Archive for the 'Christmas' Category
I saw this at Paula’s blog and couldn’t resist playing along. Like her, I will be Scrooge-ish in not tagging anyone. If you decide to play along, please leave me a comment so I’ll be sure to check out your answers too.
Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, definitely.
Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? No Santa here, see my post about St. Nicholas. All gifts get wrapped though, whether they go in the stocking or under the tree.
Colored lights on tree or white? Colored, because they were gifted to us as newlyweds. If they ever need replaced, I’d prefer white.
When do you put your decorations up? I do it in spurts. . .Advent things by the first Sunday in Advent and/or December 1. . . stockings by December 6th. . .garlands and window candles and other wintery things in the first week or two of December. . .tree and the rest of the Christmasy things anytime after Drama Boy’s birthday (December 14), or maybe as late as Christmas Eve! It all stays up until after Epiphany (January 6), with the winter decorations staying up longer.
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Excuse me? There are non-dessert holiday foods? I guess anything with cranberries in it.
Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Going to the tree farm every year to cut down our own Christmas tree.
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My parents didn’t do Santa either, so I don’t remember ever believing in Santa.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Only two or three times, when we’ve had to travel on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is rather busy here at the parsonage!
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Larry gets it in the stand and puts on the lights (though last year the boys were getting old enough to help). I unwrap all the ornaments and the kids hang theirs. 
My best friends and I have an ornament exchange each year so I enjoy hanging my ornaments on the high branches where they will hopefully be safe.
Snow! Love it or Dread it? Snow is pretty, but the freezing temperatures that can come with it are dreadful.
Can you ice skate? I haven’t in years and would love to try again.
Do you remember your favorite gift? In 1995 I married my beloved husband on the 6th day of Christmas. 
What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering that the Baby in the manger grew up to be the Man on the cross.
What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Christmas cookies. I usually make some sort of fancy dessert for Christmas dinner, but it’s the cookies that are tradition around here.
What is your favorite tradition? Christmas Day worship. I know everyone loves the candlelight service on Christmas Eve, and I like that too, but I really look forward to the Divine Service the following morning.
Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Giving.
What is your favorite Christmas Song? Since hymns are covered below, my favorite secular holiday music is Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. All of it (except for saccharin renditions of Sugar Plum Fairy). . .but especially the first act.
What is your favorite Advent hymn? What is your favorite Christmas hymn? Unfortunately for me, this section of the hymnal seemed to suffer a whole lot of word changes from LW to LSB! Anyhow, my favorite Advent hymn is. . .only one? Once He Came in Blessing (LSB 333) and Prepare the Royal Highway (343), once I can wrap my mind around the new words. I really like The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came (356) too. My favorite Christmas hymn is Of the Father’s Love Begotten(384), but I also really like From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (358), What Child is This (370), and Let Our Gladness Have No End (381).
Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum in moderation.
Ever recycled a Christmas present? Only once.
In spite of all my comments about it being Advent and not yet Christmas, I admit that I am now listening to Christmas music occasionally. I usually break down somewhere in the second week of December. . .I enjoy the music too much to listen for only twelve days a year! I like using iTunes to put together a playlist combing my favorite Christmas albums with Christmas selections from my hymn cd’s. Actually, iTunes also let me put together an Advent playlist from my hymn cd’s (plus the occasional stray Advent hymn that makes its way onto the Christmas albums). It’s only an hour long playlist (compared to eight hours of Christmas music), but I do really enjoy Advent hymns. The other thing I like to listen to in December is Handel’s Messiah.
About ten years ago, I decided to make an Advent banner for our home. It is hung in the dining room, since that is where we usually have family devotions. I really enjoyed reading about the different symbols used during Advent, and choosing ones that pertained to Jesus’ first coming (Star of David, branch of Jesse), His coming to us today (baptismal shell, chalice and host), and how He will come again in glory (ram’s horn, Chi Rho).
. . .with hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Alright, so we haven’t had a chimney since we left Illinois, and this year I didn’t get the stockings hung before they were filled. But yesterday (December 6) was indeed St. Nicholas Day.
We’ve never done “the Santa thing” in our house. Our kids knew the gifts came from their family, but everywhere we went in December strangers would ask them what Santa was bringing. This confused the kids, who were trying to decide if that fat guy with the white beard was Moses or Abraham.
So, almost 10 years ago, we started celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6. We like to watch a short video each year called Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa because it does a good job of explaining who the real St. Nicholas was and how his story evolved into the legend of Santa Claus. I’m sure there are other kid-friendly movies and books on the subject, but this one has become part of our famiy tradition.
After that, we open the gifts in our stockings. Even though the little guys get impatient sometimes, we take turns opening gifts. . .which is why I try to make sure each kid has the same number of gifts. They have always known the gifts are from us; sometimes they make little things for each other as well. It’s a lot of fun for all of us!
Now when the kids are asked about Santa Claus, they often reply that we celebrate St. Nicholas Day instead. Which means that now the people asking the question are the ones who are confused. . .
I still haven’t decided if I’m going to actually sew that red dress for Twirly Girl or not. I want to do it, but I’m afraid it may push my stress levels over the top. So this weekend I set the stretch velvet aside and started getting ready to make this year’s batch of Christmas ornaments. I always make a new one for each of the kids; a group of friends has an annual exchange; and really it’s just an easy gift whenever I run out of other ideas.
Here is what I have so far; anyone want to guess how it will all go together?
In other Christmasy news, I only need a few more stocking stuffers for St. Nicholas Day (December 6). We take turns opening gifts, so every child must have exactly the same number of gifts to unwrap. Also tonight, the kids drew each other’s names for exchanging gifts (thanks to whichever Looper shared this idea; was that you, Glenda?). I am happy because Baby Boy got the name of the child for whom I already had an extra gift in my stash. 
Meanwhile, tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent. . .and I love Advent hymns so much I am just going to ignore the whining of those who want to know why we can’t sing Christmas songs already! As time allows in the next four weeks, I hope to share with you some of our family traditions that attempt to keep Advent as a season unto itself, allowing Christmas to be its own twelve day season that begins (not ends!) on December 25.
2007: Having just moved, I had planned to buy ornaments this year. However, I couldn’t find anything with a local flair that I could afford to buy in bulk! While frantically searching online for ideas that used items I had on hand, I remembered the karate ornaments I had seen at a blog I’ve just started reading, The Sky is Pink. I immediately went downstairs, found some heavy craft wire, and started making hangers (an 8″ length worked well). Then came the fun part: digging through my scraps to design an ‘outfit’ for each child!
I made my basic pattern by laying a hanger on a sheet of paper and drawing the outline of a shirt & pants; for each ornament I traced/tweaked that outline on tissue paper. I laid the tissue paper over squares of fabric, stitching on the lines, tearing off the paper, and then cutting the fabric just outside the stitching line (use tiny scissors to snip the neckline). By the time I finished my tenth (yes 10th!) ornament I had learned a few things! One, except for the overalls, it was easier to sew buttons on before the clothes were sewn. And two, it is easier to insert the hanger before the outfit is completely sewn; for most designs, I slipped it through the hem of the shirt before sewing pants & shirt together.
I made a second soccer uniform and leotard for a ‘baby shower’ for two very special girls, recently adopted by our friends in Texas, and I also made ornaments for my niece & nephew:
2006: I liked these wreath ornaments so much, I even made one for myself! I also made them for the ornament exchange as well as for family members. The wreath itself is 3 layers cut from a green wool sweater I had felted (intending to use for diaper covers); the red bow is from a scrap of wool. I whipstitched the wreath together with red floss and then added alphabet beads to spell out names.
2005: I think I sewed up a half dozen of these simple little stockings. . .5 for my kids plus one for the annual ornament exchange with my friends. Some years it’s hard to come up with an idea I haven’t already used!
2004: More beads! These handstitched felt trees were lightly stuffed then trimmed with tiny beads (again using each child’s favorite color). What I remember most about these ornaments, though, is that I made them while gabbing (and eating chocolate!) with several of my best girl friends at a lodge in Colorado that fall.
2003: This year I discovered the wonderful world of beads! After dreaming up all sorts of intricate ornaments, in the end I bought a beaded angel kit (probably from Hobby Lobby). Of course I didn’t quite follow the directions; instead of using only the clear beads included for the body, I alternated them with beads in each child’s favorite color.
