Share A Cup & A Story – Holiday Traditions

Disclosure – This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The J.M. Smucker Company. The opinions and text are all mine. I’m partnering with Folgers® at Walmart through the Share A Cup & A Story campaign, to celebrate new and old holiday traditions.

One of my favorite parts about the holidays are the traditions that families create to celebrate the season. Especially when those traditions are shared and continued from one generation to the next.

Since the holidays are quickly approaching, I invited my two sisters over to share a cup of Folgers® Classic Roast Coffee and reminisce about some of our favorite holiday traditions growing up.

My two sisters and I are very close and have a great relationship. We are relatively close in age (currently 38, 37 and 33 years old), which was torturous during our teenage years, but for the majority of my childhood, it was like having a friend around at all times.

Christmas was an especially fun time at our house.  My mom loves Christmas and puts so much thought into special traditions that make the season magical. One tradition that we all vividly remember from our childhood is delivering plates of homemade Christmas cookies to our neighbors.

The amount of baked goods my mom made during the holiday season was astounding. It seemed like as soon as December 1st rolled around, the kitchen was constantly filled with freshly baked cookies. Not to mention creamy fudge and peppermint bark.

She would store large batches of each kind of treat  in the freezer until the time came to deliver them to our surrounding neighbors and friends. We’d stand by the front door in our heavy coats, waiting for her to pull together a plate filled with an assortment of goodies, covered with plastic wrap and topped with a holiday bow.

This sounds like a lovely tradition, but growing up we actually couldn’t stand it! It was always cold out, the wind would constantly blow the bow and plastic wrap off the plate and there were a few houses that we never wanted to go to. We’d play rock,paper,scissors to determine which sister had to ring the bell at those houses while the other 2 hid behind the bushes.

Over coffee with my sisters, it was so funny to talk about how much we hated that we’d only be given one plate at a time. We’d have to walk to that house to deliver the plate and then walk back home for the next plate. The process took forever!

We also found it extremely embarrassing that my mom would leave cookies on top of the garbage can for the garbage man. It’s funny what you find embarrassing as a kid.

During our coffee date, we discovered that out of all the holiday traditions we had growing up, this one that none of us enjoyed as kids, is the one that we all continue to celebrate with our own children.

That’s right…now that we’ve all become moms, we embarrass our own kids by passing on this neighborly tradition. Tis’ the season!

We’ve all learned that one of the favorite parts about holiday traditions is sharing them with others. Baking treats and delivering them to your neighbors is an easy way to let others know you care.

I will admit that each of us have changed the tradition slightly over time. My sister has her kids help her bake the cookies, and I take all our deliveries out at one time. We load up all the Christmas treats in our wagon and accompany the kids as we deliver them.

My kids are still little and currently love this holiday tradition. I’m sure as they get older, the mortification will set in and they’ll despise it as much as we did. But I hope in the future they continue the tradition with their children.

I had such a great time enjoying the afternoon with my sisters over coffee. I’m excited to think that in the future it will be our kids reminiscing over old holiday photos.

What’s one of your favorite family holiday traditions?

I encourage you to pick up Folgers Classic Roast at Walmart in the coffee aisle, and invite someone special over to share a cup and story.