Christmas Traditions

(yep, I am still pretty sick so you get more rambling blogs!  Yippee!)

What did your family do growing up around Christmas time?  Are there specific things that you did each December to spread the spirit of Christmas?  Things that you still do every year to help you feel like it's Christmas?  Growing up my family did LOTS of things every year.  Some things I have done well with continuing every year and others I have slacked off on.

Growing up my family was pretty poor.  In fact we were extremely poor.  Like single mother of 4, living on her, own making less than 10 grand a year a lot of the time, with no government assistance, type of poor.  My mother did an incredibly wonderful job of making Christmas time about SO much more than presents every year.  I can honestly say that I never once felt sorry for myself for not getting enough for Christmas, and we had some pretty meager ones.  This is certainly NOT because I am so humble and was beyond the trivial desire for materialistic things.  Not at all.  But like I said, it was because of the many things that my mom did to spread happiness and love and service at Christmas time that always seemed to make Christmas so wonderful.  Here are a few of our annual traditions:

Decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving

Watching "White Christmas"

The twelve days of Christmas:

 This was one of my favorites and unfortunately we haven't kept it up as much as I would like, but I am planning on doing this as a family every year, though it is hard with a baby due right in the midst of it.  Each year we would all submit names of families that we thought could use some Christmas service and then we would pray about/vote on which family/families we would do the "12 days of Christmas" for.  The 12 days leading up to Christmas we would leave gifts anonymously on their doorstep, my mom would write little poems making whatever gift we gave fit into the traditional song and make it cute and catchy.  These were usually homemade or very cheap gifts, and making them each year was one of my favorite parts of Christmas.  There were some we did every year, like marshmallow snowmen villages, or pine cone reindeer ornaments, home made popcorn balls or crispy treats died red or green.  We would leave the gifts on the doorstep and "doorbell ditch".  It was so fun to see people's reactions as we hid in the bushes.  Some years we knew the families well and they would tell us all about it, all the while we pretended to have no idea, and other years we did it for families we didn't know, some years we even did multiple families.  I loved this part of Christmas each year.  It really helped us set the tone throughout December.  One year we even did Christmas for another family, we didn't know them hardly at all, but had heard about their misfortunes and we snuck into their house while they were out (we lived in a small town where people didn't lock doors) and left food and a tree and gifts.  They had all girls so the gifts that would have worked for my family transferred over well for them.  We decorated their house and left everything for them there.  We had less that year but that was one of my favorite Christmas'.

Making treats and Caroling:

Each year we would make treats for our neighbors and Carol to them on Christmas Eve and bring goodies.  Some of our neighbors even had special requests for songs each year.

Mom reading Luke: 2, while we dressed up and acted it out on Christmas Eve each year, even as adults :)

 pictured here are a few years from childhood days (I called my mom and asked her to send me "A" picture to represent this tradition...she sent me all these and asked me if I wanted more recent ones too...I decided to throw these all in a slide show since my siblings might want to see them, but I declined getting sent anymore for now, since I could never choose which ones to use and this is already overload) ***Disclaimer: we had to choose out of a hat each year which part we played and we HAD to play that part :)***

Opening one gift on Christmas Eve just before bed (always pajamas)

And my favorite Christmas Tradition...

The Jesus Stocking:

At our house Santa didn't bring gifts, he filled our stocking each year and this is where we received most of our "frivolous" gifts, like candy and chap stick or jewelry, makeup as we got older, etc.  Then my mom gave us gifts under the tree, which were usually practical gifts that we were in need of.  Anyway, our stockings were always the "funnest" part of Christmas morning.  So in other words, stockings are a big deal for my family.  Each year we also hung a pure white stocking up with our family stockings.  This was Jesus' stocking.  Every Christmas Eve after reading the Christmas story we would take a few minutes individually and think about what we could give Jesus as a gift for the next year.  These were kind of like New Year's Resolutions, things we could do to better ourselves that would bring us closer to Christ.  We would read our slips privately, think about how we did in our goals/gifts and then write out new ones fold them up, and put them in the stocking as our gifts to Christ.  No one ever read anyone else's (at least I never peeked at anyone's, who knows if any of my siblings ever did).  It was just a nice way to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas before the less spiritual traditions kicked in.

This year I am already thinking about what gifts I can give to Christ and I thought I would share one of them.  Clearly, most of these goals are really personal, but here is one that is share-able.  I want to really study His words in the scriptures so that I can know Him even better.  This is going to be a challenge for me.  I have almost made it though this year and completed my goal of not missing a single day of scripture study but my goal for 2011 is going to be a much bigger challenge.  I am really intimidated by it, but also really excited for it.  I want to read through the entire standard works (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price) in one year.  In order to do this I will have to read more than 6 pages a day.  Split over 365 days it equals like 6.7 pages or something, so what I am going to do is read 6 pages and then finish off at the next chapter.  Hopefully by doing this I will finish a little early and be able to complete it by Christmas (starting at New Years).  I have always wanted to have a more thorough knowledge of the scriptures and I figure the only way I am going to is by putting in the work.  I am also hoping that by putting it on here that I will be held more accountable.  I will let you know next Christmas if I made it, for me it is a big challenge.  Anybody want to join me in my standard works challenge??

Anyway, I am SO grateful for the traditions I grew up with, even the less Christ-centered ones, like getting a new movie each year and watching it on Christmas afternoon.  They make Christmas a season and not just a one day thing.  I love Christmas time and all the things that go with it!...Except maybe the crowds.

So what about you?  What makes your Christmas every year?

 

More random pictures of traditional things that my sweet mom sent me when I asked for "a" picture of our Christmas pageant.  I love that she is an overachiever and I am glad to have scanned copies of these.  THANKS MOM!