Day 1: Christmas Traditions
I love having traditions, especially since I have children and hope they will one day continue our family traditions. We have introduced a new tradition this year: The Elf on the Shelf. I love this idea so much! We adapted it just a little because my daughter Abby saw the little elf online and said that he was "scary". Instead of buying the kit like I wanted to, I ended up finding a really cute "secret santa" elf and typed up a letter straight from the North Pole. Our scout elf is named Charlie!
Another tradition we do every year is a gingerbread house. I love letting the kids put them together and nibble on treats. It is even more fun when you get some friends and their kiddos over as well!
I do lots of baking this time of year. I make all kinds of cookies, cakes, and candies. My specialities are Peppermint Bark and Chocolate Turtles. I package up lots of treats and deliver them to friends!
We get a new personalized family Christmas ornament every year. My husband's family started this when he was a little boy. We have ornaments for every year since we've been together (12 years).
I participate in an ornament exchange every year with ladies from church. It's so much fun, and I can't wait for it this year on December 11th! Sometimes my friends and I have cookie exhanges too.
We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve, and we wait to open up all the rest (plus Santa's gifts) on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is a lot of fun around our house! We make cookies for Santa, "reindeer food" so the reindeer can spot our house, and have all kinds of goodies. We usually alternate between Mexican food and appetizers. We always track Santa to find out where he is!
We have family movie/game night every Friday (regardless of the time of year), so we will be watching some of our favorites: The Polar Express, Charlie Brown's Christmas, A Christmas Story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, etc.... I make hot chocolate and some special little treat!
We drive around and look at Christmas lights several times throughout the holiday season. Of course we have Christmas music playing in the background!
We love going to the Nutcracker but have missed a couple of years when the kids have been really young. Abby and I went last year together and the boys stayed home. We are doing it again this year, and when Wyatt is a little older, we'll all go as a family!
We used to always spend Christmas day at my parent's house, but since we've had our own children we always spend it here at home. I prefer it that way. We either have everyone to our home or we drive down before/after Christmas to spend with family.
I am now so excited for Christmas, I can hardly stand it!!
1 comments:
I think that the elf on a shelf is an awesome thing to do with children!
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