Color me happy; it is Christmas time! It really is the MOST wonderful time of the year to connect with family and friends.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas! I love the smells, the brisk winter weather, the delicious and constant food, and of course, DECORATING! But mostly, I look forward to our Christmas traditions and spending time with family.
Our family has several Christmas traditions that make (and made) this time of year so special to me. Some are fun, others are quirky, but they all encompass love, service, and gratitude.
I am truly grateful to my mother and grandmother for creating and carrying on traditions. They have strengthened our familial bonds and give us something to look forward to every year. These traditions help me remember my loved ones that have passed on. I can honor them by continuing their legacy.
They also taught me how to keep Christ at the center of Christmas by following His example with service and gratitude. This can be hard with all of the commercialism and Santa Clause competition. However, I think there are ways to make it all weave together.
If we truly want to have the spirit of the Lord and experience joy and happiness, we should rejoice in our blessings and be grateful.”
Quentin L. Cook
Most of our Christmas traditions began with my grandmother. She put so much time and effort into her family that we never doubted the love she had for all of us. It was not until I began implementing some of her traditions into my own family that I realized how much time and effort it can take. She made it look easy! Better yet, she did it with a smile on her face and joy in her heart. I never saw her get frustrated or upset when things did not go according to plan (something I am wildly guilty of); she simply laughed it off.
Now I am sure this took much practice on her part and a conscious effort, but because of that, I walked away with memories that I will cherish forever. My grandmother loved her neighbors, was selfless in her actions and taught her family how to serve – all Christlike attributes.
Here a few traditions our family has that I would like to share with you:
Spreading Christmas Cheer
When I was young, my grandma worked in a retirement facility. We called it “the old folks home,” and every Christmas she would put on a holiday variety show for the people living there. All the grandkids would perform a number such as dancing, playing the piano, karate, or any other “talent” we wanted to show off.
The staff would bring the elderly patients to a large gathering room and place their wheelchairs in a big semi-circle. We would start by singing a Christmas song (there was a piano in the back of the room), and then our MC (my uncle) would welcome everybody and announce each of our “acts.”
We would end the program with the manger scene and the birth of Christ by singing Holy Night. My grandma would bring one of the patients to the center of the circle and dress her up like Mary and give her a baby doll to hold as Jesus. Sometimes, we would use one of my baby cousins if the timing was right!
She would also dress up the patients like Joseph, the Three Wise Men, and shepherds. The rest of us got to be angels or the sheep and cows of the manger.
Santa Clause would then make an appearance and give a small gift to each patient. The grandkids passed out home-baked goods and punch.
Once it was over, we each took a patient back to their room and said good night. This was the fun part. You can imagine that the patients get lonely and love talking to new people. They would tell us amazing stories as we walked back to their rooms.
This went on every year for 15 years. My grandmother only worked there for a few years, but she arranged for the program to happen even once she was retired. Sadly, the center was shut down, and we stopped this tradition.
Over the years, we would dress up as elves and take treats to retirement centers, but it never was quite the same. I am so incredibly grateful to my grandmother for the time and energy she spent making that program happen.
The wonderful thing about tradition is that the detail can change, but the spirit remains. Many of the activities my mother plans are rooted in my grandmother’s ideas, and mine are as well.
The Elf on the Shelf Tradition
I have so many fun ideas for this tradition that I will need to work on a dedicated post just for the Elf!
I did not introduce the Elf on the Shelf until my kids were a bit older (my youngest was four, and the oldest was 10. Mainly because I thought the idea of having to move it every night was creepy and time-consuming. Being the rule bender that I am, I just came up with my own version of how the Elf on the Shelf would work for my family.
One evening there was a knock at the front door. My daughter answered and found a brightly wrapped package on the front porch. We gathered the family together and opened it to find a cute red box and a letter.
The letter was from Santa! We were being sent an elf from the north pole named “Elfster,” and he was going to help us spread Christmas Cheer. He was also going to help the kids for the next couple of weeks before Christmas and help them stay on the nice list.
To make the letter look official, I bought some Christmas paper at Office Depot and printed the letter from Santa. I added some North Pole icons to the envelope and a little bit of spray glitter.
The letter basically said this:
Dearest Children,
Well, well… some of my favorite little people! I think you are all very special and I can see the love that you have for each other and your parents.
Christmas time is so magical and it is important to remember why we celebrate Christmas. We are celebrating the birth of Christ and the amazing gift He has given us. Jesus lived and died for you and for me and that is why this holiday season is so magical.
We should always do our best to make good choices and live like Jesus taught. Instead of thinking about all the presents that you want to get, let’s think about ways we can help others around us.
To help you with this, I am sending my friend, Elfster Stockingbottom (Elfster for short) to live with you for a few weeks. Elfster has some fun ideas for family activities and how you can serve others this Christmas.
Make sure you don’t touch him! He has special magic so it’s important that only your mom touches Elfster.
Elfster sleeps all day but by the magic of Christmas, awakes at night while everyone else is sleeping. Sometimes he is a bit mischievous, so help him understand how he should behave if he is naughty. He can hear you when you speak to him even though he can’t talk back.
I will come to your house on Christmas Eve and leave some surprises for you all! Please remember to sprinkle the magic reindeer dust so I can find your house. I will pick Elfster up on Christmas Eve and take him back to the North Pole with me then.
Merry Christmas!
Our elf usually arrives one to two weeks before Christmas. Because let’s face it, the thought of having to come up with some clever antic every night for a month is WAY too daunting for me.
We made a little bed by the fireplace where Elfster would stay during the day. Every morning the kids would wake up, all excited to find Elfster and what he had been up to the night before. It was always something silly or quirky to get the kids to laugh.
Elfster would write a note to the kids every night and thank them for what they did well that day, and gently rebuke any naughty behaviors (like yelling at your brother!).
The letters are sometimes a running dialogue between the kids and Elfster. They like to write Elfster letters back or ask questions.
Over the years, we have come to know that Elfster is loving, mischievous, and wonderfully creative. One of my favorite things is to hear my kids say, “remember when Elfster did this…?”
I have lots of fun ideas that I will compile in a future post to help you incorporate your own family elf.
Bottom line… I have a few goals for MY GOALS FOR THE ELF ON THE SHELF
- Helps kids find ways to serve others
- Gratitude
- Gentle reminders on how to behave
- Adding to the magic of Christmas
IDEAS ON HOW TO SHOW GRATITUDE
Using family traditions to help build gratitude is biologically beneficial to our children. When we express appreciation to the people that help us, we experience positive emotions and build strong relationships.
- Have your Elf provide and plan for a family activity (bake and frost cookies, write letters to Santa, send thank you cards to grandparents etc.)
- Prepare thank you treats for school bus drivers and crossing guards.
- Set out a tray of treats for delivery drivers and mailman.
Using your Elf on the Shelf to help instill family traditions or any other positive reinforcement you may need for your kids is well worth the effort.
Decorating Gingerbread Houses
One of my earliest memories is making gingerbread houses at my grandma’s house. She literally made the houses from scratch. The house walls were made from gingerbread dough shaped into rectangles, and then they were “glued” together with cement icing. I wish I could give you the directions and recipes for how she did all of this, but sadly, this information will stay safe with her in heaven. Just one of the many things I wish I would have asked her about!
When I was growing up, all of the cousins would get together at Grandma’s house and decorate the houses together. She would then have one of her neighbors dress up as Santa and “surprise” us at the end. We would sit around Santa while he pulled a wrapped gift out of his bag for one of my cousins. They were called up to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
Good times.
There is a season for everything, so when we all got older (and my grandma got wiser :), the responsibility of the gingerbread house tradition was given to my mom. We now meet at her house with our own kids.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
My kids receive a letter from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Each letter has something specific for each child, and this is such an entertaining way to encourage, praise, and tease my kids. (I told you some of these ideas are quirky!)
The letters from Santa include a packet of Reindeer Dust to sprinkle on the front porch. This will help the reindeers find our house on Christmas Eve.
It’s also time to bid a fond farewell to Elfster.
Christmas Eve we go out front and sprinkle the reindeer dust on the porch. The kids write letters to Santa and leave out some treats. The kids will ALWAYS ask Santa to do a scavenger hunt for them.
Christmas morning I make all the kids line up and walk downstairs slowly while I record them. After the last present is opened, I direct one of the kids to a partially hidden present, and this is the first clue to the scavenger hunt.
The end of the scavenger usually leads to an additional present. Some years it has been individual gifts, and other it was a family gift (a trip to Disneyland, or an XBox). I don’t always do big gifts or expensive trips, but I save the “best” or “biggest” gift for last.
Later we pile into the car and head over to Grandma’s house for brunch and our own unique game of gag gifts ( to be written about in a later post).
I am so exhausted when we get home! I really try to pack in as much as I can during Christmastime. I honestly can’t say if this is a good or bad thing. When I am tired and berating myself for starting these crazy traditions, all I have to do is ask my kids about their Christmas memories.
They start to reminisce and laugh about some crazy Elfster antic or how fun it was to spend time with their cousins, and I remember why I do it.
If you feel overwhelmed after reading this post, please remember that it just takes a little planning on your part to implement any of these ideas into your holiday. I will literally plan out the month ahead of time and then purchase everything I need. Then it really is simple to just take it day by day.
Take the time to create some family traditions and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!