I like to get the holidays started as early as possible. And I like to keep them going as long as possible - sometimes 'til the middle of January.
I start listening to the occasional Christmas song sometime around mid-October. It's my inspiration. My all time favorite holiday music is this CD:
And, once I hear the song "Christmas Canon" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it's "game on" for me.
Immediately, I get the itch to start filling my freezers with holiday baking. After all, there's nothing worse than standing in the kitchen at midnight, waiting for that last batch of cookies to finish baking in preparation for a holiday event the next day. It's much easier to grab a package out of the freezer, arrange them neatly on a tray and go to bed!
I have to admit, I am a little behind on my baking this year. I still have about half of my planned baking to complete. (Don't even try to make me feel guilty about being behind... I'm good enough at punishing myself with guilt and pressure!)
Did I mention that my Christmas shopping happens year 'round? I like to buy the "perfect gift" as I find it. Usually at a much better price than what last minute shopping produces.
And then there's the decorating. It's starting today in our home. I'll wrap up the inside decorating tomorrow. Bud and I will be scaling ladders and climbing through bushes on Saturday morning to get all the outdoor lights in place. (Well, okay... only Bud will be scaling ladders. I like to keep my feet on the ground.) Don't worry, we don't turn on any lights until Thanksgiving evening.
We also hold off decorating the Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving. Not because I have anything against decorating it sooner. But, Bud's mom spends Thanksgiving with us and we like to include her in the festivities. She's the official Master Fluffer of the tree boughs. And she's good at it!
Once the tree is fully fluffed and festooned, we turn on all the lights. Inside and out.
In honor of the beginning of my holiday season, I'm giving away one copy of Martina McBride's "White Christmas" CD***. To win, leave a comment and tell me about your family's favorite Christmas tradition. One entry per person, please. Entries will be accepted through midnight Saturday. The winner will be announced Sunday evening.
(***Martina McBride is not sponsoring this contest. She is not a personal friend of mine. I wish. She doesn't even know I exist.)
20 comments:
Hey Dawn, Thanks for the comment on Prayfully Yours today. It meant a lot to me.
I love Martina McBride but don't have any of her CD's.
When I was growing up(many, many, many)years ago. We would go to my Daddy's sisters & brothers house on Christmas day.
Now, my Dad was the only one of 5 children that married. The other four never married (their parents died when they were children) and lived in the home place (we called it over home).
So, after I had run through Santa stuff it was get ready to go "Over Home". My Mama would put the gifts for the aunts and uncles in the living room to well keep them away from me. One year my sister when to get their gifts and came screaming out of the room. She was screaming SNAKE to the top of her lungs. Sure enough there was a huge snake lying on top of the gifts. We thought one of the brothers was playing a joke until the snake started moving. My Daddy (a coal miner) grabbed the snake behind its head. The snake wound itself around Daddy's arm and Daddy took it outside and that was that. I still remember Daddy passing by my little eyes with that snake around his arm.
I always got a silver dollar wrapped and hung on the tree from my oldest uncle, PJ's from my aunts, and chocolate covered cherries from my other uncle. It was wonderful. They are all gone home now but the memories still remain as clear as yesterday.
BTW the word verification is "upsetede". That is what my sister was very UPSETEDE.
I'm looking forward to pictures of your decorations.
I love Christmas! I love Christmas music, I love Christmas food, I love a Christmas mood, decorations, carols, you name it. I love reading christmas stories to the kids, singing a 2 or 3 carols together every night from the last week of November through the last week of December from the big hard cover Readers Digest Christmas Song Book.
I also love our fancy candlelit supper on Christmas Eve followed by the reading of the Nativity story with the kids placing the Nativity scene figures in place in sequence.
I love putting decorations on the tree and talking about the tree of life, the light of the world, the Bright and Morning Star... all that wonderful stuff. I'm just a Christmas junkie! And I love Martina McBride :D
We decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but since the kids are not around, we might do some and leave some for them to help with when they come home. My daughter and I always make cookies together. She's 25 and told me on the phone not to forget about the cookies. On Christmas morning we have a big breakfast (eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, juice, pancakes) after we open up all the presents.
Hi Dawn,
I actually made my first 'trial' Christmas recipe tonight. The peanut butter/chocolate Chex mix.
It turned out really good. Tastes kinda like Reeses. So that will be on my gifting list.
One tradition for our family is letting the girls open one present on Christmas Eve, which is conveniently a Christmas cd to listen to or dvd to watch. We'll also take some night to drive around with our hot chocolate looking at the lights.
I would be happy to be included in your drawing!
God bless,
Brenda :)
Every year when my kids were little Christmas Eve was birthday Party for Jesus with a birthday cake(it had a manger scene on it)
and friends and family would be there with lots of good food-we would share the christmas story from the bible. When my oldest daughter got married a lady at our church gave her a trim the tree party in July.She had a tree up and decorated and we all brought Christmas decorations for Ashley - she asked everyone to share their favorite Christmas memory or a tradition they love- Ashley got emotional and told about how happy she was to grow up in a home that had birthday parties for Jesus and it was special. I think it's time to do it for my grandkids.
Be blessed!
WoW a great give a-way! We use to pick a night with the girls and ride around and look at lights playing Christmas music in our PJ's then come home to hot cider or chocolate and cookies. The hubby and I still do it ....just like we started with just the two of us :)
I have loved reading everyone's traditions. I feel like over the years we have participated in many of these same traditions.
It is so fun to open that one special present Christmas eve. And to drive around looking at Christmas lights. And making cookies with the kids. And reading the Nativity story on Christmas eve (I've used the Bible and some wonderful picture books as well...). And a Jesus birthday cake. And the BIG Christmas morning breakfast with french toast casserole, eggs, bacon, sausage and the works!
Another tradition has been to take our family picture at the Christmas tree farm for our card.
And we never saw a snake! Oh my, I can't even imagine how UPSETEDE I would be...
Thank you for bringing us into your home and letting us in on your traditions and festivities. Can't wait to see pictures!
Love you!
YBFA&F
First of all, reading JC's comment meant a lot to me this morning. She is my husband's aunt (mine too!) and reading a family story out of the blue was just cool.
OK, I told you about the shoe tree over the phone so....Oh! I got it!
My Nanny would make Martha Washington candy every year and bring it to my Aunt's house at Christmas. She wouldn't keep the candy in the kitchen or dining room. She put it in a large container and kept it in the spare bedroom. Because she said that part of the house was cooler.
So now, I make Martha Washington candy every year. Last year, on Christmas eve, I got my kiddos to do it for me. I think I will ask them to do it again this year too. I liked having them connected to her that way!
And I keep our candy in the kitchen :)
Hi Dawn,
I am also a Martina fan, my husband is too!
We have been married 40 years this year and the year he was in Viet Nam I learned from a lady at my church how to make homemade Chocolate Cherries. so for 38 years everyone expects me to make them and the Martha Washington, and my yummy fruit cake cookies that are mostly pecans. I love to cook and love for people to eat my goodies, my son would have a heart attach if he came over and there were no cherries! Hes 37 going on 10.
Hugs and blessings,
Polly
My favorite tradition is just my own--no one else particpates with me!
After everyone goes to bed on Christmas Eve, I sit on the couch by the lights of the tree and listen to Robert Benson reading "The Night of the Child."
That's Christmas to me!
Well, it's got to be our traditional eggnog punch (non-alcoholic, of course). It perfectly matches the color and texture of our winter snows here in Ohio, and tastes as delicious as any dessert. It's only a three-ingredient "recipe," given to me by a friend years ago, but you'd think it was made from scratch. Everyone loves it, and it makes our holidays even more festive.
Hey! I came via We are that family - your comment about the egg drop project caught my eye- my 14 yo just did that one last week for physics! I am happy to report her egg didn't break when tossed out the second floor window and she got an A.
That said, I 'm glad I cam, I love Christmas AND Martina McBride. So, my favorite holiday tradition (we have many) is watching The Grinch as soon as Thanksgiving dinner is over as we drink eggnog and eat cookies. It officially "starts" the holiday serason in our home.
Oh! I forgot to tell a family tradition! ...let's see, we have varying traditions based on whom we are spending Christmas with.
If it is with the Texas grandparents, we ALWAYS have hot, yummy little pigs in the blanket for breakfast on Christmas morning. Things are quiet and orderly...very intimate with just our immediate family and the Texas grandparents present. And everything HAS to be done on exactly the PROPER day! There is no peeking in gifts one second early at Grandma and Grandpa M's house!
If it is with the Peculiar, MO grandparents we have a huge Christmas dinner with ALL the siblings and spouses and all their children. (The actual celebration may be before or after Dec. 25...whatever is the nearest day that EVERYONE can be together at.) After the meal everyone gathers around as Granddad C reads of the birth of Jesus out of the Bible and prays. Then we tear into presents...everyone, all at once. With so many people involved in such a limited space, the floor is soon knee deep in shredded wrapping paper!
If it is with the KCK Grandparents, we begin openning Christmas presents the minute we arrive (regardless of how far in advance of Christmas it is...when I was a kid, we always had everything opened up way before Christmas!). Christmas is fluid and spontaneous when we are in Kansas! ...and, again, it is usually just our immediate family there with Grandma and Grandpa B.
Funny how all three sets of grandparents have such different tones to the holiday and different traditions.
I guess our one definite tradition is that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are spent with a set of grandparents somewhere. And we usually manage to get in celebrations with all three sets of grandparents for Christmas...so our Christmas spreads over a number of days!
You mean I am not supposed to stay up late(um sewing outfits!) and yelling at everyone? I have never frozen baked cookies. I will have to try it.
My favorite tradition is getting out my Christmas dishes and red goblets the weekend after Thanksgiving. We use them everyday for the month with candlelight at supper. Even if it is Burger King- we put it on our plates and have candlelight dinner. I like it because with all the busyness and things you are trying to do it is a good 30 minutes that really turns down the volume and energy and everyone is more mannered and calm and it is just a moment for us all to stop and breathe. My kids use, and have broken, half my goblets that were expensive. The joy on a little 3 year old's face when they get to drink out of the big goblet was priceless. Funny how the boys are the ones that request candles and drinking out of them now. I pick up every red goblet I can find and now have a mix of different styles- that's okay! We have a calendar banner of a Christmas tree and each day they take a small velcroed ornament out of a pocket at the bottom and put it on the tree till at the end, guess what day it is? Of coarse all the special foods that we "have" to have. I have tried without them and it is true that it just isn't the same. We always make chocolate covered pretzels. We always read through an advent book each night and it has a special wreath candle lighting reading with it on Sundays. I buy the kids an ornament each year and they open that on Christmas Eve. I used to do PJs but they seemed to grow out of that.
"Christmas Canon," YES! It officially launched my season just this week, as I listened to it while driving north through Iowa.
We have a green felt Advent Calendar on which we button a felt angel each day. After 28 years, it's getting a bit worn out, but, if they're here, our grown sons still button on an angel. (Though, it's never done when anyone is around to see them do it.) lol
I would LOVE to have that CD. And I LOVE Transiberian Orchestra - that one you linked as well as Carol of the Bells. LOVE them!
I haven't started doing anything yet, and am sadly bad at baking anything any more.
I decorate two trees - I started a designer tree a few years ago and add a few new blue and gold things every year. The downstairs tree is full of the mish-mash that comes from years of collecting - one special ornament for each of our 36 (on Dec. 28) years of marriage. It is very sentimental.
A few fave traditions for me... the first snowfall demands the playing of Bony M's "Mary's Boy Child". We always read the Christmas story on Christmas morning and give thanks (even the children) for our many blessings before opening gifts. Though my dear Oma passed away this year, it was her special treat to host an appetizer/treat buffet for our family at her place each year after the Christmas program on the 24th. One year my dh and I even announced our pregnancy on that special evening. My, I'm going to miss her this year.
Thanks for taking me on that nostalgic walk. (I giggled at the thought of flipping on the lights after setting the turkey bones on the stove to make stock)
I just wrote about a new tradition on my blog - my mom, sister, and 2 daughters go to a church in our town a few weeks before Christmas that holds a sing your own Messiah. We love it and it puts us in the Christmas spirit. Such a moving experience that readies our hearts for the season ....
Post a Comment