Christmas Traditions

One of the things that our family lacks is a strong sense of tradition.  Early this year I bought this book to help:

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach is a really neat book with all kinds of Victorian ideas that are neat to revive.  We had fun earlier in the year, starting some birthday traditions; like making a special hat for them to wear that day but then my energy puttered out and so did starting new traditions... till now.

Here's what we are doing for Christmas this year:

  

First, I'm proud to say we actually got our tree up and "the deer" on Thanksgiving weekend.  The deer serve as a beacon light for the airport runway two miles away :-)  Clark Griswold would be impressed.  

At first we were going to use a few of our regular ornaments but after four were quickly broken we re-grouped and decided to go a less delicate route.  Works better with our FP Little People Nativity Scene too (Ours doesn't look quite like this. The sheep keep flying into the tree, along with "the cowboy with the funny hat", as Titus calls Joseph :-).

I decided it would be neat to make "Jesse Tree" ornaments, one each day till Christmas Eve.  I looked at some sites for templates and then just decided to let the boys create their own ornaments based on the story we read each day.  The book I chose to read to them this year is "The Jesse Tree" by Geraldine McCaughrean.  I chose this book mainly because it was available at the library.

The was a wonderful idea and I think we'll really do it next year, but it was a bit too ambitious this year; we made it to day two before the boys lost interest in making ornaments.   However, we are still reading the story every night and they are enjoying it.  The story has an interesting twist in that its told by a old church carpenter to a boy that at first really annoys the carpenter but then starts to grow on him.

Which brings me to our final new tradition that we have been keeping up with.  Along with the daily readings we have been making a "Thankfulness Garland".  Its the traditional construction paper garland we all made in school with a little more added.  We have the boys each write something they are thankful for each day and we add that loop to the chain.  By Christmas it should be an impressive 75 loops long.  The boys are enjoying this and sometimes they decorate their loops, depending on mood.  Lance is even talking about plans to keep it so we can add to each year.

Lastly, here is something to add cheer to your Holiday Season!