I've been so excited that my son is finally old enough to start some Christmas traditions. I bought this cute advent calendar at Target to count down the days until Christmas. It's a wooden house with numbered doors. My son LOVES numbers and he can't wait to open the next numbered door everyday. All day he kept asking, "Can we open number 13 now?" In each door I've put some candy and a little piece of paper with a Christmas activity for that day. Some ideas for activities are: sing a Christmas song, read a book about Jesus' birth, decorate the Christmas tree, drive around and look at Christmas lights, make Christmas cookies for the neighbors, buy a gift for someone in need, read a scripture, make a Christmas card for Grandma and Grandpa, etc.
I bought this advent storybook at Barnes and Noble for $15, but you can also find it on Amazon. Inside are 24 cute, tiny, numbered books that each have a short paragraph about Jesus' birth. There is one book to read for each day in December until Christmas.
Another tradition I'm starting this year is the German tradition of hiding a pickle ornament on the Christmas tree and seeing who can find it first. The person that finds it first gets an extra present. I think I'll do it on Christmas Eve, but it could be done when the family decorates the tree or on Christmas day. The extra present will probably be a family game.
Here's my favorite Christmas tradition that my family did when I was young. At the beginning of December, my parents and all five of us kids drew a name of someone in our family. Then we did secret acts of kindness for that person. For each nice deed, we got to put a piece of hay in Jesus' manger. I can still remember how fun it was!
Please share some of your favorite Christmas traditions!
These are great traditions Kendra! We also do the hay in the manger tradition and the advent calendar (ours is a mini tree that you put ornaments on each day). On Christmas eve, we have a family talent show and then read the Christmas story. And on the day after Christmas, we always go out for breakfast. We also attend a play or concert during the season as a family. This year we went to "The Christmas Carol." Of course we bake and take plates to the neighbors. Finally, this year Charlotte asked if we could make fleece scarves for a women's shelter and fleece blankets for the humane society which we did and have donated already.
ReplyDeleteI love your traditions! Some great ideas for me!
ReplyDeleteI love the acts of kindness tradition. That gets the kids thinking about service and what really matters during Christmastime.
ReplyDeletei like reading a new scripture about Christ each day--counting down the 12 days of Christmas! i liked all the ideas you mentioned!
ReplyDeleteI like the service tradition!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition was having to find our presents. My mom would hide them all Christmas Eve, and we would look for them in the morning. Sometimes she would forget where she hid them, and a gift or two would show up a few weeks later!
Another one is turning off all the lights, lighting a ton of candles, and reading the Christmas story from the scriptures on Christmas Eve. I've carried this one into my marriage.
Great Traditions Kendra. We also have a advent calender. We love doing the 12 days of Christmas for someone in the ward. We also like to make goodies for neighbors. We love lining up from youngest to oldest to see what Santa brought. We also open our gifts from youngest to oldest. I love Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your traditions Kendra! They are so fun to read about. I especially love the advent calendar about Jesus. A tradition we have is getting pajamas every Christmas Eve. It's the only gift we get to open that night and we always know what it is, but it is fun. (I think it's a pretty common thing though, so I don't know if it counts.)
ReplyDeleteOh, I thought of another one. On Christmas Eve we always have a few different soups, some crackers and at least 1 cheese ball. Yum!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting German tradition, who thought that up? Those are some way cool traditions. I especially like that advent book thing, I will have to look into that. I need to pick up a few more traditions :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you have many traditions that spread out the fun over the entire holiday season instead of all just on one day.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite traditions is a hike (well it's more like a walk) that Axel and I always do on Christmas day in the afternoon or evening.
Oh, I thought of another one. On Christmas Eve we always have a few different soups, some crackers and at least 1 cheese ball. Yum!
ReplyDelete