Well... It has begun! The annual quest for the perfect Christmas!
Yikes! I don't love the countdown, the stress, the chaos of Christmas.
I am starting to decorate my house this week so it will be done when we return from Thanksgiving... I love to do it and how it turns out. My tree really brings me holiday joy.
I want this season to be about JOY!
Saturday Caylor and I went to the mall to do a few returns and pick up a few things...
We had the greatest lunch in a darling little ski restaurant and just sat there
watching it snow...
We talked about what we wanted for this holiday season-
I said that I wanted it to me more about the Christmas season instead
CHRISTMAS MORNING...
I don't want to be a recession scrooge... but it won't be the elaborate Christmases of the past.
I am doing a free online class with Jessica Sprague... Holidays in Hand and
she linked her site to this wonderful little chunk of Christmas Wisdom.
So... to all my 5 friends in the blogosphere...
What do you do to make the Christmas season more memorable for your family?
I want my kids to remember events and feelings rather than presents and junk.
Help me... I have got a few ideas, but need your help.
12 comments:
My goal this year is to have the shopping done by Dec 1 so we have time to enJOY the month of December! That is my goal I am not sure it will happen but I will give it a try!!
i love to watching the Polar Express with the whole family on Christmas Eve all cuddled up in our new PJ's...my youngest gets SO excited. (heck who am i kidding...we all do!)
Every year from the time we were little until the time we were about out of the house my mom would read us The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She would do about a chapter everynight before bed, and plan it to finish right before the 25th. We'd sit around the fire place cuddled up in jammies and listen to that story. That is probably my favorite memory of Christmas and it is so simple! This year along with that story I want to cook one of my favorite Christmas treats or meals with my family every Monday night. Then you know the usual temple lights and hot chocolate is always fun, oh ya and Christmas Music!!:)
I read Christmas Jars to my kids last year. This year we have been saving all our change in a "Christmas Jar". They are excited to find someone to give it to this year.
We also have a Christmas elf fairy named Elsie, who visits our family during the month of December. She brings candy canes and notes from Santa, my kids write her notes
back. They have a lot of fun with her.
Also, this year for Easter we spent the entire week before Easter Sunday focusing on Christs last week here on earth. We had a lesson, activities and sometimes special food every day. They went on an egg hunt every morning to find the giant egg with the theme for the day in it. It was such a spiritual experience to have with our kids. I want to do something like that for Christmas. Taking the week before Christmas to talk about the events that lead up to his birth. (ie: Samuel the lamanite, the wise men, the angel appearing to the shepheards, Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, etc. Kind of drag out the Christmas story, bringing more sacredness to the holiday.
We celebrate our family traditions, like new PJ's on Christmas Eve, several nights of movies including all the classics and definately Polar Express. We also started the new one of Elf on a Shelf from last year and that was a huge hit but your kiddos are a little older! We are talking about helping out at a soup kitchen too just to put some perspective into the mix of the "I want's". I want to enjoy the season and am really looking forward to it!
I agree with you 100%. It's going to be scaled way down, but we plan on doing lots of things together and spending time with each other.
My married kids are getting food storage......not exciting but needed.
Love your blog!
I have two trees up now. I'm hoping to have all of my shopping done by Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the season more and not be stressed - except for my in-law's, they always take longer.
When my boys were younger, we'd read a different Christmas story every night.
Now we like to find a family in need and help them a little with Christmas, either on our own or as a group effort. It helps my kids to feel the spirit of giving to others.
Also, Taylor's YM group went and stocked shelves at the food bank last year and it really touched him to hear about all the people in need, and to see the need on the not even close to being full shelves. He has wanted to go back ever since, and has wanted us to donate more food.
The 25 days of christmas count down. A cute set of 25 boxes with an activity or event (simple/not) for each day or night. We have done this for the past couple of years & the kitlens love it. It can be as simple as reading a christmas story. Yea!
I love and adore extravagent Christmas mornings and for years it had been a holiday tradition.
4 or so years ago, however, I scaled down alot.
Three gifts to each child like the baby Jesus received. They can request one but mostly it is a surprise.
Most years I have also added:
+something to wear
+something to read
+something to eat
Also I think it's about time at home together. Traditions, sharing, cooking, playing...whatever that time might entail.
Great post and I am going to come back to look at the comments.
We are BIG on tradition at my house.
Christmas Eve is always the same - my grandma DiStefano's pasta, looking at Christmas lights and Slurpees before we read Twas the Night Before Christmas.
And NO Christmas is complete without Christmas Vacation!
Good luck Amy! I hope to be making it to a movie and dinner on Christmas Eve.
We spend one day at the craft shop. All together we find the perfect Christmas decoration that represents something that we did that year. The on the night that we decorate the tree, we take out the ornaments and talk about the years past and what made this one special. Even my 16 year old son loves this tradition
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