Christmas is Coming

Christmas is coming;
The goose is getting fat.
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny,
Then a ha'penny will do;
If you haven't got a ha'penny,
Then God bless you.

This will be Eamon's first Christmas, but I don't think he will really be able to take much in. So I am kind of using this year to think about traditions I want to have when he can notice such things (starting next year).

We decided that one tradition we don't care about is visiting Santa. We are not anti-Santa, but we were not impressed with the idea of visiting him in the mall. By the way, I want my children to know the historical Santa as well as be able to find humor in the make-believe Santa.

1. Advent Calendar: We always had advent calendars starting on the first day of December. That was also the day Mommy hung a wreath on the front door. Although we didn't do one thing every day of December, we always had a little door to open on the calendar. We would each take turns opening a door until we had enough calendars for each of us to get our own. One year we made our own calendar - of a castle (that was one of the years we also made a gingerbread castle, I think). We kids colored the outside, but Daddy drew pictures behind the doors, so we didn't know what would be coming. It was pretty fun.

2. Advent Wreath: Our church didn't celebrate the weeks of Advent. I didn't understand the Advent Wreath or the weeks of Advent. But I want my children to grow up knowing about it.

3. Three holidays: St. Nicholas Day is December 5. On that day, I would like to give gifts of necessity to my children. This would be the day socks, chap-stick, and T-shirts would be given. Then on that day, we could help with a gift for someone else, like cookies for our neighbors, groceries for a food kitchen, or gifts for prisoners. Christmas Day could then be a day for family and celebrating Jesus' birth. Gifts would be the homemade kind - something right from the heart. And food items to celebrate then next 12 days, things like oranges and special sweetened cereal.* Then on the 12th day of Christmas, Epiphany, the feast of the Three Kings, would be the other gifts, the things that they have asked for or other special things.
*Christmas was the only time of year that we got sweetened cereal. We also always got pop-tarts, an orange, and walnuts in our stocking. Those were special Christmas treats. I still can't eat a pop-tart without thinking about Christmas.

4. Christmas Tree: Although we might not always be able to go get a real tree for Christmas, I would like my children to be able to help decorate a tree or the house for Christmas. My family had the manger scene that we could help set up and a winter scene with carvings from Grandma that we always got to arrange. And each of us had our own box of ornaments that we could put on the tree. Then on Christmas Eve, Daddy would tinsel the tree, so when we woke up on Christmas morning, the tree sparkled in the candlelight. I don't think I want to deal with tinsel, but it was a nice memory.

5. Stockings: My family usually hung one of our own socks for our stocking. But this year, we got store bought stockings for the three of us. I am going to embroider our names on them and as we have more children (if we have more children), we will get more. And maybe like Thomas' family we will leave a dime in the toe from year to year.

Those are the traditions I have thought of so far. By writing them down, I won't forget next year. And we will see how many of them we keep. What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?