This holiday season is shaping up to be anything but traditional, which is all the more reason to share, and if necessary adapt, favorite festive rituals. Here, several One Kings Lane team members talk about how they and their loved ones make the season their own.
Anna’s new (but vintage) nativity scene
“Every year since I was a kid, my main holiday decorating responsibility was putting out the nativity scene on our dining room sideboard. I loved playing with all the little figurines and positioning them in funny places, like having the little shepherd boy hanging out in the barn rafters with a bunch of sheep for no apparent reason. This year I started my own collection with a vintage green-and-gold nativity hand-painted from Mexico. It’s totally different from the one I played with as a kid. It’s been fun to see how this tradition has grown with me and my style!”—Anna, marketing
This year’s high tea
“Christmas is big in my family. Normally my mom hosts more than 50 of us, from both sides of the family. Until a few years ago I still sat at the kids’ table! The night before, my parents and I each open one present and put the star on the tree. Then we wake up early to get the house ready for the guests. This year we’re keeping the tradition alive, but only with immediate family, and we’ll have a fire pit and heaters outside. I’ll definitely miss all my aunts and uncles and cousins, but we will have a new addition celebrating with us: my rescue puppy, Pebbles.”—Sarah, buying
Pebbles dressed to impress
“In Ireland we celebrate Nollaig na mBan [pronounced nuh-lig nah man], which translates as Women’s Christmas, on January 6. Its more colloquial term is Little Christmas. It’s officially the last day of the season, and we honor the women who made the season so special through their hard work. The men do the cooking and cleaning, while the women put their feet up in front of the fire with a nice glass of wine.”—El, creative
The 2016 gingerbread house
“When my daughter was three or four, the two of us started decorating a gingerbread house every year sometime between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. (Sometimes we needed to prop up the walls with soup cans, and sometimes more icing ended up on us than on the gingerbread.) This is the first year we can’t spend the holidays together, so I sent her a gingerbread-house kit, bought the same one for myself, and we’ll decorate them ‘together’ via FaceTime.”—Sherry, creative
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