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My mother is a tradition junkie. Give her a magazine article entitled "20 Holiday Traditions to Start This Year," and chances are, she'll do all of them. Our family has been witness to and participants in her sometimes decent and sometimes disastrous attempts at blissful holiday togetherness.

Take, for example, the "ROGEO" fiasco, the Rogers family version of bingo. My mother spent many hours hand-lettering and laminating a card for each family member (plus plenty of extra cards for future generations to enjoy). We anxiously placed our beans on the cards as numbers and letters were called until suddenly we all simultaneously exclaimed "ROGEO!!" It didn't take my mom long to realize her error. She'd made all the cards identical.

Never one to be discouraged by a single setback, Mom was determined that the next year's Christmas would be both fun and meaningful. All siblings would write heartfelt letters to each other to keep forever. We were three young teenagers and a 4-year-old at the time and were each given beautiful pieces of Christmas stationery to write on. I still have my letters somewhere. They say things like, "I think you're a pretty cool chick." "Remember last Christmas when we didn't have to write each other letters?" and "Sissy i loave you, yor prety."

The following year Mom decided we should get back to the "true meaning" of Christmas. My dad read the Christmas story from the King James Bible. To make this more "tradition-y," we each got a big peppermint stick to lick while he was reading. The idea to capture this tradition on video was brilliant because now the results are preserved for everyone to enjoy—20 minutes of my sisters and me making faces at the camera and sticking out our bright red tongues.

Soon we were grown, and the tradition attempts slowed down some. There would be the occasional family Christmas craft, or the urging to make popcorn balls together or have a Christmas sing-along around the tree. For awhile we had the "Family Stocking"—a 5-foot monstrosity with gifts for everyone to enjoy. One year Mom gave each of us a children's Christmas book and had us read a page aloud and explain what we had learned over the years.

This time our husbands gave the questioning looks, and my sisters and I suppressed the laughter.

Of our many holiday traditions, the most endearing was the making of traditions themselves. I look forward to the holidays this year, as I do every year. My mother, in her endless creativity and pursuit of family bonding, will likely have a new tradition to try. But if she doesn't, it won't matter.

Tradition and closeness aren't based on what you do … it's based on what you've already done. It's the memories of giggles and knowing glances. It's the feeling of Christmas that only comes when you can sit in quiet reverie at the end of the day, speaking with your family in hushed tones after the kids are finally asleep, a cup of something warm in your hands—the comfort of something inexpressibly warm in your heart. A moment that will sit in your mind among the thousand memories of comfort and quiet joy that mingle together to form family, love and Christmas.

Whitney Scott is a mother, photographer and writer who lives in Carthage, Missouri. She has a shamefully large collection of vintage Christmas ornaments. Last year, at a clearance sale, she bought a Santa suit for her dad and the "Santa Gramps" tradition was born. Visit her at www.scottphotography.org.

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