We do not do a lot of TV in this house, so having a special 30 minutes of TV built up by daddy is VERY exciting. Last night it was Rudolph. Tonight it will be Frosty.
Other things we do:
- church, remembering to talk about the reason for the season - Baby Jesus's Birthday
- Oranges and peanuts in our stockings
- train table
- keeping pictures from our christmas cards each year and bringing them out to see how everyone has changed
- reading LOTS of christmas books
- singing christmas carrolls
- cutting down our tree
- decorating our tree
- baking cookies and breads
- making a Gingerbread house - from a kit, DUH
- Advent calendars together
- watching holiday classics
- christmas eve dinner at my parents
- christmas day at Doug's parents
And I heard this one last night that I want to add! Making oatmeal with lots of glitter, put it outside so the reindeer have a snack and they can see the sparkles from WAY up high and come eat it and maybe even "drop" one of their bells for us to find.
I am sure there are lots of things I am forgetting but what are some traditions in your house?
**Update regarding the orange in the stocking, I did a quick search and found this:
and this:
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4 comments:
I have a Jewish friend who would go around to friend's houses and jingle bells in the middle of the night - so little kids would THINK they heard Santa's sled! It was hilarious to hear my friend's little siblings talk about it. And I am curious about the oranges in stockings - Why?
We used to get oranges and apples in our stockings when we were little, too. I'm sorry to admit that I don't know who this Nicholas is...St. Nick??
We are beginning our family traditions. We (and I use that term very loosely) decorate our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We will always, always, always wake up in our own house on Christmas morning. We buy Reagan an ornament every year--the first one is a bib for his 1st Christmas, the second one is a beautiful dog one for his first word spoken (um, "dog"), his third one is a chicken because he loved his Little People chicken last year (named her Tallulah), and this year is a nice hot wheels car because he loves cars.
Whew.
Also, we try to get an ornament whenever we go on vacation.
I love having a tree where most of the ornaments mean something. I think there may be only 12 to 16 store bought ornaments...the rest mean something to us.
We do the Christmas classics - I got the DVD's this year. Last year we watched Santa go around the world, we left cookies and a letter from Regan with a letter back to her from Santa! My mom shared some of the ornaments that I made as a child so I have those. I need to find a spider for my tree - my mom did keep that homemade ornament. But the significance is that a house was cleaned spotless for the visit of Christ the following day and at night the spiders came out and covered the tree in cobwebs, but Christ saw it for what it was and the beauty the spiders has created. So spiders are good! (at christmas)
I started a tradition of buying Tommy an ornament every year - so when he grows up and moves into his own place -he will have ornaments for his very own tree. Last year I bought him one of the Chesapeake Bay - our old house was 2 blocks from the bay. I haven't found the perfect one for him this year...I'm still looking.
And we will ALWAYS wake up in our own house on Christmas...despite what my mother thinks. We have enough disruptions to normal life with Daddy's schedule - this is ONE normal thing I can give my kids!
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