A Canadian Dad’s Christmas Story

This is a guest post by Chris Read. Chris is father to two young children. Read his blog, Canadian Dad, and follow him on Twitter @CanadianDadBlog, or on his Facebook Page. He writes this post for NFI's "The 12 Dads of Christmas." If you are interested in guest blogging for us, send an email.

If I HAD to pick memorable moments, that I can remember at least, a couple come to mind. The first involves my father and my uncle, who decided to give us kids a Christmas treat by setting up an elaborate scene for us. They set it up so that we all thought Santa had visited while we were there for our annual Christmas dinner. They had set up reindeer prints outside and even created a loud thud on the roof to make us think Santa was there. To this day I have no idea how they did that but we were very excited about all of it and looking back, I really appreciate the effort they put into it. 

The other Christmas memory I have is of my father. Every year, we had a tradition of going for a family walk. We’d bundle up, drive to the local trail and walk for about an hour or so. As my brother and I got older, it became more of a forced walk than a voluntary one but we’d always end up going. It wasn’t until my father passed away, that I truly understood the importance of this yearly ritual; and it wasn’t a year later, when I had kids of my own, that I really understood the significance of the walks, to my father. I’m glad I never said no to his requests for a family walk but I wish I had shown a little more enthusiasm, in retrospect.

As far as my young family goes, with our kids being 2 and 4, we are still trying to carve out our holiday traditions. We have an Elf on the Shelf named Zerby and a 5 year old fake tree without a name, because naming it feels weird. We try to visit Santa at least once a Christmas season, we love going tobogganing and we have cheesy ornaments for our tree that we let the kids put wherever they want. 

I don’t know what the future will bring as far as family Christmas traditions but the one thing I am sure of, is that our Christmas Day walk will be the one that will always be there.

What's the one thing, like Chris' Christmas Day walk, that you must have in order to enjoy a bright holiday?

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photo credit: Marc Lagneau