One thing that didn’t get added to the Tradition was having a power blackout on Christmas Eve. (We did in fact have a blackout one year.) The work-around for that involved making Paper Bag Apple Pies.
Here’s how to make a paper bag apple pie: Make an apple pie in the usual fashion. Because the (electric) oven isn’t working, place the raw pie in a paper shopping bag, place it on the hearthstone of your fireplace with the open end toward the blazing fire (which is also all that’s warming your entire house) and wait until the pie cooks. Which it will. You judge this by the color of the top crust. Note: You do not leave this alone for even a second. Also, make sure your Christmas Tree is well clear of that cheerful blaze. Not that it’s too difficult to keep the tree away, because everyone in the house will be clustered around that Cheery Blaze, and that tree doesn’t have c chance of taking up room that a person could occupy.
Despite the cry of “Tradition!” there was no demand to cut the power the following year.
A word of warning to anybody contemplating the acquisition of offspring: Be aware that anything you do for Christmas just once instantly becomes a Hallowed Holiday Tradition, and you fail to do it again every year thereafter at your peril. By the time all your kids are teenagers heading for college, you will inevitably be dragging a whole sled-load of Tradition behind you as you head into the joyous season.
And a further, happier thought: If you’re still stumped over what to give as a holiday present to the writer in your life (even if that writer is you), remember that my seasonal sale of editorial and critique services is ongoing through Twelfth Night (5 January 2019.)
JAMES D. MACDONALD 
The kids *did* say, some years after the fact, that the Christmas Eve with only fire and candle-light was one of their favorites. All I can say is, I’m glad somebody was having fun, because all I could think of was the pile of still-to-be-wrapped presents and the uncooked crown roast of pork in the refrigerator.
(Fortunately, the power came back on in time for the gifts to get wrapped, and the roast stayed properly refrigerated until cooking time the next day. But I was . . . worried . . . there for a while.)