Anyone is welcome to link up their Christmas Projects at our Christmas Link Carnival.
1. My super crafty mom-in-law made this advent calendar for my girls last year and we have been eating a treat a day- counting down the days until til Christmas comes:)
5. Growing up since we had 6 kids in our family, we always drew names to see which sibling we gave a gift to that year. This year I started the same tradition with my girls. (since we only have 2 girls- we technically didn’t need to draw, but it was funner that way;) We are headed out Christmas shopping this week and I am letting them each choose out a present for their sister- without the help of mom or dad (for the most part;). I really want them to feel like they picked out each others gifts! I can’t wait to see what they choose! Could be interesting! 🙂
Now for the ideas of things I would like to do for next year:
1. I would like to start the elf on a shelf tradition! I didn’t realize what it was until recently and I think it sounds so fun. Basically- you have an elf (you can get the real Elf on a Shelf one or just any old elf) and that elf sits somewhere in your house- if you get the real Elf on a Shelf, it comes with a book that talks about how the elf watches the kids and tells Santa if they have been good or not. Every night the elf moves (with the help of mom, dad, and Santa- of course) and the next morning the kids have to find where the elf moved to and make sure that when the elf is watching that they are being good so they the elf gives a good report to Santa Claus. I have heard the funniest stories about kids talking to the elf and telling on their brother or sister! ha ha I think it sounds like such a fun tradition! (I mentioned having one of Santa’s elves move in with us and my little girl got a little nervous! ha ha So that is why I am waiting to start this tradition till next year. I will give her a year to mull it over;)
2. As we took some of our neighbor gifts around the neighborhood tonight and I saw the excitement my little 3 year old had at giving a gift to all of our friends, and it reminded me of something my husband and I used to do before we had our kids… Secret Santa gifts for a family in need. I decided that this would be a perfect tradition to help us teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas and that we can give to someone in need just like Christ did for all of us. I can picture us all sneaking up to the door of that family and ringing the doorbell and then running like mad with our kids around the corner! I know my girls would love it and would love that we had to keep it a secret that it was us! I can’t wait to start this tradition next year!
3. When I was a little girl, my grandpa used to make a birthday cake every Christmas and on top he would put a popsicle stick manger with a baby Jesus in it and we would all sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and then, while we ate the cake, we talked about the things that Jesus did for us. I am sure that this may seem like a weird tradition to some, but as a little girl, it helped me to remember that Christmas was Jesus’s birthday and it helped me to remember why we have Christmas as we talked about him. I think I would like to do a similar tradition with my girls but also add on to this tradition… The first Monday night in December, for family night I thought it would be fitting to talk about Christmas and what it means and then ask our girls what they would like to give to Christ for Christmas that year. We could write it down on pieces of paper and then put it into a box and wrap it up and put it under the tree. Then on Christmas, after we sing and eat cake, we could open that present and read all of the things that we promised to give to Christ that year- whether it was being nice to their sister, or listening to mom and dad, or saying their prayers at night… just whatever they wrote down. Then we could talk about those things and why they are important and help each other remember throughout the year those promises we made. I think it would be such a fun way to teach our girls about the true meaning of Christmas! 🙂
I am still keeping my eyes open for more traditions and I am actually having a link party today on my blog specifically for everyone to come link up their posts about family traditions! It will be open until the end of the year and ready for linking. I would love to hear about all of your traditions so that I can get even more ideas!! Please stop by and link up! 🙂
http://mommybydaycrafterbynight.blogspot.com
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And even if you don’t link up… Feel free to stop by and say hi! I have lots of homemade gift giving ideas, Christmas printables, and fun tutorials! Thanks so much for having me Rach! xoxo
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