My families holiday traditions has been broken since I grew up

When I was younger I noticed our family traditions during the holiday's meant more to my mother than my father, though my father worked very hard to make our holiday special. There had been some holidays that my father got laid off from his job and as I remember back when the holidays were getting closer and it started with Thanksgiving day. I felt the stress all through the house as well in the face of my mother and father. A couple days before Thanksgiving day I heard my father say to my mother how are we going to provide a Thanksgiving day meal with no money after paying the bills, but my mother would always say the Lord will provide. As I recall we did receive help from the Salvation army they did provide a food box with all the fixings to make our Thanksgiving meal special. A couple days before Thanksgiving day our house smelled of apple pie, pumpkin pie, cookies, and cinnamon roll. When Thanksgiving day arrived I was awakened by the smell of the turkey roasting in the oven, because my mother would put the turkey in the oven early in the morning so it would be ready for our afternoon meal. While my mother was cooking In the kitchen my father would be sitting at the kitchen table talking to my mother as he usually did every time my mother cooked other meals. My mother always outdid the previous Thanksgiving meal's the food seemed to taste better, but as always my mother cooked with lots of love. While waiting to eat our Thanksgiving meal us kids would sit in front of the television and watch the Macy's day parade this is one tradition we never missed on Thanksgiving day. I was always excited to see Santa Claus and his sleigh at the end of the parade because I knew Christmas was not too far off. The Thanksgiving meal was ready and on the table, so we all sat down at the table and I remember my father would take his place at the head of the table then carve the turkey and my mother would say the blessing. While eating our Thanksgiving meal we as a family would talk about various topics that were going on in the world and then discuss among each other about each topic and our thoughts. When Thanksgiving the day was over and we woke up to start our day. I knew there was always leftovers after Thanksgiving day and as I can remember sneaking quietly into the kitchen and rummaging through the refrigerator and even if I was being quiet my mother would hear me. My mother fixed me something to eat and then she told me to go outside and play so she could clean up the house from Thanksgiving day and then get ready for Christmas. It's now been a couple of weeks since Thanksgiving day now onto getting ready for Christmas day. My mother started getting boxes of ornaments and other decorations out of the basement and of course, the Christmas lights are tangled up and that is my job every year because I'm good at untangling things. My mother told us, kids, It was almost time for your father to come home from work and our kids were so surprised and excited he brought home a Christmas tree that a friend he worked with that has a Christmas tree farm. After we ate dinner my father put the tree up in the tree stand and we started to decorate the Christmas tree and it sure looked beautiful just like Christmas. My mother would always pop some popcorn so we could string the popcorn and put them on the Christmas tree, so now onto the paper chains out of color paper and put some on the Christmas tree and one on the wall and remove a ring every day until the last one reaches Christmas day. When the Christmas tree is decorated with the decorations, lights, and tinsel the Christmas tree is beautiful and bright. Each day that goes by there is usually a Christmas movie on the television I look forward to White Christmas, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Frosty the snowman, the little drummer boy, miracle on 34^th street, the little match girl, it's a wonderful life, the Christmas Carol and then looks forward to some Christmas music shows such as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Andy Williams. When it gets closer to Christmas Day we hung our stockings on the mantle, and the low-income families got to enjoy a movie in the theater and got to sit on Santa Claus's lap and tell him what was on our lists that we wanted for Christmas. While the children were in the movie theater watching the holiday movie that the people running the program picked out the parents would be picking out toys and clothes that were from a toy and clothes drive and at the time of picking out the toys and clothes for Christmas the parents signed up for a food box that everything would be delivered in time for Christmas. The traditions we had at Christmastime when we were children were not too many because not too much to do when you are from a low-income family so mainly the only tradition was an open one Christmas present on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas Morning. After gifts are opened we just hung outplayed with our Christmas gifts and wait for Christmas Dinner. My holiday traditions are not as they were when I was a child, but similar instead of the Macy day parade on Thanksgiving the day we watch NFL football games while the Thanksgiving day meal was cooking and it's disappointing that we don't sit down as a family at the kitchen table and discuss topics and give our thoughts this is a tradition that I miss doing that I didn't follow through as a parent. The traditions on Christmas is somewhat different from when I was a child, but my family does watch Christmas movies on the hallmark channel and also on Netflix. We do get the real Christmas trees and we all decorate the tree together mainly ornaments, lights, tree topper but no tinsel we can't find the tinsel in the stores. If my parents were alive today and seen that I didn't always follow their traditions during the holidays I think it would bother them a little, but I do hold on to the memories and remember the traditions my parents distilled in me as a child.