Monday, December 27, 2010

Simply Celebrating Christmas: Ten Traditions

We decided to keep packaged gifts to a minimum this year, which left me wondering: how are we celebrating the season?  Yet as I reflected further, a number of our family traditions came to mind.  Coming up with a list Christmastime traditions we've developed (instead of a wish list) was a valuable exercise.  It helped me see that taking the focus off of stuff and celebrating the season in other simple, memorable ways truly is possible.


Here are some of the traditions we enjoyed this year:

1.  We chose new ornaments.

My ornament this year was inspired by passages in Isaiah.
2.  We performed a dramatic reading from Luke 2.  Our 7-year-old was the director and assigned the parts.  This year she was Mary, her little brother was Joseph, and Mama and her younger sister were angels.  Daddy was the donkey (and a shepherd).

3.  We took family portraits (and sent them as gifts).

4.  We sang Christmas carols at home and at church.

5.  We watched Christmas movies and specials, such as:

White Christmas (Anniversary Edition)The Small One [VHS]A Charlie Brown Christmas (Remastered Deluxe Edition)




6.  We opened our time capsule ornament again (from 2001).



7. We made gingerbread cookies.




8. I savored a sample of my mom's fruitcake.

9. We connected with parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings via phone calls.

10. We enjoyed spaghetti made from scratch by my husband.








What was a meaningful way for you to celebrate Christmas this year?

Top Ten {Tuesday} 

    4 comments:

    Staci said...

    I love the acting out of the christmas passage. such a sweet time with your family!

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    asian~treasures said...

    Love picking out ornaments; we did that this year, too. We all ended up choosing letter (on sale at ShopKo!) that spelled our names.

    And, we always look forward to our "Jammie Run" (hot chocolate & Christmas music) to look at lights.

    Dawn said...

    Those are all super great ways to celebrate Christmas.

    I love that your daughter organized the re-enactment of the Christmas story.

    Great Top 10!

    I'm Dawn from Dawn's Diversions and Mrs. Albright from www.therhok.com

    Happy New Year!