I love Christmas! And I love traditions. We didn't have a lot of traditions growing up, so I may have gone a little overboard with my kids. But I want them to remember these times and hopefully pass a few on to their own kids someday. What are your favorite Christmas traditions?
Here are a few of ours...
- On Christmas Eve we open one gift...always new pajamas for everyone.
- We also go to church Christmas Eve and read the book "A Tale of Three Trees" each year.
- We set out cookies and milk for Santa and usually a letter is written to Santa (when they are young enough).
- Each year we get the kids an ornament that is related to something in their life that year. I keep a little journal for each of the kids and write down the ornament and why it is significant. Then someday when they take their ornaments to their own home they can look back at the journal as they put their ornaments on their tree.
- When Harrison was little he always slept with us on Christmas Eve (so he wouldn't get up an peek...not that he would EVER do that). Clara is a better sleeper so she doesn't usually do this. Now she and Harrison let us know when they are awake and they have to wait at the top of the stairs until we tell them to come down.
- Santa fills the kids stockings. That's really the only credit Santa gets around here. We don't make a big deal out of him.
- Each of us gets only three gifts...since Jesus got gold, frankincense and myrrh. This simplifies Christmas and makes us really think about what we are giving.
- For the four of us, I wrap all our gifts in plain paper and paint on them for decoration. Usually I use brown mailing paper, but this year I used solid red and green. Harrison requested that I go back to the brown...he likes traditions. : )
- When Harrison was in kindergarten we started going to make a Christmas plate each year. And once Clara got a little bigger she started helping with the plate. Now I have a whole set of plates with the kids art on them for Christmas. This is one of our absolute favorite traditions! As soon as Thanksgiving dinner is done we get the Christmas plates down and use them everyday. It is so fun!
- The last couple of years we have gone caroling with our flock (small group) from church here on our street. This is one of my favorite things that I hope will continue for many years. I remember piling in the back of a pickup and going caroling as a kid. I'm glad my kids are making these memories with our sweet flock family.
- We always celebrate Christmas with some of our friends too. Last night we did the annual Merideth Christmas get together. The Merideths have been kind enough to welcome us into their family. And we always enjoy getting together and sharing a meal, opening gifts and usually playing Apples to Apples or some other game. We celebrate Christmas with the Ingles by mail now, since they moved to Texas. But we used to do the same thing with them when they lived here.
- Throughout the Christmas season we have an advent wreath on our dining room table. Each week we read the meaning of each candle and focus on God's gift of His precious Son. And on Christmas morning we read the Christmas story in the Bible and light the Christ candle.
- Of course, we have a stack of Christmas books that come out after Thanksgiving and we read those throughout the season. And we try to watch several Christmas movies throughout the month too.
- And last year, Joey the Elf joined our Christmas traditions. Joey is our Elf on The Shelf. And Clara is CRAZY about him! It is so fun to watch her try to find him each day. And I have caught her more than once just talking to Joey, telling her whole life story to him. This morning I heard her saying "I hope I'm on the nice list, I really try to be nice, but sometimes I'm not." So fun having a 6 year old in the house!
I've probably forgotten something. But those are most of our favorites that we have consistently done for years. Christmas (not "the holidays") is my favorite time of year. I love reading the story of Christ's birth in my quiet time over and over during this month. Seems like I pick up a little something new each year. What a blessing it is to have the freedom to worship God and celebrate Jesus not only at Christmas, but throughout the year. Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment