Christmas Party Poppers

A Family Tradition

Christmas isn’t a season, it’s a feeling

~Edna Ferber

    Every year my moms side of the family would have a Christmas dinner where there would be piles of food, piles of people, and piles of fun. I would get to play with my cousins and have a delicious dinner. Despite the usual conversations and chit chat at parties, there was one unique tradition we always had at our Christmas party. Party poppers. “Time to hand out the poppers” my aunt would say as she handed a basket of dozens of poppers to my youngest cousins. My little cousins would go around the whole house looking for people to hand out these poppers to. The poppers were basically things that you would pull on each end, break open, and then take out what was inside. The special thing about these poppers is that they all had a crown in them made from parchment paper, everyone in my family would be having fun at the party for the rest of the night while wearing a purple or gold crown. Those were always funny to see in pictures. There was also another surprise in the poppers which made the evening a little more fun for us kids. There was always a little toy or game in the popper, usually they were not very interesting games, but enough to keep us busy. We would then go around asking what games other people got and sometimes trading them. While everyone was finishing dessert and winding down, many of us kids would be playing flick football, or using a tiny bowling set we got form the poppers. Although it is not too exciting of a tradition, it was something my family has been doing for a long time, it helped keep me and my cousins occupied and is always a fun part of the year.