Christmas Part IV – Traditions

We’ve started a few family Christmas traditions this year, seeing as this has been our first Christmas completely alone. (That sounds sad, but really it was a happy thing! We enjoyed being able to do our own thing for the holidays).

Tradition #1 – gift giving – we give four gifts (and then a bunch of little stocking stuffers) – something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. It worked really really well this year. It simplifies gift buying and helps us to focus on the real reason for the season – the Savior and His ultimate gift to us.

Tradition #2 – Caroling – our picture above was taken by our neighbors (our first stop caroling). We made up plates of cookies and took them to all the military families who were staying around town for Christmas. It was a lot of fun, and my personal favorite tradition.

Tradition #3 – scone breakfast – Russ came up with this one. In Isaiah there is a prophecy that Christ will eat butter and honey to learn to choose the good and refuse evil. So we made fried scones for breakfast on Christmas morning (I made the dough the night before) and ate them with butter and honey. They were absolutely delicious!

Tradition #4 – Nativity Play – we acted out the Nativity (in Portuguese, of course!) I played Mary, Joseline played baby Jesus (although she freaked out when we put her in the “manger” – aka, the toy box), Vince was Joseph, a shepherd, and a wise man, and Russ was the narrator, shepherd, and wise man. We plan to get more involved each year, as our kids get a little older. But it was lots of fun to start this year with our tiny kids!

Tradition #5 – music program – so we didn’t actually do this one this year, but we will start next year. We want to put on a music program each Christmas. I will play piano, violin and sing, Russ will play the trumpet, we will sing Christmas songs together and have a jolly time celebrating the season with music!

Tradition #6 – The Nativity Song – we also didn’t do this one this year, and we probably won’t start doing it until Vince is in Primary (so in two years). We are going to incorporate music into our Nativity play. We’ll make sure to take videos and post them :)

 

I think it is really important to have some holiday traditions with you family. What are some of your holiday traditions? Where did they come from? What traditions do you want to start next year?