Won’t ‘meet the parents’ in PJs

Dear Amy: I am a newlywed. The holiday season is upon us, and I’m trying to coordinate between families.

However, there is one tradition my husband’s family has that I don’t understand.

Ever since they were children, on Christmas morning, “the kids” would come down the stairs to open gifts, and their father would videorecord it.

Well, we are 26 now, and both siblings live on their own outside of the house, but my in-laws still think we should do this tradition.

My husband and I live in our own home and visit regularly.

Last year, I was not included in this tradition because I was still “the girlfriend.” This year, even if they ask, I’m not sure I want to be included.

Please help me relate to this tradition. — Holiday Grown-ups

Dear Holiday: This is one of the wackiest and most wonderful holiday traditions I’ve ever heard of, and I think you should sit back with a beverage, pull out your phone, and enjoy and film it.

This has a “Meet the Parents” quality to it, and I can only hope the adult children dress up in matching “footie” onesies in order to scamper down the stairs and greet their Santa-haul.

Unless this family engages in (other) creepy and/or juvenile or infantilizing behavior, I think you should see this as a delightful annual one-off. Do not attempt to get in on it. You don’t have to do every single thing your husband does. Nor do you need to convince him to stop participating in a silly ritual that might actually have meaning for all of them.

It would be a fun project for someone to splice together over two decades of this footage into a montage. If you are good at this sort of thing, you might give it to the family as a holiday gift next year.