Holiday Tradition

This morning I sat down and began filling in our holiday calendar. I've been careful not to overbook us this year (I tend to do that). Hollister's after school activities ended for this semester a few weeks back and it has been so nice to be a bit more laid back. So I committed to myself that we would not "overfill" the holidays. I would love to be done with my shopping in a week or so. That way we can just enjoy the holiday festivities together before we leave to travel in Texas in December.

Anyway, that got me thinking about our traditions and the things that I definitely wanted to include this year.  I started a Facebook post on this, but it was running way too long. So I decided just to post here instead in hopes that many of you will still share your holiday traditions with me.

Tradition was something my mom believed firmly in. In our house, there were many holiday ones. An advent calender with candy canes on it, a newly wrapped gift laid out starting 10 days or so before Christmas, a new decoration to add to our collection each year and Stockings....Oh how she loved the stockings. Our stockings were always full to the brim. After all the gifts were open, there were always amazing stockings to look forward to. Sometimes the stockings would be so full that she would have to tape things to the wall beside it. I think my favorite thing ever was a huge Jack Wagner poster.

Anyway, I've worked hard since Hollister was born to establish some traditions for our little family. Last year, being pregnant-I wasn't up to doing quite as much as usual and then Grace came early, so we it cut out some of the actual Christmas Eve/Day activities we had planned.

Therefore this year, we got started a little early. It's funny...If you follow me on FB,  you might remember that our tree stayed up until March so that we could enjoy it with my dad since he was overseas over the holiday and didnt get home for several months.

And our tree is up early this year, so I think it may have spend more time out of the box this year than in. Oh well...My tree decorating tradition is to drink some hot chocolate and play Stevie Nick's version of Silent Night.  Stevie-Silent Night Always makes me feel close to my mom who loved decorating so much. Dan has never been big on trimming the tree (though he does set it up for me and puts up our lights), and decorating in general, so it's kind of been my thing to spend an afternoon putting everything out, so that it's all up and lit when the kids get up from their nap. Their faces were priceless yesterday when they came downstairs.

Anyway, I love to hear what other people do in their households to celebrate the holidays.  So I thought I would post a few of the things we do at our house and then hopefully get some new ideas from all of you. Our traditions are still finding their rhythm, and I know now that we have the girls, some of them will change. But for now...here's what I've got.

1. Ornaments-I buy an ornament for the kids each year that depicts something that was of interest to the them that year. For Holl last year it was a dinosaur ornament. This year, he wants a Superhero. I write the year on the back so I'll remember. These are the ornaments that I'll someday send off with them when they get married and have their own families. Hopefully they will tell a story about them as they get older. For myself, I buy a snowflake photo ornament of each child from Snapfish. They will put the year on there for you, so that helps mark the year. These are the ornaments I'll keep when the kids take theirs with them. I can picture a tree full of snowflakes with the kids on them year after year. Hollister already loves to look at the 5 of him. In regards to ornaments, I also buy one that reminds me of my mom each year and I buy my mother in law one of the snowflake ones as well. Looks like we will be needing a new tree soon. I love ornaments though. We get them on large trips. I have ones that patients have given me over the year and students from when I taught third grade. I have ornaments on my tree that belonged to my mom as a little girl and one I painted when I was 4. They sort of represent our marker moments in life.  Snowflake Photo Ornament

2. Pajamas-I was buying Holl (and Buck) matching pajamas each year, but my sweet aunt starting buying holiday ones for the kids a few years back and the ones she picks are much cuter, so I've turned that tradition over to her. We definitely wear them on Christmas morning though.

3. I've done what my mom did and added a new decoration to our holiday box each year. It's slowly growing. It started with our Pottery Barn Stockings (I love doing stockings as much as my mom did). Pottery Barn has great stockings because they HOLD SO MUCH! Anyway, another year I added the tree skirt to match our stockings. I'm on the hunt for a good tree topper now. I keep some of the fun and "not as sentimental" decorations on a special holiday table for the kids. Holl knows that these are the ones that he is allowed to touch and play with. Just this morning, he broke one of these by trying to make the clay Santa fly around the living room. While he was upset (he had started his own tradition of loving this little Santa), I was okay with it. He has a nativity scene that his godmother got him when he was a baby, and he spends hours recreating scenes with that. (this one is sentimental, but the pieces are not easily broken and he loves it).  Pottery Barn Stockings

4. I stole an idea from my friend Jennifer years ago and now I write the kids a letter during the last few weeks of December. I print one copy and put it in an envelope labeled with that child's name and the year and we keep these in a special place. I also keep it on my hard drive of course. In the letter, I tell them about the things they enjoyed that year, funny stories, my wishes and dreams for them, etc...These will be their someday.

5. Giving-We've started doing a few things to help with the idea of "Giving" with Hollister. We give toys to the Christmas Village Store at our church which helps underprivleged families buy gifts for their children at a reduced rate and still maintain dignity by not just receving a hand out. It's called a Hand UP instead of a Hand OUT. It's a great program. I typically let Hollister choose a gift off the list
Christmas Toy Store

We also started doing shoeboxes for Samaritans Purse this year. I've always loved this organization. But I started following a mom's blog last year who had lost her son in a drowning accident (you might remember my post about it) and her son loved doing Operation Christmas Child, and they asked people to pack shoeboxes in his memory. I don't know her, but felt compelled to do this for Jack and had Hollister help me this year. He loved it. Hollister is excited about tracking his box and seeing what country it arrives in. Operation Christmas Child   About Jack

6. We've also started making Jesus a Birthday Cake at the recommendation of our church in the last few years. As many of you know, Holl loves to throw a party-so throwing one for Jesus (especially because he gets to blow out the candles for HIM and eat cake for Him) is perhaps one of his favorite things to do.  This gives us an opportunity to talk about Jesus and why the holiday season is really about celebrating Him.

So those are a few of the things we have started doing over the past few years. There are a few things that I would love to add, like the Pottery Barn Advent Calendar,  (we did the Playmobile one last year for Holl and he loved it, but I'd like to do one that I can customize for the kids each year). Pottery Barn Advent Calendar.  I'd also like to start adding a Holiday book to our collection each year. I've done this sporadically but would like to be more regular about it.

I'm hoping to take the kids to see the Dancing Bears at Founders Hall this year as well.

We also don't really do Santa (other than him just being a fun "Character" around the holidays). I'm happy to share my reasons why, but won't go into in on this post. However, we don't tell the kids that this is where gifts come from. We've kind of done 3 gifts (from us) in the past since Jesus received three gifts. However, I read something this past year on several blogs that I really liked: Basically it's 4 gifts-

"Something you Want. Something you Need. Something Special and Something you Read"

So I think I am going to do that starting this year. One gift from each category. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyone already do this? What are some of your suggestions.

Dan and I are also going to  The Birth for the first time this year. My friend Keri swears that is amazing. So hopefully it will start off an new tradition for the 2 of us. Anyone have things you and your spouse do each year for the holidays?

Please share....

I love new ideas.