Our Christmas Traditions

Around here the "Christmas Season" begins the day after Thanksgiving with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf.  Her name is Elfie and she joined our family for our daughter's very first Christmas.  I immediately turned her into a feminine elf with a skirt, earrings, and a decked out hat.  Naturally, she didn't really have a clue what this elf was, but now she is becoming aware of our little elf friend and looks for her in the morning.  

The Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving begins Advent.  This year wedid our family devotions each Sunday and lit a candle each week. We have also been doing Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands.  Our daughter has a lot of fun crafting these projects and, more importantly, she is learning the Christmas story!

Advent is a challenge for me because I have aTON of things I want to do and only four weeks to do them.  I keep reminding myself that we do not haveto do EVERYTHING every year…we can do something new and fun each year as longas we keep the focus on CHRIST!  Another incredible and stunning book we added to our book collection in The Advent Book.  It is a bit expensive, but it is a true keepsake that is sure to become a family heirloom passes on for generations.  I highly recommend it!

Early on in the season, we participate in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan's Purse by preparing a shoe box of toys for a child.  This is one of my favorite things to do because it is so simple and yet, the impact is huge!  It truly reflects the spirit of Saint Nicholas and the REAL impetus for our present-day Santa.  

Speaking of Saint Nicholas, our family celebrates Saint Nicholas Day on December 6th.  On the eve on St. Nicholas Day, we leave out our shoes and carrots for St. Nick's horse.  Treats are left and a present that our daughter will be spiritually blessed by (typically a Christian book or toy).  This year St. Nick left her the Little People Manger.  

Last night we went on our Polar Express ride to look at the beautiful light displays in our area.  I adore these printable Polar Express tickets.  There is one particular light display in Staten Island that is very special.  The homeowner lost his wife on 9/11 and after a dark period he decided to create a spectacular light display and raise money for cancer patients. 

On Christmas Eve we attend our church's candlight service and it is always so beautiful to see!  Our pastor always has the children come to the front and he reads a special Christmas picture book.  It is pure joy to watch the children dressed in their finest clothes with that twinkle in their eyes in anticipation of the fun in store for them!  I am certain God smiles at this sight as well.

     When we get home we'll leave milk and cookies on our special plate just for Santa and Bella will rest her head on her Magic Chistmas Pillow.  We'll sprinkle Magic Reindeer Food outside too!

    When Santa arrives he will be caught in the act thanks to CapturetheMagic.com.  Here is an early peak at Santa at our house:

      On Christmas morning we'll put baby Jesus in the manger and enjoy Jesus' birthday breakfast.  Although Elfie will have flown away with Santa the night before, we will welcome our Christmas Angel!  We also do the tradition of the Christmas Pickle!  This is a German tradition and the person who finds the pickle gets a special treat!

I hope you got some good ideas and I would love to hear about YOUR Christmas traditions!

The Christmas Angel

Just about everyone has head about The Elf on the Shelf and is partaking in this new tradition.  I eagerly jumped on board the elf bandwagon and our elf, Elfie, made her first appearance the night of Thanksgiving 2009 for Isabella's first Christmas.  It is a fun tradition, however, I have to admit it doesn't really fit in with what I want the focus of our Christmas season to be and what I want our daughter to learn about: Christ.


There have been many calls in recent years for people to turn back to the birth of our Lord as the central focus of the holiday season.  The days leading up to the birth of Jesus, known as Advent, have certainly become more of a mainstream celebration, with many folks now using all kinds of advent calendars.  I have done my best to keep all of the "vehicles" we use during advent driving toward to manger, but with little ones that sure is a challenge!  Well, I recently discovered The Christmas Angel and I think this little sweetie is just what I have been looking for!

I did not do away with out elf.  She will leave on Christmas Eve with Santa.  She will leave a goodbye letter and introduce The Christmas Angel.  I plan on having Twelve Days of Christmas Kindess using our angel.  Each day we will learn and talk about one of Jesus' many names (revealing his nature) and Bella (with our help of course) will do an act of CHRISTmas kindess.  Here is the muffin tin I made for this:

 Each day has a paper link with one of the names of Jesus for us to talk about along with a Hershey kiss for when the act of kindness is done.  I downloaded the beautiful Names of Jesus advent chain from the FABULOUS homeschool blog Spell Out Loud.  I picked the twelve I liked the best and would be easy to teach an almost 3 year old.

On Christmas Day our Christmas Angel will be staged by the baby Jesus with this little poem:

Away in a manger,

No crib for a bed,

The little Lord Jesus

Lay down his sweet head.

Many generations later,

The problem unaddressed

Precious little children,

Without a place to rest.

Let us take up this cross

In the year ahead

To put aside some comforts

To give a few a bed.

Our first act of kindness will be a year-long endeavor to save up change for the non-profit organization Sweet Sleep.  Here is our change container:

I am really excited about our Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness!  Our angel will leave us on Epiphany (most likely by way of La Befana.)  Pop over and check out The Christmas Angel website and LIKE them on Facebook to get  more ideas!