The Fourth Tradition of Christmas

The fourth tradition I enjoy at Christmas time is making gifts! Although I always end up doing late night workshop sessions and getting slightly stressed out, I still have fun creating!

I think I enjoy the hand-made gifts that people give the most, because you know they take both time and thought. It's like they are giving you a piece of themselves in their artfulness.
Gift giving originated from a Roman pagan celebration called Saturnalia. From the birth of the celebration of Christmas, Christians frowned upon gift-giving as it seemed to encourage the pagan holiday. They would typically exchange gifts on New Year's Eve or Twelfth Night. Gradually, with the fame of St. Nicholas' selfless deeds of giving, Christians began to give gifts on the Savior's birthday. It may have began as a pagan ritual, but to believers today, it reminds us of the greatest Gift of all. 

There's a song by Randy Travis that sheds light on this:

He was the Son God sent to one and all. 

Put on this earth to hang there on that cross. 

Born to die so we could live. 

He had the birthday, we got the gift.

What was your favorite hand-made Christmas gift? What does gift-giving at Christmas mean to you?

The Third Tradition of Christmas

The Third tradition that I enjoy at Christmastime is decorating our family tree with Ethan. This is the second year in a row that we've done this together. Last year was Kayla's first Christmas as a married woman, so she wasn't around. Mom and Dad go shopping and out for a date, so the E Man and I are left alone. I really enjoy doing this with him and I'm learning to cherish time spent alone with him, even though sometimes we clash! ; )

The Christmas tree is thought to be originated in Germany during the 16th century. It was brought to England when Queen Victoria married her German cousin, Albert and through an engraved picture of the royal family with their tree came over to the united states in the 1850s.  

Here's how we do ours:
We place The Peanuts Christmas CD in our CD player and turn up the volume.
Then, after we do some Snoopy dances, we dig into our Christmas boxes.
It's Ethan's job to set up the Veggie Tales manger scene while I set up our porcelain one. (He presses the star that sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem", Junior Asparagus' version, about fifty times during the course of its situating.)

Then we dig out our ornaments. Each ornament holds a special memory for me and makes me think of the people who gave them to us or Christmases past.
Ethan did a fine job with the tree. After giving him some instruction about how to space the ornaments, I had to exercise self-control and let him put them wherever. After all, it's more important for him to enjoy this experience than for us to have the perfect tree!

We always save this one little ornament for mom- it has a story. My Nana would let her kids decorate the tree, but when they went to bed she would rearrange it. She's got a great knack for decorating, so she probably was going mad by the ill-spaced and crowded ornaments!! Mom and my uncles would get up in the morning to find the tree decorated differently, but this little ornament that mom always put on was left in its original place. So, each year, we make sure mom gets to put her ornament on!

Here's our trimmed tree!

After all of the hard work, Ethan and I settle down for a Christmas movie- this year it was The Grinch- along with some hot chocolate and popcorn!

mmmmmm....

How do you decorate YOUR tree??

What I'm Doing the next Two Days!

I just love these boys!!

The Second Tradition of Christmas

My second favorite Christmas tradition is "the hanging of the greens" at our church. We don't call it that at Winterbrook, we simply say, "decorating the church," but the hanging of the greens is an old English custom which most churches participated in and still do today, though we aren't really aware of it.

Thank goodness for tall people like Samuel...

The hanging of the greens is usually done the first Sunday of the advent season. We typically do it on another day, but within the first week of the advent season. 

...although he did need a few chairs and a couple of men to steady them!

Evergreens are a symbol of life- eternal life- because these trees and shrubs do not shed their leaves every year. They continue on and on. 

Tash and Hannah use their combine creativity to trim up the tree!

Even the two youngest members of our church participated in this fun event!

Emily exercises her decorating savvy and the results are lovely!

Haley, Audrey and Shay look on as something funny happens!

Time out for the Aunties!

Ethan and Hayden add a little of their own... pizaz to our tree.

We encourage expression through the arts at Winterbrook Fellowship 

(no matter how... "progressive" it looks)

I enjoy this tradition because it is a time to get together with my church family and exercise our creativity, as well as start the celebration of the Savior's birth with them!

Do you have a "hanging of the greens" at your place of worship?

The First Tradition of Christmas

The first Christmas tradition that I enjoy is Black Friday shopping! For people who know me, that may come as a surprise, since I'm not big on shopping in general (unless it has to do with books or cheese). But Black Friday is a little different!

Emmy-Lou looking quite lovely in the wee hours of the day

For those who don't already know, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where most people commence their Christmas shopping. The name originated in the late eighteen hundreds during a stock market crash and in the 1960's was used to refer to the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping. It was primarily used on the East coast by the police who bemoaned the horrid and crowded traffic caused by the shoppers.

The first stop of the day: Kohls. Em and Shay are eager to begin!

Each year, millions of Americans wake up as early as 2 am, hop in their cars in the dark and enter into the morning madness. My friend Ruthie goes every year with her Aunt and they get up that early- she is a dedicated shopper and is always finding great deals!

Tash and Kayla during our last stop of the day.

This year, I went with my sister and a few friends. It's not so much the shopping that I enjoy or even the sales (although they are great), but it's the festivity, the friends you get to spend time with and the gifts that you are able to get for loved ones.

Banana enjoying a pretty pink chair after being on her feet all day!

Not to mention that you're practicing frugality by purchasing things, that you were going to get anyway, on sale.

Dreaming sweet dreams in Staples.™

Our faithful driver!

Our tired crew!

So, how many of YOU partake in Black Friday madness and why?

The 12 Traditions of Christmas

Traditions. Everybody has them, whether they are extravagant or ordinary. Some people relish tradition to the point of idolatry, while others flippantly cast it aside like their father's dirty socks. Both outlooks are wrong. Traditions are useful and fun tools that can celebrate godliness, joy, thankfulness and other virtues, but they can also become stale and uninteresting when done without thought or sincerity.  

Christmas is a universally celebrated holiday and with it come the annual festivities of the season. I thought it would be rather fun this year to share some of my favorite traditions, where they originated from and why they are meaningful. So I'll be presenting The Twelve Traditions of Christmas. 

So the real question is: What are some of YOUR favorite traditions??