. i've married Dave, and with the addition of A, we're at a handful of children around the table this Christmas Eve. my scrapbook journaling tells me that A was fascinated with the hole in the middle of this green angel food cake. 

2008

this Christmas Eve, baby B has joined our family. she's 1, and anna is 2½. we've also moved to Bradford county, and begin farming {small scale} and growing our CSA. we're also working at renovating/completing the colonial farmhouse we purchased, which was built by the Rockwell family in 1807. 

2012

more changes come along: (see- the kitchen has drywall AND paint now!) the children keep growing, and we're adding new faces all the time now it seems! M is now married- that's husband K alongside her. N is home for Christmas, and G is too! A & B are 6 & 5 years old now. and just for fun: seems we're having a Birthday Pumpkin Roll- merely to keep things interesting! 5 of my 6 children are home around the table this year- making the celebration just that much more special! 

2016

big brother D (the oldest twin) is home this year, and is the only brother to join A & B for cake. (good thing, too! that cheesecake is so tiny!) there were 2 grandchildren added this year as well: a boy AND a girl, born 6 days apart! they must be at home, tucked safe and snug in their beds. 

2017

here we're having another cheesecake for Jesus (and look, it's so much bigger!) good thing, too, since we have even more precious people gathered around: K and grandson C, N and his wife P, along with granddaughter E. ( C&E are both 13 months old) A is 11, B is 10.

                                       

2018

son D is back for Christmas, along with daughter L. L is our second granddaughter, born just a few months ago. Joining the girls and C at the table is C & P, my niece and nephew. (cheesecake seems to be popular!)  and we're a bigger crowd now, so the celebration has moved into the school room...

2018

we had 2 different birthday celebrations this year, i guess to accommodate traveling and/or working children. grandson #2 has joined us, in the highchair, and L is a sweet and cuddly baby. he brings the grandchild count to 4. Aunts A & B are thrilled! (Grammy and Pap are too, of course!) 

2019

with our 2 youngest daughters still living at home, of course A & B are at every Christmas Eve celebration. M & K live locally, so we're blessed at having them nearly every year, too! grandsons C & L are 3 and almost 2. we're thrilled D, along with L (now 13 months old) are here as well. 

                                                                                 2021

our most recent Birthday Party for Jesus was last year. we celebrated Christmas as a family early: we went right from Thanksgiving, to Christmas Eve and then rolled directly into Christmas day. it was a crazy, noisy, messy but FUN time! and now we're at 7 grandchildren! having 5 (6, if you want to be super technical...) at Grammy & Pap's house at one time is a big deal! 

from L>R, in the green jammies: L (he's 3). A (she'll be 2 in May. i made her a very special quilt; you can read about it here) C (5) E (also 5) T (he's 6 months old) M is holding baby T, but also pregnant with Baby S. (who was born in April) Daughter A is 15, and holding a niece and nephew on her lap. granddaughter L (now 3) lives in California now, so wasn't able to join us. 

as you can see, throughout the 31 years of Birthday Cakes for Jesus that are represented here, we've had many changes, some losses and lots of additions to our family. But one thing that can always remain consistent is those traditions that we hold dear, the extra effort we make to ensure that Christmas is celebrated in a memorable and meaningful way, and the memories we make with our family- those we love the most, and hold the closest in our hearts.