THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW, MONDAY, DECEMBER 14th.
Family traditions vary from home to home. Each family having their own unique way of celebrating the joy of the season. Growing up my dad always saved his last week of vacation for the time between Christmas and New Year's.What cherished memories of having dad around for a full week. The pond near our house was a special spot to go ice skating and upon our return home, mom always had hot chocolate and fresh warm cookies straight from the oven ready for us. Yummy! I've continued this tradition with my own family and always take the time off between Christmas and New Year's. It's a wonderful opportunity not to be scheduled and taking the time to go with the flow and enjoy what the day brings us with no set plans. Please share your family traditions. I'd love to hear all about them. You never know, your family traditions may become mine too. I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to enjoy the magic of the season.
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I look forward to hearing from you!
God bless you and your families during this holiday season and best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
My daughter and I love to put the Christmas tree up on December 1st (always!)
ReplyDeleteWe also love to hang around the house with loud and cheesy Christmas vests and socks.
My mom, sister, and I spend the weekend making a Slovenian sweet bread called poticia. It takes the entire day to make the yeast-bread stuffed with honey-sweetened walnuts. This is a traditional holiday favorite in the area I come from and there are few people who remember how to make it the old-fashioned way. We listen to Christmas music while we work and have dinner together afterward.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's favorite tradition is the advent calendar. Ours is a mini scavenger hunt every day. In the pocket of the advent calendar is a clue, to a hidden prize (something tiny). These clues have become more difficult as she gets older. When she was 2, I took pictures of things around the house, like the dryer and she had to find them that way. Now she has to solve math problems to get the clue to her prize.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is our Christmas Anthology. This is a big, beautiful book that Grandmaman gave to my daughter when she was 2. Every year we take it out and read one story a night.
Love your sharing of your family Christmas! When I was young, my parents, brother and I would trudge through the snow with a toboggan and pick out a tree the week before Christmas. And now my family does the same.
ReplyDeleteHi, Donna,
ReplyDeleteGreat newsletter as always. And even more so, considering your recent challenges.
Christmas traditions have changed for me. Now that I live in Chile (and have for the last 33 years), it is an issue of suntan lotion instead of roasted chestnuts! But one of the important things we do is to make sure our kids and grandkids at least get a feel of their roots, so Christmas is always celebrated on the 25th in the morning, with stockings and all, even though the whole rest of the country does so on Christmas Eve. It's the little things, so they don't forget from where they came. I could go on and on, but instead, Merry Christmas!
Since my mom was an English warbride, we always made miniture minced meat pies and English pudding. We made homemade decorations for the tree and placed our tinsel on one strand at a time. Then off to midnight mass and visiting with the Italian side of the family. We ate incredible food and danced in the living room.
ReplyDeleteHello one and all...I'm truly enjoying reading about your traditions. I'm getting hungry! Thanks for the reminder about the advent calendar (I've forgot to put ours out...better go do that right away.) Love the twist on it too.
ReplyDeleteI love toboggan's. We use to sleigh in the fields by our house. Unfortunately, the country day school sold off the land about 15 years ago and a developer built over 20 houses there.
Keep up the wonderful traditions, it will mean the world to your children when they get older.
Warmest regards,
Donna
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI started a tradition when my kids were young. I gave them a just-for-fun wrapped gift on Christmas Eve and said it was from the Christmas Eve Fairy. When they got a older, they gave me one too.
My daughter and I still exchange Christmas Eve Fairy gifts. :-)
I have to mention a gift my husband and I gave each other yesterday -- an 8 week old miniature dachshund! If you want to see a photo of a lovey three pound puppy, drop by my web site, www.MargieLawson.com, and scroll to the bottom of the Home page. You'll see two photos. She's the best gift ever!
Happy Holidays to Everyone!
My contribution to the family's holiday decorating traditions is to get the tree (with our grandson in recent years), put the lights on it, and then basically stay out of the way.
ReplyDeleteI do cook the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day meals---got to have some black-eye peas on New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year....
Margie and Bill...thanks for contributing today.
ReplyDeleteMargie love the idea of the Christmas Eve Fairy and you continue today.
Bill, my dad is very much the same as you. Make sure the tree gets put up and leaves the decorating to my mom and the grandchildren.
Warm regards,
Donna
Living in New Mexico, we like to put up luminarias along our sidewalk and driveway to light up the path for our friends to come to our front door. It's not just a southwestern tradition. When we lived in Centerville, Ohio, neighbors in Kettering would light up their entire street, a long way; providing an opportunity to see each other or meet each other for the first time. Materials for luminarias are easy: fill a paper lunch sack 1/4-1/2 full with sand. Press a 4" or taller candle in the middle of the sand. Set your luminarias out, then light them with a long-nosed lighter. The effect is magical, sure to warm hearts. Or, you could try what my husband calls "electrolitos!" Same principle, but these get plugged in!
ReplyDeleteYour blog and newsletters are so inspiring and I love reading about the traditions others share. We have always had a cookie baking day with my grandma, then my mom, and now that I am the grandma I share it with my grandkids too. It is messy but so much fun. Have a wonderful holiday season, no matter what the tradition.
ReplyDeleteYears ago we began making a tree skirt. We made it out of green felt. On the first year, we outlined our right hand print on red felt, cut it out, and wrote our name and the year. Each year, as the kids grew up, we updated their hand prints. Now, with one grandson, our tree skirt has one more little hand print to add, along with our son-in-law, and next year, another grandchild.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrate christmas eve by making traditional Haitian food which consists of: Fried pieces of well seasoned pork(griot),rice and beans, fried plantains, pate( well seasoned flaky pastry stuffed with ground beef)dumpling soup and green salad. For dessert we eat sweet potato pie. We prepare all the food before going to church, after church we eat and spend time around the table talking and at midnight we open gifts. Even though my husband is German, he simply loves Haitian food. We carry on the same tradition , I make traditional Haitian food christmas eve, and christmas day we spend time with his family.
ReplyDeleteI always remember two traditions the most. One was setting up our Nativity scene under the tree. It's sort of a contradiction I suppose that we used to fight over who got to set up baby Jesus and his manger. But that's kids for you, always wanting to get picked the most important job.
ReplyDeleteThe other tradition I loved was setting out cookies and milk for Santa. Even when I got old enough to suspect my Dad ate them, I still liked doing it!
My Christmas tradition is to write a Christmas poem which I send to friends and family. Also, to make sweet rolls in the bread machine for Christmas morning and special Christmas blend coffee.
ReplyDeleteThese are so much fun to read. For years, I've made sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees. When my sons were home, they decorated them with green frosting and sprinkles. They ate almost as many as they decorated, but that was okay. Then the grandkids took over the decorating. Now, with everying living so far apart, I guess I'll decorate this year. :)
ReplyDeleteBeverly
What great traditions. Our main tradition is making a chain bell to count the days from December 1 to Christmas Eve. The bell has a poem on it about how this time is the longest time of year. The bell we use is the one my family used when I was little.
ReplyDeleteThere are two traditions I always remember about Christmas as a child. The first one is setting up the Nativity scene under the tree. We would sometimes squabble about who got to put baby Jesus in the manger, all of us wanting what we thought was the most important job.
ReplyDeleteThe second tradition was putting out milk and cookies for Santa. Even when I was old enough to suspect it was my father who ate them, I still liked doing it.
Our favorite tradition was, after the spruce Christmas tree was finally decorated, we would pick up the smallest child in the family to our shoulders and she would put the angel on the top of the tree.
ReplyDeleteThis time of year I make homemade potato pacakes -- latkes. I tried to make a small batch of "healthy" latkes by baking instead of frying, but they tasted terrible! The verdict -- stick with tradition and splurge on Hanukkah!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy everyone, Happy Holidays!
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
www.LLLeibow.com
Hello one and all...everyone's traditions are wonderful and unique. I'm enjoying reading all about them. I truly appreciate you all sharing such intimate times with your loved ones. I'm honored.
ReplyDeleteWarmest regards,
Donna
Hi, Donna,
ReplyDeleteOne tradition we had when I was growing up - and one that I continued with my own children - was that on Christmas Eve, everyone would choose just one present from under the tree to unwrap.
Santa always came during the night, so his gifts were under the tree Christmas morning. But it calmed everyone down just a bit to be able to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Boy! You should have seen how everyone evaluated the gifts under the tree, trying to decide which one should be opened on Christmas Eve. Should it be the BIGGEST present? Should it be the smallest? The one from the favorite aunt, or the one from Grandma and Grandpa?
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, everyone!
Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer's Coach
http://www.workingwriterscoach.com
One tradition we do that my kids look forward to is hanging a string of "singing bell" lights across the ceiling in the living room. We have a wooden beam the whole way across, so years ago I put in small nails to string the lights across in a scallop pattern. The lights blink in rhythm to the song that's playing, although we usually turn off the music, which is nice at first, but can get on your nerves after a while. LOL
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to Donna and everyone! :o)
The holiday traditions keep pouring in. Thanks for sharing everyone.
ReplyDeleteWe all take turns saying what we're thankful for.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays,
J. Aday Kennedy
The Differently-Abled Writer
www.jadaykennedy.com
http://jadaykennedy.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/jadaykennedy.com
Coming this winter "Klutzy Kantor" picture book
http://klutzykantor.blogspot.com/
Great idea Donna. My husband also saves his vacation time for between Christmas and New Year's. It makes a big difference around here.
ReplyDeleteThe one family tradition that I carried over from when I grew up is singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus before opening up any gifts. I have several nativity scenes here, but I don't put Baby Jesus in the main one until Christmas morning, then the girls and I sing Happy Birthday, and we sit down together with Christmas music playing and open gifts.
Don't enter me in the giveaway, as I already own a copy of this book--and it is excellent!
Merry Christmas to you and your readers.
Cheryl
Hello...enjoyed reading the remaining entries. Love the idea of singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We too, don't put baby Jesus in the nativity until Christmas morning. Gratitude and saying your blessings out loud is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThe winner will be announced shortly.
Merry Christmas,
Donna