Today we are featuring the
HOLIDAY traditions
and
GREAT giveaways
of
~WHERE WOMEN CREATE~
Jo shares …
"Every year for Christmas I make Olivia and Jackson, my twin grandchildren, an advent calendar.
Each calendar is created from 24 different single socks – little girl's socks for Olivia and little boy socks for Jackson.
The socks each have the date in fabric numbers ironed on the front and the individual stockings are hung from a long ribbon tied to the foot of their bed … one week at a time.
Each morning they wake up and then head straight to their stockings to find the tiny gift that is hidden inside the stocking of the day.
I know that I love finding the tiny treasures and filling all of those little stockings as much as they do "opening" them every morning during December".
——————–
Paige Shares …
"One of my favorite holiday traditions sits atop a pine pole tree in my front room. A tree that is filled with little paper mache houses and other vintage ornaments. She is a Noma Christmas Angel circa 1940. She belonged to my beloved Grandma Wayment, and was a treasured part of Christmas while growing up. It just wasn't Christmas until the angel was lovingly placed on top of the tree. When her silver and white paper dress started to wear, Grandma sewed a new one of pink felt, complete with little pink pearls. Oh there were a couple of years when a star tried to take her place, but she always seemed to find her way back to the top of our family tree. It was there she stayed for 40 plus years until my Grandmother passed away. What a sad Holiday that was. It just wasn't the same without her, and it still isn't 24 years later. What I do have to bring back those wonderful memories is my Angel who, every Christmas, will always be on the top of my pine pole tree. When Christmas is over, I bring her back up to my office. She has a prominent position on top of my bookcase so I can keep the holiday spirt with me always and remember the treasured memories of years past".
——————–
Our Giveaway to you is
THREE
WHERE WOMEN CREATE
Prize packages!
Including …
THE LATEST COPY
of
WHERE WOMEN CREATE …
PLUS,
THE PREMIER ISSUE
of
WHERE WOMEN COOK!
a copy of
AND
a charm bracelet
PLUS
a SWAG bag!
Simply comment to this post with YOUR holiday traditions and you're entered!
GOOD LUCK!
*Remember that you may have additional entries per post by:
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(1 extra entry per post)
*Blogging about this contest (1 extra entry per post)
Each day if you follow the additional entries you may have a total of four comments per post.
~HAPPY HOLIDAYS~
I put up several trees in my house, but my favorite is my vintage ornaments one. It goes in the master bedroom. It has ornaments from my grandmothers and some were gifts from dear friends. My oldest daughter and I like to go to antique stores and find a new one to add to it each year. One day I hope to pass the ornaments on to her.
I love Jo’s sock advent idea. I have 6 grandsons spread from Colorado to Alaska to Washington. This will be wonderful to do for them to keep us close and in touch for the holidays. Thanks!!
WOW! Great prizes, great stories of traditions. Growing up the tradition in our house was that Santa brought the tree, no tree was there when we went to bed on Christmas Eve!!! My hubby and I did that ONCE for our daugther – TOO MUCH WORK and worrying that the child was going to wake up. OY! Our tradition is each child gets an ornament that is a memento of the year – a little tool box, a bicycle (when they learned to ride), a diploma, I even have their braces in clear balls!!! One day when they leave home they will have a great starter set of ornaments and lots of memories to go with them.
What great prizes… Holiday tradition… we have jello with marshmallows for breakfast Christmas morning (but it must be red jello!) — when I was growing up we always waited until after opening presents, but my kids sometimes want to eat before hitting the tree… I think that might change now that they are a little older.
As a child it was a tradition in our home to go see the nutcracker preformed by Ballet West at the Capitol Theater. My grandma Pingree would take my Mother and sisters…it was her treat…we would dress up have lunch at the Lion House and then off to the ballet…I loved it every year…For several years my sister danced in the Nutcracker with Ballet West…I have taken my daughters many times and hope one day to take my grand daughters…
we try and do a tree in every room (even the hall bath gets a little fake one) (not all big ones-just different ones) based on something I saw on HGTV many many years ago…another tradition is to get each child a special (not Hallmark) ornament so that when they grow up, they can have them for their very 1st tree!
WWC Christmas image is on my left sidebar and I just blogged about it :)
We have a Christmas advent calender tradition too though ours is a huge line of 24 pockets, with each pocket numbered and just big enough to put 3 treasures in for our three children. Sometimes it is little trinkets, sometimes chocolate but often an activity to do with Mum or an outing somewhere fun. They have to take it in turn to take out the treasures and they can not look ahead as I will often change the pockets around and add things in the night before…I have sooo much fun doing it and somehow I think the tradition will continue for years to come, they will never want me to stop finding them treasures and planning a day with them…well maybe they won’t want me to plan a day at the park for them when they are 20 but then you never know!
Kiss Noises Linda
a new tradition that we just started a couple years ago with my adult three sisters … instead of always trying to find the perfect gift for every sister… is to just get them a small ornament….preferably handmade… it has brought on more meaning and special feelings than all the other years before! ….
following on twittter!! ( Thats how I found this! ) !! LOL
Blogged about it!!
grabbed the button for my blog!! (and got it on there! whew!) ….Thanks!!
What sweet traditions! We grew up celebrating Christmas with my dad’s Swedish American family, so for us Christmas Eve is the big day. When I was little, I would spend the day shopping with my brothers, my dad, and my grandpa while “the women” stayed home and prepared dinner. It was then my job to help quickly wrap all of the gifts before my grandpa would call out that “It was time to eat!” After dinner, all of the pretty packaging would quickly become undone as we opened our gifts around the tree. Most of my Swedish family is gone…but I now have The Little Red Shop, where one of my specialties is wrapping treasures for other people’s celebrations! What fun! And what a lovely give-away!
: )
Julie M.
I love the idea of the stocking with little gifts in them, what a great idea.
What wonderful and sweet traditions.
I love WWC. It is such a treasure.
Lovely seasonal posts!They’re full of joy!
Paige’s story is a tear jerker, and reminiscent of our prized angel from my children’s Nana…A lovely start to your Twelve Days!
I am following your tweets!
I’ve posted your badge!
This is a fantastic giveaway!
Blogged about it here:
http://collagical.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-time-for-12-days-of-christmaswhere.html
My son and I have this tradition that started when he was a toddler. Every Christmas Eve, I give him a new pair of pajamas to wear on Christmas morning, I put a little tree up in his room and every year add a different ornament to it and place a little present under it for when he wakes up. He is sixteen now and the tradition lives on.
Our favorite holiday tradition would have to be reading the children’s Christmas books – and my children are now 17 and 21! It’s still a special time.
Lovely traditions! We go every year to the tree farm to pick out our tree. We always cut off the bottom a bit more before we put the tree up. The little stump from the bottom of the tree has always gotten a drawing on it plus the year from our daughter or son. We have quite the collection of tree stumps on our mantel now!
i wonder what my grandchildren may treasure of mine. and i really like the sock idea. so cute and inspiring.
One of our holiday traditions is to all go as a family to pick out our real tree. As the kids have gotten older and gotten jobs, it’s been harder to plan time when we are all available. As my youngest will be leaving the nest in the next couple of years, I’m hoping to start some new traditions this year; something that will work for us all as adults now.
I’ve got this holiday WWC button on my blog!
Our traditions keep changing as our family grows up and we have moved away from our farm. When the kids were small, my husband would take them in our golf cart to cut down a cedar tree. I would clean the living room, make hot chocolate and pull the ornaments out from under the stairs. I loved hearing their laughter come closer and closer to the house when they came home. We still put real candy canes on our tree each year along with our ornament collections each child.
What wonderful heart warming stories! We started a tradition 18 years ago when my Dad was sick with cancer and was having a had time eating because of the treatments. My Sister and I started making Gingerbread Cookies. Not just any cookies but sexy cookies. We got a little crazy with them on body parts and when we were done we brought a girl gingerbread in for my Dad and he laughed and laughed and laughed. He couldn’t eat it then but later when we were sleeping he got up in the middle of the night, poured himself a glass of milk, sat down and ate the whole cookie! That was huge. Two days later he went into a coma and seven days later he passed away. We always think with great fondness how he laughed and smiled. Now my sister and I get silly and crazy and carry on the same tradition even though Dad is no longer here it brings us great comfort and smiles to our faces….like it does now thinking of him. Happy Holidays!
Love your story and the give aways!
We have advent boxes to open each day with candies inside.
Great prize! Our traditions change every year – but I always have a stocking for my daughter that each present is wrapped up. And she still wants one this year though she is 19! I ended up making her one which I hope then she can make her own traditions with on her own.
Cheryl
SUGARPLUMS!!!!
My favorite tradition is going up to the woods and finding a tree…it is the smell of Christmas to me! I would love to see a picture of Paiges Angel…
I made a felted advent calendar with pockets filled with tiny ornaments to put on the felted tree that my kids have used since they were little. Only my 17 year old son is still at home but he still looks forward to it.
Every year, we go to a local Christmas Tree farm and walk through acres of trees just to find the perfect one. We cut it down and bring it back home. We always have hot chocolate and homemade Christmas cookies, while decorating it.
Great giveaway…count me in!
Penny
Every year, we go to a local Christmas Tree farm and walk through acres of trees just to find the perfect one. We cut it down and bring it back home. We always have hot chocolate and homemade Christmas cookies, while decorating it.
Great giveaway…count me in!
Penny
Every year, we go to a local Christmas Tree farm and walk through acres of trees just to find the perfect one. We cut it down and bring it back home. We always have hot chocolate and homemade Christmas cookies, while decorating it.
Great giveaway…count me in!
Penny
I’m excited I found this blog through BGC! Yay for creative women.
I have added the widget to my sidebar….
Penny
I would spend an entire Saturday and bake about six different treats( from popcorn balls to cookies) and then I would wrap them up in smaller portions and arrange the goodies in a paper grocery bag that I had already decorated with stickers and ribbon. Then my mom would take me around very early the next morning to friends’ homes and “secret Santa” would leave the goodie bags on their porch as a surprise. I always felt quite pleased with myself that I could pull off such a surprise!
I love the sock idea. I have six grandchildren, ages 10 down to 2 and they would all love it….next year?!
We always have a Swedish dinner Christmas Eve complete with meat balls and rice pudding!
Linda
I just posted about your fabulous giveaway on my blog. Here is a link to that post.
http://thecomfortsofhome.blogspot.com/2010/12/where-women-create-giveaway.html
Penny
My three kids and I always make iced cut out cookies together for the holidays. We take a day or an evening and roll, cut, bake, ice, and sprinkle and we have so much fun doing it together. I always take photos and it’s so much fun to see how much the kids have changed from the previous years.
I love Christmas time and we decorate our tree on the 1st of Dec. every year together!
Love Dawn xx
One of our traditions is to watch a christmas movie. as a family, on christmas eve.
Lovely holiday traditions….
What a terrific prize package! Thank your for the chance to win.
The last few years I have been watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Christmas… not very Christmassy, I know!
Some lovely traditions! We have a fairly new tradition of hosting a Christmas Eve fondue party. It’s kinda messy, and it takes forever to eat, but it’s a lot of fun and very yummy!
I truly appreciate this wonderful post that you’ve supplied for all of us. I guarantee this may be beneficial for a lot of people.
I love the sock advent calendar idea!!!! I have a house full of pomegranates — fresh ripe ones and dried ones….They are my new addiction!
Holiday tradition: Making many different kinds of cookies, boxing up in holiday containers and giving out to neighbors. Nothing makes the holiday season seem more festive!
I love the sock idea! I am awaiting the birth of my first grandchild and think I will use this idea! Through the years I have done 25 days of Christmas bags for each of my children and nieces (usually trading off each year). I pick up inexpensive little trinkets and wrap them up for one to be opened each day leading up to Christmas. When the kids were young it could be things as simple as a Caprisun juice box =)
The story about the special angel that Paige has is pretty much the same sort of special tradition I have. When I was little there wasn’t much money and at some point we were given a box of chocolates that had a little paper angel tag. The price (49 cents I think) was stamped on it (remember the metal stamps the grocery stores used where they had to dial the amount and then stamp each item by hand?). That little angel tag became our treetop angel and remained so for as many years as my parents had a tree. Now it enjoys pride of place on our tree (not on the top, but close!).
One of our family traditions is before putting up our family Christmas tree I take my two daughters shopping to choose a new Christmas ornament. They have so much fun looking through the ornaments they have chosen over the last 5 years. When they are grown and move to their own house/apartment they can take their ornaments with them so they have a good start and good memories for their own family tree.
The sock idea sounds very cute. Any photos?
oh yeah, oh yeah!!! Christmas is here!!!
xoShari
Traditions always start with food! What is Christmas without my favorite Norwegian lefse!
The button is on my sidebar!
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is leaving cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve. But we also leave carrot sticks for the reindeer, can’t forget them! And one year my daughter left a note to Santa that she would like Rudolph to leave a photo of himself by the carrots. Sure enough, in the morning, a nice 8×10 photo of Rudolph was waiting for her!
Blessings,
Jo
What a great prize, sure would be nice to win this for Christmas!
I love the idea that the animals knelt in the manger at the birth of Lord Jesus. So every Christmas eve, at midnight, we go out to be with the horses, just petting them and waiting. We watch to see if they will kneel. The story is that now all animals kneel at midnight on Christmas Eve, in memory and respect of that first glorious night. It seems a better, more Christian, traditional story on which to concentrate. Still fun for the children but less worldy than Santa Clause. We talk about him too, just like to concentrate on the reason for the season!
I bake my famous sugar cookies every year. I have to make a double batch because I have people that expect them every year.
Most of our traditions centers around Breakfast. My mother made Pancakes with bits of sausage in them every Christmas morning. So, I continued that for my husband and I. I also added Biscuits and Sausage gravy for Christmas Eve dinner as my husband LOVES them.
This year, the traditions is going to be changed up a little as we will not be home on the holidays. I am not sure what we’ll do; but, I’m determined to make these at one point or another. :-)
What a lovely giveaway from such very talented ladies. We have very simple Christmas holidays but I value evry ornament I have.
I put your button up on the side of my blog so others can find your lovely giveaway. thanks
I just love traditions at Christmas time. These ladies had wonderful ones. And I love reading about them. We all decorate the tree(s) and then we make paperchains and hang them all through the house. Then, because we are Christians, I make a birthday cake for Jesus. We sing happy birthday to Him. Just a little reminder to my children why we celebrate Christmas.
The prizes are wonderful and I would so love to win!
Blessings,
Sonya
I’m also a follower!
I’m putting a button on my blog!:)
Hello, Oh what a beautiful giveaway, I love to visit your blog. Thank you so much for the opportunity to win. Have a wonderful week. Terri
Hello, I also put your beautiful button on my sidebar, thanks again for the opportunity to win. Terri
Hello, I am also a follower, love to visit. Terri
We have a tradition of my husband reading the Christmas story from the Bible to our kids on Christmas Eve. This started in my family when I was growing up and my Dad read this to my sister and I. It is nice that it has branched out to each of our families now and is a tradition likely to be carried on. ~~ Thanks for the chance to win such a wonderful prize!
every year i try to make a new ornament. i have a lot of funky hand made ornaments now. thanks for the chance at the give-away!
Each year I bought or made a new ornament for each of our three children. After Christmas, they put them in boxes marked with their names and we stored them along with the other decorations. They are all now in their 20s and have their own spouses and homes. Their boxes of ornaments accompanied them, full of memories.
One year, 1986, I embroidered ornaments for each of them. Well, I started to embroider them. But I never finished them. Each year the kids asked about them and I procrastinated. Finally, at least 10 or 12 years later I simply sat down and finished them. The story of Mom’s procrastination is told and retold.
My husband and I make new ornaments for each year…it is so much fun to look back at what we created each year.
hope i win!
c
I buy each of my 5 children a hallmark ornament that they open on Thanksgiving, the night we put up our tree. I have been doing this since my oldest child was 5, he is now 20. So it is really fun to get each ornament out and remember that year and how old they were. When the kids move out they will have all their childhood ornaments to start their own tree.
Really hope I win, I love all these magazines and books!!
I put the 12 days of christmas button on my blog!
Thanks for sharing those stories. Happy Holidays!
Holiday Traditions? So many I think I’d have to write a book! But the short and sweet low-down version is this:
*Tree-always a fresh cut tree;
*Cookies-alwaysALWAYSalways, maybe an exchange, maybe a party, but always cookies, through in a gingerbread house making party in this category;
*Church-Always, so many activities around the birthday of my Jesus;
*Food-always plenty of food planning and prep;
*Music-always a new Christmas album added each year, Christmas music played beginning December 1–always music!
*Homemade Gifts–always, crafting and more!
See? Even when trying to keep this short I made it too long! Thanks for the chance to win!
Blessings, Heidi
Our tradition start 15 years ago when my son was born!!! Every year we buy a new ornament for him and for my daughter that is 10 years old. They are in charge of the Christmas tree and being kids most of the ornaments are cartoon characters or super heros!!!
We also bake cookies and make gingerbread houses, and they love it!!!
best regards,
Wanda
i can sit here and close my eyes, even as i type this, and my memories take me back to a wonderful tradition of setting up my great grandmas aluminum tree. its night, and the tree and decorations have been set. paper mache houses lit up with bulbs sitting underneath the rotating tree surrounded by faux cotton snow sprinkled with multicolored glitter~
i am 7 yrs old.
i am lying on my back and gazing up at the ceiling at the multifaceted shifting and changing of colors that two stragically placed colorwheels are creating just for me. i am as close as i can get after being repeatedly warned away from those hot lamps~ i scoot myself under the lowest branches and watch how close the ornaments come to my nose. i can smell the dust being burned off those lamps as i am captivated by the millions of sparklys that reflect off of everything around me. rainbows of colors surround me and i have been transported to a Christmas world of wonder. i turn my head ever so slowly to the side to share twin grins & giggles with my little 5 yr old brother as we stay there for the evening completely mesmerized. i can hear the whirring of the motor that rotates the tree above the sounds of mom in the kitchen and rudolph on the tv.
i will never forget this memory OR tradition because i STILL lie under that tree now 40 years later, and tho my little brother has 4 of his own children and cannot lie with me anymore, my 17 yr old son will and does.
thanks grandma bess.
We started this fun tradition when my girls we little to make the events of Christmas morning last longer. Although they are all grown it still continues. We do a stocking “scavenger” hunt of sorts. Santa leaves clues all over the house and neighborhood about where the stockings are hidden and the last clue leads them to the stockings. It is so much fun to see them as little girls in thier jammies running down the street ,up
the stairs , back outside, to the garage etc to find the stockings.
We are going to start a new tradition, of doing a December Daily album. Love the little sock idea!
I have the Twelve Days button on my blog’s sidebar: http://melissahuie.blogspot.com
My hubby and I love to decorate…we both get busy and make our home beautiful for the holidays! It’s a tradition we keep adding to every year and a ‘team’ effort! Thanks! ♥
I’ve added the Twelve Days button to my sidebar! Hugs! ♥
One of my favorite traditions is going to church on Christmas Eve. I now sing in the choir so I go to two services. It is very calming and serene for me. Perfect for my soul!
One of our traditions is to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it is always new pajamas for everyone.
I just discovered WWC magazine this year and have loved every issue.I pick it up at Joanne’s or Barnes and Noble as soon as it comes out as there are few issues available.I moved from PA to FLA 18 yrs ago.My holiday tradition every year in Fla has been to fill my kitchen bar overlooking my great room from one end to the other with “snow” and my favorite dolls, Mr Christmas items,my mechanicals that play music,etc.Every year I add a little something new. It just isn’t Christmas without unpacking my special ‘treasures’.
What fabulous prizes. I hope that I get lucky and win.
I love Christmas traditions.
Every year we choose or create a family ornament for the tree to represent that year … this year I think will be in the theme of “home”, as we are urgently looking to move. I also do holiday crafts with my kids, adding to our ever-growing stash of decorations!
Our first Christmas my husband and I were together, I asked him what kind of Christmas tree would he like, decor, type of tree…He said he remember as a kid they had a “Silver Christmas Tree” which he said was his fvorite…so for weeks I talked to co workers and friends where could I find a silver tree…with no luck…fourteen years later I found and bought a vintage remake Silver tree…He loved it…through the years I found out The Tree from his childhood was from a beer advertisement in a store, the owner had given my father in law…we love our little Silver Chrismas tree!
Love hearing your special memories and projects that makes Christmas time special.
It’s Christmas here when the wreath goes on the front door and the first of many bowls of popcorn are popped, eaten and some make it to our living Christmas tree… usually very little so we have to make more!
Look forward to hearing more from you this season.
xo~Tracie
Christmas morning would not be complete without our favorite tradition of having Russian Blintze. My Russian grandmother always made this on Christmas and other special holidays and it has been carried on since. Part of Christmas Eve is spent in front of the stove cooking 72+ crepes. My two sons have gotten to be experts at crepe making. The scrumptious dish consists of cigar rolled crepes, baked in half and half and butter and topped with home made strawberry preserves. Fabulous and soooo fattening!
My husband calls me his Holiday Fairy!! I love the holidays & have passed that love onto our children. We love to celebrate Advent with our advent wreath & advent calendar but the holiday isn’t complete until the tree is up & adorned with ornaments handed down from both my Grandmother & my Mother as well as those that my children choose each year to add to our tree. My most prized Christmas decoration though is my mother’s nativity scene that was given to her by my brother with money he earned from his paper route. That nativity not only reminds me of my childhood & my mother but it serves to remind us all of the true meaning of Christmas.
Laura
Great ideas from both of you! Oh Jo! I want to do that! My children (older now) love our advent in the kitchen every year! That sock idea has my head spinning with more ideas for the future! Thanks!
I tweeted this and already had a response this morning!
I also shared this post with my viewers just now on my FB page called Wendys Hat !
I love the socks at the end of the bed for a advent calendar. That is such a sweet idea. My favorite tradition every year is still baking and decorating sugar cookies and almond bark cookies with my children, always using my Grandmas recipes. This year my Son will be in Iraq for Christmas, but hoping that his new wife will join my daughter and myself to carry on the tradition : )
Kathy
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is Jingles the Elf. Jingles entered our lives when my youngest daughter, now 11 was 3 years old and being very naughty that year–this is the kid that liked to roast marshmallows on a pencil over my lit candles! That year Jingles wrote a little note to Janelle to let her know that he was helping Santa out by keeping an eye on her and that was the moment the awe and wonder began. Janelle got help in writing a note back to Jingles and left it in the tree and to this day she and Jingles correspond through the tree–we find out lots of interesting things this way!–and he even leaves her 1 or 2 very small gifts along with something that has a jingle bell on it.
One year as I was going out to the barn I noticed deer tracks in the snow and of course we knew that those were the tracks of one of Santa’s reindeer who had dropped Jingles off for the coming Christmas season.
We now have a collection of Jingle’s and Janelle’s letters and she has yet to volunteer to us that she knows the truth about Jingles or Santa for that matter. In fact Jingles arrived for the season just last night. Oh and for the record, her behavior did improve! LOL!
Cathy ♥
Christmas Traditions….My mother passed away twelve years ago and I have carried on the tradition of giving a snow globe to my daughters every year. Mother started this when I was a very young girl and kept it up through our 46 years together. A simple dime store snow globe brought such joy to my life and that is what I looked forward to every year. This year I will change it up a bit and make my own snow globes for my girls. To make a snow globe use any size, shape clear bottle with a cork stopper. Using your favorite mini size ornament, glue (I use Gorilla Glue) the bottom and place inside bottle. You can use tweezers to hold it while you lower it into bottle. Allow to dry for 10 min. Fill with water and about 1 tsp of glitter(adjust for size of bottle, you may need more or less). Glue cork stopper and place in bottle. Top it off with ribbon. Blessings for a Merry Christmas!
Our tradition starts on Thanksgiving Day when my sisters and I, along with our families, go to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our Christmas trees. We then make cookies and candies to share with our neighbors and friends. We meet again on Christmas Day to celebrate Christmas and share gifts. A good time is had by all after lunch when our children and grandchildren play a game of touch football. I love this celebration with my family.
Thank you for a chance to win this wonderful giveaway!
Marilyn
Fabulous prizes! Thank you.
Googled the image of the Noma Christmas Angel. So pretty.
Cannot wait to see Where Women Cook. I LOVE the Pioneer Woman and seeing others kitchens sounds like a wonderful way to curl up with a blanket.
I am looking for new holiday traditions. So many that I did with my children don’t seem to work with grandchildren. But one I will always do is the make an ornament for each child each year. When they grow up to have families, there will be my love and creativity still with them.
WE HAVE A SNOWFLAKE PARTY WHERE WE CUT OUT PAPER SNOWFLAKES…VERY ADDICTIVE…YOU ALWAYS THINK THE NEXT ONE WILL BE EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL AND AT THEN END OF THE PARTY IT LOOKS AS THOUGH IT HAS BEEN SNOWING ALL OVER YOUR FRONT ROOM X THE SNOWFLAKES ARE THEN PUT UP IN THE WINDOWS WHERE THEY ARE ADMIRED BY EVERYONE X X
WE HAVE A SNOWFLAKE PARTY WHERE WE CUT OUT PAPER SNOWFLAKES…VERY ADDICTIVE…YOU ALWAYS THINK THE NEXT ONE WILL BE EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL AND AT THEN END OF THE PARTY IT LOOKS AS THOUGH IT HAS BEEN SNOWING ALL OVER YOUR FRONT ROOM X THE SNOWFLAKES ARE THEN PUT UP IN THE WINDOWS WHERE THEY ARE ADMIRED BY EVERYONE X X
WE HAVE A SNOWFLAKE PARTY WHERE WE CUT OUT PAPER SNOWFLAKES…VERY ADDICTIVE…YOU ALWAYS THINK THE NEXT ONE WILL BE EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL AND AT THEN END OF THE PARTY IT LOOKS AS THOUGH IT HAS BEEN SNOWING ALL OVER YOUR FRONT ROOM X THE SNOWFLAKES ARE THEN PUT UP IN THE WINDOWS WHERE THEY ARE ADMIRED BY EVERYONE X X
I love putting the decorations up…the star with light hangs in the window, decorating the tree with the kids!!! Singing Christmas songs and best of all…watching A Christmas Carol on tv!
I love reading about all of the special traditions. Our tradition started about 3 years before my mother passed. For my entire life, she was known for her homemade divinity at Christmas time. Our friends and neighbors would bring in sacks of sugar to her so she could make divinity for them to share with their friends and families, and sometimes she’d spend a couple of weeks making batches of divinity.
Three years before she passed, she told me it was time that I learned to make divinity. So she came over one evening and she made the divinity – but had me watch and observe each step. The following year – we made the divinity together. Her final year, I made the divinity and she watched. Since then – I make divinity each year. Not as many batches as my mom would make – but as the years go by, friends make requests. And this past 3 – 4 years, my youngest daughter is helping me – and learning how to make it ‘just right – like grandma betty’. It’s as if she’s in the kitchen with us.
I’m following you on twitter and I tweeted about this contest!
My Grandmother always lit a Bayberry Candle on Christmas Eve. We each got to make a wish, then the candle was put out and saved for the next year. All the years we made wishes the same candle was used. It was such a special part of Christmas Eve.
My favorite tradition is to make my kids jammies for their Christmas eve present. We always open just one gift on Christmas eve, the rest on Christmas Day. The year I skipped the jammies, thinking they were too grown up, boy did I hear about it, and spent Christmas eve night sewing! Now it is time to include my daughter’s fiance.
Since opening our shop, it seems many of our traditions have fallen by the wayside and life is a blur of activity until Christmas morning (usually my first full day off since before Novemeber!). So, our Christmas morning tradition of pretending not to hear the kids (now 18, 16 and 14) sneak downstairs for their first peak at the loot–then feign surprise when we call them down later–is treasured! But baking my mother’s traditional Monkey Bread is a close second!
I’ll be happy to tweet and repost this blog!
Every year we put up a special Christmas stocking for Jesus, and Christmas Eve we each write what gift of service or love we will give him through our deeds. We then put it in the stocking and then open the one from the year before to see how well we did
we also make home made marshmallows for our hot cocoa! This year we will make peppermint ones!
Today starts our first advent calender for grandchildren. My sister passed away last week leaving 8 little grandchildren, so we are adding them to our 4. We just added 12 quarters to the first little bucket, which is strung from cupboard to cupboard. We’ll pass out the prizes at our annual family Christmas party. Thanks for the entry chance to brighten my holidays.QUEENIE Chris Gerke
Today starts our first advent calender for grandchildren. My sister passed away last week leaving 8 little grandchildren, so we are adding them to our 4. We just added 12 quarters to the first little bucket, which is strung from cupboard to cupboard. We’ll pass out the prizes at our annual family Christmas party. Thanks for the entry chance to brighten my holidays.QUEENIE Chris Gerke
Today starts our first advent calender for grandchildren. My sister passed away last week leaving 8 little grandchildren, so we are adding them to our 4. We just added 12 quarters to the first little bucket, which is strung from cupboard to cupboard. We’ll pass out the prizes at our annual family Christmas party. Thanks for the entry chance to brighten my holidays.QUEENIE Chris Gerke
I decorate my tree with vintage glass ornaments, so every year we all go on the hunt for new ones. The ornaments from my childhoos go at the very top of the tree so they do not get broke. Christmas eve is my birthday so we always have a birthday party. On Christmas night I have a a dinner for all my family and friends.
We have a silly little tradition that my parents started when I was a child. Every year in my stocking I rec’d a Lifesaver Story Book and a giant Peppermint Pole. When I had my son, we continued the tradition. He’s 22 this year and you guessed it…..I already have them bought! :)
Great posts. I really love all the ideas shared here. e have a lot of Christmas traditions too. We try to decorate the tree and house on the first weekend in Dec. After we decorate the tree, we make a large batch of apple cider, light the tree and sit and just relax for a moment and think of how special the holidays are to us. We have 2 young children.. so the relaxing part doesn’t last too long… but we started this our 1st Christmas together and it’s nice to appreciate how much has changed over the years.. and hopefully what doesn’t change. Our older son loves making and decorating a gingerbread house each year and of course it’s a must to read the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve. Another tradition I’ve had since I was a child was Midnight Mass on Christmas eve, truly a beautiful service, and even with young children, I still try to do this each year. I also like to craft, so I usually make a Christmas ornament and house decoration each year, one year we made almost all of the main gifts we gave out too. Last year, I was obsessed with flocking my own tree.. ( some success) and I remember my son saying to me one night.. when we got home after a light snow fall dusted the yard.. ” Mom, doesn’t it look like the yard has been Flocked”… too funny. All these posts have inspired me to also try to make something for the kids too
My favorite Holiday Tradition is the one my children started themselves. When they were little they all slept in the same bed. Now that they are older, they still like to sleep in the same room..this is their Christmas Eve tradition which I know is going to change someday. But the best feeling in the world is having them home asleep on Christmas Eve.
Since my son has gotten older now (18) our traditions have changed a little bit. We love having hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies the same ones every year and all the new ones on t.v. We like to choose different snacks to make and just relax and be together.
Tweeted too….
Every year I host a cone making party with my fave girlfriends and I pull out the GOOD STUFF (vintage treasures!) My little way of saying thanks to those who are always there for me!
You are too generous ~ of course I’d love to win!
Wishing you a peaceful & joyous holiday season!
xo Heidi
Thanks for sharing your wonderful traditions!
We have a homemade christmas mailbox each family member goes to the mailbox to find their card with a special message inside. xoxo
One of the traditions we have each year is doing “Good Deed Jars”. As our gift to Jesus each year on His birthday, each boy gets his own jar which has been decorated with a gift tag, ribbon and a jingle bell or some other cute little ornament. The jars are then filled with strips of paper with “good deeds” on each strip. Every morning they pull a strip from their jar and do that deed in that day. When it has been done we put them in a pretty box under our tree as a gift for Jesus.
Love both of your stories!
The little stockings sound like a darling idea and your grandmas angel story is so sweet.
We started a new tradition last year of having our Christmas gathering with all the children and grandchildren and great grandparents ect. the Sunday before Christmas. We had a brunch opened some presents and spent the afternoon together. It made it so much easier on the families with young children that we are doing the same this year and probably each year after. Would love to win this package!
Wonderful prizes and I love the advent sock idea. When my children were younger I would purchase a ready to assemble gingerbread house. Then I started making my own and we would decorate the house together. Over the years we have made pyramids, car garage, tower, castle, cottage, our home, etc. Of course we have a taste test of the gingerbread recipe, as well as shop together at the candy store. My favorite part is when my children get to eat the gingerbread house, it’s a priceless moment and only crumbs are left:-)
My favorite Christmas traditions are driving through two parks that decorate with lights for the holiday and attending the Christmas concert performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Our family celebrates Advent with tea and finger foods by candlelight every Sunday evening of Advent. It’s a really beautiful tradition that my girls love:>)
I already follow on twitter & I tweeted this also.
I also put the 12 Days of Christmas button on my blog!
Love this giveaway!
Christmas cookies made from my grandmother’s recipe. My son and niece are now taking over the making and I just supervise!
Great giveaway! One of our favorite traditions is Christmas poppers. Before our meal on Christmas Eve at my parents house we all pull our poppers. The kids all love the silly little trinkets. And we all wear our paper crowns for a picture. Family fun!
One of my favourite Christmas traditions started in my classroom… When I put up the tree at school I talk about some of the ornaments I have been given from past students and talk about what these people are doing now (if I know) Then my 6 and 7 year olds begin to wonder what they might be doing in the future and they design and make their own ornaments to put on the tree.
Oh I also tweeted this.
We have a lot of very traditional things we do each year (stockings, trees, cooking). But in recent years we have started Christmas crafting as a tradition- with each of the kids making gifts for one another.
We always pile in the car and drive around all the neighborhoods to look at all the Christmas lights. I would get some grumbles from the kids but they ended up loving it too.
We always made almond flavored cut out Christmas cookies. Picking the color and making the frosting and adding lots of sprinkles completed the fun!
Just put you on sidebar!
What great fun ideas! December first finds my son and I ( my husband just watches ) putting up the Christmas tree, decorating and dancing to Christmas music. We love going through all the ornaments filled with memories!
We are the only family I know that never had presents under the tree. We always had a beautiful christmas village. Complete with houses,people,snow and a fence around the village.As a child I would lay on the floor and stare at the village,imagining what was going on in the houses.
Today it just isn’t Christmas until the village is up. I not only have a village under the tree,but I have one on the dresser in our bedroom. I love going to bed with the lights glowing in the little houses.
Our family tradition, until my grandmother passed away in 2006, was for my sister and I to always open our gifts from her on Christmas Eve. When we were younger, she lived about a half-hour away, so we would go there on Christmas Eve. When she moved in with our aunt in Maryland, they would ship their gifts so, after dinner out with our parents, we’d come home and each open our gifts – and then immediately switch them for what the other one got! It always made us laugh, and just writing it now makes me smile, and miss her!
My favorite thing to do at the holidays is sit with my family around the dining room table which is covered with desserts and cookies. We eat too much and laugh and just enjoy each other’s company.
When my kids were little, I designed us all a Christmas stocking. I wasn’t an expert with sewing, so I asked my husbands grandmother to make them for us. She loved the material and ribbons so much, she saved the scraps and made something for herself. She is no longer with us, but her stockings are hung up every Christmas, keeping her memory alive !
My favorite tradition is the old train station cabinet on the living room wall filled with Grandma K’s and Grandma T’s vintage ornaments as well as a sweet set of celodon snowmen from my Momma….. they are there…. all the year round! :)
I just love hearing about other people’s traditions- so fun to share this with everyone!!!!!
I love all of the traditions- one of mine is to fill stockings to the brim so that they are really much more exciting than anything else one could receive—my three daughters would just RUN to their stockings!!
Wow – awesome giveaway!! Favorite tradition is going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve and then driving in the neighborhood to see all the glorious Christmas lights. LindaSonia ([email protected])
My favorite Christmas tradition is when we decorate sugar cookies. It is a yummy, messy treat with our 2 year old son.
I love the traditions that both of you shared. Beautiful! I would love to try the little sock idea for an advent calender. Brilliant, Jo!
Every year my husband and our two kids (Joey-19 and Sammy-14) head out in our Suburban in the first week in Dec. to buy our tree. Sometimes we have gone to a tree farm to cut our own, but usually we end up going to our favorite tree lot in the Walgreen’s Parking Lot. I love choosing the tree so much! We have a stuffed baboon that is large and realistic looking. His name is Qbert. We put him in a stocking hat and mittens and he sits on my lap as we drive…. Oh, my…. the looks we get. He really looks real. So funny. After we have chosen the perfect tree and my husband has captured it all on video, we head to our local Mexican Restaurant and feast. I love all of our traditions, both old and new. I love every single thing about the holidays. Thanks for the opportunity to share and for the amazing giveaway!
Christmas is a favorite at our house….the outside lights, the decorations on the inside, the cookies, the giving of gifts, decorating the church, caroling….it’s all special. One of our traditions is a creche of some type in each room. Some of them are handmade, some of them are children’s toys, but all of them are special.
Fantastic Giveaway! I always buy my Girls a special ornament and when they move out they get to take them with.
We also always buy a family in need gifts, food and clothes.~Cheers Kim
My favorite thing is hanging teeny stockings for my cats.
jan
We have several Christmas traditions, but one that has developed over the years is going to see “That House” as we refer to it. Y’know, as in, have you seen “That House” yet, the one in our neighborhood that is decorated every year with thousands of colored lights, reindeer, Santa, angels, a Nativity, and who knows what. It’s spectacularly gaudy, but it just wouldn’t feel like Christmas without going to see it at least twice! This year, we’re looking forward to taking my 82 year old grandmother who is visiting from England.
Oh my – JO’s advent sock idea brought tears to my eyes. I think my kids would really love that. I better go find some socks…
My favorite Christmas tradition is setting up a small chalkware nativity scene that belonged to my grandparents….always brings back special memories of them ~
One of my favorite holiday traditions is putting out my creche. The stable and most figures belonged to my loving mother, and I have fond memories of growing up with them at Christmas. I have a few very old pieces that belonged to my grandmother and were most likely made in Germany. They seem to be some type of paper mache.
One tradition we have that can actually occur at just about any time through the year but comes to roost at Christmas, is that whenever we are on a trip we buy a Christmas decoration. They are mementos of our vacations, but don’t have to be on display and dusted throughout the year! They are on display at Christmas only, and have centre stage on our tree. It’s fun to both decorate the tree and reminisce about past Christmases and vacations at the same time!
I love seeing what everybody’s favorite Holiday Tradition is? It’s just so heartwarming to read all the comments. Thank you for a chance to win this awesome prize package. There are so many favorite holiday traditions, but I must say my most favorite is when my daughter and I decorate our tree. Since my children were babies I’ve been collecting ornaments for them. Every Christmas when we decorate the tree, each and every ornament brings a warm memory to the surface. Our little holiday tree may not be fancy, but it certainly is full of loving and wonderful memories!
Our traditions are to spend 12/25 with my parents and go to mass in the morning and to spend 1/6 with my in-law’s who are Ukrainian.
Shannon
Putting up my silver Christmas tree…just like the one my grandmother had with the multi color light wheel. I collect antique ornaments and hang them on that tree…it reminds me of being at my grandparents house when i was young.
As I get older I remember all the wonderful traditions from when I was a little girl and visiting my grandparents on Christmas Day. Now I am making memories for my own grandchildren to treasure.
What lovely traditions! This is a wonderful series – I can’t wait to read more. Thanks!
First let me say thank you, ara for posting about this wonderful and happy blog!! I just love it and can’t wait to catch up on all the older posts! And oh my, the prizes are so fabulous! I love the traditions and stories that were shared. Christmas is such a very special and joyous time of the year for me. Your words have sent me to my little land of “Bliss”!! Thank you for offering such lovely items! I know they will be a blessing to the one that wins them.
we do an advent calendar with little notes to each other, nightly activities and little treats…looking at it each day reminds us what the season is all about :)
This post was so much fun to read… and that swag bag is super cute.
Loved reading about your traditions. My family has diced oranges and bananas with just a touch of sugar for breakfast every Christmas morning. It started during the depression when my grandmother wanted to do something special for Christmas morning breakfast. She didn’t have much but her orange tree in the back yard of her California home was loaded with oranges and she bought a banana. It is a loved tradition for all of us now.
~Adrienne~
My favorite tradition is our Christmas morning breakfast…..before the hubub of the day sets in. And I also love being the last one to bed in December and enjoying the glow of the Christmas Tree before I turn off the lights…..
Of course after this many Christmases we have many different traditions. But when we moved to Mexico we packed most away safely knowing that they were always in our memories. This year I discovered there is one tradition with the decoration of our tree that I wasn’t ready to pack away yet. For 30years I have always placed our vintage Christmas tree candle clamps and candles, on the tree Mind you they are not lit, especially with kids and pets in the mix! :) But they are always standing tall and white on the evergreen branches. Some how the tree just doesn’t seem complete without it’s candles, so this year when I went back to the states to visit family I brought home with me the Christmas tree candle clamps! I even found a place on the internet to order the candles and a wonderful “mule” (friend or family coming to visit) who will bring them down next week! I’m sooooo looking forward to decorating our tree in our adapted country with an old family tradition!
Pattie ;)
Mazatlan Mx.
All I want for Christmas is to win this giveaway….love it!!! Also love the sock idea…
Carrying on a tradition that has taken place in my family for many generations, we read the Christmas story from the Bible to our two daughters. It is a precious moment to share with them and helps us remember why we really celebrate.
I always put my tree and outside decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. I always made homemade fudge to give to family and friends. Also my grown up kids still open a gift to each other on Christmas eve.
I serve hot chocolate in Santa mugs with an egg casserole Christmas morn after the stockings are opened.
One of my traditions is to create an ornament for all of my friends and family each year and then decorating the house with all our handmade decorations. Tops on my tradition list, though, is watching It’s a Wonderful Life many times each season and also A Christmas Story as many times as possible on the TBS marathon!
I follow on twitter and tweeted about the contest!
I added the WWC 12 Days button to my blog!
I blogged about this contest!
Placing the ornaments I bought with my Father 60 years ago just before he died on the tree always brings back wonderful memories for me.
One of our fav traditions is putting out the Christmas stockings. They were handmade when we had our first child and I made another for our next child when she was born. We then spend the month filling them will little trinkets and goodies. By the time Christmas day rolls around, they’re full to the brim! It’s so much fun sitting down together and seeing what’s in everyone’s stockings :)
I’ve tweeted about this blog post! Good luck to everyone – such a cool prize!!
I’ve added the widget to my blog too :):)
Sugarplums, Fairies and Wonderment…it’s a special time and Celebrating the Birth of Christ…that’s really what it’s all about. Would love to be in the drawing….thanks, bonnie
We love the watch Christmas movies almost every night. Some traditional ones like It’s a Wonderful Life and Rudolph and of course the more recent ones like Elf which my daughter LOVES! It’s a great opportunity to just sit during a very hectic time of year.
The Twelve Days button is on my sidebar.
Such a wonderful tradition : )
I played along last year and enjoyed meeting some new artists. Looking forward to this year. Thanks a bunch for your sweet generosity.
Tis the season…
Catherine
Isn’t traditon the best – love it.
What a great give-away! And I love the story about the angel. I think every family has unique stories and memories, yet somehow they are all familiar, in some way. The socks Advent Calendar sounds incredibly clever & adorable!
Thanks for the chance to win!
my children are now celebrating Christmas in their own homes with their children but 35 yrs ago I made a cloth pieced reindeer head which I moved from room to room during the season so the children would never know where he was listening to report to Santa about all the naughty or nice at our house. He still has a special place in our home and the grandchildren always look for him.
We put up our Christmas tree every year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Then we turn off all the lights except the tree and eat mud pie while watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. I look forward to it all year.
I follow and tweeted the contest
One of my favorite traditions is getting a new Christmas picture book every year. My mom would write the year that we got it in the front of the book. I have continued this tradition (and am also slowly collecting the books that we had gotten while I was growing up … writing the original date that it had been added to my family’s collection and stating that it’s from my family’s collection).
I’ve enjoyed all the stories, thank you for sharing and good luck to everyone! :o)
Our family tradition is to open a gift on Christmas Eve. My Mom started it when we were little and I did the same with my children and now with my Grandchildren.
We love it and look forward to it every year!
Sandra
I love hanging the Santa that my mother bought my first Christmas.
It was new then, but it would be called vintage now!!
; )
One of our little traditions is that I purchase those birdseed feeders that are shaped like bells. After opening our presents on Christmas morning, we go outside and hang the seed bells in the trees to give a gift back to “Mother Nature.” Sometimes we also cover pinecones in peanut butter and birdseed and hang those too.
We love to make homemade sugar cookies every year…drive around with hot cocoa and look at the festive lights….open new pajamas each Christmas Eve. I also follow Ali Edward’s lead and do a December Daily scrapbook album each year.
what great traditions…never too late to start new traditions either ;o)
This is a “modern” tradition that also helped a blended family. When my son and stepson where little often they would arrive on Christmas day at different times so in order to keep gifts from being seen my husband came up with an elaborate scavenger hunt with hidden envelopes and clues that the boys had to solve. Now even at 13 and 15 years old they boys know and expect to be using their brains to find their gifts!
I follow on Twitter as @shellrose and tweeted about this.
yeah! count me in!!
my favorite holiday traditions usually center around the kitchen with some treasured recipes from both my mom and grandma, but also entertaining friends for dinner or just a night of cocktails and appetizers….
since we don’t have a TV, we play games and our music together more and more in the winter, and outside activities like snowboard kiting and of course sledding! and homemade hot cocoa is a given for ALL activities
thanks for letting me share!
I added it to my sidebar hoping to help inspire others and give them a chance to win all these terrific prizes!!
btw: I’m loving being able to meet all these creative women you are featuring…..it’s just great!!
xo+blessings,
anne marie
I try to make syrup on the snow and every year have failed! Perhaps this will be my year! lol
Great Traditions. One of my favorite came out of a very lean time for our family. As a single mom with two girls and no job, Christmas wasn’t anything extravagant. On Christmas Eve all I could muster for a dinner was nachos. Then we went to feed the ducks at a local pond. Well the cold weather must have been keeping many people away because all the pigeons came begging for food, too. they landed on our heads and arms and even tracked muddy prints across our shoes. The birds even landed on each other making double-decker and even triple-decker pigeons. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was so wonderful! We decided right then that nachos and feeding the birds would be an important tradition for us. Now, my granddaughters get to join the fun.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is putting out the Creche. The stable and most figurines belonged to my loving mother. It is a reminder of beautiful Christmases from years long past. There are a few animal figures that belonged to my grandmother. I believe they were made in
Germany and seem to be some type of paper mache that was painted. We go to cut our own Christmas tree at a farm on top of a mountain ridge where you can go to a lookout point and see many towns in the valley below. Santa’s little elves are everywhere helping out and serving snacks and hot chocolate.
hey girls,
what great family traditions.
this is very sweet, cant wait to see what tomorrow brings,
Have a happy holiday season
oxoxo,
jessi
My favorite holiday tradition is that every Christmas Eve my husband and I get carry out Chinese food and sit in front of our lit tree annd have dinner, eating with chopsticks and sipping wine. It has been our tradition since we were married 24 years ago.
Marie
It’s all about tradition for me. I’m passing on my mother’s and my grandmother’s traditions. I’ve also recently discovered that my three grown sons are very sentimental concerning anything that I’ve made, which surprised me, so it’s becoming more and more a “handmade” Christmas.
Every Christmas we choose a new Santa ornament for our main tree. We now have over 23 years of special glass Santas, each different.
My big tree never has a “theme”, all 11 & 1/2 feet are filled with memories of ornaments bought new and vintage, hand made or from my sons through out the years. Each son has his own tree full of ornaments for each Christmas they have celebrated.
It is so much fun to look back and remember so many of the treasures we hang each year.
What great ideas for new traditions! Thank you for sharing with us.
I love traditions at Christmas…even though my children are all grown up I still love to decorate and bake lots of goodies for them. When they were young they could open one gift on Christmas Eve – new pj’s…then we would read The Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas – doing those things with grandchildren now. We also attend Mass on Christmas Eve to celebrate the reason for the season. Blessings to you, Anita
My Mom always makes Chicken and Dumplins on Christmas, peanut brittle and Chex Mix!! She only decorates her tree with ball ornaments that she has collected since we were kids from Hallmark!
Our family traditions are brand new this year since it is my husband and I’s first Christmas in our house! We are looking forward to cross country skiing on Christmas Day with our families. Also, lots of crafting, sewing, baking, and my newest crafting craze is making mismatched vintage china stacked (and glued) cake stands! Thanks for another great giveaway! Happy Holidays!
What beautiful memories and traditions.
Sherry @ A Happy Valentine
I’ve added the Twelve Days of Christmas button to my blog’s sidebar.
Sherry @ A Happy Valentine
As a child our parents would drive us around town in the car with Christmas music playing and us singing as we admired the Christmas lights. Each year we would visit Ludlow falls which was frozen and “lit to the hilt” with colorful Christmas lights.
Great Giveaway! I have lots of memories of Christmas in years past! So many family traditions of baking cookies, decorating the tree and making ornaments! I am having a Linky Party on my blog on Monday called Monday Memories – would love to invite any bloggers to join in the fun!
Please include me in the giveaway!
We always read Christmas stories on Christmas eve and the kids open one gift from Mom and Dad, usually new pajamas and than we leave a treat out for Santa before going to bed.
I tweeted about the 12 days of Christmas! http://twitter.com/SewNso
I added a grab button to my blog for the 12 days of Christmas!
I’m a facebook fan!
Posting twice…hope that is o.k. Where Women Create’s 12 days of Christmas is now on my newly started blog as well as your blog button. Just started yesterday so it is a work in progress. Thanks ladies.
when my husband and i were married 33 (almost 34) years ago, we were dirt poor. i was in art school, all my pay went towards tuition and supplies.
that year was our first christmas as married folks. i had been making ornaments on and off all year, (hand painted blown eggs)as well as saving for some lights, garland and glass balls. however once we got our tiny tree home, our ornaments weren’t enough to actually cover the tree. it looked so sparce and lost.
i had my last $5.00 and bought two spools of ribbon, each with what seemed like a million yards on them, one red, one white.. i started to cut 20″ lengths, and tied bows…… hundreds of them. i covered that tree with those bows while my husband was at work.
when he came home that night, our little tree looked as fine as any fancy expensively decorated tree.
so to this day…..
bows are ALWAYS on our christmas tree.
now they are an ivory white but they are still always there
vi
I love tradition – my favorite is setting up the manger scene and reflecting on true meaning of the holiday.
Being of Polish origin it has been our tradition since I was born to have a Christmas Eve dinner of pierogis and mushroom soup. We also pass around a wafer called oplatek similar to a communion wafer and we “break bread” with each of our family members present and tell them that we love them. I love this tradition. A more modern tradition that I’ve started is to hang my Christmas cards as they arrive right on my tree – I love the way they look and always have a different tree each year because I get NEW cards!
I used to host a Mother/Daughter Christmas Tea – I did this every year for 20 years. At the tea I would always make an old family recipe, June’s Cookies. Though I no longer throw that party, I still ONLY make those during the Christmas season!
I would LOVE to win those treasures!
Pammy
One of my favorite holiday traditions is one my Mom started. Every year we have a birthday cake for Jesus’ birthday. Nana(aka my Mom) gave our kids minature manger scene ornaments for them to decorate the cake each year. Thanks for sharing your traditions!
tweeted this sweet tweet!
added your button to my sidebar!
I just love this blog and one of these days I am going to get my own creative space functioning at a higher level! You ladies inspire me everytime I visit!
One of our traditions for Christmas is that we always read the Grinch to the kids right before they go to bed and then they open their PJ’s and ornament!
One of my favorite traditions for Christmas Eve is having rice pudding and Swedish bread. The bread is a Cardamon Braid, and that, dipped in the rice pudding and Half and Half, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, is exquisite! Now I’ve learned how to make this for my own family gatherings.
One of my Christmas traditions is to visit the graves of loved ones and light a candle there.
– Birgit
I am the mother of a 31-year-old daughter who just married last year. As my only (biological) child, and with no children of her own – yet – she spends every Christmas Eve at my home, so we can wake up and open presents in our pajamas! This is my favorite holiday tradition!!
The button is on my blog! :)
OK, trying this again! Thank you—-love, love, love this!!
Love Christmas traditions. Grew up getting a new ornament every year and now it’s still fun decorate my tree with them and remember Christmases past. My hubby and I started a new tradition when we married a few years ago. There is a state park (Willard Bay State Park in Utah) near us that has an amazing Christmas light display – Fantasy at the Bay. We love to go through the light display each year -sometimes we drive through it twice. We took his sweet grandmother with us until she passed away last year.
It has been snowing in Pittsburgh. Finally feeling like Christmas :)
Don’t like it but it’s the truth. It seems that my holiday tradition is running around like a chicken without her head. Always rushing rushing rushing but finally making all my magic happen in time.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is matching Christmas jammies for the kiddoes and my hubby and me….something we started when the kids were little and it just stuck. I think I enjoy it more than everyone else – but gladly everyone amuses me!! :)
Our newest tradition is advent books. I have been collecting winter holiday books for the past couple of years (I have a two year old). I made fabric bags to fit all the books. They sit wrapped in a basket and little man gets to pick one out each day for unwrapping and reading.
I make an ornament for all my friends and family to include with their gifts and I make most if not all of my gifts for them. Decorating the tree and the house with all of the decorations from over the years is so much fun and I’m so happy that we’re staying put in our own home this year to enjoy them instead of traveling all over the country!
I have the WWC 12 Days button on my blog!
I tweeted about this contest!
I blogged about this contest!
We have a couple of Christmas Traditions at our home.
This is an all time favorite!
On the last Sunday before Christmas we all get together to go tree hunting at the local tree farm ~ Our daughter comes home from Toronto(6 hours away), Our youngest son & his family join us as do our oldest boy & our youngest girl (still at home). We bundle everyone up, and meet at the parking lot of the farm along with my brother & his family as well as my brother in law & his family… here we get on a horse drawn wagon/sled and head into the bush… off we go in different directions, in search of the perfect tree ~ snowballs start flying, we take a family portrait of the kids, more snow flies & we then go tp select our favorite tree (the girls pick their favorite & then we vote). Once we get the trees loaded up we head for a local coffee shop for Hot Chocolate & a doughnut. The family talks about this all the time & everyone loves the family picture they get with their gift! We are all anxiously waiting for this years trip…on the 19th!
My favorite holiday tradition is having eggnog, crackers and Hickory Farms beef stick while we put up the tree.
I don’t tweet, but your button is on my sidebar.
Like so many others, I was touched by Paige’s tradition! What a wonderful way to remember and honor her grandmother!
I have the three elves that were always on the front of the tree when I was growing up and each year, they are the first things I put on my own tree!
Love all that you do. Keep up the good work! Very inspirational.
For me, the thrill is in the hunt. I love to shop for unique antique and vintage items–not big stuff, but the little things that make me smile and sometimes giggle aloud when I find them. Every year (I search all year-round), I try to find the perfect, meaningful surprise for the loved ones in my life. It’s always such fun to see their reactions to the treasures of days gone by.
Great traditions! I hope to enjoy many traditions that are dear to our hearts again this year with my children and grandchildren.
~Adrienne~
Oh I love your tradition of the sock advent calendar Jo… wish my kids were little again! I guess I will have to wait with that idea until I have grandchildren!
One of my favorite traditions is the wrapping of gifts. This usually happens the week of Christmas and I wait until evening with the fireplace and lights all a glow, and with my favorite Christmas music playing… then I wrap. I love to spend the time personalizing and decorating each gift, sometimes even creating little gifts along the way.
It is a special, quiet, delightful time that makes the gift giving even more special. My daughter helps me for a little while, then I send her off to make sure the gifts stay secret!
Oh, I can’t wait for this year’s wrap night!
my favorite tradition is caroling. at neighbors, the local Senior Center or even at the mall!
I follow WWC AND have your button
What great prizes. It would be like Santa visited me. So exciting.
Too busy this year with 2 wonderful juried crafts shows to even get my lights up! will have to wait to mid-December!
I would love to hear about some ‘long distance’ traditions. My family is spread out all over the country these days…
The advent socks for your grandchildren – what a tradition those little ones will have to remember! And, the story of the angel story is so poignant. Thanks for the chance to win such fabulous prizes – would love all of these goodies!
I have your 12 days WWC button on my sidebar.
Thanks for the fabulous giveaway!
Singing, baking, decorating, watching all the TV specials and family time together!
Follow on twitter @freritcinge.
would love to win this fabulous give-away. thank you!
I would love to win.
I am such a fan of WWC and the website is terrific. You make me feel merry and creative!
On Christmas Eve my three boys receive a hardcover book, one that will last and be a part of their children’s library someday, and a special ornament that represents something important in their lives that year.
I follow WWC on Twitter and I tweeted :)
@mycollageart
Reading about all these holiday traditions really get me in the spirit to celebrate!
I have the WWC 12 days of Christmas widget on the sidebar of my blog :)
I just discovered this blog and am looking forward to each of the 12 Days!
One of my favorite traditions is my “Kick off the Holiday” ornament/craft/soup night with a few close friends and my daughters. We had it last night! What a blast it was! I am already a follower here too!
Loved the Advent Socks!
Our tradition is spending Thanksgiving with my family and then Friday after Thanksgiving putting up the Christmas tree.
What great traditions. I would love to see a picture of the angel. And how very smart of you to do the advent calendar a week at a time. Nice thinking there.
The goodies are amazing..throw my name in the hat please.
tammy
What a great giveaway – loving reading everyones traditions
Follow on twitter and tweeted
All of these stories and traditions are so special.I enjoy the most our Christmas tradtion of going to our churchservice Christmas eve and sometimes there is a little pageant or special music. My grandaughter goes with us and she is 10 now and my family gets together Christmas morning for breakfast and opening gifts. I just Love the givaway ! thanks, veronica
What great prizes!! I can’t wait to read “Where Women Cook”!
I have fond memories of an engraved brass deer ornament my mom gave to me when I was in college… She passed many years ago, but I feel so close to her each year when I take it out to hang on the tree. It’s amazing how a keepsake can elicit such an emotional and spiritual feeling, year after year.
I love hearing about everyones special traditions. I can’t wait to start some with my grandchildren!
Wow, what an bevy of goodies and creativness!
holiday traditions are abundant here..every year I decorate my tree with my Grandma’s and Grandpa’s antique ornaments..there santa’s and there Nativity.. thanks Lisa
Holiday traditions have changed since my mother died and are now being turned into my “children’s Christmas traditions”… the old… going to my mother’s house and being with my sister’s and brother’s families… now… my children with their families… and that is a blessing… and the memories we share of my mother … thanks so much for the chance and thanks for the wonderful blogs, mags and books and inspiration you share with me and others…
One of our Christmas traditions is caroling on the 22nd. It’s my husband’s birthday and that’s how we always celebrate it. :)
Loved reading these. Thank you for sharing your sweet traditions!
Great to read all the Christmas traditions people enjoy. One our favorite ones is to meet Christmas morning for a wonderful breakfast and then to take turns opening our gifts. We are truly blessed to have our family all close by so we are able to join together for this wonderful holiday season.
The tradition for my own family is one carried on from my own parents. Each year we go to a local tree farm, pick out our tree and then go home and decorate the tree. My Mom used to make hot chocolate while Dad got the tree in the stand and my brothers and I would always im)patiently wait for Dad to finish while Mom tried to keep us busy with our hot chocolate. With my own kids, we played Christmas music either on the CD player or I would play the piano and we’d all sing. The tree farm my own family went to each year was the very same one my parents took my brothers and I to every year as well. The farm is owned by one family which has passed the running of that farm down for generations and it is still going strong today although they’ve added much more to the farm. They now have a little restaurant, homemade fudge, hot roasted cinnamon nuts, a huge ornament/gift shop with things from all over the world. NO ‘made in Japan’ stuff can be found there. Everything is just beautifully hand made from other countries. I just love going into that part of their newly expanded lodge with all the trees they’ve put up to showcase all their ornaments which are for sale. It’s beautiful to see them all on a tree that way rather than in a box.
The lasting tradition in our family is of course cooking Mom’s chocolate pies and peanut butter candy.
Nothing store bought compares.
Billie
Holiday traditions start with the Thanksgiving meal, followed by the Thanksgiving nap, recharging with pumpkin pie, and putting up the Christmas tree! We pose for our family photo right after, clean up the kitchen, and ready ourselves for a month’s worth of sugarplum dreams!
My family traditions are to put up the tree the day after thanksgiving, and let my daughter decorate it. We also wrap her presents early and only put her’s under the tree till christmas to tease her. Tho I am thinking about adding a advent tree for her next year. We also go look at christmas lights in the park about 1 week before christmas and go home to hot chocolate.
I make mini stockings for everyone at work and keep them filled with candy during the month of December. I put a toy next to each also. While my family do many other traditions this one at work has come to mean a lot to me. I used to just do my dept (12) but last year expanded to do 40 (4 groups I work with and rely on). One older man always got grumpy going down my hallway because he didn’t have a stocking but last year he got one. And he would not touch his until right before Christmas. He was like a little kid with the excitement. Well we lost him this summer. I am so glad I expanded the stocking program. This year I added another department. Its not easy but so worth it to see happy faces where I am for 8+ hours a day 5 days a week, you know?
When my boys were younger, we would make an ornament each year together for each of the boys. Now they are older and not so interested but I still make them an ornament so when they start their own families, they will receive a box of ornament memories from their mom.
I just your blog. It is great. I want thank you for the giveaways. I grew up with a french mother. We would put hay in our shoes and put them outside for St. Nicholas. The next morning we would have a treat or two in our shoes.
My children, now grown and with children of their own, used to open their gifts to one another on Christmas Eve so that they were not lost in the shuffle of Christmas Morning. It was my favorite time of the holiday,
Growing up our family always drove all over town looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights on Christmas Eve and then we would come back home and open 1 present.Simple but the memories will always be there.
We celebrate hubby’s tradition of Christmas on Christmas eve, going out to see the christmas lights. When we see a red light that means that Santa is nearby starting out early.We come home and the fire is going, and with full bellies from dinner, we trapse off to bed. We awake in the am- only the kids startoff early, asking to go thru their stockings. We say yes, then they come up to ask for 1 more gift, we say yes again. Then they come up again, we acquiesce & agree another time, and about this time we get up and spend a family day together. (But when I was younger, by about the 3rd or 4th time, we just plowed thru everything until our parents finally woke up-after going to sleep very late getting everything ready for us all).
Then On Russian X-mas, 7 Jan, (NOT the 6th), we celebrate again but in a smaller way, keeping the old family traditions- where we would go to our grandparents’ home for yummy dinner , family time, and little gifts.
We always read the Christmas story from Luke 2.
I was very touched by Paige’s story. It reminds me so much of my grandmother and her table top live tree that she would decorated each Christmas with her bubble lights. The nativity was always arranged under the tree.
~elaine~
You are wonderful~great idea to collect & share traditions. We put on Christmas music & get the tree up usually after Thanksgiving/but we have begun doing it in the days before~ since the stores have all begun putting Christmas up before Halloween is over. At 1st I refused-too early! Then I reliazed~wow get the outside & inside decorating done before the Cold & ice set in & enjoy it for the holidays & light it up on Thanksgiving. This years we did & the grand babies came to a house all ready to be plugged in. We had a wee box of decoration for them to put on the tree I had jut put on long icecicles-no other decorations & we had wee gifts for them to open thru the eft & evening like lots of Christmas socks & then a finale was a porcelain tea set to begin their tea tradition with mom & grandma.Tradition is decorating the tree as a family over Traditional songs with family recipes making up the meal..great great grandmas potato casserole, greatgrandmas fudges, gramdmas pies, granmas turkey stuffing,their moms squash, grandpa’s rolls, etc….family. Thanks for this
1 tradition for me was sitting up with my dad watching the Pope give midnight mass with just the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree. We had always gone to Midnight mass but has stopped after his father died a few years earlier. So this was always quite special for me. My dad died several months ago & I am still in the denial stage as it serves me well, so I am not sure how all of Christmas will go.
I really enjoy reading of everyone’s stories. thank you for this great offering.
my family lived by all my fathers family so we would trade going to each others homes for the holidays. mostly it was at our grandparents which was by our house. It was always a big old turkey that grandpa carved. All the great Aunties were in the kitchen & the men NOT, food was everywhere. finger foods-we called them relishes, olives-pickles–celery-carrot sticks-Not like nowdays all crakers & chips. After food was served-the turkey was all carved up & bones saved for soup. Dishes washed & dried put away,not a speck of dirt to be found. The men out side having a smoke then setting up then card tables pinnocle/bridge…the kids would go out skating or sledding as we had that in our yards. Everyone lived within 15 minutes. that is how we has Christmas-family.
Now they are all gone but we carry them with us..their legacy, their now how, problly the way we walk & talk, the way we hold our hands & cross our legs. Our work ethics our kindness our love even our recipes & cooking & cleaning, as we care for our family. I am now the age that I guess they were then & my grand babies are coming in the picture I should be thinking about the fact that I am 1 of the last of them… maybe we need to record their memories better.
thanks
Such loving memories, I am wordless. You should send nice journals to some of these entries. You touched people at a time. Women never take time for themselves.I can see us losing these memories just due to no time to jot them down with muddled minds & frazzled lives. I am drawn to some of these as they take me back to the same era of my memories in the midwest Tons of snow-waiting for dad to get the lights up. so thats what we do-well we waait for DH to get the lights up.then poof it begins, I have made wee german feather trees that stay up all over the house all year with favorite ornaments. We had to move 7 times for my husbands job so I cut down small trees & used them to make feather tree for family for memories of where we lived…we had planted them all along the house so thee were many, the trees have bases of driftwood my dad & I gathered on boat rides..so these trees, are `us’ wee ornaments on them I make tiny angel gloves & tiny angel boots with soles & gold laces
1 all hand made hearts.tiny patchwork stockings..you get the idea.
Baking cookies with the kids. I have been able to do it with 1 child at a time as they grow into it. cookie cutter & icing. put them in cute tins & take to neighbors & dads work & family…all day & evening. Everything you can put on a cookie to decorate is used. We did this every year, We have sooo many cookie cutters in every shape & size & we would go to antique store & look for them. Keeping them out on a nice framed cork board all year.
The boys tend to eat more dough & cookies & like dinosaurs but Christmas can have dinosaurs I guess..
not quite as many make it with them but it the
memories. We put the Christmas music on & HAVE FUN
Generous presents….. Our Christmas tradition is to go for dinner in a real French auberge de pays. Nothing chique, but very good food. Of course we eat like the French, foie gras(goose liver), huitres, homard and buche (very fat and much sugar!!!!!).
I blogged about the event.
I have the button on my blog.
I am already a subscriber to your blog.
Every Christmas Eve we let our children open one gift from under the tree- a pair of new pj’s to wear that night. They are 16 and 19 now and will still get pj’s this christmas eve. On Christmas morning, we open gifts with my parents and then my mom and I make Eggs Benedict and other wonderful fixings and always pecan rolls. My dad is no longer here to share it with us but my kids will always have that memory. Hopefully it will extend to my grandchildren someday! Thanks for sharing with us! karen…
I have posted the button on the sidebar of my blog.
http://sideroadstitcher.blogspot.com/
My Christmas tradition is for the past nearly thirty years I have been crafting ornaments and giving them as gifts. It is quite interesting to see how my skills have changed over the years. Some of the early ornaments are pretty rough looking!
I cut my finger this morning so I am having trouble posting. Enjoy reading the entries and all the comments.
I found my way here thru Happy Zombie/ pam
pamroever at yahoo dot com
Great giveaways! This is the one I want.
I cut my finger this morning so I am having trouble posting. Enjoy reading the entries and all the comments.
I found my way here thru Happy Zombie/ pam
pamroever at yahoo dot com
It is now Christmas.. because my mother’s nativity scene music box is in it’s spot of honor in our entry – next to my late father’s radio with a Christmas tape.
Thanks for sharing the traditions. alternate email mlwright29 (at) hotmail (dot) com
Some of my traditions at Christmas time are driving around to look at Christmas lights, eating my MIL’s delicious meat pie and then going to midnight mass on Christmas eve.
I’ve added the WWC badge to my blog.
Even though my children are older, each year they look for the Advent Calendar to come out. If they are away at college and come home for a weekend, they scurry there first to gather their gifts.
And since they were babies, we had an Annalee elf we named Jingles who keeps watch over them & reports back to Santa. Now that they are in high school or college, he hides in ever more difficult places for them to find each day!
My children look forward each year to making our traditional “Christmas Lasagna” (spinach makes it red, white, and green) and a birthday cake for Jesus for supper after our Christmas Eve service at church.
This is awesome! My brothers and their families and mother all live on either side of us. We always have a tasty xmas breakfast at my house followed by the opening of our presents. Then we chill for a while and then have dinner at my brother’s house next door. I love love love cooking breakfast.
I am now following this blog. What a great find.
I love eating sreak and crab on Christmas Eve. Then we open gifts once our tummies are full.
wow, what a treat.
One other favorite tradition- My granddaughter and I play in the snow EVERY Christmas. It may be 40 degrees outside but I have a tree that blows fake snow in the air and lands on the tree, gently sifting thur the branches. Its wonderful! Does anyone else have this tree attachment?
I have such a hard time finding these creative publications in my small hometown. I met Ree at TCC and would love to win this lovely prize!
I am having my last show of the year mid December. Although I have not learned how to tweet or twitter, I plan to tell everyone about this wonderful blog! I can’t twitter but I’m a whiz at that old fashion thing we call “talking”! LOL
Blessings,Becky
http://[email protected]
Lovely, simply lovely. I love this magazine. It is such high quality. My favourite tradition is the one involving peeling a tangerine in one piece and then making a wish. My dad told us that!
Wow…great start for The First Day ;) Christmas has changed for us because we are empty nesters and all of the kids have moved out of town for jobs, etc. So we all try to get together over Christmas or New Year’s and spend the entire night together playing games and catching up. The morning we all spent sleeping in until the first one dares to get up and make the coffee…lol
Oh yes, I’ve added the button on my sidebar:
http://con-tain-it.typepad.com
Just tweeted and yes I’m a follower: http://twitter.com/#!/rlphilbr13
Its so nice to read everyones traditions and lovely that people have vintage items from grandparents! Thanks and happy holidays.
I hope it’s not too late to comment. My favorite tradition is going to the 10:30pm Christmas Eve church service designed to finish at midnight. It’s such a magical time…
Love the advent calendar idea.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree. I love its foresty smell and unpacking all the little ornaments we’ve had since I was little. Some I even made myself as a kid, some were made my parents… it just makes me feel like a child again, eager for Santa to come.
Knititall
I’m following you on twitter and tweeted about the first day of this fantastic giveaway series @knititall
I blogged about you here: http://knittingitall.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-celebration-at-where-women.html
I so enjoy hearing family Christmas traditions. It is good to keep a little of ourselves passed down through our family lineage. Our tradition; when at the end of making sugar cut out cookies we save just enough dough to cut out each hand of our kids. Then we bake it and they get to frost and decorate their own hand. On Christmas morning the first thing we all eat is our “hand cookie”. As my kids got older their hand got bigger, but they always wanted to do it even when they were 19 years old. My mom did this with me, I did it with my kids and now they are doing it with theirs.
such wonderful items!
thanks for the chance to win!
many blessings,
danielle muller
http://www.thevintagedragonfly.com
feeling very inspired now.. ty..x
thank you for your generosity. have a joyful christmas.
what an awesome prize package. On Christmas eve we all get together and open packages from all the cousins and big family then Santa comes that night and the next day we open our Santa and individual family gifts.
Thanks for sharing & what a fabulous giveaway!!
I’ve put the “Twelve Days of Christmas” WWC image on my blog. http://knittingitall.blogspot.com/
Nice!!
My kids have an advent calendar that they change everyday. Sometimes there is fighting over who gets to change the mouse over to the next day so we have one change it on even days and one on odd. That way we don’t forget who changed it the day before. I really see the excitement build as that mouse gets closer to the end of the calendar!
Wow, that is a killer giveaway package you’ve got there. I think my favorite part of Christmas is making paper chains for our front windows with my kids. We go through an entire pad of coloured construction paper and a gazillion staples and we make a mess all over the living room. Our custom Christmas CD plays, I drink tea and we have a very nice afternoon together.
Jo – what a great idea. I must borrow that one. Thank you lovely ladies for this super 12 days!!! Best wishes this season. Please include me in on a chance to win.
We have a snacky type Christmas dinner, go to church to hear some Christmas music and a Christmas message then come home and open one present. We take the whole evening, night to celebrate Christmas.
I have the WWC button on my sidebar too
I have to share my fav childhood traditions. Actually I have two. We grew up somewhat poor and so Christmas was usually pretty stressful. My mom was amazing tho as she knew what was important and what made our Christmas special was going to the midnight service at church where at midnight, i almost want to cry, we would all have a candle and sing Silent night with the lights off and it was blessed! Also one Christmas we went to my blessed grammies house, which for us was like going to a castle as it was big and full of fun antiques and she let us go down to the finished basement where we got to play old records and start a very rare fire in the beautiful stone fireplace- it was incredibly special to us!
Great start to a great countdown. Beautiful prizes today. Looking forward to more traditions. Thanks for the chance.
Our family traditions is to get together with all of my brothers and sisters and their families. Since I have five sisters and three brothers – it’s a bunch – last year there were 85 of us!
Every year, we attend Christmas Midnight Mass (and frequently have roles as musicians, sacristans, lectors, electronics technicians, or eucharistic ministers) together. When we get home, before bed, we each open one gift of our choice from under the Christmas tree.
I remember Christmases from my childhood… My mother, who passed away in 1990, and I always made orange candy cake together. It’s a fun recipe, and the batter is so thick, you have to mix it with your hands. Yum!
Extra entry for Tweeting and following on Twitter.
Added you to the left sidebar of my blog: http://TropicBeads.blogspot.com
Wow! How fun is this. Thank you for such wonderful stories, artists and prizes! I love Jo’s tradition of an Advent using little socks. I do an Advent each year with my daughter. I’ll have to try the socks. :)Looking forward to each of the 12 Days.
Added a WWC 12 Days button to my sidebar on my blog. Thank you for a chance to win.
We spend a day making ornaments each Christmas. We love the time spent together and the creativity that grows in the grandchildren year by year.
MY FAV tradition is putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving so I can enjoy it a long time.
What a fun idea. Thank you for sharing!
The sock advent calendar is a cute idea!
Fantastic giveaway, this is really exciting!!
We have a new family tradition that I started this year. I think it’s so great that Toys for Tots gives kids in need presents for Christmas… but I wanted to make this more personal for me and my kids. We contacted an adoption/foster care organization and requested they give us specific children and their wish lists. Then, we went out and bought the gifts that these kids really wanted. My kids were so excited to be doing this and I felt so good about getting these kids what they truly wanted. We are going to do this every year from now on.
Second Entry “Cover Votes”
Thanks,Chris Gerke
Wonderful traditions!! Thanks for sharing them with us! Happy Holidays!!!
Lovely traditions and fabulous artists!!
Voted on spring cover!
Our Christmas traditions are getting together with family at our house. We always have prime rib. Eat, drink, and be merry!
My husband and I take our 2 daughters
Weekly to look at lights. The excitement
In their eyes, well, I can look at that
Over and over again.
Erin
Nice giveaways! Thanks
It was really fun to see all the pictures and read all the great stories of holiday traditions. Amazing how varied they are and how special. Thank you for this great blog hop. Very fun! Enjoy the day!
Erin
Wonderful prizes! Thank you!
When my children were small they always put their shoes out for St Nicholas Day. He brought candy and a Christmas ornament. Then we drew names, and everyone had a Kris Kringle to secretly do nice things for, and to get a present, which we all opened on Christmas Eve. One by one, they grew up and moved out, and had a collection of ornaments for their own Christmas trees. I love that they are now doing this for their own children
well, i have discovered a new journey here at where women create, thank you for this adventure
ava
cottagerca
Thanks for the chance!! Beautiful!
We have a Christmas Eve gathering with all kinds of great food and usually end up opening our presents then. When the kids were little we’d save some of theirs, and of course the Santa presents, till Christmas morning.
These Traditions inspire me! He always have a santa hat hanging on a chair. Everyone year a differnt person takes a turn wearing the hat to pass out Christmas presents that year.
Yay to Day One!
My favorite holiday tradition is shopping for things on the Ronald McDonald House wish list with my two boys and then delivering it to them the week before Christmas.
Growing up the tradition in my house was the American-Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. My mom made the best fried fish, oysters, etc. for just our immediate family every year. Things have changed with families living far apart so now I’ve made a new a tradition in our house for my family. We go to church and then come home and feast on fish and seafood appetizers and then homemade gnocchi and sauce. My kids are not fans of fish so this my variation to carry on a meatless Christmas Eve meal. After dinner the kids open a gift which is always a new pair of PJs and a small surprise gift.
I follow WWC on Twitter and tweeted about the contest.
I blogged at WWC’s 12 day of Christmas and added WWC’s contest blog button on my blog’s side bar.
Fun contest, girls! Thanks for your generosity. One of my family traditions was to hide baby Jesus behind the manager scene so that on Christmas morning, one of my two children could have the honor of putting him in his bed. We always took a photo of the child putting Jesus in place so we’d have an easier time keeping track of whose turn it was. It was a big deal to perform this important task and afterward, we’d read the second chapter of Luke before they were allowed to tear into their stockings. I’m a widow now and my kids are 23 and 24 and one is married so traditions are changing. But this is one that is dear to my heart. God bless and Merry Christmas to all.
I love the story of the Christmas angel! I have a treasured angel, too, and she stays out yearlong as well.
How fun are those traditions! I love them. My favorite will be baking a Birthday Cake for Jesus. Then singing Happy Birthday to him. We have not really started this yet, since my daughter is still under two – we are starting this year. I can’t wait. Thank you for the chance to win!
Our family tradition is going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. It makes your heart feel good. The day before we decorate sugar cookies. While decorating each person, no matter how old, has to wear reindeer ears that light up. Everyone is ok until the camera comes out.
Thanks for the wonderful giveaway.
I love to hear about the traditions of others!
Wonderful prizes for a lucky lady!!!
We have sausage, biscuits, and gravy for our Christmas meal. Especially exciting as we’re way up in Yankee country and this is by no means something we get any other time of the year.
Oh wow, what lovely items
Thank you for the opportunity to play!
Happy Holidays,
Erin
All the boys have Christmas pajamas and they all have a book to unwrap every night until Christmas.
lanzaelizabeth77 @gmail. com
Our tradition is having our granddaughter
search for her special ornament hidden on
the tree each year. Now she wants to hide
one for me!
Every Christmas, my sister and I get together and bake cookies all afternoon.
Love it all good luck everyone!!!!
Wow what a giveaway! And oh the thought of all those tiny socks! So sweet. Thank you for the chance and for such a great blog!
I follow WWC on twitter and just tweeted Day 1! thank you!
My daughters and I shop for a special new ornament every year. That is a fun special time for us.
Thanks for the opportunity to win something fun!
One of my favorite traditions is making my grandmothers fudge recipe…this year both girls helped…it was wonderful!
oh how the cheer seeps into our senses during these holiday days…
This is a wonderful idea, and such a generous gift for the holidays. My favorite tradition is one I started about 4 years ago. One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. I love to sing, and often sing along with the Christmas music (even in the stores LOL). I tried to find a place/event where there was non-competitive caroling and came up empty. So I decided I would take my two daughters caroling in our neighborhood, well I did and a few of their friends joined us. We dress festively in Santa and elf hats and bring along bells to jingle! The group has gotten larger every year, and we have lots of fun spreading Christmas cheer! It has become a lovely tradition
Added your button to my blog!