Lighting The Luminaries

My neighborhood has a long-standing tradition of lining our streets with luminaries on the Saturday night before Christmas. A few stalwart volunteers put out hundreds of white bags filled with sand during the afternoon, and then a few more people go out at dusk with their trusty lighters and light up as many as they can. Block by block, street by street. The result is magical - a line of flickering white lanterns up and down the street, Christmas lights on all the houses, neighbor talking to neighbor in the gathering dark.

Peace on earth. Goodwill toward fellow men. For a little while, anyway. :-) Christmas traditions remind us to take a little time and appreciate what we have, where we've come from, and hopefully where we're going.

Do you have any special traditions for the holiday?