Tradition Time... Week 1

I want us to be able to learn from each other in our little blog community here. I would love for you to share your Holiday Traditions with us. I am going to do a' Tradition Time' post every Monday this month. It'll be a way for us to share with each other how your family connects during this crazy time of year. Hopefully we will be able to experience the Holidays through anothers eyes, but also maybe we will be able to begin a new tradition. It can be as simple or complex as you would like to share. If you have a blog, I would love for you to do a post and leave your link here. If you are a reader, but do not blog please leave us your tradition in the comments below. 

Our tradition this week is simple! We begin to decorate the day after Thanksgiving. We have always gotten our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, except this year. We are going to be here in Atlanta and I want to attempt to keep the tree fresh as long as possible so we are getting the tree a week later. I just love how cozy my house is with all the fun decorations. H

Comments

[Ladybug Crossing]

We have so many traditions at Christmas.

One of the favorite traditions around here is the Advent Calendars. This year we broke down and purchased a new Playmobil Advent Calendar because our old one is about 10 years old and it looks it... We also have a wooden one that Gram and Grandpa gave us for our anniversary some years ago. It's a little treat for all of us to add to the scene every day...

[Jen]

We usually do our tree the day after Thanksgiving as well. This year we put it up on Thanksgiving night, becuase our in-laws were in town and wanted to help, and Friday was spent sight seeing around Charleston. We still have a few bare spots on the tree because one of our ornament boxes is still MIA from our move earlier this year, but as soon as we find it, the inside of the house will be perfect!

[nina]

we usually pull our tree out the weekend of thanksgiving, 4 years ago someone bought us a christmas tree that is prelit and decorated, all matt had to do is pull the tree in the house and voila we are done. well last year i bought new decorations and decided to make it our family tree, so we undecorated and redecorated the tree ALL weekend. we are ready for a weekend from the working weekend!

[Jenny]

What a great idea! I have tried to tie our traditions to our advent calendar. I have posted our schedule on my blog.

[Laura]

We started a new tradition this year with my parents. We decorated a tree in the backyard with goodies for the birds and squirrels.

[jenn nahrstadt]

this Christmas, i'm trying something new to get us thinking about Christmas and Christ in particular. i've decorated simple boxes with patterned paper. one will be hidden in the house each day. inside there's a message, or a quiz, or a fact; i don't have them all written yet! whoever finds the box and answers the question correctly will win a prize. so far, it's a hit!

[hollybird]

I will be blogging throughout the month about our holiday traditions, but i haven't started yet. However, one of our favorites is coming up this saturday. this is our 13th year of making homemade sugar cookies with our friends. We started before either of us had kids, and now our son is 12, and they have a 5 year old. amazingly, our son still loves to do this! we make some hilarious cookies, and it's a wonderful time to just enjoy the blessing of great lifelong friendship. I promise to post pics after the festivites, so check my blog to see.. this year we are starting a new tradition as well. We are going to our church's Christmas Eve service, then to Waffle House to eat dinner that night. We are not just eating though; we are taking presents to those workers! How fun will that be?? I am really looking forward to it.

[sherry]

Don always put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving but this year we are starting so many new traditions so it went up the day before. This is the week to get tree decorated. s.

[Kristi]

we, like most families have tons of traditions, but one in particular is a little quirky... and therefore probably my favorite. We have always had our big meal in the morning after opening gifts, so we have a big breakfast rather than turkey and all the fixins. However, Christmas evening is spent at my grandma's house. Since she is on a fixed income and couldn't afford a fancy meal for the whole family, and her oven was broken one Christmas and was stuck making things she could make on stove top, one christmas dinner consisted of yip yips (sloppy joes) and potato chips. It was such a silly Christmas dinner that we all fell in love with it, and we've been having traditional Christmas sloppy joes ever since.

[iidlyyckma]

We have lots of traditions - We are Italian, so we begin Christmas stuff the day after Thanksgiving.

First out comes the Christmas card holder, and then the sorting of the lights. The tree goes up in the next week. The baking commences on the 15th of December, and not a day later!

We put my son's shoes out on the 6th for St.Nicholas Day -- and they are filled during the night.

I make at least 6 trays of lasagna for the Nun's and Priests in our community.

I never shop until the 24th. Isn't that crazy?:)

[worshipfan]

One of our fun family Traditions is doing an advent candle/wreath together with our kids where we talk about Jesus coming and focus in on what the season really means. The kids really enjoy it!

[debra parker]

my fake tree has been up for a week now...

i just LOVE it.

[Charlotte and Larry]

Great idea H!! I am already posting a tradition and downloading pics to do another!!

[Becky]

Hey Heather!
Cute idea! In my family, we love the traditional pickle ornament hunt. [Yep, it's just what your thinking...a pickle ornament.] Basically one person in the family hides the pickle ornament in the tree, and on Christmas morning the mad search begins! My Dad and I usually end up throwing a few elbows at each other and declare "Stay on your side!" as we frantically search the tree. Normally, it's pretty easy, but last year for Thanksgiving, a friend got us a **TEENY** tiny pickle [about 1/2" tall]. Makes the search much harder, but somehow more fun!! Whomever finds the pickle gets a small present and is responsible for hiding it next year. I think your kids would love it!

Merry Christmas!!

[Rene']

We start decorating the week of Thanksgiving. For the last several years we have traveled to Syracuse to visit Robert's family on Thanksgiving and decorated before we went so that it would be done when we got back. We did not go this year, but we decorated the week of Thanksgiving anyway, it has become our tradition. I have some pictures posted on my blog of the kids decorating the tree upstairs and then some of the finished decorations. I will continue to post our family traditions as they occur.

[Kelly]

Love this! I have gotten so many good ideas from blogs! I go shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my mom, sis and Dad. Simple, but a tradition!
Look forward to reading!

[daphne]

I got my ideas from Flylady and asked my family what they liked and did not like. So far traditions that have stuck because we LOVE them are
-making a gingerbread house (with kit) for our dining table centerpeice
-new PJs every year and one night we tuck the girls in, shut out all the lights then throw them back on and take them 'light seeing' in PJs and then get a treat (like Sonic or a drive through)
-since we have too many friends to afford gifts for, we have a cookie decorating party (at my house since no one else wants to deal with the mess and we do not mind). Everyone brings cookies and something to decorate with and we mix and match. SO fun!

[Carole Turner]

Christmas PJ's. We go get new PJ's to wear on Christmas Eve every year. BUT this year we actually bought PJ's for the children of woman at the local Battered Woman's Shelter instead.

[Rachelle]

We have a few...but I think my favorite ones all revolve around food...go figure!!!! On Chirstmas Eve we always make a big Mexican feast of enchiladas, rice, beans, salsa, etc. Christmas day is the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, etc and then the day after Christmas we get Chinese take out....Then comes New Years and time for a diet ;)

[Stephanie]

Since we just got married we are starting our own traditions as a couple. Which pretty much means dusting off some old traditions from when we were kids and doing those things together. We decorated our tree/living room/dining room/kitchen last weekend.

[Ruthie]

Each year I give Kayla a nutcracker and Candace a snow globe. They have one for each year they have been a live. We decided to stop at eighteen and now Kayla is getting one Christmas decoration each year. When they leave home they will take their collection and decorations with them.
It is really neat. All of Kayla's nutcrackers are on the top of our kitchen cabinets. Candace's snow globes are all over the den.

[iamthird]

great idea! well--getting the christmas tree the sunday after thanksgiving is the first christmas tradition in our fam. check...one down...more to come.

[Carole Turner]

I referred to you on my blog today...
http://www.thewardrobeandthewhitetree.com/2008/12/capricious.html

[jennifer ward]

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING - it's our first holiday tradition each year!

http://wearethewards.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-early-did-you-get-up.html

[Katie]

My husband and I buy each other special ornaments for the tree every year. We don't have kids yet, but when we do, I want them to get their own each year as well.

[Deeapaulitan]

I'm in! I've posted for this weeks, and we have so many traditions that I may post more than once a week!

[Deeapaulitan]

I'm in! I've posted for this weeks, and we have so many traditions that I may post more than once a week!

[jill]

Yummy goodies... So bad for my butt but so yummy for my mouth!

http://learninghowtothinkagain.blogspot.com/2008/12/tradition-time-week-1.html

[NANI]

DID YOU PUT HOT WATER WITH KARO THEN AFTER OR 7UP REG. NO DIET IT NEEDS SUGAR

[Nancy]

Love your tree! Our tradition has just started this year...an 11 foot tall blow up Christmas tree for the yard. :)

[MommaWheel]

I am so excited to make these recipes! Thanks!

We listen to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving)

My dad used to win awards for the best decorated house for the holidays and he got a plaque from the town we lived in! It was cool.

My husband is not too big into the decorations these days, but we go all out when we cook and invite the entire world over on Christmas morning.