I hope you made it to the Doorposts Facebook party on Tuesday! We had so much fun getting to “talk” with you all! If you haven’t looked at the posts of the contest winners, please do! You’ll be inspired!
Now that we have an extra bedroom (with all the boys off and married), I’m thinking about converting the room that has been our craft room, and then music room, and now guest room, into a play room for the grandkids, and I’ve got some new ideas for how to decorate it, thanks to all the great contest entries!
It looks like our “Write Them on the Doorposts” contest may become an annual tradition, so take plenty of pictures after you try out some of these great ideas in your own home!
One of the giveaways during the Facebook party asked people to share their favorite Christmas tradition. I thought I’d pass some of those ideas along to you, since most of you may not have the time to read all those comments. Traditions build memories and strengthen family bonds. If you’re looking for some ideas, here’s a few to consider:
- Baking cookies together and having them before bed on Christmas Eve
- Having the kids act out the Christmas story
- “Painting on the windows while listening to CHRISTmas music”
- “The kids grandparents always spend the night at our house Christmas eve and we all pile into their van and ours and drive around looking at Christmas lights and sipping hot cocoa, then we come home put the kids to bed and the adults stay up all night talking and putting all the toys together and wrapping presents.. we usually finally finish about the time the first child wakes up! :O)”
- “We make a night of getting in our pj’s, driving around looking at lights, and then getting ice cream!”
- “On Christmas Eve we drive around and look at all the pretty lights. On Christmas morning, our 3 boys (ages 8, 4, & almost 2) get their stockings and open them in our bed with us. It’s so cozy and fun.”
- “Our favorite is hanging up all the tree ornaments that my mom has made everyone. We all get a new one each year and after 7 seven children and 22 years we can completely decorate our tree in just her ornaments.”
- “One of the traditions we have carried over from when I was a child is to open one gift every Christmas Eve night: it’s always a new, warm pair of pajamas! I always looked forward to it as a kid, and it is fun to continue the tradition with our own children.”
- “We are starting a new tradition this year by serving others on Christmas. we will take the kids downtown to serve and provide for the homeless.”
- “We like to make hot chocolate to take in the car as we drive around looking at Christmas lights and listen to Christ centered Christmas music together.”
- “Every time someone does something kind, we put a piece of yarn in Baby Jesus’ manger. When he “arrives” on Christmas morning his bed is very cozy. We talk about doing something kind “to the least of these” being like we do something kind to Jesus.”
- “One of our favorite traditions is wrapping up Christmas Books and place them under the tree and have the kids pick one to read each day. Also, for younger kids, we have a manger and they place straw in it to prepare a bed for Jesus and on Christmas morning Jesus (a baby doll) appears in the manger in front of the fire place.”
- “One of our favorite Christmas traditions is finding our Christmas tree. We always go to a local family tree farm. The kids love running through the trees trying to find the perfect one. We take lots of photos & have lots of laughs. After Daddy cuts it down the kids all help him lug it to the baler. While we wait we drink hot chocolate. On the drive home we all sing Christmas carols at the top of our voices. It is wonderful!”
- “We have a paper chain with a sentence or two of the Christmas story for each day of December until the 25th. We would unfasten a new ring each day, and read aloud the story to that point while Dad acted it out with the figures from our Nativity display.”
- “One of my favorite Christmas traditions is from my childhood. For a week before Christmas we would open one small present per evening. If any were left, they were opened on Christmas Eve. This left Christmas day free for concentrating on others and enjoying the day. Each gift was much more appreciated that way too.”
- “Christmas Eve, we bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Christmas morning is the one day of the year when the children are allowed to eat cake for breakfast (after singing Happy Birthday, of course.)”
- Our own family has had several traditions over the years. One has been Christmas coupons for special outings and times together. You can print out some of your own from our freebies page.
- Another Forster family tradition has been the celebration of St. Nicholas Day. We started this when our pastor told us about the real man who inspired the story of the present-day Santa Claus. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in the third century, was a devout and generous man. Our children can learn much from his life. On December 5th we slept on the living room floor around the Christmas tree, and then woke up to open stockings together in the midst of sleeping bags and blankets. We still celebrate this day together. Everyone is sleeping here tomorrow night, and we’ll open stockings on Saturday morning together. It should be lots of fun with four little ones that are old enough to appreciate the excitement. You can read more about this tradition here.
I hope you’re all having a blessed, Christ-centered Christmas. Don’t have a happy holiday. Have a merry Christmas!
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