Christmas Traditions

Thank you to everyone who answered my facebook query last night and checked out my blog. It's not that I want attention, but I didn't think many people were reading, and if that was the case I wasn't going to keep up with the blog. That's what journals are for.

Anyways, you may have seen my lovely friend, Molly Klatt comment on my last post (she is my most faithful reader/commenter) and suggest I write about Christmas Traditions. What a great idea! Especially as this year we hope to create our own and incorporate some from our different childhoods.

Growing up we had a really fun tradition on Christmas Eve where my mom would sit us all in a circle and hand us a gift. She would then start to read the story "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Anytime she reads the word "and", we all pass our gift to the left. The story starts out with very few "ands" and knowing the story quite well, you come to anticipate when the next one will be said. The best part is when she reads, "AND he whistled AND shouted AND called them by name". It was so funny when my sister Lucy was small and had a hard time keeping up. To keep the tradition going with our own family, I had an idea. I would like to keep my mother involved, so the plan is that on Christmas eve, my little family and I will all sit down with a gift, and call Grandma. We will put her on speaker phone and listen to her read us the story. I can only imagine the excitement our children will have in the coming years when we all sit down on Christmas eve and I say, "time to call Grandma for the story!"

Another tradition I love is one from my late Grandma June (my dad's mother). She had a Christmas ornament that looks like a pickle and would hide somewhere in the tree. On Christmas day, when all the grand kids were at her house we would get say, 3 minutes to try to find the pickle (and we'd all be looking at the same time). I remember all of our eyes darting to find the green pickle in the green tree. I can't remember what we got if we did find it, but I never found it. I saw a pickle ornament at Shopko the other day and I really want to buy it and carry on this tradition.

Growing up we lived near a fantastic sledding hill (Olbrich Hill in Madison, Wisconsin) and I remember going sledding some years on Christmas. This would be fun to keep up!

I still have to get all the traditions from Jordan's side, but one that I know of that I definitely want to carry on is the food. Oh the food. Jordan's mother prepares ahead of time and makes heaps and heaps of yummy Christmas goodies and displays them on Christmas day for everyone to enjoy. The times we've been at their home for Christmas I feel so silly because I am the only one salivating and considering sneaking a treat before they come out of their containers. She makes some really delicious goodies. I would like to do the same for my family.

The last one that I can think of so far, is one I found recently on pinterest. Here is the link..

http://secretsofasupermommy.blogspot.com/2010/03/birthdayfun-things-to-do-on-real.html

It's listed as a birthday activity but I think it would be really fun on Christmas when the kiddos are dying to jump out of bed and check out the goods under the tree.

I'm sure more will come as the holiday gets closer but those are the big ones I can think of for now, and of course as the years go by we will establish more of our own traditions.

Thanks for the suggestion Molly! Looking forward to reading your traditions and everyone else's!