Christmas Traditions
"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white.'" -Bing Crosby
My mum always got or made my sisters and I ornaments over the years - one very special one each Christmas (and maybe two or three others) - with the thought that when we either moved out or got married our first tree wouldn’t be lonely or something we had to create ourselves. I have twenty-one or so precious ornaments in a box or displayed on my whiteboard from my mama that I keep for my first tree, and I love the simple theme of them and how she picked them to reflect my personality- they all tie together in a gold and white and pastels and whimsical harmony of sorts.
So. Three years ago, I started doing the same thing for my youngest sister and Alexandrea along with my mum. I want to continue the tradition for them, and it’s so fun to think that one day they’ll have a tree with everyone involved. And someday, I want to do it again for my own kidlets.
I spotted a few precious traditions from my friends and ladies at Delight & Be, and wanted to share them here.
"We don't decorate any part of our house for Christmas or play any Christmas music in our house until Christmas Eve. It makes Christmas Eve so special, we wake up early and start blasting Christmas music and spend the whole day transforming our house into a Christmas wonderland before we head to Church in the evening and then get Chinese take-out and bring it home and eat it on our fine china with our Christmas table cloth and Christmas candles everywhere. I have no idea how the Chinese for dinner first started, but we've been doing it for years and I can't picture Christmas Eve dinner as anything else." - Mary-Kate A.
"So ever since I was little we had this main rule of not eating, drinking or listening to anything that had to do with christmas before the 1st of December. And then on the morning of the 1st my parents would make a Christmas breakfast with Christmas cookies, eggs'n'bacon, newly baked bread, christmas soda, hot chocolate, nectarines, etc., with Christmas music on the speakers and Christmas decorations all set up. It's one of the things I look forward to the most when December comes around. We also had an activity calender counting down to the 24th (that's when we celebrate Christmas with presents and stuff) where, instead of getting a little thing, there would be an activity we were going to do - anything from going to the local swimming pool or aquarium to making Christmas candy or going shopping for presents. It was so much fun, and I intend to do the same concept with my own kids (when that day comes)." -Stine H.
"On Christmas Eve we all stay in our pajamas and mom makes all kinds of finger foods: sausage balls, veggie platter, ham and cheese baked crescent rolls, cheese, pickles, etc, and we watch Christmas movies ALL DAY and open a Christmas Eve present." - Megan N.
"So my mom started a tradition a few years ago where she goes to the Dollar Tree and picks out random stuff for each of us kids and gives it to us in a big box. It's so random but she puts thought into the randomness. Then last year I started the tradition with the kids I nanny where we get hot chocolate and cake pops and look at lights around town. And they love that!!" - Audrey B.
"Every year (for the past 7 years) our family has visited the same nursing home on Christmas Day. Our purpose is to bless people with Christmas music and, most importantly, to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ as a message of hope to these people who are at deaths door step. We especially love talking with them, individually, afterwards and I really enjoy getting to hear their stories of the past and learn from their life experiences. They have so much to share if one is simply willing to listen." -Ashley S.
Please chime in! & leave a note telling what yours are, too! I love Christmas stories, traditions, and ideas for new ones.