We have many Holiday Traditions at Christmas time. I’m happy to tell you about a few of mine for the I Heart Faces “My Story in Photos – Holiday Traditions” link up party.
Christmas Ornament Party
Each year we have an ornament party where my kids get a new Hallmark Keepsake Ornament and we read my favorite Christmas book called What God Wants for Christmas. It’s an interactive book where the kids have to open gifts during the story to create the nativity scene.
Photo with Mom
After the tree is decorated, I always try and get a photo with my kids so they will remember what mom looked like way back then! ha. I used a flat iron on my daughter’s curly hair, so this was our “fancy hair” photo:-)
Gingerbread House
A new tradition is to decorate a gingerbread house. This is soooo much fun! My friend Belinda makes the best gingerbread houses from scratch. Here is her yummy house…
It’s really hard not to eat it before decorating it. Of course eating the candy while decorating is a given!
Belinda’s rule is that you have to decorate it with all edible items, send her a photo when you’re finished…. then you get a house the next year! Didn’t ours turn out cute? We’ll be decorating the backyard this week.
Giving
To teach my kids about giving, I have them help me with the toy drive I organize through my church. This year we got over 700 gifts!! I’m still not sure of the final count, but my friends and church really came through on the donations!
We partner with a church in a lower income area to pass out gift wrapped toys to families in need. My kids and I spend 2 entire days sorting all the gifts.
I was very proud of my children for doing such a great job of sorting each day and not whining that they wanted a toy. Now when my daughter sees a toy she likes, she says that would be good to get for those little girls who need toys. That just makes my heart melt! It’s so neat that at age 3, she already gets it. I’m so proud of them both!
Those are a few of my traditions. What are yours?
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Wow some really great traditions there. You house is adorable what a neat thing your friends does in sending them and adking to see the finished product… I love that. The best way to get the Christmas spirit is indeed to give. The toy drive looks like just the thing.
My two girls decorated gingerbread houses with 4 neighborhood friends last weekend. It’s an annual tradition and they have so much fun. My 10-year old made a tree with an ice cream cone like yours! And of course, they ate way more candy than they should – but, it’s only once a year!
What a sweet tradition of giving. And what a great way to teach your children. Obviously you are doing great job delivering that message to them.
Love your gingerbread house. My son is three, and I was wondering when can we start decorating gingerbread house without him begging me to eat it before we finished. Last year he did great. I didn’t tell him that it was edible, so he did good job decorating it. At the very end he licked the spatula and discovered the truth. But for a long time he called the candies on gingerbread house decorations.
BEAUTIFUL HOUSE – GREAT TOY DRIVE SUCCESS! HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS 🙂
.-= Caroline´s last blog ..CCF – Seth =-.
awww we always did gingerbread houses! it was much more f un than baking cookies in our house! It was fun to see how different my brother, sister and I made them!
.-= Jen @ After the Alter´s last blog ..Sometimes Life Is Like A Dream =-.
What awesome Christmas traditions! We don’t really have any besides the tree, family time and candle light service at church. I need to get on the ball and start some unique things for our family and help others as well. Thanks for the good ideas! 🙂
.-= Amy´s last blog ..T-Minus 5 Days! =-.
I love the upside down waffle cones as trees! I would have never thought of that.
PS: Your Christmas photo is lovely!
.-= Screwed Up Texan´s last blog ..Merry Little Christmas =-.
What a lovely post – you’re obviously enjoying the joys that your children bring – it’s a wonderul age. Love the gingerbread house too. Merry Xmas, Lesley.
Oh my word. My heart is MELTING too! I can’t believe she says that! What a sweet spirit she has! I love that Amy! Thank you so much for doing that and for caring for people in need. That is the greatest blessing of all!
Your gingerbread house is SO cute. That cone idea is brilliant! I never thought of that. LOVE it! We are going to decorate one soon. Maybe as soon as we go and buy a tree….. Ay yi yi! It just seems so busy this year!
I hope you do get snow in Boston! Safe travels!
.-= Life with Kaishon´s last blog ..Is this a tradition? =-.
adorable! RT @livinglocurto: Come and see how cute my gingerbread house turned out! http://bit.ly/5M9AOJ
RT @livinglocurto: Come and see how cute my gingerbread house turned out! http://bit.ly/5M9AOJ the cones are brilliant!
so precious…all of it!
.-= a thorn among roses´s last blog ..not me monday =-.
Love all your traditions- and that little book, do you think I could find it at Barnes and Noble?
Thanks for sharing your Christmas and for being such a great help this month.
Merry Christmas.
.-= Teresa´s last blog ..Casting Crowns- =-.