I don't know what it is, but I am so looking forward to the beautiful, warm, cozy, family-filled Christmas season. I can't wait to cut down our tree at the tree farm right after Thanksgiving, spend cozy days sitting around the roaring woodstove, listen to Christmas music without feeling like a total loser, gather with family and friends at our annual Stone Chapel Christmas service and enjoy watching the boys' wonder and excitement as they take in all the beauty of the Christmas season.
I actually started writing this post a few weeks ago, but figured you'd all really think I was nuts if I posted it before Halloween! Now that we've had our first snowfall, the temperatures are cold enough for us to run our woodstove day and night and the holiday decorations have already emerged in stores I feel somewhat more justified in my Christmas spirit.
I can't wait for this...
A few things that we enjoy doing with Camden and Micah are:
- Cut down our Christmas tree at a tree farm the weekend following Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it for as long as possible!
- We make a Birthday Cake for Jesus to help celebrate his birth.
- This year I am going to wrap each of our Christmas books up in wrapping paper and put them under the tree. Each evening in December the boys will unwrap one book that we will read before bed and then add to our Christmas book basket to continue to enjoy for the rest of the season.
- This year we're also hoping to talk more about Advent so if anyone has any special things they do around advent please share!
When I was a child, my parents let my sister and I have our own little Christmas tree upstairs in our room. We put the colored lights and all the ugly kid ornaments on that tree and LOVED it! Maybe we'll venture into that when the boys are a little older.
So, fill me in and leave a comment - What are you favorite or most special traditions? If I get some really good ideas I'll do another post in a couple of weeks sharing some of my favorites!
It's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow all of a sudden, but don't worry, nothing will dampen my Christmas spirit! :)
4 comments:
I'm ready, too!!! I've been wanting to start the tradition of unwrapping a book each day in my classroom, but I'm just too lazy to wrap all the books. Maybe I'll start it at home, instead. My kids love having their own little trees to decorate in their room, and then they get to keep their own ornaments on their own tree. We always make a special trip to Hallmark to pick out their own ornaments each year. Last year we went on our first Santa Express train ride, kind of like the Polar Express, and I think we are going to keep up that tradition. We also always go to Holiday Hoopla downtown to see Santa arrive in some special secret way (last year it was by helicopter and the years before he repelled off a roof and came in by train.) Now that Alex is getting old enough, I'm with you, it's a big time to make sure we have all of these traditions in place. Keep me updated on what new things you find, other than the typical decorating the gingerbread stuff and all that! --Heather
What a riot! Love your love of Christmas! :) I'll be thinking of ideas, but I do have two great books of traditions if you want to look through them...
My house may or may not be decorated for Christmas by the end of the week. I have a hankering for some Christmas too!!! My question for you is: what do you do for gifts for your boys? Do you get, like, one big gift and little gift for each? Or one gift for both and then individual gifts? I'm torn on what to do for my girls this year...I just want to buy them every toy that they see and play with!!!!!! :)
Traditions... I love them. Since I wasn't a Christian when Amber was little, we started out with Santa.
We went to a tree farm every year, took a horse drawn sleigh or wagon (depending on snow) to cut down our tree, had hot chocolate in the warming hut and brought it home. We decorated it while watching "It's a Wonderful Life." Every year, since Amber was a baby, I took their favorite toy or interest and made a tree ornament out of it. So, the first years were their favorite rattles, and it grew and changed as they did: necklaces, stethoscopes, toy baby bottles, book marks of that year's reading obsession, etc. We strung popcorn and cranberries for garland, so the birds had a treat when we took it out.
Each of us were required to make a thoughtful gift for each other, nothing store bought, although it was ok to buy the materials to make something. When Amber was six, she found a seashell at the beach in August and kept it hidden away and gave it to me for Christmas.<3 It didn't matter what it was, it just couldn't be store-bought, had to be something they thought the other would like, so had to be a thoughtful gift. We took care in doing our best, and wrapped it up carefully in old-timey types of paper with raffia for ribbons. On Christmas eve, we dressed up,turned off all the lights, lit a ton of candles, and read the Christmas story out of the Bible. Then we exchanged gifts and opened gifts from others. We went one at a time, experiencing the giving and sharing in each others' giving.
We anonymously sponsored a family every year, one that had crossed our path that year that seemed like they needed a little extra help at Christmas. A classmate's family, someone I worked with,etc, and we delivered a full Christmas with many gifts for each family member and Christmas dinner to their front porch very late at night on Christmas eve. It was actually scary, because we were so afraid of getting caught! No matter how young the kids were, they never, ever told.
On Christmas morning, Santa had come. He wraps absolutely everything and all in the same wrap, so when the kids go in the room, it is really magnificent! Santa is really in a hurry when he's wrapping, so paper is slapped on messily, which always gave the kids a giggle. They would wake me up, and were allowed to begin opening their stockings while I got up and out. They opened their presents all at once, and these would be store-bought.
I guess I feel ok about Santa, even as a Christian. It just turned out that way for me, but the kids experienced the joy in both giving and receiving anonymous gifts, and when they were older, they realized it was me and understood it in a more profound way. For instance, one year one of them picked the most expensive gift out of the toy catalogue to ask Santa for, even though she didn't necessarily want it all that bad. Somehow, Santa did always bring the most important gift. So, when she was older and remembered that, she had seen in me how to be a gracious giver, even when someone isn't a gracious receiver. A true gift doesn't require a thank you, or even an acknowledgement, it is given free and clear. And that got tied into the free gift of Salvation given by Christ. So, even before I knew Him at all, He was already providing a connection, a means of profound understanding to receive Salvation, At an age when the fantastical is replaced with the real, it provided a framework for them to receive Christ in a personal way. If not for that, I'm sure Jesus would have done it in another way, but that's how it was for us. They were unknowingly literally being Santa for another family, while they were the recipients of Santa.
We made a big Christmas dinner, sharing it with as much of our extended family as possible. And always made Christmas pies together a day or two before. A few years we did go caroling together. A few years we visited nursing homes on Christmas late afternoon. -Aundrea
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