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I'm trying to cut back on "stuff" this year and enrich our holiday season with tradition, family time, etc. So I am wondering what are your favorite holiday traditions your kids are enjoying?
We make salt clay ornaments together every year. It's really fun to put the tree up and see all the ornaments we've made over the years. It's cheap too...flour, salt, water and some food color to paint them with, plus a few paperclips to break in half for hooks. You can paint them with a polyurethane top coat to help preserve them for many years, especially if you live in a humid area.
Christmas Eve church service - I normally "work" the Christmas Eve service (meaning I help with the service itself), but when I don't we still attend the service on Christmas Eve.
The pickle in the tree - we have a tiny pickle ornament (the size of a nickel) that we hang on the tree after the kids go to bed. The one that finds the pickle on Christmas morning (it's so small it's REALLY hard to see) gets to pass out the presents to everyone.
The annual viewings of "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Christmas Story," "Elf," and the Charlie Brown Christmas special. We don't often sit together to watch tv, but those are four Christmas things we always watch as a family unit sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I'm anxious for my kids to finally admit they don't believe in Santa Claus so that I can move present-opening to Christmas Eve. That was the tradition in my family once we reached a certain age. It allowed us all to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast on Christmas morning. And anyone that didn't want to sleep in didn't have to wait for everyone else to wake up to play with whatever gift they wanted to play with.
Maybe getting the Christmas tree as a family and putting up decorations together as a family? No TV... put on some of your favorite classic holiday tunes, make some tea/coffee/cocoa... and enjoy decorating together.
Check out too if your neighborhood does any sort of caroling...
The kids and I bake Christmas cookies the weekend after Thanksgiving. Takes all day for the mixing and baking and decorating. My mom did the same thing with my sister and I when we were little. It's one of my favorite traditions
We also "adopt" kids their age from the Salvation Army angel tree and buy Christmas gifts. They put a lot of thought into just what to get "their" kid.
We make a gingerbread Moomin House, salt dough decorations and go to Christmas sauna.
Traditions I loved from when I was a kid were the candlelight carol service (I don't bother with it here as its just not the same in Finnish, sounds all wrong), writing clues on the gift labels and everyone has to guess before they open their present (going to start that one again once my daughter learns to read) and inviting another family around for dinner Christmas Eve and putting on a play for them - Star Boys or Papa Panov's Special Christmas.
We have a cloth advent calendar that I bought when my son was 3. It has 24 little pockets (numbered) on it, each about the size of a small candy bar. A mouse came with the calendar and from December 1st to the 24th the mouse gets moved to the next pocket.
When he was little I would put a small candy in each pocket. As he got older I put little pieces of paper with clues for him to find his "December presents" (He started calling them this right away... and still does if I give him anything - which I might still do on occasion.)
It still gets hung up, and he still moves the mouse every day. It's just a part of our holidays that we both enjoy.
We have a cloth advent calendar that I bought when my son was 3. It has 24 little pockets (numbered) on it, each about the size of a small candy bar. A mouse came with the calendar and from December 1st to the 24th the mouse gets moved to the next pocket.
When he was little I would put a small candy in each pocket. As he got older I put little pieces of paper with clues for him to find his "December presents" (He started calling them this right away... and still does if I give him anything - which I might still do on occasion.)
It still gets hung up, and he still moves the mouse every day. It's just a part of our holidays that we both enjoy.
Ooo we had a cloth advent calender too! Mum wrapped up chocolate bars to put in the pockets and we all took turns opening a pocket. I bought one two years ago in the sales after Christmas but forgot to use it last year - thanks for reminding me!
Ooo we had a cloth advent calender too! Mum wrapped up chocolate bars to put in the pockets and we all took turns opening a pocket. I bought one two years ago in the sales after Christmas but forgot to use it last year - thanks for reminding me!
You're welcome.
Your daughter is just the perfect age to really enjoy it, too!
My son is an "only" so he got to eat the chocolate all by himself.
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