Monday: Weekly Family Activity—Christmas Traditions

December 15th, 2008 in Monday: Weekly Family Activity

Sit down as a family and take time to find out what special traditions YOUR children really enjoy. Their answers might surprise you!

Ornaments

This tradition came from my husband’s side of the family. Every year each child in the family got a new ornament. My girls both got a bell last year and this year are receiving penguins on ice skates. The surprising thing for this tradition is that I stopped doing it for my husband and I until I realized he missed getting one every year! See when you ask, the answers can surprise you.

Pajamas

I was asking my mother when this tradition started and she told me she had no idea how she got roped into it! But every year she sews up everyone some pajama bottoms. The best part is she tries to make them outrageous! The first year my husband and I spent Christmas together she made him polyester purple polka dot pajamas. You know what? He LOVED them! I have carried on this tradition but do it the lazy way by heading out to Old Navy to pick them up.

Christmas Eve Dinner

My mother in law has the cutest tradition that I have ever seen before and starting this year that I am doing every year.

This is her explanation that she emailed me (sorry I didn’t tell you it was going on my blog, hope that is ok!):

“I buy small gifts for everyone at the table, (sometimes they are Christmas ornaments or just funny and silly stuff). To make the table look nice they all need to be in boxes. Then I wrap the boxes in the color I want to decorate in. You can use the same paper for each or mix it up. I put a bow on top and then I put a tiny little inital on the bottom for my own clue. If it doesn’t matter who gets what then forget about trying to keep them straight. I arrange them in the middle of the table (stack in a design or just lay them casual). I take a long ribbon and attach one end to the bottom of the package (it needs to be taped good so when it is pulled it doesn’t come off too easy). The other end of the ribbon loops around the packages, over, under, around, however so that they eye can’t follow it and then ends up under a plate. Keep the ribbon loose, not pulled tight, as you weave it around so it looks pretty. Then at the end of the meal when the plates are cleared, everyone at the same time slowly and carefully pull their ribbons to get to their present in the middle of the table!

Color schemes of the ribbons and decor I have used:

1-light blue tablecloth with white lace cloth covering

white and silver packages with little silver Christmas balls scattered among the packages

white candles

2-green table cloth with a Christmas runner

red and green Christmas paper with holly tucked among the packages

3-purple table cloth with purple or silver runner

white and purple or black and purple wrapping paper. I use candles again and tuck little purple or silver balls around packages

4-black table cloth with black and white packages or silver, or gold

again I like candles with this and with red napkins and some pretty red glasses I have

Last year I tried something new. I used goblets for everyone, even the grand kids (just a little nervous about that, but they did fine). Then I tied a different ribbon on each stem of the goblets. Around the house I had small packages in plain sight with a matching ribbon. After dinner everyone took their ribbon and looked for the package that had a matching ribbon. That was fun. Depending on how many people you have though you would have to buy several different ribbon patterns but I have found through the years I have bunches of odd and end ribbons from different Christmas projects so it worked for me.”

Here is just a quick shot of mine this year, it isn’t on the decorated table, but just wanted you to have somewhat of a visual image….