Holiday Guest Blogger Spotlight: Family Traditions, Past and Present by Julie of ToyXpolosion 12/22/2011

Our family of five has moved around quite a bit over the last 10 years. My husband served 9 years in the military, which took us to places such as Alaska, California, Georgia and a few other states in between. Because of this, it meant being away from family during the Holidays. Instilling Holiday traditions within our family became very important in order to make sure we all stayed connected with family, even if we couldn’t physically be together.

My kids are now 14, 12 and 7 and we recently moved back to my hometown. This is our first Christmas with my parents since my first two were toddlers. To say we are excited about this Christmas would be an understatement! We have all kinds of fun things planned to do, some of which we did when I was little. I can’t wait to share those experiences with my kids, husband, parents, brother and sister-in-law.

I also met my birth mom about 5 years ago and now have even more family to celebrate with. They live only about 45 minutes away and we’ll be spending Christmas Eve with them. It’s going to be fun to experience their Holiday traditions for the first time.

When the kids were younger, we tried to incorporate family Holiday traditions from both mine and my husband’s family. Here are a few of those traditions the kids still ask for every year.

Orange Smoothie and Coffee Cake on Christmas Morning

This is a combined Holiday tradition. My husband’s family has always had coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning and my family always whips up some Orange smoothies in the blender. The two together are heavenly and it’s fun and important to sit down together for breakfast after the craziness of opening the gifts.

Loading up in the Car for Christmas Lights

This is always an adventure and was definitely a little tricky when the kids were younger. It seemed that after about 5 houses, they were done for the night. Now that they’re older, we’ll usually be gone driving around for hours. The last few years we have mapped out our route to find the best, craziest and brightest houses in town.

Talking to Family on Christmas Morning

Since we were usually away from family on Christmas, we would spend quite a bit of time on the phone talking to siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We thank them for the gifts, catch up on any family news, tell some funny Christmas morning stories and just enjoy chatting for a while.

One amazing thing about living in different parts of the country has been meeting new people and spending time getting to experience their Holiday traditions. I’m always looking forward to inviting new and old traditions into our Holidays that our kids will pass down to their own families one day.

Guest blogger Julie is a mother of 3 children. She loves sharing the latest and greatest new toys around. You can learn more about her at her blog, ToyXplosion.

Holiday Guest Blogger Spotlight: A Frugal Friend’s Traditions of Presents, Goodies, and Decorations 12/15/2011

Leading up to Christmas, my mom was always a big kid.  Presents, goodies, and oh, the decorations! The kitchen was full of angels, the library was full of snowmen, and the living room was Santa-themed. To say she loved Christmas is to put it mildly.

In some ways I think it’s only fitting that the very last thing I ever did with my mom was help decorate her tree.  While tears sometimes flow, the first week of December in my family is spent decorating our tree, enjoying traditions both old and new, and remembering my mom through it all.

First up is always the Christmas tree.

With its varied style and no real theme, our tree may never grace the cover of a magazine, but it tells a story.  With each ornament added to the tree, I share a bit of history with my little girl. Oh, and because of that, it does take quite a while to decorate.  Half the fun is in remembering.

With the Nutcracker ornament, she hears of the time Grandma took me to see the ballet, and how Grandpa slept through the entire performance. While adding a miniature Cinderella’s Castle, she’s told of how her Daddy and I have always collected ornaments from places we’ve traveled to. Well, almost always.

You’ll find a beautifully crafted Christopher Radko baby carriage ornament right next to a Kermit the Frog from the 1970’s.  Some might even say they don’t belong on the same tree, but I think they are perfect.

Our tree has a history.

My 4-year old gets a new ornament each and every year. All my childhood ornaments are on the tree.  Ornaments my mom made when she was first married are there too.  You’ll find hand-stitched mice, stockings and Santas created by both of my grandmothers.  You’ll even find two very special, very breakable, red antique ornaments……my great-grandmother’s.  So special, I almost hate to put them on the tree for fear that they’ll break…..but it wouldn’t be the same without them.

Christmas Pillowcases, Advent Calendars, and Story-Time too!

When I was a little girl, my mom made us Christmas pillowcases that we would use throughout the month of December.  Mine were so cute with bears, mice, rabbits, candy canes, and holly. During the last 30 or so years, those pillowcases have been used on my bed, but this year I’ve passed on the special pillowcase her Grandma made to my daughter.  She’s been smiling ever since I placed it on her bed.

Advent Calendars have gone high-tech these days with hidden toys and such, but I remember the days when I would just open a simple tab to reveal an image or a phrase.  While we still use the old calendars I’ve had since childhood, I have added a new fun twist on the advent calendar.  We have so many new Christmas books (and old ones that were mine), that I’ve wrapped them all up and numbered them 1-24.  A book is opened each night before bed.  It’s like she’s never seen the book before…..such fun!

Oh, and on Christmas Eve, I’ve carried on the tradition my parents started of reading a well used copy of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”.  My husband and I then read the story of Jesus’ birth from the Bible.

I hope that one day my little girl will grow up and continue these traditions.  With each ornament and tradition, she’ll be reminded of great stories. She’ll be able to tell her own children stories about the Grandma she never knew.

I hope that I’ll be in the room watching.

Guest blogger, Debra is the mother of a little 4-year girl.  While you’ll find her blogging about the best deals on everything from groceries to toys, with some personal stories, she’s also a crayon enthusiast, storyteller, and kisser of boo-boo’s. You can read more about Debra on her blog, A Frugal Friend.

Guest Blogger Spotlight: Family Holiday Traditions by And Twins Makes Five 12/08/2011

Is it really December already?  Just hearing a date beginning in the 12^th month conjures up those familiar holiday sights, sounds, and smells.  December is snow, white lights, evergreens, candy canes, jingling bells, plaid pants, and oodles of fun family rituals. In our large family of 5 children we have several different family traditions around the holidays.

My favorite tradition is one that started quite by accident by my grandfather many years ago.  You see my grandfather, Poppops to us, had this pair of plaid dress pants he wore faithfully each Christmas.  He was a dapper but thrifty sort of guy and I’m certain these trousers were a very high quality fashionable purchase when he originally bought them.  Only worn once or twice a year these pants remained in perfect condition year after year.  However after a good decade or more of Christmas appearances, everyone felt it was time for Poppops to move on to something else.  I mean seriously, he’s wearing the same exact very distinct pair of pants in over a decade of our Christmas photos!

My father, not a shy man, began gently kidding his father-in-law about the plaid pants one year.  I actually think Poppops enjoyed the attention his pants were getting and so out they came the next year.  However, after a few years of us all lovingly teasing Poppops about his need for new pants, they were replaced.  Poppops took the kidding in good stride buying a new pair of dress pants for next Christmas.

Gift opening time arrived and Poppops had a special gift to present.  It was a gift addressed to my father.  My dad opened his present and revealed to all, Poppop’s plaid pants.  My dad immediately rushed upstairs to put the pants on.  It seemed impossible given the difference in their frames, but he somehow he got the clearly very stretchy plaid trousers on and came down.  Those pants were the talk of Christmas that year and no one was happier than Poppops.

The next Christmas came and unexpectedly there was again one special gift to be opened first.  This time the gift was from my dad to my uncle.  You guessed it, the gift was the pants!  He too was able to somehow get into those things and onward this tradition went year after year.  Receiving Poppop’s plaid Christmas pants became a great honor and everyone wanted their chance.  The Christmas pants went from being a huge fashion “don’t” we all wanted banished, to being the most coveted holiday apparel of each year.  Poppops passed away a several years ago (before our youngest, the twins, were even born), but the legend and tradition of those special pants of his will always live on.

Another one of our other family traditions includes making Christmas ornaments with all the kids.  We learned that even our babies can be a part of this type of tradition by lending a hand to be traced or their little foot.  We keep track of what each child asked Santa for by writing it on the back of these creations along with the year.  It’s so fun to look back on those year after year.

Christmas Cookies are another big part of our holidays.  It’s a tradition that I buy a ton of those little frosting tubes in holiday colors and let them all decorate to their hearts content.  What’s a little mess?  I even let the littlest ones join in as much as possible.  We let Daddy decide which masterpieces should be set a side for Santa.  Taking pictures of all these iced goodies is also a must.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention our Matching Holiday Pajamas tradition that my mom started when I was young. The year she declared she was starting this tradition, I admittedly thought she was a bit over the top.  We had around 15 people staying over Christmas Eve and she wanted them all to wear matching sleepwear.  However, I really embraced the idea over the years.  A large family all in matching pajamas somehow imbues a child-like state of mind in everyone.  Plus, I can’t tell you how excited my toddler twins get when they realize they match other people besides just each other.

I’ve learned over the years that the magic that is Christmas truly depends upon keeping up these traditions and their rich little details.  Plaid Pants passed around the family, ornaments made on baby’s first Christmas, a dozen people in matching pajamas, and cookies iced for Santa are the memories that my children will treasure for a lifetime.

Guest blogger Stephanie is a mother of 5 children. In addition to sharing her experiences of being a mom, she enjoys photography, party planning, shopping, decoration, cooking and writing. You can learn more about her at her blog, And Twins Make 5.