Christmastide

Very few people celebrate what was originally the Christmas season of Christmastide.  This time was traditionally celebrated from December 25th through Epiphany on January 6th.  I always feel so sad when all the Christmas decorations come down and I really prefer using Christmastide to gradually take down the decorations.  As I blogged about earlier, our Christmas tree is transformed into a New Year's tree.  I decorate with clock faces and these adorable little ornies I purchased from Etsy last year:

I also purchased some silver glitter butterflies and snowflakes as well as purple icicles that were on clearance this year.  The tree topper was a party hat.  I thought it came out really nice this year!  


I have been using the Twelve Days of Christmas muffin tin that I made to teach our daughter twelve different names for Jesus.  I am always amazed by how much she absorbs.  I realize that she cannot fully grasp the magnitude of these names and their meanings, but I am laying the foundation for future teaching.  On the eve of Epiphany (January 5th) Befana will come as part of our Christmastide celebrations and in honor of our daughter's Italian heritage.  I have been reading the book Old Befana by Tomie dePaolo to her at night before bed and she loves to tell us all about Befana sweeping and flying and carrying her basket.  Befana will bring Bella a few small toys and some treats (oranges mainly.)  Epiphany is also the day we celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings/Magi to bearing gifts to honor Jesus.  I'd love to do a Kings' Cake this year, but it may have to be a Pillsbury version ;)




On Sunday we are going to a storytelling event that we attended last year as well.  It was a fantastic free <3 event hosted at Staten Island's Snug Harbor Cultural Center.  Last year was fun although our daughter was afraid to go anywhere near Befana (as I suspect she will be afraid this year as well.)  I hope it is the same woman though because she did a fabulous job!

Oh, before I forget...the one thing that I did not get to post a picture of for Noon Year's/New Year's was the Oreo cookie clock platter that I made.  Our daughter loved it!

Happy New Year!  I wish everyone a GREAT 2012 filled with fabulous memories!

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!