I am such a fan of traditions because I believe they bring a sense of unity to the core of the family, bonding everyone together over tiny details such as always eating homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning or planning a trip to a particular pumpkin patch every fall. Life is about the moments, not about the material aspects that we all tend to place our focus upon.
Today I learned that having my two year old visit a large statue of Santa Claus perched on a park bench will definitely not become a tradition here at casa de phillips.
There was much fussing, whimpering and overall general disdain for the man in red this morning as I attempted to bribe Miss E to simply sit for one picture with the nice statue. She was not going to even approach him, much less sit next to him and smile, so I dropped the issue.At least I got one smile from her, before she noticed the statue.
My question to you is, what are your family traditions (either holiday-related or general)? What is something your family strives to do year after year? Leave a comment and share a tradition. On Friday, I will host a drawing for this little present to be given to one lucky commenter (*).Now, I am off to explain to Evelyn once again that any other Santa she may or may not experience this holiday season will not be 10 feet tall and made of plastic...
**If you already left a comment on my Facebook page, please just leave a comment here saying that. There is no need for you to restate everything again (unless you want to!)
10 comments:
I already left a comment earlier on FB, but I was thinking about something else we do with our kiddo's. I love hosting a Birthday Party for Jesus. We have a few friends over and we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I use the What God Wants for Christmas nativity set and the kids love it! You can purchase it from the Family Life Network. I usually have a birthday cake and we sing to Jesus! It melts my heart to see my kids and my friends kids understanding the importance of the holiday. Jacob and I have already done this a few times on our own in the last week.
We're just starting traditions since Emily is only 18 months. But, a couple years ago, we watched The Nativity Story on Christmas Eve and my husband suggested that that become a tradition.
My husband and I give each other a new Christmas ornament every year. That way we gradually build our ornament collection on our tree and they all have personal meaning to them.
We just started this last year (although we did it for several years with church family friends growing up), but we are doing it again this year...and hopefully it will turn into an honored tradition. :) We host a Caroling Party! We get about four families together and practice about six songs (that are easy for children to sing) at our house. Then we choose a few neighborhoods and go caroling to the people we know there. When we're finished, we head back to the house for milk and cookies (and coffee and cocoa). This year, I'm going to try to get everyone to wear a Santa hat, but I'm not holding my breath. We have a few Grinches among us...mostly of the dad variety. I am so excited!
We also open a new Christmas book on Christmas Eve every year to read in our pajamas while we wait for Santa.
This is so much fun! I love to read about people's family traditions!
I already posted on Facebook!
I, too, LOVE a good family tradition. Or two or three or...anyway, a fun one we've started with the kids is that they give each other a book for Christmas (which we open Christmas Eve). We take them to a book store (either together or separately) and let them pick out a book for their siblings. It was the most fun this year since Ian is starting to understand the concept...of course, he still wanted to get Clara a Spider Man book, so we're working on thinking about what the other person would want. :)
Wow, where to start? We love the GV stuff--Polar Express, Parade, dancing in the gazebo to the music and (singing this year) big tree. Others we love are going to the Candlelight service at church in our finest, and waking up at our own home for Christmas morning. We also attend a party for Jesus, send Christmas boxes for Operation Christmas Child, and of course for the grown-ups, watching Christmas Vacation and The Christmas Story. This year we added the Elf on the Shelf and that is going so great! Natalee is really into that.
I'm still trying to come up with some...so the book would be great! :) We are starting an advent calendar this year. Gingerbread house, decorate cookies, and a new ornament are what we started and hope to continue this year.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Mary Alice's Christmas tea party. My mom had one for me every year until I was too old. She continued to host them for my three sisters. We started having them for Mary Alice when she was two (more for me than for her at that time). The girls always wear fancy dresses or dress up. We sip on delicacies that Mary Alice and I spent the week before preparing. This year, we may spice it up a bit with a kidnap Christmas breakfast. Christmas is a time for parties!!! I posted about a few neat ideas on my blog about some traditions that we might have in the future. Does that mean my name will be entered in your drawing twice? :)
We have a different theme for our tree every year. We make the ornaments. So far it has only been Steven and I making the ornaments, but we are hoping it's something the boys will really enjoy every year.
Post a Comment