Monday, December 23, 2013

613 Holiday Special - Holiday Traditions!

Hi everyone,

Soooo...are you ready? All decorated, shopped, wrapped, cleaned and ready to face the big day? Oh my! In the mix of everything to do, I'm sure you have holiday traditions that get included in your holiday love. I'm a bit of a cheesy/hokey kinda gal and love holiday traditions. I grew up with a mum and dad who loved the "cheese" factor. Especially my dad, that guy is the only person I know that cries opening every card he receives...even the funny joke ones. I digress.

I've compiled a few holiday traditions that we've done in the past and some we do now. I always love hearing other's traditions and getting ideas for new ones. Please, please share yours with me in the comment section.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Every year my Dad, brother and I would lay in front of the fire under a warm blanket and read the Night Before Christmas. The book we had was ancient and each page had some sort of tear in it. As we got older, my parents would have our family friends over for Christmas Eve so mucho drinks were consumed by the parents, which meant Dad's rendition of the story got funnier and funnier. We now have a new Night Before Christmas book that Mr. Fix-It reads to our kids in front of the fire, but the original torn book has a special place in my brother's home all ready to be read to his babies.

Christmas Jammies

In our house, Santa leaves Christmas jammies at the end of your bed (Santa's elves sent me this pic above to let me know these are the ones that are being left for the kids this year ;)  When you wake up on Christmas morning, the jammies are at the side of your bed in a gift bag, all ready to put on before you come downstairs. This is one of my faves!!
Speaking of Christmas jammies, have you seen this amazing video? It's hilarious!

Advent Calendars

Do your kiddies have them? Did you have them growing up? Mr. Fix-It and I have fond memories of opening our chocolate calendars up every morning as kids.  Now they come in all styles. Our kids have the Kinder Surprise calendars this year (thank you Nana) and inhale their breaky every morning at warp speed so they can bust open their calendars! They also double up on the Advent calendar I made this year.

Happy Birthday

Although I didn't grow up in a super religious family, we did go to church every Sunday and one tradition that we did was sing "Happy Birthday" to the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve after church. My mum even had cupcakes for the event. Yup, my brother and I would belt out "Happy Birthday baby Jesus" and eat cupcakes. Remember...the hokeyness. This was hokey!! I'm not sure if we'll be singing "Happy Birthday" this year but my boys are shepherds in the Christmas Eve pageant. Total cuteness factor!

Christmas Dishes
 
On December 1st our Christmas dishes come out. We have the dishes that I grew up with (super retro) and we use them till about mid January. They're fun, festive and retro.

Gifts

Mr. Fix-It and his brother always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve before they went to bed. A little excitement before the big day.

Joy to the World

As a kid, a bunch of families would get together for a carolling party. It started with just a few families, a "boom box" (remember those?) and a few carolling sheets... but over the years it grew to a large carolling group, accompanied by a fun evening party where the kids were wild on sugar and the parents, wild on spiked eggnog. Fun times! This past weekend, our friend's hosted a fun party that mimicked the wild kids on sugar and parents on the spiked eggnog ;) Let the tradition continue!

Elf on the Shelf
Yup, you know that little elf. Our kids love our elf and all the little surprises she does every morning. Although I do often find myself in this situation, do you?


I hope that you have holiday traditions and looking to start new ones. Check out the Ottawa ladies' holiday traditions for fantastic ideas...
 
Meredith & Sue @ Newberry Sykes
 

And...head over to the Inspired Home to see tons of blogger's holiday mantles. Look for Keep it Beautiful's. It's being featured!

Keep it Beautiful.




3 comments:

  1. Congrats on the feature Alicia! Love all your traditions and the christmas plates are beautiful, I would be using those every year as well. Merry Christmas to you and yours and all the best for 2014!

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  2. Those are lovely traditions, Alicia. I hope the pageant goes well, and Merry Christmas to all of you!

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  3. Great idea about the Jammies! I have a set for the little dude and I would love to see him wearing them Christmas morning. Thanks for sharing your stories. What a fun Christmas :)

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