Do any of you do any neat Christmas Traditions?
Or do you do anything neat for Christmas?
- This year I wanted to try the Three Wise Man gift idea. Kurt isn't to thrilled with it, so it might get put aside for another year. It's when your children get three gifts. Something religious, Something they Need, Something they want. I thought it would be fun and put more of a meaning to Christmas. Christmas isn't just about getting a lot of gifts.
- We're also going to do the Advent wreath this year.. which reminds me I have to get one.
- I Also want to wrap Baby Jesus up (from our nativity) in an extra special box with beautiful paper. Put him under the tree and have that be the first gift we open and put him in the manager. I thought about moving the three wise men all over the house during Advent, like they're traveling to see Baby Jesus, but Landen might be a little young for that. Unless I get the non-breakable Nativity. That might be an idea.
- We're going to try to read the story of St. Nicholas on his feast day and put little toys in the kids shoes for that.
- I'd like to actually do stocking this year as well. Let that be the presents from Santa!
I have a lot of wants to do - I'll have to let you all know if any of them actually happen. Haha!
Now that you've read what I want to attempt to do, and hopefully shared what you do. Go on over to Sharon's Blog post relating to Christmas, she wants to know when you should start to Decorate for Christmas. I'm wondering the same thing.
6 comments:
Hey! Thanks for the link. :)
I love your ideas. I think next year we're going to start the 3-gift idea. I've read a lot about it on my Catholic moms group, and it just seems to make sense.
We're also in need of an Advent wreath. I attempted to make my own last year-yea, turns out I'm not so crafty! lol
We're also going to do the St. Nicholas shoes filling thing.
We DO do Santa in our home. Do you?
One neat thing I remember about my roommate's family tradition-they set up their manger scene. They didn't lay baby Jesus in tun until later.They started w/ no straw in the manger. As the family witnessed each other doing good deeds or something reflecting acts of mercy, they would add some straw to the manger scene, telling the act which earned the straw. Their goal was to have enough in their for baby Jesus' birth. I thought that was clever.
Btw, did you know there is a Little People nativity?
Oh! Sorry this is so long, but one more thing. My in-laws do an AWESOME Christmas Eve. They do a procession w/ the Readings, and then the youngest-abled child carries baby Jesus and lays Him in the manger. Then they bring out cake w/ lit candles, and we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. I don't do it justice, but it really is beautiful.
Ok, I've taken up too much space! Fun post. :)
I like to start decorating at the beginning of December. The tree usually waits until about 2 weeks before Christmas thou. This year I am going to have to clear some TOYS out of the room first too!
We've already talked about the traditions but I think I might do an Advent wreath too..we had one when I was a kid but we never lit the candles. I looked up how you are supposed to do it and it sounds like it might be nice. How long do you leave the candles lit? Surely you can't have candles buring for weeks on end?!
Hey! I just wanted to share this link with you:
http://www.catholichomeandgarden.com/catholic_christmas_traditions.htm
It has some good Catholic Christmas traditions and recipes and all kinds of good stuff! I like to cram in as much celebration as possible, so I can't wait to get started!
I've already decided and told the boys that they are each getting three gifts this year from mom and dad, and that when Jesus was born he got 3 things. Ethan didnt necessarily like the idea but he didnt hate it either. He just is having a hard time deciding what he REALLY wants. We are going to do the Advent wreath too. We did St Nicholas Day last year and are doing it this year again, the kids loved it! We usually do stockings at both sets of grandparents houses.
Fun post, Andrea! Great link, too!
Growing up, we didn't decorate until about the 21st or so. But, now we decorate at the beginning of Advent and call it our Advent decorations. We do the Advent wreath and devotions every night at dinner. We also have the Little People nativity that we put away last Christmas and will get out this year. That is a lot of fun. Last year, Baby Jesus spent a lot of time on top of the stable!:)
I really want to get an Advent calendar sometime with the little drawers, but instead of candy, I'd like to use little symbols to decorate a Jesse tree or something. I think that would be fun.
One of my best friends from college is Catholic and she did St. Nicholas day for us. It was very cool to put our shoes out and get oranges and candy. We might do that, too, even though we aren't Catholic! :)
Thanks everyone for all the comments!
Sharon -
Yes, we are planning on doing Santa. Landen really hasn't been old enough until this year, so I'm looking forward to this being the first time. =) I saw the Little People Nativity in a Catholic Children's Magazine I just got. Looks really cute! No porblem with the long post. I'm so glad to have idea's.
Teri -
I haven't done the advent wreath here yet. At my parents house, I think they just let them burn for awhile and blow them out. Not sure if there really isn't a certain amount of time.
Jenn - Thanks for the link, I'm going to check that out.
April and Crystal, thanks for your comments. I think it's fun to find out what others do. I hadn't heard about the Advent Calender until Teri told me about it this summer.This was a fun post. Maybe we can get more comments? Haha!
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