We stayed home this Christmas, but took the week off from work. Since it was our first holiday season in our new home, we could make new traditions which, years from now, could take on some sort of hallowed status for our children. This is serious power, if you think about it. We tried several things which could evolve into traditions:
- baking cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. My husband spearheaded this one, using two sticks of “special ingredient” (butter). Yum.
- buying a Christmas tree from the local fire department. It’s quite an outing to get a Christmas tree and see fire trucks at the same time!
- going to the Camden Aquarium on Christmas Eve (includes a visit to Santa)
- going to the 4:30 children’s service at church…and barely making it through to Silent Night (the last hymn)
- having pigs in the blanket for Christmas Eve dinner
- enjoying mugs of hot chocolate spiked with marshmallow vodka (yes, there is such a thing)
- leaving several of the kids’ presents for Dec 26 because we just got overwhelmed
- pulling out my keyboard and singing Christmas carols with my extended family when they visited
On the other hand, a few things didn’t work out so well. We tried to do Advent calendars, but the kids opened all the doors prematurely. They’ll probably get better at this over the years, but success on this front seems a bit in the future. What new things from this year do you think you’ll keep as holiday traditions?
flickr image courtesy of moonlightbulb
Church with little ones is tricky — you want to do the tradition and establish beliefs but really they do not sit through those beautiful candlelight services…and when they are really little getting them to the kiddie services can be a challenge!
I have religion on my list for 2013 not for this coming year in terms of finding a church home etc. Marshmellow vodka sounds delightful in hot chocolate! Happy New Year!
The Santa stuff — is so nice! They only “believe” for such a short time say from 3 years old to 6 to six or 7 they get it so it is precious time. So fleeting if you think you are talking about 3 or 4 christmases when they will believe anything you tell them and want to be all over you.Such a special time!