Christmas Traditions 2013

Our family is still very young and establishing our Christmas traditions.  I think traditions are a really important, fun way to strengthen the bonds between members of a family and really want to get some fun traditions in place!  This year we have tried a few:

Christmas countdown chain and scripture advent- At the beginning of December we made a chain with the kids (mostly Sienna helped) to help them count down the days until Christmas.  We wrote a scripture reference on each one and each night at bedtime we pull off one link and read the scripture together as a family.  The kids are too young to really be interested in the scripture aspect of it but Sienna has been very excited to see the chain shortening and counts it every day to see how many days are left!  

Decorating gingerbread houses- We got a kit from the store and all we had to do was "glue" the house together with frosting and decorate it.  It was fun and I think the kids loved it because they got to eat a lot of candy while helping decorate the house.  I wasn't too impressed with our kit and thing we should try using graham crackers next year?

Elf on the Shelf- there seems to be alot of controversy over this little guy.  I don't understand it.  We like to do it because of the excitement and the magic that he brings to our kids during Christmas.  We aren't actively talking about how the Elf is going to report/tattle to Santa and how the kids need to behave.  And we aren't making the Elf do naughty, messy, mischievious things, either.  Some things we've had him do: play boggle with another stuffed animal, read storybooks, watch TV, look out the window, hang upside down, etc...  We keep it simple (mostly because we forget about it until we're supposed to be in bed and then we just rush it!) and we have fun in the morning when Sienna wants to go "find Gus!" every morning.  How is that not rewarding and fun?

(When Sienna found Gus like this she said, "I think he's in love with me".  I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand what "in love" means otherwise that would be pretty creepy :)

Movie night- We really enjoyed watching Home Alone with our kiddos this year.  Unfortunately we don't have very many Christmas movies...just Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch, Christmas Carol, and a random Spongebob Christmas DVD.  That may look like a lot but when they are watching one every day, we have a lot of repeats.  I think we need to expand our library!

Watching Home Alone.  Surprisingly, Riley was glued to it!

Temple square- We took the kids to see the lights on Temple Square and they loved it!  While there we went to see the Christus.  It was a very simple outing but was good family time and we felt a good spirit on the temple grounds.  

Donation- I really wanted to find a way to teach the kids about giving.  I'm sure there are numerous ways, but this year we went through their toys and took some that they still liked but that we didn't "need" and donated them to Primary Children's Hospital.  We drove out there as a family and the kids helped to put the toys on the donation shelf at the hospital while Daddy talked to them about how it is better to give than to get.  We got them a brownie afterwards because no FHE is complete without a yummy treat in the end.  We will probably keep this tradition up because we want to try and minimize the focus on getting presents.

At Primary children's hospital with some of the kids old toys.  We gave away toys that we still liked and played with because we have more than we need and wanted to brighten some sick kid's day.