Family Traditions

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Family Traditions make this southern woman's heart swell! Christmas trees twinkle with lights, the ornaments are hung in their special spots, Christmas gifts are wrapped, meals are planned, groceries purchased, and family time is in full swing. I LOVE Christmas!

Around here we have some fun Christmas traditions that I thought you might enjoy!

Christmas Eve Dinner

This tradition started off as a random dinner request a few years ago and just kindof stuck. Due to the nature of my husband's job, he usually works on the holiday, so we don't usually travel during the holidays. While I was planning our Christmas week meals one year, I asked James what he'd like for Christmas eve dinner, and he said just salad and appetizers. The following year, he said, "let's just do what we did last year". So now, every year on Christmas Eve it's appetizers for dinner!

Presents

Everyone loves gifts! Giving and receiving both are such fun! For our family, we choose to exchange gifts on Christmas eve.

We also typically do 3 gifts for each of our children. In our family, we would rather shower our children with experiences and memories throughout the year rather a bunch of material things. We want to teach our children contentment, and so for us 3-4 gifts work. Matthew 2:11 says that the wise men brought Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh when He was born, and we've chosen to model our gift-giving after that. It has served us well, and our children always enjoy their presents.

Birthday Party for Jesus

Christmas day in our home is reserved just for celebrating Jesus! Since Christmas is the the traditional recognition of our Savior's birth, we want the focus of the day to be centered on Him. His birth is the beginning of the Gospel, so we read the Christmas story in the bible to our children. Then, we talk about how Jesus loves us so much that He was born into an earthly body died on the cross as payment for our sins! In have a birthday party. We bake a cake or cupcakes with our kids.