The Album of Christmas Pasts

A few years ago, my mother-in-law told me about a scrapbook she'd seen for sale.  It was a Christmas album, and it was set up so that each Christmas, you would complete a new page, answering the same questions and adding a picture each year.

I thought, "Well, I could make one of those," and then of course, never actually made one.  But this year, I finally got my act together (all it took was realizing that I couldn't even remember what we gave Jack for his first Christmas to light a fire under me and get me started - I can't cook, I don't like to clean, and I'm not always nice, but by golly am I on top of it when it comes to recording memories) and made my Christmas album.

I am going to share with you what I did because GOSH DARN IT, it's cute.  Also, I think it's a great way to record those little memories that so easily slip away.

After Jack was born, I pretty much stopped scrapbooking (by "pretty much," I really mean "completely").  Scrapbooking takes a lot of time.  And money.  And time.

I did, however, hold onto a couple of empty albums, and this little blue one was just begging me to fill it with Christmas memories (mostly because it's small - 5x7 - and seemed much more manageable than the 12x12 beast I originally intended on using).

My scrapbooking style, in one word, is imperfect.  Crooked lines, hand-written fonts, and lots of paper make up the pages of my albums - and I'm okay with this.  In fact, I've even embraced it.  So, as you browse these pages, know that I know that they're really not all that great.  I am going to share them so you can get the idea of how it's all going to pan out over the years.

I used stickers (on sale at Michael's) to write out "Our Christmas Story" on the front cover.  Mostly, because this is, indeed, our Christmas story - and also because we love to watch A Christmas Story each year.  

I wanted the book to feel like "us" when we open it, so I quoted Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" inside the cover (I love that song, and always have - it reminds of Christmas growing up and I hope it will bring fond memories to my children, as well).   On the right, I put a picture of Jack at his first Christmas  in 2008.  I'll add a picture of the kids together in the middle column this year, and then another of them together five years down the road.

An interesting side note - the vellum I stuck the "Lindsey" stickers to was originally purchased for our wedding invitations way back in 2000 - we made our own invites to save money, but it turned out the vellum was SO EXPENSIVE!  We were totally broke at the time but bought it anyway.  I ended up buying *way* too much and to this day have several pieces left that I occasionally stick into an album or use for a random craft.  So, I guess it was worth it?

I came up with a few topics to record each year, and made a page just for journaling (see below).  Then, I found a family picture of us in 2008 and stuck that on the other page.  

The journaling topics/prompts I used are: year, what we did, favorite gifts, about this photo, and memories.  I wanted it to be simple - rather than a detailed biopic of each family Christmas, I was hoping to capture key words and little memories that we could reminisce over down the road (and, I can't remember much from the past few years and as a result was lacking content, so there's that...).

Other topics might be: what we ate, who we celebrated with, favorite activities, who got the drunkest...things that are suitable for your family, whatever they might be!

I was so tired when we took this picture.  Jack was three weeks old and this was the first time I'd put on makeup or straightened my hair since he was born.  I am so glad I have this photo, though...it's one of the first pictures I have of the three of us together!

Each year, I just repeated the topics and jotted down a few memories to go with each one.  Unfortunately, I don't have a family picture from each Christmas...and that's another reason I'm grateful I finally got around to making this book.  You can bet I'll make us all take a family picture this year so I will have it for the scrapbook!

Turns out, I was able to dredge up a few memories as I was filling this out - for example, I am newly pregnant in the picture below, and wearing the same maternity sweater I was wearing at our first Christmas with Jack!

Last year, I was so lame I hardly even have pictures of the kids AT ALL on Christmas, let alone one of them together.  So, I used this one with Santa instead (which, technically, was taken just a couple of days before Christmas anyway).

I'm glad I finally got around to putting this album together.  Jack has had fun looking at it, and my hope is that it will be a cherished heirloom years down the road.  But, then again, I'm pretty sure my mother-in-law had the same thought about the punch bowl she painstakingly saved and used at special family gatherings over the past 40 years with hopes of passing it along to her grandchildren only to find a $20 price tag on it when Charles and I tried to sell it in our garage sale one year.  So, I won't hold my breath.  

But, I will plug away and keep at it until it's bursting at the seams with years of Christmas memories and love.  

Do you do anything special to record your favorite holiday memories?