Over the past few years my daughter and I have developed a seasonal tradition of working on a craft a day. I’ve found that this is a wonderful way to keep her involved in the daily activities of the holidays; especially when so many of us tend to get overwhelmed with the shopping, gatherings, weather, cooking, and baking.
Since we’ve begun homeschooling this year I’ve tried to incorporate our crafts into her lesson plan. We’ve made Sugar Plums while discussing the Nutcracker Suite and “The Night Before Christmas”, learned songs while making Christmas trees, discussed science while making Cranberry Coffee Cake, and so on.
Do you have a seasonal tradition to keep your children involved in the daily workings of the holidays?
Jennifer can also be found at Unearthing this Life blarging about her experiences living in rural Tennessee.
While we don’t have kids, I have memorable traditions from my parents that I still miss putting into practice at times. My parents raised us to celebrate the entire season of advent including lighting the candles at home with dinner each night and frequently doing a Bible reading to focus our minds and hearts on the meaning of the season. Mom also made cinnamon rolls each Christmas having us help as we could so that we’d have an easy Christmas breakfast prior to opening our gifts.
We don’t have children, but we always had traditions in the family. We always read the Christmas story from the Bible before opening gifts, we always lit our little angel chimes, I remember celebrating the advent when I was young and making cookies with my mom every year. We always opening all of our gifts on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning we woke up to our stocking stuffed with candy & goodies.
We also always went to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and we’d spend the day decorating it. I spent a lot of chilly afternoons decorating the outside of the house with lights with my dad and so much other fun stuff.
We make and decorate ginger bread cookies each year. It is a lot of fun and something the kids always look forward too!