a hushed room and a jar of peanuts

My extended family has so many traditions. Some – we keep going. Some – we’ve let go. Some – we start and then never turn them into a tradition. The thing with family traditions (at least my extended family) is sometimes they make sense and sometimes they don’t!

We have one Christmas tradition that has been around for as long as I can remember, but I have no idea how or why it got started. (I’m sure my mom or grandma will fill me in after they read this!) When we gather with my parents and grandparents to open Christmas presents, my grandpa always opens the first gift and it is the same every year – a jar of Planters salted peanuts.

(These were taken a few years apart, it makes me smile to see him in that shirt both years.)

For years and years we would all be very silent as grandpa would pop the top of the jar and the sound of the seal breaking would fill the room. Then one year Planters changed the packaging and the popping sound was no longer there. We would still sit quietly and act as if we heard it when grandpa opened the jar. When I see Planters jars – I can still hear the “pop.”

My grandpa passed away in the fall of 2016. A few months later we were faced with the dilemma of how to kick off Christmas without him there to open the first gift. Instead of scrapping the tradition, we decided my son, who bears the same middle name, would carry on the tradition.

This year my son asked if we could change the peanuts to honey roasted since that is his preference. Well, of course we can.

We all gathered in my parents’ living room and sat quietly pretending to hear the pop of a jar that would signify Christmas had arrived. My son pulled out his gift, opened the top, and kicked off Christmas just as his great grandpa had year after year after year – only this time the peanuts were honey roasted instead of salted.
Obviously, I have no idea what the future holds, but I imagine for decades to come the first Christmas present opened when extended family gathers will be a jar of honey roasted peanuts. It will be opened by one with the middle name Dean, who came after another great man with the middle name Dean. Just maybe one day I’ll get to tell my grandkids about their great great grandpa who always ushered in Christmas with a hushed room and a jar of peanuts!

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