Holiday Traditions | Documentary Family Photography

I love this family to pieces. Holly and I have been close friends since we were five years old and it’s so nice to live near each other again – our kids are growing up together, we can lean on one another for essential stay at home mom support, and we get to just plain hang out again! I’ve been wanting to document a family during their Christmas preparations, including decorating their tree.  Creating traditions has always been important for me and my husband, even in the early years of our relationship. In fact, as we were putting the finishing touches on our own tree last night, it occurred to me that after 18 years of collecting together, we finally have enough personalized ornaments to fill all the spots without needing any additional bulbs.  Our collection includes several from our childhood, homemade creations from our first years of dating when we were crafty and on an extremely limited budget, a few from trips and travels over the years, and of course a large selection from Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth.  I’ve also started choosing one ornament for each of my children which represents their interests for that particular year. For 2019, Layla received a rainbow unicorn while Owen received Daniel Tiger (which has been on a constant loop at our house for the past several months).  I’m excited to pass their own collections on to them to continue the tradition for their own families in the future.

So this being said, of course I was very excited that the Barrs invited me to tag along for their morning Christmas tree hunt.  We visited Middle Road Tree Farm in Highland, which is owned by some really wonderful people and is just a few minutes from Hartland.  I can attest to their customer service because last year, they were a blessing to us when we were in a rush to decorate after closing on our home in early December.  We visited a week or so before Christmas, and many of the larger trees had been picked and toted home.  I can be rather picky when it comes to my trees, and after searching for quite a while, I finally found ‘The One’.  Two young workers put forth a tremendous effort to help us cut it down (and tied it to the roof of our SUV), despite having two conjoined trunks and being a beast of a thing to manage.  We were so grateful for their kind help!

I can’t wait to do more sessions like these in the future.  What family traditions do you practice? Whether it’s baking cookies, ice skating on a local pond, packing meals or care packages for those in need… I want to hear about them.  Do you celebrate a holiday other than Christmas?  I’m eager to learn more about other cultures and family dynamics which differ from mine.

Thanks again, Barr Family! I love your tall, majestic tree, especially with your special ornaments to adorn it.  I hope you enjoy these memories for many years to come.