What are your Christmas or Christmas Eve Traditions? We have quite a few, and starting next year will be adding a new one to our list! Some of the things we currently do are:
*The kids have Advent calendars to count down the days til Christmas
*Let each child open 1 gift on Christmas Eve
*Make cookies for Santa to leave out on the very special "Cookies for Santa" plate along with carrots for all 9 Reindeer. (oh..and before u start counting on your fingers, yes, there are 8, but dont forget Rudolph!)
*Watch a special Christmas Movie (or 2 or 3)
*Bathe & Dress the little kiddos in their new matching Christmas PJ's
*Give Thanks in Prayer for our Lord and Savior who was Born and Died so we might live!
*Have a Christmas Eve Feast with yummy Ham, Mashed Potatoes and all the good stuff (we missed out on this one this year)
*Christmas Morning the kids collect their stocking full of goodies and that toothbrush they get every year from "Santa"
*Open and play with their Santa gifts that are left unwrapped in front of the tree
As a family, we decided though that next year would be different. This year was already way scaled down due to finances being so tight...but in honoring the true meaning of Christmas we decided that next year we would try something new. (Another Blog i follow mentioned this tradition and i thought it was AWESOME, so thanks Kim, it will now be one of our Holiday traditions from now on) Next year the kids will each only get 3 gifts. (*this of course doesn't count the gifts from Aunties, Uncles, Grandma etc.) These 3 gifts represent the 3 gifts brought for baby Jesus by the Wise Men to celebrate his Birth (Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh) And though it is doubtful the kids will get any of those things- i think limiting it to 3 is symbolic and will hopefully help them to not only appreciate them more, but give them the real sense of what gift giving/receiving is all about. It's not about quantity - so why not have it try to mean something? Instead of getting caught up in the gluttony of making a wish list with 15 things on it, why not limit it to 3 items that will mean the most? While the kids still believe in Santa we thought it fair to still give them 1 large Santa item..so i guess we are up to 4 already. Again, we will see how it goes. The kids were excited about it!
Below is a video i took on my camera on Christmas morning when the kids woke up and before they went down the hallway to see what Santa had brought them. I love that my kids "get it" and though it is still a "cutesie" song they DO know what CHRISTmas is all about.
And if you couldn't tell, i just love that way Bubba & Danielle are holding hands and Bubba is dancing while he is singing. I love my kids!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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