Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Christmas Traditions

I have such a long list of Christmas traditions that Wyn asked whether I think I'll be finished by March next year. ;-)

Some of the traditions are things from my childhood, some of them I have started over the past couple of years, and some are brand new and I'm super excited to get started!

To me, December marks the beginning of the festive season (and not so much the shops that start in October already...) So come Sunday, 1st of December, I'm gonna get started with my list of the following:

     Putting up the Christmas Tree:  This involves wearing festive clothes and accessories, like being dressed in red, with Xmas hats or reindeer ears.  Must listen to Celine Dion's CD, These Are The Special Times.  Must take lots of photos!  Also put Christmas baubles on the lollipop trees outside our front door, and hang the wreath on the front door.

     Elf on the Shelf:  This is a new tradition that I can't wait to start.  I saw it on Pinterest last year, and some of my friends started it last Christmas, but I wanted to wait until this year - 3 year old Mia will understand so much better.  There's an actual book and proper "Elf" that goes with this tradition, but couldn't get hold of it here in SA, so we improvise.  I found the perfect little Elf, who will make his appearance on the 1st of December.  His main 'task' is that he watches to see if children are naughty or good and reports back to Father Christmas.  But each night he gets up to his own antics or mischief - I can't wait to stage different activities and let Mia find him each morning!

     Liggiefees:  The Jakaranda Kinderhuis in Pretoria has a festival each year, where they have hundreds of outdoor Christmas lights on display.  Get more info on their website here.  Once again, this is something I heard about last year, but didn't do it, as Mia was still very much into her set bedtime routine, whereas this year, it won't throw her completely out of sync to have one late night once in a while and go look at beautiful lights.  I can't wait!  They have the display on for the whole of December, so I want to go quite early on - if it's nice we can go again and again! :-)

     Bake and decorate Christmas cookies.  Will share recipe when we do this!

     Make salt-dough Xmas ornaments.  We did this last year and it was lots of fun, definitely want to do this every year.  And nice to give to the grannies and godmothers as gifts too.  Find the blog post and recipe here.

     Wrap Christmas presents together, listening to Christmas music.

     Make Xmas cards for family.

     Read Christmas books and watch Christmas movies together.

     Go to church and pray together.

     Light candles.

     Listen to Christmas music, sing carols.

     Make mince pies!  I haven't ever done this before.  My darling granny Jill used to make delicious mince pies every Christmas, I must look if I have her recipe in my recipe file or ask my mom for it.  If not, there's a fabulous-looking step-by-step post here done by Vanilla Blonde.

     Mia's Advent Calendar House - Mia has a supercute Advent Calendar House with 24 little drawers, to fill with small sweets or choccies.  She grasped the concept so nicely last year already.  See the post here.

     Christmas Eve Surprise Box - I came across this idea on Pinterest, and really loved it.  I'm still deciding how to do it, as it can either be individual boxes for each child, or else for the family spending Christmas Eve together - I'm quite liking the family idea.  Can put absolutely anything into this box, for example, if it was for a child, can put in new pj's, socks, sweeties, a Christmas book, small toy.  Or for a family, a Christmas movie to watch together, hot chocolate and marshmallows, a card game, etc.  Undecided how and what I want to do, but the concept sounds so special.  I will update on this!  Here's a nice blog post about it:  The Imagination Tree.

     Christmas Eve Traditions:  Leave milk and cookies for Father Christmas.  Leave "reindeer food" for the reindeer - something as simple as raw oats mixed with glitter, how cool is that!  Also love the idea of making Santa Claus footprints and reindeer paw prints, with glitter and flour.  What fun!

Ooooh I absolutely cannot wait for all of this!  4 Sleepies til December!

8 comments:

  1. The lights at the Jacaranda Childrens home is something else. We went 2 years ago and I thought it was lovely then.

    Enjoy your planning! sounds lovely!

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    1. Ah that's nice to hear you have been to the lights at the children's home. Hoping to do that this weekend.
      Thanks, already well under way! ;-)
      xx

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  2. Ooooh a whole lot to look forward to this upcoming month - I'm just so excited!
    Joining you this weekend with decorating the house and putting up Xmas tree and the elf making his appearance! Adore this magical season, what fun! xx

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    1. What fun Debs, I love how we moms have just as much fun (if not MORE) than the kiddies! :-D
      xx

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  3. All of these sound amazing!!! And make me feel very tired just thinking about it lol, I am super impressed! I may have to steal one or two from you.

    We are going to my mom this year and her neighbour across the road has the 'talk of the town' lights display. The road gets jam packed with people bringing their kids every night and the owner comes out and blows fake snow on everyone lol. Layla enjoyed it when she was 1, I can only imagine the delight this year! Can't wait!!!

    I am sure you are going to enjoy every moment of your month of festivity. xx

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    1. Yes, please do use any of these ideas, you're more than welcome!
      Aaaah, those lights across the road from your mom sound awesome, Layla's really gonna love that. How cool that the owner blows fake snow, LOL!
      xx

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  4. Love your traditions. Pop on over to my blog about Christmas. Would love to hear (read) your thoughts

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    1. Thank you! Heading over to your blog straight away! xx

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Would love to hear from you! :-)