Family Christmas Traditions

“On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: four Calling Birds, three French Hens, two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.” – Frederic Austin

Quickly before we delve into this week’s post, I wanted to share a couple of pictures from our very first craft fairs. This weekend we participated in two craft fairs in one day! It was a long day but we had fun, got our cards and business out there, and we learned some helpful hints for the next craft fairs! 

This week we are going to share with you all some of our most favourite family Christmas traditions.

In my house we always put up our Christmas tree and decorations on December 1^st; that’s also when we start playing the Christmas tunes on the radio/CD player (I’ll be posting up some pictures of that when December 1^st comes along this year). Another tradition that mom and I have is that we watch Christmas movies every weekend leading up to Christmas. We start at the beginning of December and watch them until Christmas day always watching It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve and White Christmas on Christmas Day. Another fun thing that we do in my house is that we all read The Night Before Christmas together on Christmas Eve, a little bit cheesy but it’s always a fun time!

Samantha

 

*********************************************

In my house we don’t have quite as many traditions now as we used to have when we were younger. We too start putting up some Christmas decorations on Dec. 1^st. We always get a real Christmas tree, so it doesn't get put up until closer to Christmas, but things like Christmas lights and our Nativity scene get put up sooner. Two of our most anticipated traditions are my mom's homemade Christmas card and my dad baking Christmas cookies. My mom always draws our card, and it usually would include me, my brother, our dog, and sometimes my parents. Christmas is probably the only time of year that my dad bakes, but he always makes a number of different, fancy, absolutely delicious cookies, so it’s worth the year-long wait! Another thing we do every year is attend a Christmas Eve service at our church. When we were younger we’d come home from the Christmas Eve service, my mom would make a fire in the fireplace and hot chocolate for everyone, and then read a Christmas storybook. She’d get a new one each year, including “Jacob’s Gift,” “A Christmas Carol,” “King of the Stable,” and “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” to name a few. 

A fun tradition we had as kids was kind of like our own take on an Advent calendar. We would set up our Nativity scene on Dec. 1^st but we wouldn't put the three wise men and the camel at the stable; instead, we would put them somewhere in our room, and each day my brother and I would take turns moving them somewhere else in the house, until just before Christmas when they would finally arrive at the stable.

Another fun tradition we had growing up was painting cookies with mom. She would make sugar cookies in Christmas shapes, and ice them with white icing; then we would take paintbrushes and food colouring and paint the cookies. My mom is an amazing painter, so sometimes her cookies would look too good to eat! One of my favourite Christmas traditions that I still do now is go and look at all the Christmas tree displays at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. It’s a fundraiser, and different local business and organizations decorate trees that are then displayed all around the hotel. I used to go every year with my family, but the last couple of years Samantha and I have gone together. We plan on going again this year so it’s very possible that you’ll hear about that on another one of our twelve weeks of Christmas.

Nicole