Christmas/Holiday/Advent Traditions and Tips!

• Wrap up Christmas books you have and have your child open one a day, everyday of December, until Christmas http://fultonfamilynews.blogspot.com ( scroll down some for pics)
• Use an Advent Calendar to countdown the days until Christmas- on December 24th, go on a hunt for baby Jesus ( hide a Nativity set in your home)
• Do one thing special together as a family each day in December ( make cookies, watch a movie, make a snowman, go caroling)
• Don’t just decorate your home with “pretties”, Make an effort to have things your kids like and can actually play with and enjoy
• Do something with your girlfriends, just for you!
• Have a wrapping party. Everyone brings their gifts and wrapping paper. Spread out and start wrapping!
• take a car ride to look at all the pretty lights in your neighborhood
• Pray together
• Make treats for your neighbors and hand deliver
• Make treats for the birds and squirrels
• Don’t forget to say thank you to your postal worker, garbage man, UPS guy, or other service providers
• Carry some extra candy canes in your purse or diaper bag…,hand out to the grocery store person, the Salvation Army ringer, the cart collector, etc
• Buy a coffee or cocoa for the Salvation Army Ringer on a really cold day
• Take pictures of how your decorate each year so you can remember it the next year
• Have your kids take a picture in the same place each year so you can see how they’ve grown ( in front of a tree would be great)
• Talk to each other- use this time to reconnect
• Get a fresh Christmas tree at least once in your lifetime! Make the process super fun- go cut down your own tree, have hot cocoa waiting on the stove when you return
• Carol to your neighbor’s homes
• Give your child new Christmas PJ’s (already washed and soft) on Christmas Eve!
• Give your child a dated ornament each Christmas. When your child has his/her first home, give them all their ornaments to share with their family.
• Display the kids artwork from school in a prominent place- make sure they know you think it’s wonderful
• Make Santa really come to life- tell stories from when you were little, make reindeer snack mix, write him a note, etc.
• Write a holiday card! Even if you don’t send it to people. It should be something that documents the past year.
• Have Christmas music on all the time…on the CD players, in the kids’ rooms, in the car. 92.5 and 91.7 FM play 24/7 Christmas music during December.
• Have Santa show up a bit early and carefully put one small item (gum, one piece of candy, a coin, etc) in the kids’ stockings. He might come everyday or every few days or just once a week. He might come at night or while your kids are at school or even when you go to the library. The kids will be so excited for the anticipation of Christmas!
• Mommies and Daddies go to cocktail parties all the time leaving the kids at home with the babysitters. This year, host an hors d’vours party for the kids. Everything has to be bite size and the only untensil to use would be a toothpick. Serve juice in plastic cocktail glasses and show them how it’s done!
• Serve an almond dessert. Make a dessert with ONE ALMOND baked into it. Whoever gets served the Almond gets a gift!
• Read, THE ADVENT BOOK. It’s a beautiful book that you open one page a day and add on to the story. So on day 10, you read pages 1-10. By the end of Advent, the kids know the whole story by heart and learn the amazing story of the birth of Jesus.
  Have your tree reflect your reverence and respect of Advent. Let is be a month-long tree trimming experience. Each night for the first three weeks, have the children place purple ornaments on the tree. The forth week, pink ones. Insert your other family ornaments amounts the advent ornaments.
• Do Christmas Crafts with your kids! Ornaments, toys, decorations. Use paper and your hands and feet to create beautiful decorations (a foot for the body and two hands for wings on an angel….one upside down hand for a sheep…Green hands for an advent wreath, purple and pink ones for candles.
• Give each child their own special Advent Calendar or countdown
• Give everyone only three gifts to represent the three gifts the Wise men brought to Jesus
• When going through the checkout, ask the cashier what their favorite candy is…buy it for them! They work long, exhausting shifts this time of year! The sugar rush and the gesture will brighten their day!
• Designate at least one day a week for a family activity. Watching a favorite Christmas movie together with popcorn and treats, ice-skating, making a snowman, anything!
• Read ELF ON a SHELF A story about an elf, that actually comes with the book that reports on things to Santa. He “moves” everyday!
• Celebrate St. Nicks’ Day! December 6th. Have the kids put out their shoes and leave them something very small- candy, chocolate coins, etc. Learn together the story of the real St. Nick. Go to the store together and pick out a gift for a child less fortunate.
• Give 3 small gifts on Epiphany ( January 6th) The day the wise men arrived to meet Jesus
• Celebrate the 12 days of Christmas (the 12 days between the birth of Jesus and the Epiphany). Don’t just tear down all your decorations and start cleaning everything up….relish in the holidays! Finally take the time to enjoy what you have, what you received, and who you spent time with. Take it easy. Clean up and start the New Year after Epiphany!
• Have communion and read Luke 2, the story of Jesus’ birth
• Buy a child friendly Nativity set that has a verse and devotional about each piece of the Nativity. For the 12 days before Christmas, add a piece, learn about why it is part of the Nativity and share the devotional. Add the baby Jesus Christmas morn. http://www.nadiaswearingen-friesen.com/DevotionSets.html
• http://www.jillsavage.com
• Make your own little Christmas notebook for the entire Holiday season! Attach a pen to it with a ribbon and carry it with you everywhere. Designate areas for gift ideas, writing down what you buy for whom, To Do lists, ideas for things, etc!