Christmas Traditions

Our family has quite a few traditions we follow every year around Christmastime. Here are some of them:

Advent Calendars
We have a wooden Advent calendar that hangs on our wall in December. It is made to look like a stable with wooden figures on it of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger. The manger is 3-D. Inside of the manger are wooden stars numbered 1-25 that the kids take turns hanging on the small nails on the stable roof to count down the days until Christmas. We also usually have a paper Advent calendar with a picture on it with windows that are opened every day from December 1st til Christmas.

Advent Wreath
Our Advent wreath sits on our kitchen table. Every night at suppertime, we light the appropriate candle(s). Then, when we're done eating, DH or I read Bible passages or stories from the Bible about the promise of the Savior and his birth. Some years we've read devotions from a book that are specifically for Advent.

Christmas Cookies
As many families do, I bake cookies at Christmastime. I usually bake about a dozen different types of cookies. They are kinds I don't usually make at any other time during the year. (This year I'm making peanut butter kiss cookies, spritz, cut-out cookies, lemon dreams, pecan meltaways, cappuccino flats, triple chocolate caramel cookies, dipped gingersnaps, peanut butter balls, cherry snowballs, holiday hideaways, and chocolate mint cookies.) After I bake each kind, I freeze them. Then, when we go to visit friends and relatives over the holidays, I make up a plate of cookies with all of the different kinds on it to take along. I make up cookie plates for the kids to give as Christmas gifts for their teachers and for DH to take along to school and put in the faculty lounge as our gift to his school's faculty and staff from our family. I'm always sure to make up a plate of cookies for our family to eat at home, too!

Church Services
Church services are a big part of our Christmas celebrations. We attend Advent services on the 3 Wednesdays of Advent. Different groups at our church host Advent suppers on those nights for which we usually stay. Our school-aged kids take part in the children's Christmas service at church. Sometimes the children's service is on Christmas Eve; sometimes it's on the Sunday before Christmas. When it's not on Christmas Eve, we also attend the separate service on Christmas Eve. Then we go on Christmas morning, too. I just love to hear the Christmas story and sing the Christmas carols!

Christmas Lights
I think we inadvertently fell into the tradition of driving around to look at the Christmas lights on other people's houses. It started one year after an Advent service when I asked DH if he would take a round-about way home from church so that we could see some lights. Since then, we usually drive around a bit looking at lights before going home from Advent services.

Birthday Muffins
We have muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning. Everyone gets one with a candle in it. We light the candles, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then everyone blows out the candle in their muffin. I learned the hard way to make the muffins the night before. The first year we did this, I baked the muffins that morning. They weren't cool enough when we put the candles in, and the candles started to melt! Muffins are better without the wax mixed in! LOL

Gifts and Stockings
We don't do Santa gifts at our house, so the presents are usually under the tree as soon as the tree is decorated and the gifts are wrapped. The kids exchange names with each other, too. We open presents on Christmas Eve after church. On Christmas morning the kids have one or two more little presents they find in their stockings.