Christmas Traditions 2019

Traditions fill my love cup all the way to the tippy top ~ and Christmas traditions are extra special. There's just something about the Christmas season that makes traditions during the month of December extra special. Thankfully, my family loves all the corny traditions too. This year we all worked extra hard to get all of our favorite traditions done before Abby Lou was born.

To kick off our Christmas traditions we began our daily Advent study on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving. For our Advent tradition we light the coordinating candle(s), read our lesson, and sing a Christmas hymn. 

On December first our little elf friends arrived bringing donuts, yogurt, orange juice, and their coordinating story books and movies. Our children know they are not real, we just use them as a fun treasure hunt each day leading up to Christmas.

We started a new tradition this year with a trip to a drive-thru light display. They had an activity center set up as well with all kinds of fun holiday booths and food vendors. We went on Black Friday night and it was perfect, with minimal folks there and mild weather. Hopefully our town will continue with this seasonal attraction and we can make it a yearly tradition. 

We took a trip to The Bass Pro Shop, which is about an hour away. We pretty much only go there at Christmas and even then we don't buy much, it's more for the fun of it than the shopping experience. 

Christmas decorating is a family affair in our home. The children really got into the spirit this year and pretty much handled all of the decorating inside and out.

We have a couple of totes full of special Christmas toys that only get brought out at Christmastime. The children love setting up little villages and playing with them.

We had our Grinch Night complete with Grinch munch and hot cocoa.

The little ones especially loved our How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie night.

Every year we do a family ministry project and this year was no different. Christmastime is a great opportunity to teach children how to give to others and share the love of Christ.

We went to see the Friendship Santa. We are so blessed with a local family who volunteers their time and energy to spreading Christmas cheer. They go "all out" decorating their yard, dressing up as Santa, and passing out hot cocoa, cookies, and goodie bags to children all for FREE! They are truly a blessing to our community.

The Friendship Santa has these giant reindeer on display ~ they are amazing!! (My boys are over 6 feet tall, just to give you an idea of how tall these reindeer are.)

We had our Polar Express family movie night with cookies and hot cocoa.

We passed out homemade cookie bags to our neighbors. 

We bought our family ornament.

I made and sent out family picture Christmas cards. A dying tradition, but one I love to do. 

We went to a Christmas parade where our oldest was dressed up as "Thing One". We had no idea he was dressing up until he came strolling down the road, it was such a fun surprise.

We went on our Mini Van Polar Express light tour. Well now I guess it would be more appropriate to say "15 passenger van", but y'all get the drift, lol.

Our light tour begins with mama hiding tickets under everyone's pillows during the day (without my kiddos knowing), we have an early bedtime, while one of us parents is putting children to bed the other is fixing hot cocoa and cookies to bring on the tour. Once everything is ready, my husband takes our train whistle and blows it down the hallway 'waking everyone up' with "All aboard the Polar Express, get your tickets". Once everyone is up, and loaded in the van, they trade their tickets for a cup of hot cocoa and a cookie.

We then drive around looking at Christmas lights listening to Christmas music. This is one of my most favorite family Christmas traditions!

Another new tradition this year was to make Santa pancakes on "Christmas Adam" (what we call the day before Christmas Eve). I saw a friend make these super cute Santa pancakes and I just had to 'steal her idea'.

Not that great of a picture, but the night before Christmas we read the "Night before Christmas" while drinking hot cocoa. 

And our last tradition is our Christmas stockings. Another favorite Christmas tradition of mine. You could take all the presents away, but please just leave my stockings. I've made seven of our children their own stockings, and I am planning to make the other three this year. We fill the stockings with toiletries, snacks, and small unique gift items. 

Traditions are not a necessity to celebrate Christmas, but I love the activities we do. They are so special to me and I will always treasure the memories we've made doing these traditions. I'm already making plans for how they will be adapted for when we have grandchildren, lol. Life is too short not to make every moment count, and all these traditions is just one way I try to make the most out of the Christmas season.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Celebrating the Advent with Children

Christmas is a wonderful time for family traditions. I love the many activities our family does each year to prepare for Christmas. Whether it’s decorating our Christmas tree(s) or participating in seasonal ministry opportunities, I cherish the intimate time we spend together as a family making memories. We wholeheartedly acknowledge that without Christ there would be no reason to celebrate. One way we strive to keep Christ first during the Christmas season is by celebrating the Advent with our children.

Teaching children about our Savior is so important, especially at Christmas time. There are many resources available to make teaching children about the Savior super easy. We have used many different books over the years. After years of teaching the Advent to my children, my greatest recommendation would be to go simple. It’s hard for young children to sit still for very long. Our Advent lessons are seldom longer than 15 minutes.

Our family Advent lessons include:

1. Singing a couple Christmas hymns
2. Lighting the coordinating Advent candle(s)
3. Reading an excerpt from an Advent Study guide which includes scripture
4. Discussion
5. Prayer

We are a fairly musically challenged family so we have obtained a Christmas hymn C.D. that we sing from. I found a Christmas hymn book so we can sing along with the C.D. and actually know the words, lol. I bought a pretty metal Advent wreath with candle holders on clearance several years ago, but before that we just used a homemade Advent wreath. The children take turns lighting the candles (with supervision) and blowing them out after each day's lesson. Since life is crazy these days, we're doing our Advent lessons during our homeschool table time. For many years we did them after dinner.

Many of the Advent books we've read over the years include fun related activities and crafts. Some of them we've actually incorporated into our normal Christmas traditions, and we look forward to doing them every year. 

Some resources that you may find helpful for celebrating the Advent with children:

• Christmas Carols (C.D.)
• Once-A-Day 25 Days of Advent Devotional (you can read the scriptures from whatever bible you prefer)
• The Family Book of Advent by Carol Garborg
• A Family Advent: Keeping the Savior in the Season
• The Adventure of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus in Our Holiday Traditions by Lisa Welchel

Our family has personally used each resource listed above. As I have stated before, there are many resources available to help your family celebrate the Advent. Celebrating the advent with children (especially small children) does not have to be complicated or take a long time. It’s a privilege for parents to be able to share the story of our Savior’s birth with their children, and certainly not something we should take for granted. It’s not too late this Christmas season to begin a daily Advent study with your children. Purpose to set aside some time each day to prepare your family’s hearts for the true meaning of Christmas.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer