by bossychick~ My favorite Christmas tradition. is....decorating the tree. When I was young, we (myself and my brothers) all had our own box of ornaments my mother would always let us pick out a new ornament every year, adding to our collection. We were in charge of hanging our own ornaments on the tree.
When we moved out and started our own families my mom gave us our box of ornaments. My kids have started their own collection, and they love it as much as I did. Our tree doesn't always look picture perfect, due to the kids ornaments all hung in wad at the bottom, but we love it just the same.
Another tradition we have started at our house, came from a co-worker of mine. She told me once, that her kids only received three gifts at Christmas, because Jesus received three gifts.
At first I thought only three?, that's not very many, but after some thought I decided this was a fantastic idea. Our kids receive gifts from aunts, uncles, and not to mention 62 sets of grandparents, so its not like they're hurting for presents. For us, it gives receiving gifts, a deeper meaning of Christ. When in my opinion, where gifts are concerned, He is sometimes forgotten.
That is all, You do what I say- Bossy
This sounds like a neat idea. Wish I would have heard about it before my boys were 20 and 16!
And I also like the 3 gift idea. It is SO easy to get carried away with the gift buying. I think this would also make the three gifts more special.
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Ellen | December 04, 2008 at 02:19 PM
I think both of those are very good ideas. I'm thinking of doing a "kids tree" next year and starting their own ornament collection would be fun.
Posted by: singerchick | December 04, 2008 at 04:57 PM
Thank you for the "3 gift" idea...I think we may start that ourselves! We also buy each child (and ourselves as a couple) an ornament each year. We try to make it symbolize something special we did that year - we got a whale one the year we went to Sea World, got Disney ones this year. My fave is Laneys gator ornament she got the year she went to her first gators game.
Posted by: Julie Stewart | December 04, 2008 at 04:57 PM
My mom, sister, and I have one ornament each with our name engraved on it and birth year that we always put on the tree. Mom's kept a few we made in school here and there too.
Posted by: Jessica W. | December 04, 2008 at 06:21 PM
I could buy Laney a FSU ornament, just to add balance....lol
Posted by: sassychick | December 04, 2008 at 06:58 PM
This is a wonderful tradition- I think Christmas has become so commercialized and I hear more and more family members wanting to "cancel" because it has just gotten out of hand. But I think limiting the gifts and just making sure that all know the reason for the season is wonderful. I look forward to having a special Christmas next year with a new addition (new baby, same hubby... lol) and am definitely looking forward to beginning some new traditions of my own.
Posted by: Scrapper26 | December 04, 2008 at 11:37 PM