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What are your best-loved traditions?

Catherine Greer

Hi everyone, and hello to all the new people this week! Thank you for being here, and sharing your time with me. ❤️

Can I tell you a little story about why we’re enjoying Christmas early this year?

In this blurry photo, my husband caught me standing beside our treasured Christmas tree…a tree with decorations we’ve collected over the past 25 years of marriage. Isn’t it beautiful?

When I was a little girl, my mum made Christmas magical. We didn’t have a lot, but we had a love for tradition. Out in the country in the middle of the Canadian prairies in the frigid winter, Dad would put up the blue lights on the house, and we always decorated the most fragrant live Christmas tree. I’m the youngest of six, so there were presents and chocolates and delicious baking…games nights and little grandchildren and Christmas music on the stereo on repeat. It was magic. Everything sparkled.

I repeatedly stole baby Jesus from the nativity and carried him around in my pocket until I was outed by my siblings—ha! But he was a baby, and so cute, and removable… I can still hear an indignant sister yelling, “STOP stealing Jesus!” Makes me laugh every time I think of it. 🤣

I loved beauty (still do!), so Christmas — with it’s lights and dazzle, hoar frost and snowy skies — truly delivered.

Today we live in sunny Sydney, and Christmas is summertime, with swimming and beaches…but I still carry the traditions of my family in my heart. Christmas music on repeat. Starting early. Getting out all the sparkle because I love it.

That’s me.

I remember the moment when my eldest son realised how to bring magic to the holidays. He was 20, and it was two Christmases ago. He sat beside me one night while I was gazing at the tree and said this.

I believe this is true.

In almost every situation in life, we have the choice to be the joy. We can be the ones to bring it, in tiny ways.

  • When someone is talking, we can say “Tell me more…”

  • Light a candle in the entryway, so the house smells beautiful when our people come home.

  • Use the cloth napkins and the dress hanging in the closet. Set out the good dishes for afternoon tea.

  • Do what we love (whatever that is). Share our unique loves with the world. For me, it’s making life as beautiful as I can with what I already have. For you, it might be giving other people a sense of peace when they’re with you, or being FUN, or listening, or…

I love the idea that we can all use what we have in our own two hands.

It may be that we can give a lot.

It may seem like a little.

But it matters that we share who we are and what we love.

Today, I’m wishing you the chance to share yourself. To bring the joy. Be the fun. As I wrote at the end of my book, Small Steps Are Perfect, “we need you here. Shining.”

Love Catherine x

PS. The fun stuff!