Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Christmas Traditions in our Family

1. Tree-trimming: we always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. During Friday afternoon the guys lift the heavy boxes from the garage and bring them inside for the evening's activities. It is a fun time being together as a family decorating and getting the house festive.
2. Another family tradition is our trim-the-tree party which we wrote about here. We serve orange danish rolls, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider.
3. Some of the decorations that we place outside include Baby Jesus in a manger and three small wisemen flags that lead guests down our sidewalk to the Babe and our front door. The larger flag we display says Celebrate Christ, and another is a scenic picture of Mary & Joseph.
4. Our inside table decorations include four block style ceramic bear ornaments that spell out N-O-E-L--at least for a short while they spell out N-O-E-L. Both Micah and Jonathan have a tradition of rearranging the ornaments to spell out various words like L-O-N-E or L-E-O-N at all times of the day, which isn't fun for certain other members of the family, namely, the females who live here who are constantly re-spelling N-O-E-L correctly! :)
5. Christmas cards: We enjoy keeping in touch with friends at Christmas and always enjoy hearing news of their families as well. Hannah is in charge of placing all the cards we receive around the foyer garland to add to the festive decorations.
6. We pick a certain night to ride around once during the season to look at Christmas lights at other houses. Unfortunately, more often than not we've always settled on a night when it's raining to go see lights through rain-splattered van windows. But it's almost become a tradition, so it's fun no matter what the weather!
7. Two musical performances we attend--the local college's Messiah concert which we wrote about here and Lessons & Carols at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, which takes place this coming weekend. We've attended Lessons & Carols yearly even when we've not lived close by and had to travel a long distance. And our tradition is to go get ice cream after Lessons & Carols before heading home, no matter how cold the night. This year we're hoping Micah and Elizabeth will get to join us.
8. All the relatives come to our house to celebrate Christmas, so we're never out on Christmas Eve or Day running around visiting--because we're already all together. It's especially nice if we have a white Christmas, but unfortunately the weather doesn't always follow tradition in Virginia.
9. Our special meal is on Christmas Eve, and we usually serve lots of our favorites foods. This year the main dish will probably be chicken along with lots of side dishes--we haven't come up with the exact menu yet.
10. On Christmas Eve, for as long as I can remember, the kids have performed a Christmas program. They select specific poems, readings, songs, and musical arrangements to present to everyone as we all gather in the living room after supper. In the early years, they dressed the parts of Joseph, Mary, a shepherd, and an angel, and Tom headed up the singing and read the Scripture of the Christmas account. In later years, my sister helped coordinate the program for all the relatives who look forward to it each Christmas. For the past several years Jonathan has produced a typed program so everyone will have an idea what songs and instrumentals are being sung and played--it's gotten more and more sophisticated as the years have gone by. So far this year, I haven't heard any practicing going on. I hope no one has forgotten!
11. Christmas Day arrives at a decent hour at our house--maybe 8-ish. Hot sausage biscuits and pineapple will once again be staples for our Christmas morning breakfast, along with a variety of muffins.
12. The gift opening takes a l-o-n-g time because our tradition is to open gifts individually so everyone can see and enjoy what the other family members have received. Ooh...aah...thank you!
13. Christmas lunch is a loaded buffet with tons of choices of finger foods. We sit around in the afternoon and enjoy conversation with each other, talk to Tom's Connecticut relatives and wish them a Merry Christmas, bundle up and go out in the snow if we're blessed enough to have a white Christmas, and nap....zzzz.

Those are some of our family's traditions...mostly plain and simple. The best part is just being together celebrating the birth of our Saviour.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."   ~ Isaiah 9:6

~Deb

Comments

[Tammy]

I LOVE these traditions!

Some of these we do...but I love that the children always do a Christmas program- that's wonderful, and I think I might steal this idea if that's OK! :)

[Deb]

Tammy, thanks for visiting and for the comment. Glad you still stop by and visit us here! :)

You are more than welcome to use any idea in your family. Your children will always remember participating in a family Christmas program each year as they grow up. I recommend it.

[Tammy]

I like your traditions.It will be intersting for you to have Micah as the married son who will be starting his own family traditions with Elizabeth.

We have some traditions -we attend church on Christmas Eve,open gifts slowly,eat French pork pie on Christmas Eve and make a birthday cake for Jesus.

[Dorothy]

What fun traditions! I know the ladies of the house won't like this, but I think it is hilarious that Micah and Jonathan rearrange those ceramic bear ornaments! How about n-o-o-n! :-) We open our presents just like you do...we always get calls from family that are asking, "Are you STILL opening your presents?" We drive around and look at lights and arrange our Christmas cards around the house for decorations, too. We attend the Virginia Beach Symphony's free Messiah sing-along concert every year...it is such a blessing! Merry Christmas to one of my favorite families!

[Susan P.]

Deb, thank you so much for sharing your Christmas traditions with us. It is so wonderful to read about families celebrate this most blessed season. I love the sound of your outdoor decorations proclaiming the "reason for the season" and I just LOVED the story of the NOEL block because as Moms I'm sure we can all relate to that one;)

[Elise]

I love this post!
We used to do a program every year as well - I was always Mary, and my two (at the time) brothers rotated between being Joseph and a shepherd.
Such a sweet memory - and I had forgotten about it until now! I think I'll incorporate it into my little family...

[Tammy]

If we stay in Wake Forest next year we can say going to the Wake Forest Christmas parade as a tradition.The weather is gorgeous for a parade.

[Sherrin]

I enjoyed reading about how you celebrate Christmas. I think it is nice to take a long time over opening presents. We don't have heaps of presents, but we do enjoy opening them one by one and watching each other open each one.

[Leslie]

N-O-E-L or L-E-O-N....I have such fond memories as a child of doing the same thing to my grandmother. She had candle holders which spelled out NOEL. She would get so frustrated with us (all her grandchildren)..or at least pretend to be whenever we did this. When she left this world, my mother had these and we continued the tradition along with our children. Now I have these precious items and every year, my son will rearrange the letters knowing that I will think about my grandmother. I love traditions that link generations.