Beloved Christmas Traditions

First, I would like to start off by saying that I was greatly mistaken in my last Santa post. It turns out that I either fabricated the notion that we didn't "do Santa" at my house because my parents liked to receive the credit, or that I grossly misunderstood a joke they made when I asked them why. Either way, I have never known my parents to be selfish in any way and I definitely did NOT mean to imply they were. I stand corrected. Sorry, Mom and Dad. It turns out that they decided to opt-out on Santa for two very different reasons, which bring me to the subject of this post--fun Christmas traditions.

As said previously, I never cared that we didn't believe in Santa. I don't feel that I have missed out on the fun or spirit of Christmas. In fact, at our house we had a very different Christmas tradition, one which I intend to carry on with a portion of our gifts. Santa was not a part of our house because my parents (a) didn't want to lie to their children and (b) they liked us to guess what was in each gift. Instead of writing gifts were from them, my parents would write that it was from some person loosely associated with the gift inside, thus enabling us to guess what it was. For example, one year my brother received a tie and the present was from the inventor of the guillotine. Random, I know. It's a very fun game, one in which we could hardly ever guess what the presents were because they would make the associations so bizarre that it was nearly impossible.

Another favorite Christmas tradition at my house is the annual Christmas Eve nativity puppet show. My mom made hand puppets (I wonder how old they are now) of the main characters in the story of Christ's birth (Mary & Joseph, wise men, shepherds, the angel, etc) and we would act out the birth of Christ along with a children's song called The Nativity Song. (If you haven't heard it, check it out here, it's a great song and not well known.) Me and my brothers and sisters would all crowd behind the couch or a blanket, fight over who got to be the star and angel (because that person was the one who got to shout out "Hosanna!" in a loud and crazy voice) and do our play. Now that we've all grown up and my parents have grandchildren, it makes it even more fun because there are many more bodies to squeeze behind the couch--even Jason has joined in the Hutchinson Christmas Puppet Show! I can't wait to get my own puppets!

Our advent calendar was always one of our favorite things to do around Christmastime. It was a felt Christmas tree that hung on the wall, with little hooks on it. Every day leading up to Christmas we would take turns hanging up an ornament on the tree. I remember running to see it every morning, and it was so exciting when it was my turn! Each year we had to rotate who got to hang up the angel on the top of the tree on Christmas Eve because, for some reason, that was the best one. It made our anticipation of the big day grow and grow!

On Christmas Eve we have a little family program. My dad usually reads us a new children's Christmas story from a picture book, we do the puppet show, and then we read the story of the birth of Christ from the Bible. We also were allowed to open one present. I love Christmas Eve because it's wonderful to be with family and remember the birth of our Savior. I love this time of year!