Christmas Eve Treasure Boxes

We have started a new tradition this Christmas Eve..... actually, it was a surprise to my husband because I thought of doing this just last week after all of his holiday shopping was done. I didn't want to spring this on him at the last minute, so tonight's Christmas Eve was the 'gift' of the pretty Treasure Boxes.

Our friend V and her husband S have had this Treasure Box tradition for years and years. Both V and S have their separate Treasure Boxes, their two sons each have one, and one son is now engaged so V made his fiance her own Treasure Box. The tradition is that anyone can put a little gift into a Treasure Box. The only rule is that the gifts have to fit in the box and be small and thoughtful, not huge and extravagant.

V told me about her family's Treasure Boxes a bunch of years ago and I thought it was a nice idea but didn't 'adopt' it for our own Christmas Eves. This year, after the visit from V and S, and hearing V talk about the Treasure Boxes again, I got to thinking that it would be a really nice idea for us to do as well. (And being that we don't have our big holiday party anymore since we've moved, we just needed a new tradition in this house.) In my stash of holiday decorations, I already had the pretty boxes.... a red velvet one for my husband, a poinsettia-floral box for me..... both about the size of shoe-boxes, perfect size for a Treasure Box.

For tonight's Christmas Eve dinner, I used those boxes as the centerpiece for the table, one stacked on top of the other, with a Christmas doily on the top box to hide the Treasure Box labels with our names on them. My husband didn't have a clue as to what they were while we ate our dinner... he thought I just put together a creative centerpiece.

Of course, the Treasure Boxes had to have something inside of them....... I took a box of my favorite tea that my husband brought home when he drove through downtown Houston last week, and I put that into my Treasure Box. When I opened the box after dinner, I took out the tea and said to my husband: Look! It's my very favorite tea!!

Into my husband's Treasure Box, I put a handwritten poem that I wrote for him last week.... very loosely based on 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. I had come up with my own version of that poem for him and put it into a booklet form, all decorated-up with Christmas pictures. I had that under the tree for him to open tomorrow, but decided it was Treasure Box-worthy. (He loved the poem.... it made him laugh out loud.)

So now we have a new tradition for Christmas Eve.... Treasure Boxes.... thanks to our dear friends V and S and their limitless holiday spirit.