by Becca Matheson, Tastemaker in Residence

While the thrill of waking up on a crisp Christmas day to a happy family and a brightly lit tree surrounded by presents is a standard event in many households around the world, particularly the U.S. and Europe, it is also overlooked by many. As a child who woke up on that day the same as I would on any other, the tradition of Christmas itself doesn't hold the same appeal to me.

It didn't bother me that we didn't do the whole "holiday thing" when I was small because I'd never known it, and it doesn't bother me to this day. I do, however, love family traditions, so, while I don't partake in holiday festivities in the same fashion as the mainstream populous, I do want to have a family tradition for this time of year that allows us the time to bond, indulge in goodies, and build happy memories together.

My fiance and I have decided to continue in my family's tradition of not celebrating Christmas, but we do want to take that day, while both of us are off of work and our future children will be home from school, to start a new tradition.

We will have an annual Family Pajama Day where we wake up and indulge on ice cream for breakfast, hot chocolate, pancakes, and a ton of other delicious holiday and fun foods. It's a day to get everyone a new set of jammies and stay in them all day. Instead of gifts, we'll allow each person to pick one movie and we'll spend the day watching movies together and enjoying the company of our family in an unconventional way.

This idea was inspired by my good friend, Brian. His family has an annual Pajama Day, but not in place of Christmas. This is a tradition that he and his brothers still look forward to every year, even though they're all grown up now. To keep your holiday good times lasting, you can do what his family does. The day after Christmas in their family is reserved for Pajama Day where they get to take the time to play with the presents they got the day before,watch movies, play games, and eat leftovers.

This doesn't just have to be movies. We also plan on playing board games, doing crafts, whipping up pies together or new creations and maybe even doing cookie competitions when we've got an older household. This year we plan and dream, but next year we look forward to our first annual Family Pajama Day on December 25, 2015. We know it's a tradition that our family will cherish and can't wait to celebrate with the ones we love.