New holiday traditions

Today the kidlet said, "I'm going to make a cone." So they did; they made it with green construction paper and tape.

"Now," they said, "I'm going to decorate it with an apple tree and a flower." So they did; they made them out of orange construction paper, and attached them with tape.

"Now," they said, "I'm going to fill it with nutmeggan treats. 'Nutmeggan' means 'really, really small,' if you didn't know." They cut tiny shapes of orange construction paper to be the "nutmeggan treats."

"Now," they said, "you have to take me outside so that I can fill it with grass, and flowers, if we can find any." Bemused, I did so, even though the wind was pretty fierce. We found dried blossoms still on the spirea bush, and they put those in there, along with some grass and a sprig of holly.

"Now," they said when we got back into the house, "it's time to hide it." And they put the grass-filled cone in the curve of the banister.

Doesn't that sound just like the sort of thing you'd read in one of those "Christmas of Yesteryear" type articles? Like, after playing Snapdragon, but before shooting down the mistletoe with a rifle, the family would decorate apple-tree cones and fill them with grass and nutmeggan treats ... They created a folk tradition out of nothing at all.

We'll have to do it again next year.

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If I owe anyone e-mail, please forgive me; the kidlet is the only one in the house who hasn't spent the past 24 hours throwing up. (They got their stomach virus out of the way over the weekend.)


edited 2019 to retroactively correct the kidlet's gender pronouns