As a child, we had several Christmas traditions that I loved.
*making a garland with popcorn and cranberries
*candlelight Christmas Eve services at church
*The Brenda Lee Christmas Album
*decorating the tree as a family
*baking cookies with mom
*Christmas Eve dinner (one time my parents did an appetizer theme and we thought we were hot stuff)
*opening one present on Christmas Eve
Now I am the parent.
Yikes.
I am a parent.
Is that not the weirdest thing ever?
And not just of one.
Four!
That's insane.
I am really getting close to the ripe old age of 30.
How ridiculous is that?
And I still have acne.
Has the world gone mad?
Four kids . . . what were we not thinking?
I kid!
I jest!
Calm down.
I love them with all my heart.
Here's my quandary for the day:
Am I doing a good job as a parent making Christmas special?
Not with presents.
But am I doing a good job making my own traditions?
And am I showing them consistently throughout the season the true meaning of Christmas?
I was wondering . . . if it wouldn't be too much trouble . . .
Could you let me know some of your favorite traditions or memories of Christmastime?
FYI: I might steal them.
Thank you.
We too have a Christmas Eve dinner of all appetizers. There's no sense in making a big ol' dinner two nights in a row. That's a lot of work...and dishes. When we were kids we used to get new jammies to wear on Christmas Eve and a new ornament every year. I always got an angel, my mom a snowman, my older brother a santa, and my younger brother a nutcracker. My dad just got whatever we thought he wouldn't hate. We also took one night, the week of Christmas usually, to drive around and look at all the Christmas lights. Other traditions: gingerbread houses, reading the story of the birth of Christ, watching It's A Wonderful Life, hiding smaller presents in the tree, etc. You know...this is getting lengthy...maybe I'll just go blog about this as well. Thanks for the topic! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a superb post! Your wonderful appreciation of Christmas and preservation of your traditions is inspiring. You asked for sharing traditions - my human has a couple unique ones. One Christmas eve he jogged around the house with bells on as his wife put the kids to sleep. Several neighbors heard "Santa pass," and asked him to circle their houses which of course he did. He children carry on the tradition. The other is that his children were always allowed to pick out one toy at a store and take it to a place that Santa could pick it up for kids that might get forgotten otherwise. They did it all- bought it, wrapped it, dropped it off. Visit me at www.sandysays1.wordpress.com for a canines' view of Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI just love Christmas traditions. I really do. We always went to cut down our own tree and we had this little song we made up that we just haaaadddd to sing when we found the "one". (Me and my brother and sister) We also got to open one present on Christmas Eve (heyyy we're the same!) and we opened stockings first on Christmas morning. When we were little kids my mom would make cinnamon sugar toast and hot cocoa for breakfast Christmas morning, too. One of my best friends growing up--Santa :) would bring their stockings upstairs and put them at the foot of their beds and they got to open them first thing when they woke up. Another friend of mine--their mother took all of the baby Jesus' out of the nativity scenes until Christmas eve night after church and she and her siblings would go around the house singing "Silent Night" and putting each baby Jesus in its respective manger. :)
ReplyDeleteTaylor- I LOVE Christmas traditions! We always put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, make "ginger houses", decorate cookies with Aunt Danna, go on the Santa cruise, go for a walk looking at lights in the neighborhood (or a drive, but a walk is better), the kiddo's always get to open one present Christmas Eve (it's always pajama's) and hangout w/ both sides of the family. Our newest tradition, just released last Christamas , is the kids acting out the Christamas Story. My Aunt made costumes and I inherited them- it is really sweet...however, I did have to pay Christian a $1.00 this year to wear his wiseman costume in Reader's Theater soooo...... For the last two years we have gone sledding on Christmas Day. This year I am copying your mom's family tradition and taking the kiddo's to see a movie Christmas night. Whew..... My poor, poor kids....their mom is crazy!
ReplyDeletelove the pictures through the years!
ReplyDeletewe always have a book and new pair of pj's for the kids on Christmas Eve. always eat cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. always go to a Christmas Eve service. that's about it - can't wait to get more ideas through the years!
Our Christmas traditions are still being established :) and probably will for many years to come. Some silly, some not:
ReplyDeletepop tarts for breakfast ~ a Freeman family tradition that Jason insists upon each year.
the kids may open stockings after they get up and then play with said treasures until daddy finally wants to get up.
One thing we have done the past two years, is a set called "What God wants for Christmas" on the 7 days leading up to Christmas (or however your family wants to use it) you open a gift and read a little poem. The gifts are all pieces of the nativity until the last day, which is a mirror, indicating that God wants YOU!.
New this year, the older kids have written on and index card something that they are giving as a gift of worship to God. It is wrapped and under/on the tree as we speak. I'm not sure what they wrote, but we talked about how the wise men gave gifts but the Bible also says they worshiped. We talked about how we can woship through praise and song, through obedience, through using our bodies as tools for righteousness... then they were to write down what their Gift to God would be, and they can open it on Christmas as a reminder. I imagine them hanging the cards on their magnet boards after opening them, to keep a visual reminder.
One of my family's Christmas Traditions that we have carried on with our kids is camping out in front of the Christmas tree. We pick a day (usually the week before christmas) and we make all kinds of goodies and snacks, then we watch Christmas movies until late and the whole family sleeps in front of the tree! The kids love it, and look forward to it every year.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget Dad taking all of us (not Mom) to the Christmas tree lot and bringing home the tree. It was always really cold and there was always a fire in a huge drum. That made it all the more special. I remember the night we were finished & I used to stay up just to watch how beautiful the lights were when all the lights of the house were off. Then when I had my own child, we always left Santa a hot dog and a Coke because we figured he's be sick to death of cookies by then. Some years we went to Midnight Mass which was really special, but also I think my parents thought that perhaps the seven of us would sleep in a little later - no way. We always took hours to open presents from oldest to youngest one at a time, and still do.
ReplyDeleteOne of your readers reminded me that we too kept baby Jesus out of the manger until Christmas Day. One year Neil brought home from school a popsicle stick wreath and I still hang it on my door every year. Your mom gave Neil a darling Santa Christmas stocking that goes up without fail every year. One year, EB sent us a gorgeous nativity set, with rather large figures that she had hand painted beautifully, it had jewels and a house all the men and all the animals. But over the years different pieces would break but it was gorgeous. I'm sure all of us remember if fondly.
ReplyDeleteSorry, some more...The reason your mom always plays Brenda Lee is because my father loved Brenda Lee. Along with the very regimental marching Christmas songs by Mitch Miller, Brenda Lee was a staple. And Grandpa was always with us. Gee, this is sure making me miss my Dad. sigh
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas traditions, and now that I have a son, I was wondering about making our own traditions and keeping some of the same ones. One of my favorite traditions is the advent calendar. My Aunt Cheryl always sent me one, no matter what country she was living in each year. Most of the time the calendars had little chocolates in it, but I remember one year the calendar had wooden toys. My aunt STILL buys me one (just ate my chocolate), and I STILL love it! Another tradition is going to the EBC Christmas Eve service. I think I've gone forever... or it feels that way. Pastor's family and grandkids act out the nativity play, and I thought "how fun to have all those kids act out parts!". Craig's mom always gets a new ornament for him (now us) and Quinn each Christmas. My family always plays White Elephant after Christmas dinner. Have fun coming up with your own. I'll check back for new ideas too!
ReplyDeleteSuch nice fun things everyone does! I'm feeling like a failure mom, because we have slacked on the whole traditions thing out of laziness! But as a kid we always had great ones-and ones that still go on now! As many others have said, we open one gift Christmas Eve, and when I was a kid it was always slippers. For everyone. Fun, but very predictable. And we would sit around the tree with no other lights on in the house and just enjoy one another-always good memories! Every single year we got a new ornament with the year on it so we'd remember-love to look at them now. Christmas morning was always open stockings, eat cinnamon rolls/sticky buns(made from scratch of course), and then on to presents, which we had to open one at a time so we didn't miss anything. That is my favorite tradition of all--one present at a time, reveling in your turn to open a gift, and it takes a long time, so at 3 in the afternoon you're still in your pj's. Oh, man, now I can't WAIT for Christmas!!! Great post, I'm really enjoying all the comments, too!
ReplyDeleteI am loving all of these ideas! I am definitely going to use some.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all!
Keep them coming!
My favourite tradition that we as a family have created is decorating the dining room as though it were a birthday party. We use streamers and balloons in Christmas colours and make a big deal out of making a birthday cake for Jesus, which we bring out with a candle on Christmas eve, even though, technically, we're a day early. We sing Jesus Happy Birthday, blow out the candles and start opening presents, just like a proper Birthday celebration. I think I've just figured out tomorrow's new blog post. Thank you!
ReplyDeletePS My youngest is seven, every year just keeps getting easier and easier...but I still miss "parts" of those good o'l days
Hey there Taylor, one thing I remember is your grandpa reading the Christmas story to us (your dad, and uncles and aunts) from the Bible every Christmas eve.
ReplyDeleteone present on Christmas Eve (always jammies of some sort), hubs reads Twas the Night Before Christmas before we go to bed, we still write a letter to Santa to leave out with cookies (my kids are 19 and 21 and it is so fun to open our Christmas decorations every year and read the letters)...we read the Christmas story (the real one) on Christmas morning, we always take a photo of the kids sitting on the steps before they come in to see their gifts (they consider this sheer torture!), baking lots and lots of cookies together, making gingerbread houses (must have fruit stripe gum for shutters on the house)...these are a few...your family is adorable!
ReplyDeleteHave you really not blogged since the 18th? Wow. Is it possible that moms are too busy at Christmastime?
ReplyDeleteHmmm . . . I have been blogging everyday . . . wondering what's going on with Auntie Datenut's computer? :)
ReplyDeleteWeird.
Try just typing in my site again:
http://thelumberjackswife.wordpress.com