Wondering what Mommy Homework is??? Each week you will have an “assignment” here to share in our comments here on this site. You will love this-both sharing AND enjoying answers by others. Some of them, I compile into an ebook (contributors can resell as a product of their own–be sure to submit your email and full name when you register so I can credit you appropriately!).
The result is AWESOME!
We get to know each other…we are encouraged in our journey…and we glean super ideas from other great moms!
Ready for this week’s MH? This is a good one!
Our topic this week is “Share YOUR Favorite Christmas Tradition”
Your Assignment This Week…
Tradition.
This is the time of year that we think about traditions. But, traditions vary with all of us. Traditions are the things that we can COUNT ON. Traditions are the things that MAKE the holidays, the holidays…Christmas, Christmas. Traditions bring security. Traditions forge close relationships. Traditions bring us HOME.
Usually traditions are little things that make our family, OUR family. It is OUR THING. My traditions are probably very different from your traditions.
Well, this week, let’s share our family traditions around Christmas. What is it that makes your Christmas special? What builds your family? What forges relationships? What are the THINGS that are essentials for your Christmas to be CHRISTMAS?
Share your family traditions. Give us a peek into your home and your family. I can’t wait to read these! Who knows…we might just find some great new traditions as we share with one another! ENJOY dear friends!
Love ya!
Cindy…who enjoyed some of our family traditions today!
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Deadline–Friday at midnight CST.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is eating crab legs on Christmas Eve as a family. We have crab legs, shrimp and ribs for dinner with sweet potatoes and a veggie. We all look forward to it every year. We do light looking around the neighborhood and at our local zoo too (they have over 1 million lights there), Christmas cookies, gingerbread houses, etc but our favorite tradition is still the crab legs together on Christmas Eve as a family! Our 7yr old ds and our 4 yr old dd start asking if we are having them on Thanksgiving every year! They love their seafood!
We have been reading the Arnold Ytreeide advent books the past few years as our daily devotion. The first year we read “Jotham’s Journey,” last year was “Tabitha’s Travels,” and this year we are reading “Bartholomew’s Passage.” We will probably return to “Jotham” next year.
These are wonderful stories to read as family devotions either to start the day or to end the day before going to bed. The author has divided the story into parts for each day of Advent together with a short devotion or reflection, has included an Advent calendar schedule at least to the year 2058 (so you can read this to your grandchildren, too), and offers other ideas to make your Advent preparations more rich and meaningful. While these are fictional, the stories are both suspenseful and true to the history of the time and region of Jesus’ birth.
These books have been very hard to locate recently as they were out of print (and some people have been asking exorbitant prices for them on eBay or other sites). However, I believe at least “Jotham” has been re-released this year. ChristianBook.com has “Jotham’s Journey” listed on their website for $6.99 plus s/h (http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=441745&netp_id=533620&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW&view=covers).
My family Christmas tradition goes back to my mother’s childhood days and she has passed it along. I remember going to my grandfather’s home on Christmas Eve as a child and eating ham dinner and opening gifts there. My mother says she did the same as a child at her grandparents’ home.
Now, we gather at my mother’s home on Christmas Eve to eat a ham dinner buffet style (to accommodate the various schedules, of course). Each one empties his/her stocking and opens his/her presents from Nana, grandchildren first, as Nana watches. Then, as the schedules dictate, we go to our home church where we worship and listen to our children sing with their church choir. This year we will take my grandfather to my mother’s and then to church with us, too.
Thankfully, our children never woke up in the wee hours of the day to open their gifts!! We leisurely celebrate Christmas Day with my husband’s parents, eating brunch and opening our gifts before my husband goes off to work. Most Christmas Days my husband has to work since illness and injury do not respect holidays–hospitals/ERs are 24/7, you know!
Amy Zahniser
Our Christmas traditions are changing, somewhat. This year, each person is only getting 3 gifts from Dad & Mom. The kids are still giving gifts to each other, though. The one thing for me to feel like it is Christmas is (believe it or not) cleaning the house, and then decorating. I HAVE to have colored ornaments. I have tried to have one or two colored ornaments, but I need to have a ton of color to feel Christmas-y.
One really personal (not the rest of the family) Christmas thing for me is Flannel Sheets on my bed. I don’t really know why, but I don’t put the flannels on the bed before the last week of Advent, so Flannel Bedsheets feel Christmas-y to me. I have asked others in the family, and they don’t feel that way. (oh well)
We always make, decorate, and eat Christmas Sugar or Cut-out cookies. I am trying to do more Christmas Candy, but I haven’t found any that everyone likes.
Usually the Sunday before Christmas (which was today!) we take off and go to a place called “The Tippecanoe House”……lovely, lovely historical mansion that offers brunch on Sundays for a small fortune (which I had to budget for, but is worth every little shiny dime!) So this is what we do every year. We love it!!
The kiddos look forward to it, because it is sooooo fancy, expensive, and a little snooty!! So we dress up and use our bestest manners!! And it’s fun to see then grow up (age 14 & 11) and behave themselves!!
It’s a very historical house in the area…..the Studebakers lived there…..three floors of beautiful woodwork, pictures and cool history!
We had a blast!!
Then came home to frozen pipes. The Grace of God pour over me!! (that’s my prayer!!….so I won’t continue to have a fit!!)
Merry, Merry Christmas everyone!! Blessings & Peace!!
Mrs. Martin
*trapped in rural Indiana!
We have a few favorite things that we do each year right around Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we go to the candlelight service at church, then come home to hot chocolate, cookies, and the first gifts of the year — new, snuggly pj’s (sometimes slippers too). Everyone KNOWS the packages are pj’s but it’s still fun!
On Christmas morning, we have snowmen pancakes & ice cream for breakfast. It started out as just ice cream — we don’t really know why, I think one year dh got an ice cream maker as a gift and the kids convinced us to test it out. It’s grown as we started adding pancake snowmen with sausage arms and ice cream “snow” surrounding them. We usually have our one neighbor who is a single woman our age over for breakfast and to watch the kids open their gifts. My best friend often stops over with her two girls as well, they are farmers and it helps pass the time until Dad’s morning barn chores are done.
Just before noon, we head over to the in-laws for Christmas dinner. They invite my parents as well! When the kids were little we’d have birthday cake for baby Jesus, but she forgot the past couple of years. We open gifts, youngest to oldest, then everyone just hangs out and and relaxes. Various members of the extended family typically stop by later in the afternoon or evening. We nibble hors d’oevres and leftovers for supper and head home — usually about five minutes too late (ie. after someone has a too-tired, over-stimulated meltdown — now that’s one tradition I wouldn’t mind eliminating!!)
Oh, one other fun tradition we started last year is the “100 Inflatables Hunt”. We love to go out and enjoy all the light displays, but we’ve added a new twist — counting inflatables. Last year we drove until we’d seen 100 of those inflatable Christmas figures, then we stopped for hot chocolate (this year I might do it with thermoses) and headed home! But this year, I’ve seen so many I think we’re going to have to up it to 150 or even 200 or else we’ll be back in just a few minutes, there are probably close to 50 just in our little development! Silly, but fun!
Cari
I have so many favorite traditions and I’m sure they will continue to grow and expand as my family does. One favorite tradition is “What God Wants for Christmas” advent set from Family Life. I love the evangelistic message and the fact that it makes it easy for my preschoolers to understand.
Another favorite is the night we drive around to look at lights (including one local house that has several miles of Christmas decorations) then come back for homemade hot chocolate and cookies.
Our children are 3 and 8 months. Our son just started crawling, so tree decorations are sparse, but another favorite is getting our tree. We make a day out of it and our daughter has a blast getting to pick the tree and helping daddy.
On the 23rd we always have a wrapping party. More hot cocoa and homemade treats, often we will have snacks for dinner. We settle the kids down for Christmas movies which we all watch as we wrap the presents.
Another favorite tradition is reading Christmas stories. From Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus to Santa, Are you for Real?, to the Night Before Christmas we love to snuggle up and read our favorite Christmas stories for a few minutes daily as a break from the stresses of the holidays.
Julia
Every year, generally on Christmas Eve, we go for a ride to look at Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music on the radio. We like all the “oldies” – Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Elvis :0) This is one of the tradition’s dh loves most. I usually make hot chocolate and cookies to bring along. It gives us something to do that is quiet and still, and contained so that we can all talk, and enjoy the nigjht.
Our Christmas lights stay lit all night on Christmas Eve, and the candles in the window remain lit. (they are electric).
During our evening prayers, the candles of the Advent Wreath are lit for the last time, and we read the Christmas Story from the gospel of St. Luke.
One year we took our children to a friends house to the barn. We read the Christmas story in the barn among the animals and talked about what it would have been like for our Lord to have been born there!
We have worked over the years to spread our celebration out over the Advent/Christmas season, so Christmas morning is not the end, but the beginning of our Christmas. We always have homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast (they are said to remind us of Jesus in swaddling clothes) and we make the traditional big Christmas dinner. We open gifts in the morning and then go to Mass later in the morning.
We may start going to midnight Mass at some point in the future – but, for now my younger children can’t make it. And mom isn’t too cool after about 11pm either!
My childrren begin searcing for our wise men on Christmas day. They will journey around the house (to be found each day by my children) until January 6th (the Epiphany) when they arrive at our Nativity scene to present their gifts to the baby Jesus. My children get 3 gifts this day, too.
We sing the song “The 12 days of Christmas” and discuss the meanings attributed to it. We don’t care if it is legend or not, btw. We enjoy all things that lead is to Christ :0) Here are the meanings we use –
The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ and His Virgin Mother.
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.
Or the five decades of the Rosary.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed
Merry Christmas to all!
Trish Bevill
We LOVE celebrating Advent – and our favorite tradition is Christmas Eve, after we go to church, we come home and have the crockpot of soup that has been simmering, and then have a Birthday Cake for Jesus for dessert. Yes – we sing “Happy Birthday” and blow out candles, and then we wrap some toys that the kids have picked out for our local Children’s Hospital. I think it really helps them focus on others and distracts from some of the “gimmies” that tend to happen this time of year.
Then – everyone gets to open one present for themselves on Christmas Eve – and it’s always new pj’s for everyone that Mom has made. I search all year for the “perfect” flannel that matches their personality or current “obession” and it’s always a fun thing to look forward to when everyone sees what “jammies” they got this year. And of course – we spend most of Christmas Day in said jammies enjoying each other!
We have changed our celebration some the last several years. We start the celebrating the first Sunday after Thanksgiving with Advent. We do a family devotional (this year Jotham’s Journey), light the candles and discuss the point of each weeks candle. We do this nightly. Little Critter gets excited about lighting the candles. But we also celebrate Hanukkah for the last 6 or 7 years. So for the 8 days of Hanukkah, I cook traditional Hanukkah foods (lots of cheeses and sweets…and did I mention chocolate?!?!) , we do our Advent study, lighting and then light our Hanukkah candles, pray the blessings, sing songs, play games and eat chocolate gelt (coins). Such wonderful sweet memories we make each year doing this!!!!! On Christmas Eve, we go to Nana’s house and after a special Christmas dinner, we open gifts from family members then we go home. I usually go to a midnight Mass if there’s one here (used to always do that with my favorite Aunt, as a child) if none of the churches here have it I watch it on TV. I love the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah!!! Christmas morning, we light the Advent wreath candles so we can light the Jesus candle, eat a special breakfast (sometimes at Nana’s, sometimes at home) give gifts to Jesus (they’re kept in a box and usually put out with the Nativity scene each year ) then open stockings at Nana’s house. (And yes, even the adults all have stockings with goodies in them!Oh, and Jesus has a stocking for written gifts also.) After we finish visiting a little, we load up and leave town to drive the 6 hours to the in-laws house. We then spend about 4-5 days with Grandma (Grandpa died this past year) and all the cousins and aunts/uncles. We take the Hanukkah things with us and continue the celebration while at Grandma’s. All our gifts to family and friends are hand made and are made with prayers for that person and bathed in our love for that person. We watch many of the old Christmas specials on TV as we have time, and listen to lots of Christmas/Hanukkah music all day. It’s maybe a little eccentric, and a bit of a hodge podge of traditions. But we make some incredible memories, and it helps the focus to remain on Papa and His lavish gifts to us. Besides, I’m the first to admit we as a family are a bit eccentric! It’s what makes life exciting and fresh each day. I pray each of us will find ways to refocus the attention on Papa and His Son, Jesus….we all have SO much to be grateful for! Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to each of you. Shalom, Joie
Guess we’re sort of boring folks…our traditions have changed and morphed cuz of the kids getting older and depending on where we were living at the time….
One I fight for every year-even tho it is a lot of work and a big mess-is the roll out cookies that we make and frost every year. Some years we make more, some less, but everyone has to decorate a few. Then we have to make certain ones…and every year we get a goofy one that gets the “trophy” for being the ugliest or strangest. Last year, we used up some pumpkin sprinkles and so my son’s Santa cookie looked like he had braces and was a bit scary, this year my angel cookie started out with red jimmie lips and when a white sprinkle ball fell right on top of them, while I was placing in the eyeballs, it looked like teeth-so of course, I added a couple more and then the angel had a pearly mouthful. That and ugly brown jimmie hair and odd looking blue jimmie praying hands. Ultimately, we get our giggles and make a few more memories.
Another one is that we try to give the kids a small Nativity set every year (dollar store finds) just to remind them visually and also to give them some decorations for their homesteads (someday).
My must have traditions, the rest is purely cream and cherries on top.
Merry Christmas-
Sheri Hagemann
Well I have many Christmas Traditions. I will share our not so typical one with you.
My husband is in retail and works very late the week before Christmas. Our stores here stay open until 12am Christmas morning! So, as you can imagine I don’t see much of my honey love around this time of year. On chirstmas eve my sister and mom come over (their hubbys also work late) and we usually watch a great Christmas movie together with all the kids. Then everyone goes home and I put the kids to bed. I then take a nap on the couch and wait for my husband to get home, very early Christmas morning. I always have a plate of cookies and hot coco waiting. We then sit up for a while and enjoy our quiet early Christmas morning together. It is such a special time and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Bahama Blessings
Heidi Jo
Our favorite Christmas tradition is to read Luke 2:1-20 together before we do any presents or breakfast on Christmas morning. The rest of the day is family oriented.
When I was first born, my mother started getting me an ornament every year for Christmas. It was always the only gift we opened on Christmas Eve after we got home from church. In addition, my mother kept a list of every ornament I received and who I got them from. She added to the list every year. (She stored it with the Christmas ornaments.) Then when got married and moved out, she gave me all the ornaments and the list. They are a beautiful reminder of all the people who have touched my life over the years.
Merry Christmas!
Heather Bice (hknisley)
Our favorite Christmas tradition is making Gingerbread houses with the kids. Everyone eats way too much candy in the process and we make a big mess but it is sooooo fun! This year dear hubby made up a few house frames ahead of time so it wouldn’t be so stressful, then the older kids built their own houses. My 11 year old even built a 2 story gingerbread house. Then we actually eat them a day or two later.
Lori Duncan
One of the many things we like to do is make candies together. We have made truffles, buckeyes, hard tack, dipped prezels, butterfinger balls ect. We have lots of favorite recipes but I also like to try at least one new candy recipe each year so we are trying Martha Washington’s for Christmas 2008.
I like making candies with the kids because when they were younger they would get tired of waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven and go play and I would loose my helpers that doesn’t happen with the candy.
Martha Washington’s
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1-pound package powdered sugar
2 7-ounce cans sweetened flaked coconut
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 cup maraschino cherries, well drained and finely chopped
20 ounces dark chocolate candy coating
4 ounces baking chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and milk. Gradually add the powdered sugar, blending until smooth. Stir in the coconut, pecans and cherries. Cover and chill 2 hours or until firm.
Line 2 baking sheets with waxed paper. Shape the mixture into balls ¾ inch in diameter. Place balls on the lined baking sheet. Cover and chill 1 hour or more.
Cover a large countertop area with waxed paper. In the top pan of a double boiler over hot but not boiling water, melt the candy coating and chocolate together, stirring until smooth. Using a toothpick, fork or dipping tool, dip each ball into the melted chocolate until coated. Drop onto the waxed paper. Let stand until the chocolate is firm. Store in an airtight container.
My favorite Christmas tradition as a child was going to the tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. We haven’t done this with our boys yet because we don’t live close enough to any tree farms, but we’re hoping to start next year, even if we have to drive several hours each way.
One thing we have done for the past several years is have oven French toast for Christmas breakfast… I make it the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight, then take it out and leave it on the counter while we open presents. Then pop it in the oven for a few minutes and presto, we have a quick easy breakfast.
We also do the driving around to look at all the Christmas lights. This year we will be adding a drive past our local marina so the boys can see the decorated sail boats.
For extended family get-togethers we have done a silly gift exchange. Someone chooses a letter of the alphabet and everyone brings one gift that starts with that letter and we draw numbers out of a hat to see who gets to choose first. For example, last year the letter was E, and the gifts included Embellishments for a scrapbook, an Eastern European guidebook, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, etc.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Terri Griffin
Well my favorite one use to be putting up the tree and decorating the house Thanksgiving night. This year that went out the window. My husband declared no tree. He relented and let our 12 year old have a 2 foot tree for her ornaments. Hopefully we will be in a bigger place and can have a tree. Anyway, I pulled out all of the garland and strung it up everywhere. I then put ornaments all over it.
There is one tradition that my niece and I do together every year though. We set up my village and decorate it for Christmas and Hanukkah. We then make cookies and candies. We deliver them to our friends and the office workers here.
The last thing we do is wait up Christmas eve for my husband to get home at midnight and we open all of our gifts. Then everyone heads off to bed. Around 9:30 Christmas morning I get up and make breakfast for everyone. My husband leaves at 11 for work and doesn’t come home again until midnight. So the kids and I will make Christmas dinner and watch movies all day.
Blessings and Shalom,
Lisa Robinson
My husband and I actually started on our “traditions” the year before we were married. His brother gave us a big fake tree that didn’t fit in his apartment and Monday after Thanksgiving we spent the evening putting it up. We actually changed that later on and started putting it up on Thanksgiving Day.
Each year we bought a piece of the manger scene until we had purchased the whole set. Alas the year we finished the set, someone came during the night and stole the whole set, plus all the lights we had up. So the past couple of years we have put up a small cheap set that only has the manger and Mary and Joseph, but we are hoping to start working on getting a nice set again next year.
I try to have most of my hand projects finished by Thanksgiving, but with kids that is hard to always be able to do. We have a rule in our Christmas giving that the kids receive only one toy from us. Otherwise, it is clothes or something that they really need.
We wanted to make Christmas more special to our daughter and new son 6 years ago so I asked for my sisters help and she made us a count down scene that we put something on it (figures all different Precious Moments characters) and then Christmas morning we put the picture of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in the middle. The kids love this and can hardly wait to start it the first day of Dec.
It is always a tradition to make paper chains and hang them from the ceiling. This makes the things brighter in the house. The Christmas cards are strung up as they come in on a line that we have strung at the top of the wall in the living room. It is so much fun to see all the different ones we get.
Since we have had kids we have switched from breakable ornaments to plastic ones. This year we decided for the fun of it we would use our lights and balls and garland but the rest of the tree ornaments would be homemade ones. We have cookie cut outs that are painted and have glitter on them, sleds made from popsicle sticks that is painted and also has glitter on them, we also have a homemade snowman.
On our entertainment center we have the manger scene that my mother made for each of the family members. The outfits are all out of something that has been special to us in someway or another. Baby Jesus is wrapped in a piece of material that was from my wedding dress. She hasn’t made the angel for all of us yet, but the outfit for the angel is also out of my material.
My husband has to work until noon on Christmas Eve so our house is busy as a bee getting everything cleaned up so when Daddy comes home from work we can eat, put the dirty stuff up and then sit down to hear the Christmas story in Luke. Now that Abigail is reading, she is the one that reads it.
Then comes my favorite part! I always make a birthday cake for Jesus. This year it has been requested that we have brownies instead of cake but it will be decorated special for Jesus. We sing “Happy Birthday” then sit down to listen to the carols and eat. Then comes the opening of our gifts. It is a custom that was started in my family years ago that we start at the youngest and go to the oldest one present at a time. This way we all can see what each person has received.
Christmas Day we spend it as a family and usually eat ham and fixings. Then that evening we drive around the city and country side to see all the pretty lights. Our favorites is the ones with the manger scenes and we always make sure to go back to those every year.
The weekend after Christmas we get together with my husbands family to celebrate. The weekend after New Years we get together with my family. The big tradition there is that my mother always reads a special Christmas story and all the grandkids do something that they have prepared special for this event.
My favorite part of Christmas is drawing closer together as a family, the Christmas songs and of course the lights. But it always reminds me how special that first Christmas night must have been to those that saw the new babe in the manger. One day He is coming again but as the KING not a babe.
May each of you have a blessed Christmas and hold the memories tight that you make. We never know who might be missing next year from our units, so let’s make this year special.
Merry CHRISTmas,
Orilla Crider
We have several traditions similar to those already mentioned above, but we also have a different one that I will share.
My mil paints ornaments to sell, and so every year since my firstborn was about 2, she has invited my girls over to paint their own ornaments. It’s so fun each year to put them on the tree and see the progression. I was a little worried that they wouldn’t get to do it this year because my mil had foot surgery at the beginning of the month, but she’s doing very well, and today they were able to go and paint. Their ornaments turned out so well! My 10 yo painted a cute little cardinal and my 6yo painted a snow globe with a snowman inside. So cute!
We started this when our oldest was the onliest and littlest. We prepare our Christmas dinner on the Eve and try to invite a family that is without family in the area for the holiday to join us. This is because we have almost always lived far from our extended family, making it difficult to travel in the winter. We always have a wonderful evening.
Then on Christmas day we let the children open their stockings first thing, we prepare a yummy breakfast (especially sausage gravy), then slowing open gifts throughout the entire day. Eat leftovers and just enjoy ourselves together. It is really wonderful to have the entire day to be together with no other agenda but celebrate and share.
Good morning dearies!
These are all SO awesome! Thanks for sharing your family with us (if you haven’t shared, jump in!). I thought that I would jump in and share a few of our traditions. Traditions are sometimes very little things, but they are things that we can always count on. They are the things that bring our children back home. This is my first Christmas where my grown son came back home for Christmas. Traditions mean A LOT to us this year. Here are a few of ours:
–> Our Trek to the Gaylord. Every year we go to the Gaylord Opryland and take Christmas pictures for the year. We leave out after church and head up for an afternoon and evening there at the Gaylord. It is stunning this time of year. It is the perfect background for special pictures. See our pictures at Facebook. Here they are:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78126&l=17be4&id=780216339
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78133&l=75394&id=780216339
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78138&l=2afe1&id=780216339
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78458&l=68f34&id=780216339
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78462&l=21b74&id=780216339
After the Gaylord, we go out to a nice, nice dinner. It is always a fun family time. This is MY GIFT for Christmas every year. 🙂
–> Get and decorate our tree. We get a live tree every year. We plan a family day to get the tree and decorate it. Afterwards, we enjoy movies and yummy food.
–> Christmas Music! I love Christmas music soooo much! It is the only thing that I play in my car this time of year. It is also the only music I play around the house this time of year. It just brings a sweet, sweet spirit to my house. If you tuned in to our family videos, you would hear Christmas music in the background of all of them
–> Dip Night! Every year we plan to have a Dip Night. For this, we make all of our favorite dips (foods and desserts). We put them all out on the bar and everyone digs in! We follow that with movies and family cuddles. A relaxing, yummy night!
–> Daddy Breakfast! Dad gets up and cooks for the whole crew. While I am typing, he is making omelets, biscuits, and other yummies. REAL NICE! I have a lot of cooking ahead today. I love when someone else cooks for me! 🙂
–> Cookies! We make cookies for munchies and for gifts. My crew counts on the same ones every year. It just is not Christmas without them. I suspect that these will be MUSTS as they begin their own families.
–> Ride and look at the lights. At Thanksgiving, we pile in the car and take our first ride to look at lights. This year, we waited until Saturday night when Matthew got in from NC. We also ride to look at the lights on Christmas Eve every year. After we ride and look at lights, we come home and have snacks and egg nog. We also watch movies.
–> Christmas movies! We watch the same movies and try to add new movies every year. Our favorites become part of our MUST list. We like kicking back, cuddling up, and enjoying movie time.
–> Thanksgiving and Christmas Lunch! I make the full banquet of goodies. Here are some of our family favorites for you to print out and enjoy:
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/HolidayMenu.pdf
–> Out to the Movies! Every Thanksgiving and Christmas Day the big thing around here is to go to a movie at the theatre. We see EVERYONE we know. I love movies, but it is even more fun going in and leaving. We see so many people that we don’t see all year long. It is a THING around here!
Well, those are a few of our favorites. We do many other things every year. Just little things. But, we can always count on them to be part of our holiday season. Now it is time to get dressed and get going on a big, big day! It is Christmas Eve!!! WOoohooo!
Merry, merry CHRISTmas!
Love,
Cindy
Our Christmas traditions include:
Always reading a Christmas or special read aloud for the month of December. We are reading Tabitha’s Travels this year.
Having a snack night on Christmas eve and letting the kids open their stocking presents.
We always go to a candlelight church service on Christmas eve, also.
Christmas morning always includes a special breakfast. This year my husbands mom made us a homemade Kuchen.
We always go and get our live Christmas tree on the weekend of Thanksgiving and all the kids help decorate. We get a tree permit to go out in the hills and always have cut our own. Husbands job is to put the lights on it. The tree stays up until after Christmas then.
These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.
Merry Christmas everyone….Julie Bertsch
One thing we do every year is to light a candle for Jesus’ birthday at dessert time and sing Happy Birthday and Silent Night together as a family around the table with the lights in the room all out.
OH, this is so neat to read about all these traditions! And to see that I actually “know” some of you! Wow, I’m so glad I met Cindy this year; what a blessing!
I didn’t think we had many traditions until I was reading and thinking “we do that” and “Grandma does that.” So…
We participate in our community “Live Nativity” at the Courthouse. Except this year ;-( because it was just TOO cold!
I agree with whoever said “Cleaning then decorating.” I may not do Spring cleaning, but I really get motivated to clean before we decorate.
Decorating the tree: Daddy hauls up the boxes from the basement, and I pull out the ornaments. The kids basically stand around me and wait for “their” ornaments to hang on the tree – that is, ornaments the grandparents or we have given to them. I’m still looking for the “perfect garland” so we have freshly made paper chains and/or strung popcorn & cranberries each year.
We have a candy-making day at Grandma Hull’s. She has one Friday night where the grandsons all come over, then another Friday night where the granddaughters come, for Christmas movies, spending the night and a special dinner and breakfast.
The kids and I do some special food project. In the past it’s been cut-out sugar cookies with frosting and gingerbread houses and trains. This year we’ve had a baking day where I sat out all the ingredients and they took turns picking the main ingredient (chocolate, butterscotch and peanut butter chips; Crixpix cereal and graham crackers; cocoa, peanut butter, and sweetened condensed milk; nuts and coconut) for their dessert, as most are too young to read to pick their own recipe!
On Christmas Eve we go to church, but not for a “service.” Each family goes in individually to pray and take communion with our Pastor and his wife. It is really a special time. But again, canceled this year due to weather ;-(
Christmas morning at home with the kids! We have our Baked Peach French Toast for breakfast, read the Christmas story out of Luke, then open gifts. Then to Grandparent Hull’s to celebrate and to Great Grandma’s.
We always do the “other grandparents” after Christmas, so it’s not so busy. That’s my mom, and she takes the kids for the day and makes treats with them. We always take shrimp cocktail to their house.
Be blessed,
Danielle Hull
Hello Ladies and Merry Christmas!
I am just getting to this now that my precious children are in bed. Our favorite Christmas Tradition is Christmas morning when we all gather on our bed (the parents’ bed) and read the Christmas story from Luke and pray before we open our stockings. This year we decided to add Christmas hymns into the story where they were appropriate. This allowed more participation from my girls and they seemed to love this. They didn’t even mind waiting to open their stockings.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed celebrating the Savior’s birth with your families.
Thank you all for sharing and may you all be blessed this wonderful Christmas season.
In His Abounding Grace,
Jeniver Boyer
We have been reading Tabitha’s Travels this year too. In fact, I think we read it last year, but Hannah likes it so much so wanted it again. She’s 16 and says she’s going to name her daughter Tabitha one day. 🙂
We have some good friends from church who we always get together with right before Christmas. We spent last Saturday night with them over here for dinner and fellowship and on Tuesday we went to their house along with many people from our church. The kids played and had the best time while the adults talk and play games. That time together really helps our relationships with one another and we don’t have our family near so our church friends have become our family.
On Christmas Eve we make eggnog shakes and hot cocoa for me and go riding around looking at lights. Then we come home and open one present and that’s the one from my mom. I opened my grandma’s gift when I was little and so do my kids. I’m sure they’ll carry on that tradition too! Then we call their cousin and wish her a happy birthday. She just turned 18 and didn’t answer her phone so we left her a voice mail of all 6 of us singing happy birthday to her. She let me know on facebook today how much she enjoyed that! Then the kids all go to sleep in one room together. They love that time of anticipation and giggling late into the night. Apparently Becca (who is 12) was up half the night and at 4:00 she told Hannah they only had 5 hours til they got to open their presents. Hannah told her to go back to sleep. 🙂 I heard Becca singing a christmas song outside our room just before 9:00. We open the presents one at a time from youngest to oldest til the kids are all done then Don and I open ours. Then we started our big ham dinner, watched some new movies and talked with family and friends who live far away. Don had the kids help him clean up the kitchen afterwards since I did most of the cooking.
It’s hard to be in a warm climate without the snow we’re used to at this time of year. Our family said it was snowing back home in Wisconsin. Our kids were all in shorts and even wanted the a/c on but by this evening it was so nice to sit on the deck with the Christmas lights on and chat on the phone.
It was a beautiful and relaxing day. Now everyone is sleeping and going to go shopping with their dad in the morning and get wrapping paper and other goodies for next year! Sometimes just Don and I will go and have breakfast afterwards but not this year. I have been too busy and just want some time at home. Don will be home for the next 3 days so we’ll have alot of family time.
Katie Anderson
Our Christmas tradtions – We begin our Christmas decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Then, stop our regular “school” lessons after the first week in December. Then, we begin our great read-alouds-we love the stories in “Christmas in My Heart” by Joe Wheeler. I have a list of great Christmas literature that my children read from during the month, they also began a “Christmas/Holiday Recipe Notebook” this year, which they can add to. We are always involved in the Christmas program/dance in our church each year, which keeps us busy-then, when that is over, we settle down to baking breads, cookies, etc., while listening to Christmas carols (and singing along), great reading, etc. On Christmas Eve, we have a dinner of lasagna (my husband’s family has strong Italian roots). Then, we watch an old classic Christmas movie as a family (It’s A Wonderful Life, or one of the oldies-this year we did something different and watched “The Nativity Story”), and then we read the Christmas Story (usually from Luke). My husband and I like to exchange gifts from each other after the kids are in bed, so we have that time alone. On Christmas, we begin with opening the gifts, then always a breakfast of country ham, eggs,and biscuits. Then, we go off to visit our family for the afternoon, and then come home to crash and enjoy our own family again.
We started a tradition last year with the children. To emphasize giving over receiving they became secret angels to each other. For the week before Christmas they did things secretly for each other, do a chore for their person, give them a card or small gift. I limited the gifts to two during the week. On Christmas eve they then receive their gift from their secret angel and find out who it was. THe kids love to sneak around doing for each other, although the 4 year old hasn’t really figured out to keep it secret yet 🙂
We have been reading Jotham’s Journey this year (we had Bartholomew’s passage a couple year’s ago, but the books went out of print and we couldn’t get the other two – the children love to listen to the stories).
I have really enjoyed reading the posts this week with all the holiday traditions ideas! One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking and decorating cookies, my mom did this for us and until I started with my children I never realized the mess and work! But, as a child I remember it was fun! So I hope to continue this tradtion. Another tradition we have is decorating our tree and home on or before Thanksgiving! My husband loves Christmas and decorating so he perks up this time of year and can’t wait to get started! As for tree decorations, we have a large, rough and metal, ugly looking nail tied with a ribbon. We put this on our tree and it is a reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us, he was the supreme sacrifice, he took our place! My hope for years to come is that my children always remember and know the true meaning of Christ’s birth, this time of year we celebrate the birth of our Savior and no matter what traditions we keep or what new things we add, I pray in the future our celebrations would be all about HIm!
Tina Ketchens
Our two favorite traditions are:
1. We go out the week before Christmas, get milk shakes and drive around looking at Christmas lights. Our kids ask when we are going to do this every year. this year we added french fries. They are good dipped in the milk shakes. He he.
2. On Christmas eve we fix all kinds of snack foods and treats and just munch all evening. We might read stories, play games, listen to music, or just talk. We just enjoy being together. We usually let the kids hand out the gifts they got for each other. They look forward to giving the gifts they buy themselves soooo much.
Blessings!
Kelley
Hi Ladies,
Our Christmas traditions start the day after Thanksgiving and culminate Christmas Day.
I begin by reading `Little House Christmas Chapters` to the boys.
This year I included the winter chapters, too.
Then I add some other favorite Christmas books.
(ex.) (1) `The Little Spider` By: Sigmund Brouwer
Next, we add a few fav. Christmas movies:
(ex.)
`Nestor`
`Original- Miracle on 34th Street`
We also bake cookies for a cookie exchange.
Christmas Eve (we):
go to our church’s Candlelight Service.
Dad reads the Bible (from Matthew)
The boys open one present.
One boy acts as `Santa` and helps put the gifts out.
Christmas Morning We have always had breakfast first.
Then we begin opening presents.
With everyone watching the person opening their gifts.
We start with the youngest & work up.
We started this when the boys were wee little.
Found it much easier and less stressful.
Since the youngest one tend to wear down fast they go first.
Now that they are teens we still continue the tradition.
Instead of making it an `all about Me` issue. We cheer on each other as we patiently sit and watch the presents being opened.
Once the presents are opened, since we have already eaten, we are free to enjoy what we got til the big meal of the day is ready.
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating our LORD & Savior Christ Jesus.
Blessings,
Michelle Fitzgerald
Hi everyone,
It’s been fun reading everyone’s traditions. All our traditions changed these past 2 Christmas’s as we have moved 1200 miles from our families. This Christmas was extra special to us as our 9yr old son who is in remission from Luekemia was home for Christmas. He had been in the hopital or ER 14 days out of 19 days.
One of our traditions is decorating the aprtment the weekend of Thanksgiving. My mom sends our son an ornament every year and he gets that on Thanksgiving. Up until we moved mom also gave us a new piece to our village. Because of the lack of room in our aprtment we haven’t been able to put it up so I was able to put up a smaller one on my grandma’s buffet that I was given.
We also love making roll out cookies, so inbetween hospital stays we got 2 batches made and even got them frosted.
We look forward to starting even more traditions with our son as we settle into our new city and state.
Happy New Year!!
Barb
When my middle son was 23 mo old, we spent Christmas in the hospital….well, he was released on Christmas day. We went to my mother in law’s house on our way home because all of the family was there and we had always gone. That was the last year we did that. The next year, we started our own tradition of staying home on Christmas day and enjoying the time with our children. We go to the in laws on the 23rd, my family on the 24th and the 25th is a day of relaxing at home. Everyone knows that they are welcome to stop by and visit. We don’t ban company! We just really enjoy staying home that day.
This year, our traditions changed a little again….on Christmas Eve, after we got home from the family get together, we stayed up late and watched a movie. The kids all slept in the living room and didn’t wake up till 9. We opened gifts and then ate some snacks before nana stopped by. On Friday, we (all 5 of us) went to the after Christmas sales using the gift cards they got from family and then went to see a movie. My kids said that this was the “best Christmas ever” …which we think is amazing since our finances were not good with dad’s business closing. It just goes to show that when you make great memories, they will appreciate that more than the items that they receive.