But I had never considered what my favorite is because I just love all of our little family traditions. So instead of picking one, I decided to just make a fat list:
- Our Christmas traditions actually begin around Halloween when the stores put out all their Christmas junk and I make a big stinkin' deal about how wrong that is and boycott all things Christmas until after Thanksgiving.
- The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our tree. Usually around the kids' bedtime, we decorate it. Walter and I concoct a celebratory egg nog with some expensive wiskey he buys just for the occasion. We put on Christmas music and dim the lights while we decorate.
- Sometime during the Thanksgiving break, I don the kids in their Christmas outfits and take them somewhere scenic and wrestle them into a photo for our Christmas cards.
- December 1st marks the Advent season. Our church has a family night where we have dinner and have assembled some type of Advent wreath each year.
- We have an Advent story book with 24 little Christmas stories about a little bear on a journey to Bethlehem. Each night in December, we read one of the stories and then the kids can have a piece of candy from our Advent calendar. (right before bed. Yay!)
- There's a little Methodist church near Roman's school that has a live nativity. This was the first year we didn't freeze our rears. The Holy Family and the angels, wise men, and shepards walk from one of the other churches to this one and bring donkeys, goats, and camels. When they reach the end of the line, they assemble in a manger and the whole group (spectators included) sing carols.
- Of course, there's all the holiday baking! Last year, we made chocolate coated pretzel sticks. We'll probably do that again tomorrow. This year, I also got a house-shaped gingerbread pan with gingerbread cookie mix. It seems so much easier to just decorate a 2-dimentional house facade rather than assemble the whole house. We'll do that tomorrow too. Then sometime on Thursday, we'll bake cookies for Santa.
- At our own church, we have a night of Lessons & Carols where members read passages fortelling Jesus' birth and the events thereafter. The lessons are read by members of increasing age with each story. But the part that I enjoy the most is the carols. I love Christmas carols. I love singing them loudly and hearing others sing them passionately. Our church was designed for acoustics and it's always amazing to hear the singing and instruments echoing. My favorite is O Holy Night, but I don't think we've ever sung that one.
- My neighbors get together for a pot luck dinner. Sometimes there's a Chinese gift exchange.
- Then on Christmas Eve, we have a candle-light service which is so serene and beautiful. At the end, they dim the lights, pass around small candles, and sing Silent Night.
- When we get home, we bathe the kids, read our final Advent story, and put out cookies for Santa. The kids usually get to open one small gift that night.
- Once they're in bed, we wrap any final gifts (while watching A Christmas Story) and set up the electric train around the base of the tree. I got the train as a surprise for Walter a few years ago. I kept it hidden until after he was asleep and snuck out later and put it together. On Christmas morning, he was just as surprised as the kids. So, now it's kind of a tradition to have Santa bring it every year.
- On Christmas morning, Walter gets up with the kids and lets them rummage through their stockings while he puts on a pot of coffee. Ever since I was little, we've had Pillsbury orange rolls for breakfast, so we carry that tradition on. The kids open a couple gifts before the neighbors come over for coffee and breakfast (of eggs, bacon and toast). When they leave, we finish going through the gifts. Then Walter's parents come down and we do the grandparent gifts. We tidy up a bit and let the kids play and start thinking about dinner. If Walter's mom cooks, we have Ham and picnic food. If we cook, we make steak and hearty sides. (This year, we're eating at his parents' place.)
- The tree and decorations come down the day after New Years.
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