Every year I vow that I will share our Christmas traditions with you and then I get busy and don't follow through. So although I don't like discussing Christmas until November I am going ahead and doing it now before life gets busy.
Our traditions have evolved over time, but one thing that was important to us from our first Christmas as parents: we didn't want Christmas to be a materialistic event. However, we also didn't want our kids to feel like they were missing out. Finding that balance has taken time and some experimentation. I am going to share what works for us, but please don't feel that I am trying to discourage anyone from following their family's tradtions.
We have never made a big deal about Santa. (You can read my thoughts on whether I think holidays will be ruined if your kids don't believe in magical creatures here.) All of my kids have known that Santa wasn't real. Our children have never made a list for Santa and “Santa” has never given our kids gifts. Instead we have tried to create a balance between our beliefs and the more worldly celebrations. We don't want our kids to feel deprived, but we also don't want to compromise our values.
Many years ago, we started celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. We read a story about St. Nicholas
Since St. Nicholas is remembered for his secret gift-giving, we have always adopted a family in need with children whose ages are close to our kids. I think choosing a family with children close to our kids ages helped our kids feel a special connection to them. Our children participate in playing “Santa” and helping us choose gifts for the family. Truly, I think my children have more fun picking gifts for other children than they do when they open their own gifts.
We also have our children help us fill stockings for some of the elderly people in our lives who already have everything they need, but enjoy the surprise and appreciate being remembered.
We attend a candlelight service on Christmas Eve and celebrate Christmas Day with family; we just don't include Santa on those days. We also celebrate the epiphany on January 6th with a King Cake. We end up having more holiday celebrations beginning on December 6th and extending through January 6th, but they are smaller, so they aren't quite as overwhelming as doing one huge celebration on Christmas Day.
What are your Christmas traditions?
Pauline Wiles says
October 22, 2012 at 8:25 pmLove that you pick a family with kids close in age.
As a non-Mom, Christmas giving is usually pretty small scale around here… but I often wonder about the ‘orgy’ of unwrapping which goes on in other living rooms 😉 I’ve heard of families who open one gift each day for a week (for example) and that makes a tonne of sense too.
Maggie says
October 27, 2012 at 10:21 amWhat a great idea – a nice quiet space separate from the (although fun)hub bub of visiting families, making dinner, attending services and more. Creating a private family time is a wonderful tradition to have started. Including giving in your holiday teaching to your children is also so perfect.
Beth @ Aunt Bs Kitchen says
October 27, 2012 at 10:40 pmGood for you Alea. I agree wholeheartedly that it’s important to step away from the materialism that has grown up around Christmas. Nice to see that you have done such a good job of inspiring your kids to share.
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
November 1, 2012 at 10:07 amThese are lovely traditions. One of the nicest things about the holidays is being able to give gifts to others, especially those in need.What a cute picture of Andrew too!
Elizabeth says
December 1, 2015 at 1:46 pmOh, how I wish I had known this 20 years ago! I so would have done this. Now we are stuck in our ways. I love the idea of St. Nicholas Day – we even studied about St. Nicholas oh so many years ago. But I never put 2 and 2 together for ourselves. I also like the idea of little things through the season. We do not rush our Christmas Day, and it generally takes us all day to get through our gifts. The one thing I do impress upon them is considering making their gifts – it makes them think about the person they are giving the gift to and not just rushing out the buy something because they have to. Making the gift is more personal and you think about that person the whole time you are making it. Thank you for your insight … perhaps we can instill this in future generations of our home. (I like the stocking idea for older folks, too!)