Hi everyone!! I know...I know... it's been some time since I've "blogged"...you know... I must learn to manage my spare time better.... RIGHT!!! Recently I emailed everyone and asked if they would share some of their Christmas traditions with me... they are simply wonderful and I wanted to share them with you!
"One of our favorite Christmas traditions is the way we sign the "TO and FROM" little tags on the wrapped gifts. When our girls were young I started writing little hints on their tags as to the contents of the package. I'd write something like "To Kate From a Frosty Snowman" when the gift was a pair of jammies with snowmen on them. They loved rattling boxes and trying to guess what was inside. On Christmas morning they loved figuring out what the tag hint had to do with the gift inside. At first I did it on a whim and now my grown daughters do the same thing for me and their families. It makes the waiting a little more exciting and fun."
"Every year my mother would make a different Christmas ornament. We have everything from sequined balls, macrame angels, mini-quilt pillows, cross stitch, needlepoint, popsicle stick creations, clay, you name it. Then when we grew up and got our own trees, we got to take those ornaments with us. Each year would hold a memory from a past Christmas. Now I do the same thing for my boys. I do need a new tree to hold everything. My mother is still making ornaments and has added the grandboys into the mix. I've taken to decorating swags with the overflow!"
"My mother started a tradition that I have carried down to my (grown) children. She made fudge, with lots of nuts, then she would fill a Christmas Card Box from the year before, with tin, fudge and glad wrap. My brothers would always eat theirs and try to find MINE! My mother, raised during the depressions, always put a navel orange in our stocking.... and I still find an orange in mine each Christmas. "
"You wanted to know the silly stuff, so here it goes... we do funny things! Everyone has a candy pacifier (to match our granddaughter's) and have a picture made with everyone from baby to grandparents enjoying their own pacifier. Next year, each of us found reindeer antlers in his/her stocking, and had pictures made with them. Last year was the year of Santa Hats. This year is still open for creation!! The memories are priceless and funny!!"
"We always have gold money in the toe of our stockings AND a chunk of coal for those who have misbehaved. My girls and I have always exchanged ornaments at Thanksgiving - it's so fun to have a new one each year. Our family also sits around in our jeans on Christmas night eating turkey sandwiches and play a Christmas trivia game - we choose teams - whoever loses CLEANS UP!! "
"We go to relatives on Christmas Eve and then to our church. We always love our candlelight Christmas Eve service because we all get to pick our gift out of the gift basket and then go up front and give it to the Lord. They are pieces of paper with different things written on them that our Pastor has prayed over.... such as ... gift of fellowship, gift of discipleship, gift of kindness, etc. P.S. Will a Pfaff sewing machine fit in a Christmas stocking??"
"We always got to open one present after chruch services on Christmas Eve before we went to bed. I was the animal lover in the family so I always hung a stocking up for whatever cat or dog we had at the time. I still have a cat and puppy stocking for our crew today. My mom always did a stocking for me even after I got married. She gave my new husband a note telling him what a spoiled brat I was at Christmas and a list of things to put in my stocking for our first Christmas together. I still do my 30 year old son's stocking to this day with the one thing he always said was cheating and that was putting fruit in the stocking to take up space. So the first year he had his own place I put canned goods in a BIG stocking just for him and we still laugh about that one!"
"When my boys were in kindergarten we went to the library to learn about a partridge. Sometime soon after, my oldest, drew on a piece of cardboard brown box his recollection of a partridge. (That was the beginning of his drawing talent). Each year since then I have always decorated my tree with only pears, and placed midway or higher is the partridge. Poor bird... it's had a lot of wear over the years, but that is my tradition and I'm sticking to it."
"One year I thought I would make it "easy" for my hubby to shop for me. This was at a time when catalog shopping was becoming the rage (early 80's). The L. L. Bean catalog arrived and I "shopped" and decided I would just fill out the form with all the items I wanted and presto... all he had to do was order them, have them shipped, and he was home free?? Now how easy is that??? NOT!!! I think that year I got a casserole dish and some other things... but nothing from L.L. Bean. Oh well... what can I say... he is a doll, I love him, been married 37 years... now that is a GREAT Christmas present... and YES.. I still have the casserole dish!!"
and the last two....
"We put up our tree with holiday cheer.... including music and myself and my daughter putting up the tree. My husband puts on the lights and my two girls and I decorate. We shop for one another and have decided that three gifts are good enough for Baby Jesus and it should be enough for us too! On Christmas Eve we have a church service where we are given a piece of paper with a gift written on it... service, discipleship or something that we should give to the Lord. We place it on the altar and light candles and have a candlelight service and sing Christmas carols. On Christmas day we have applesauce cake for breakfast and a holiday dinner together. We try to take in people with no family in town to our dinner. We like to invite children to the house because we do not have little children at this time. We have prayer and thank God for our many blessings."
"Each family member has their own stocking.. there are 4 of us in the family. We all fill each other's stockings with a $20 limit... everyone likes to get their own bag of favorite M&Ms and lots of little things, PEZ containters, socks, gloves, tea, hot chocolate, things like that. In the toe of each persons stocking I put a small wrapped gift in a certain paper. A different paper for each person. None of the presents under the tree have labels on them! So if the kids go snooping, they don't know who's is who's! When they get to the bottom of their stocking they know what gifts are theirs. On Christmas Eve everyone can open one gift... of course I pick them... and it's always a new pair of PJs. It has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. I started it on their first Christmas."
I love your Christmas tradtions... don't forget to make your own.... it's a memory that will be with you forever....
Merry Christmas to all of you !!
Gloria
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