When I was growing up, my father and mother would take me and my sister to see The Nutcracker Suite at the performing arts center in Marin County, Calif. It was one of many family outings we did each year around the Christmas season. When I was older, going to see a performance of Handel’s Messiah was added to the mix.

When the kids get old enough to sit through a live performance, including this type of activity in the mix of things you do as a family can really add depth and color to the memories of Christmas your children build. Attending Christmas plays, performances and concerts offer wonderful holiday entertainment for all members of the family and provides another way to enjoy the festivities of the Christmas season.

The beauty is, you don’t usually don’t have to venture too far from your home to enjoy a Christmas play or concert. That’s because amateur actor troupes, singers and budding musicians in your neighborhood will often take part in several Christmas performances for local residents. These amateur but entertaining events can be found at local schools, churches or at a community theater or performance center. Of course, if you live near or in a larger city, your options grow exponentially.

Traditional stage performances that take place during this time of year include:

The Nativity Story
Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth, so it makes sense to tell the story of his birth and the coming of the three wise men at this time.

A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic has been adapted for the stage as both a drama and a musical. I saw one performance years ago … I make sure to see it because I guy I had a crush on was in it … that was really very good. It never ceases to amaze me how inventive stage special effects can be!

The Nutcracker Suite
Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet is an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” Composed in 1891-92, The Nutcracker Suite tells the story of a young girl who has a dream on Christmas Eve of a Nutcracker Prince and a fierce battle with a Mouse King. After a fierce battle between the Nutcracker, who leads an army of toy soldiers, and the Mouse King who leads an army of mice, the Nutcracker is captured. But the little girl throws her slipper at the Mouse King, hits him in the head and kills him. In the end, the Nutcracker turns into a Prince and takes the little girl to the magical and enchanting Land of Snow with dancing snowflakes and the Land of Sweets with the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Other popular performances include concerts of Handel’s Messiah, Christmas carols and classical Christmas music.

What makes local Christmas performances special is that members of the community and maybe even of your own household can be among the entertainers. It is therefore special to see familiar faces doing something interesting and different.

For those who are budget-conscious, the performances are usually priced to be very affordable, therefore offering an economic incentive to go out and have an enjoyable afternoon or evening.

Attending Christmas plays, concerts or musical performances serves the basic purpose of entertainment, but it can also help young people — and even adults — to develop an appreciation for the arts. Seeing different variations and the creativity in performances of Christmas plays, as well as hearing different renditions of Christmas songs, can be the first exposure that leads to a lifelong love of the arts and maybe a dream to pursue a career in the arts, as well.

Sometimes I miss being a child … when the wide-eyed wonders and glorious splendor of the season were always fresh, new and full of wondrous things … when the burdens of adulthood hadn’t tainted the sights, sounds and scents that put the magic and a festive spirit into Christmas.

But sometimes I can get a taste of what that used to be by living vicariously through the children of today. And, I hope, that I’ll be able to live Christmas anew when I have children of my own.

Christmas really is a time for children. The major shopping malls enthrall with their various seasonal window displays and in-store Holiday arrangements. This is the best time of year to go window shopping with the kids. The displays, which can be moving, stationary or interactive, can be so mesmerizing that many a parent has arranged a trip to the mall just for children to view the many displays.

Then, of course, there is the annual picture taken with Santa. My mother has all the ones that were taken of me and my sister and it’s quite amusing. The first one or two I’m too young and just plain oblivious. Then there’s the year I was terrified and balling. There are a couple years missing … we were living in Kenya those years … and then my sister joins the pictures and goest through the same phases I did. I really miss taking those annual photos … but my husband is just not into it and I feel funny doing it alone as an adult.

Another fun family activities that is sure to delight the children is driving through the brightly decorated neighborhoods. Sometimes even a local part or arboretum will offer a fantasy of light display to view. Christmas displays have become so common, almost everyone has some form of lighting arrangement at their house. Many a neighborhood sees an increase in traffic during the Christmas season because of the fanciful, landscaped displays of outdoor Christmas light decorations. These usually include figures of reindeers, Santa, sleighs, angels, shepherds and animals that are a part of the story of Jesus’ birth.

There is also the lighting of the official town tree. Many cities and towns will have a official Christmas tree and offer an organized light ceremony. This event can be quite the treat for the kids, as it often includes treats, caroling and other fun activities — often including a surprise visit from Santa Claus.

Take the time to enjoy the season with your children and maybe you’ll get a taste of that magic you once felt so long ago.

In it’s simplest form, a tradition is something you do, either individually or collectively in a group, each and every year around or on a specific date or time. So, a Christmas tradition would be something you do around Christmas, every year, without fail.

Some people may give presents to one another. Others may take gift giving to a whole new level and only give gifts to those that are poor. Still, others may not give any store-bought gifts and have gift qualifications of those that are only “hand-made” by their loved ones.

Every single family has their own rich, historic, family traditions that go back generations. And others make up their own for a new generation to enjoy.

All traditions whether new or old, are practiced greatly upon what each individual family, or person, feels should, or likes, to be done.

Traditions can be simple, or they can be complicated. Say, for instance, that every year, you and your family decides that there should be one new Christmas tree decoration purchased to mark that year.

In other cases, it can be a bit more complicated. Almost like a ceremony if you will. Take this example:

One family may have lost a dear loved one 2 days before Christmas, or maybe even on Christmas, so every year, before doing anything else, they drive out to visit the cemetery where their dearly departed has been placed. They purchase new flowers, or a grave blanket and place it on the grave, paying their respects.

Maybe they have a family prayer or simply have a conversation with their loved one letting them know all the things that have happened throughout the course of the year.

Then, maybe they light a candle. After this is over, they leave the cemetery and return to another relative’s home for a wonderful Christmas gathering to further celebrate the life of their loved one and also the birth of Jesus Christ.

Or, maybe a person who doesn’t regularly attend Church, or hasn’t done so for years, goes to Church only on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Morning.

My family traditions include the coming of The Gingerbread Man, a tangerine in the foot of the Christmas stocking and the chocolate Advent calendar. There were other, but they were tied to people who are now passed … but you get the gist.

Some traditions become so entrenched that they aren’t even thought of as traditions anymore, such as decorating the Christmas Tree, hanging stockings up, wrapping presents, visiting family and friends you don’t normally see throughout the rest of the year, going sledding with your children, going to school plays or pageants, going Christmas caroling, collecting donations for local charitable organizations, making cookies or home-made candies, drinking egg nog, and so on come in to the picture.

Obviously, some things we do are steeped more in history than others. But, every tradition has a history, whether it’s a new tradition or one that has been passed on from generation to generation. That’s the important part about Christmas traditions.

It’s not really the act of doing them that makes them an integral part of our lives. It’s how doing them makes us feel inside, and outside really.