While not our typical adventures, last Saturday we kicked off the holiday season with some fellowship time with our Church family. Several of the sisters met in the morning for a cookie exchange, which included taking time to put together a few tins of cookies for some of our shut in or older members. We then took the afternoon to go caroling together and deliver cookies to those members who aren't able to get out much. We had a wonderful time of fellowship together. This lead us to having a conversation with the kids about Christmas traditions. They unanimously agreed that I should blog sharing some of our Christmas traditions, hoping that it might inspire others.
Baking Cookies
One thing we do at least once every Christmas season is bake cookies. It's a project that all the kids are eager to take part in because the results are so yummy. We always bake enough to share with the mailman and our trash guys, as well as some just for eating and leaving for Santa. We always make a couple of batches. One batch is always Aunt Cindy's Chocolate Chip Cookies and a second batch is always Mister's Gingerbread Cookies (or Ginger Snaps, depending on which child you ask). We turn up the Christmas music in the afternoon and everyone takes turns reading and adding the next item to the recipe, though I'm careful to make sure that certain items are only added by kids big enough to manage them. Sometimes, the girls also use this time to experiment with new cookie recipes. For our cookie exchange last weekend, Ruth tried out some Orange Dreamsicle Cookies and Rebecca found a new favorite with Tuxedo Cookies.
When I asked the kids what makes this tradition so special to them Kate replied, "they are just so fun to make." I personally think it's the act of making something together with little pressure that they love. I try my best to overlook the mess and just making clean up something we also tackle together while the cookies bake. Once they are done we all have a hot one with either milk or hot chocolate which makes it even more special.
Hot Chocolate and Eggnog
Speaking of Hot Chocolate, this is another favorite part of Christmas. Gary is good to keep hot chocolate packets on hand and everyone knows how to microwave them or how to start the special cups in Ruth's coffee maker. Hot chocolate is basically a free for all commodity during the month of December. Most of them have a cup for breakfast or after super pretty much daily. I have my own special hot chocolate that is separate so they know not to use mine, so everyone is happy. Gary also gets eggnog during this time of year, which Ruth and he copiously take part in. None of the rest of us like it but they enjoy it.
Rebecca says, "It's so special because we don't get it any other time of the year." I also think a contributing factor to it being so enjoyable for everyone is that we have it together. In the morning as they drink it we do history together and talk. But in the evenings when we drink it, it's because I'm sitting down with them to either hang out while they play Nintendo, or we get out a game for a family game night. Sometimes we wait and have a cup when they have their one on one time with me after the others are in bed at night. While hot chocolate and eggnog might be the medium for our tradition, it is really the time invested that they love.
Viewing Christmas Lights
Another favorite tradition is taking one evening and loading everyone up in their pajamas to drive around and look at Christmas lights. It is one of the few times that we force Gary to listen to Christmas music in the car, and while he cheerfully grumbles about it we set out to see the Christmas lights. No one brings any electronics with them in the car, and we all point out and look for the best Christmas decorations.
When asking the kids what they like about this tradition Ruth insisted that it was proving to everyone that "clear or blue lights are superior to rainbow lights. And that we force Daddy to listen to Christmas music." That child loves to argue her point of view and torture people. Kate said, "I just like it because they are pretty." Again, to beat a dead horse, the common factor is that we are doing it all together.
Christmas Trees and Decorations
On the subject of decorations, my kids love to help with decorating for Christmas. They help set up the table top decorations. Most years I pull out two mini trees one for the girls room and the other for Britt's room. We didn't get everything out this year, but they love to help decorate and decide where things will go. There favorite part though is decorating the Christmas tree. One year I made the mistake of letting the elves set up and decorate the tree instead of the kids, and you would have thought I had started World War III right in my living room. The kids were furious with the elves.
Every year I have Gary set up the tree and then I fluff it and add the ribbon or garlands or tinsel whatever we are using, and then after supper we pull all the boxes of ornaments out into the living room. I put hooks on them in starting with the youngest hand out ornaments all the way to the oldest. We do this over and over, with everyone getting the same number to hang anywhere they like. While we do it we have the Christmas music on low and Gary takes pictures for me. They have been given many ornaments throughout the years and we try to get one every time we take a special trip somewhere, so the kids' tree is an eclectic mix of ornaments with the goal of fitting as many as possible on the tree. We talk about when or where we got the ornaments from and share special memories about places and people as we hang them up. This year with six kids all hanging ornaments we were done all too fast.
We even have one special set of advent ornaments. While we don't celebrate Advent or anything as a Church, I like using the advent ornaments. After we finish supper each night, Gary takes one or two ornaments and asks a kid if they remember the story that accompanies each one. He then takes the time to tell it in detail or read it from the Bible and tell them how it relates to Christ. It is a small way to put the emphasis on Christmas as a celebration of Christ coming into the world to save sinners. It reminds the kids that even though there is a great deal of wonder and fun with Santa and such at the holidays that the focus is on God.
Britt says the most special part is "the remembering when and where we got special ornaments. Like remember when we got the Harry Potter ornament at Harry Potter world, where we rode the ride in Gringotts bank." Rebecca had similar thoughts, "It's night time and all the family is together and we share memories as we decorate the tree." I tend to agree that this special family time is all about the memories... and then I get to go a decorate a second tree myself the way I want with a fun theme.
Our Christmas Elves
Speaking of the Christmas Elves, that is another special tradition in our home, though it has changed some this year. I started it back in 2013 with two elves for our two children who were old enough to know what was going on. I had decided that they were only going to be good elves, have clean fun and encourage good behavior. One year they encourage the kids to help out more around the house with little tasks. Another time they left several Christmas Challenges of things for us to do together as a family. Often they find innocent fun to get into, and the kids enjoy looking for them. Now I have six elves, one for each kid.
For years when they have asked me where the elves real, I didn't want to lie; but I also didn't want to ruin the fun. So I simply said, "What do you think?" They would reply they don't look real, but they move every night so they must be real. Thinking the older two were at the stage of just playing along for my sake I revealed the truth this summer, and they were disappointed. I suppose at 14 and 12 they still wanted to believe in some magic. However, they have begun helping to move the elves at night which has been fun in it's own way. They youngest four still eagerly anticipate finding them each morning, while the bigs play along, though Kate says they have been boring this year. (Ha, Momma is tired and running low on ideas this year.)
When I asked the kids what they found to be so wonderful about our tradition of having the elves come to our house I got several responses. Kate said, "I love playing with them the last day, and I love finding them every day." Rebecca replied, "They are so fun and creative, just like magic." Even though the elves are alot of work and require alot of sacrifice to get them ready and remember to move them at night, I think it really captures the wonder and magic of the season, and I love being able to bring them so much joy with something so minor, even if I get no credit at all for doing it.
Presents
The kids disagreed about their favorite part of Christmas. According to Britt "it's probably when we go to Alabama or Grandmaw Bea's for Christmas." Ruth said, "It's food and getting to see people we haven't seen in a while." Rebecca said "the same as Ruth, except it's picking out presents for my siblings." Kate though said it was the presents, because it's so fun to open them and we don't get to get much just for fun stuff during the year." The kids really enjoy when we try to find something special just for them, and so we have a tradition of getting them each a few things for Christmas. Sometimes a big family gift and just a few small things in their stockings, and sometimes a few individual items. It never seems to be as much as we'd like to be able to do for them, but they always enjoy it no matter how big or small.
In Conclusion
The keys to making the holidays special and starting your own traditions as a family is to find ways to spend quality, unstressed time together in out of the ordinary ways. Growing up my mom always made Chex mix and we would sit around together watching Christmas movies with a bowl full of it. Anything, even what you might think of as the smallest of things, can become a meaningful tradition. For us another key element has been to let them grow and change over time, and when traditions no longer serve you to let them go. We use to always go to Christmas Lane during the Christmas season, but it got expensive and hard to find a time to all go. Eventually it was more stressful to try to coordinate and plan that it was to just let it go. This year we added what I hope will be a new tradition of carolling to our older Church members. If the goal is to create lasting memories the only two ingredients you really need is each other and time.
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