Christmas music is a given when it comes to the holidays, but is it always a part of your Christmas traditions? If you’re not taking full advantage of the warm feeling associated with holiday music, there are some great ways you can add Christmas music into your family’s Christmas traditions. This week, the Christmas Music Blog is offering some suggestions to help you find ways to work in some holiday tunes.
One common Christmas tradition in Christian churches is to celebrate the season of Advent in preparation for Christmas. Advent, which means “coming,” celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and takes place during the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas.
The season of advent is the beginning of the church year, because it corresponds to the beginning of Jesus’ life (even if the date is not the exact date of his birth). Advent focuses on Christ’s coming in the past, present, and future, and is traditionally celebrated with readings that reflect each time period.
A visual symbol of advent is the advent wreath, featuring four candles arranged on a circular wreath–three purple and one pink–with a white Christ candle in the middle. For the first two Sundays, purple candles are lit, followed by a pink one on the third week, and another purple one on the fourth week. The Christ candle should be lit during the 12 days of Christmas (Dec. 25 through Jan. 5). Each week’s celebration holds a different meaning for different churches, and the readings during the lighting of the Advent candles reflect those meanings.
In spite of differing church traditions, the spirit of advent remains the same–celebrating the prophecy of Christ’s birth as well as his actual birth. Advent is usually celebrated at church, but you can also celebrate it at home by placing an advent wreath on your dining room table and gathering together as a family for devotion and prayer. Find suggestions for readings and prayers at Liturgies.net’s Advent Resources page.
For many American families, Christmas traditions are steeped in their heritage, with many traditions being carried down from their home country and mixed in with common American traditions. This video chronicles one Polish-American family’s blending of their Polish heritage with Catholic traditions and American holiday culture. It’s a bit lengthy, but it’s so heartwarming to see a family that loves each other so much.
Office Christmas parties are often a company tradition, resulting in stories that get told all throughout the year at work. Whether the boss drank a little too much eggnog, or someone got a funny gift in the gag gift exchange, the office Christmas party is a great way to let everyone unwind and be social after a hard year’s work. If you’re the office Christmas party planner this year, you might find the Office Christmas Party blog helpful. This week, they’re featuring the basics that you’ll need to sort out when you first start planning your party.
If you’d like to start a few Christmas traditions but don’t know where to start, the Christmas Memories blog is featuring an article this week on creating holiday traditions that you and your family can enjoy year after year. All you need to do is find activities that you can enjoy together as a family-and don’t be afraid to use trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn’t. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time out. After all, isn’t it the family bonding time that’s truly important?
The recession has a lot of people changing their spending habits and going back to old-fashioned Christmas traditions, like hand-making Christmas gifts. But what if you’re not crafty? You can still make thoughtful gifts, if you know where to look. Gift mixes in a jar are a great gift for almost anyone on your list, and they’re easy and cheap to put together. Check out Unique Gifts Online for some recipes and ideas on what to put into the jars.
Families have many different Christmas traditions, and hearing about them is a great way to gather ideas for starting new Christmas traditions of your own. This video on family Christmas traditions features many creative ideas.
There’s probably no Christmas decoration in your home with more tradition and memories wrapped up in it than some of the ornaments you hang on your Christmas tree year after year. Ornaments can carry a family story, or be used to remember a special event, or remember a person who has passed on. For some great suggestions on how to establish your own Christmas ornament traditions, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the Christmas Home Decorations blog’s series on creating Christmas ornament traditions.
Do you know the origin of the family traditions you already participate in? How many years ago they were started, or who started them? Did you great-great grandmother start making homemade fudge every Christmas Eve and your own mother still does it to this day? These sorts of simple Christmas pleasures that repeat year after year can be as much a source of comfort as a nice memory that stays with you for years. So why not start a new Christmas tradition this year? If you don’t even know where to start, we have a few ideas for you:
- Decorate the house together as a family, with everyone’s input considered. Then let the kids flip the switch.
- Make Christmas ornaments to hang on the tree, then save them to hang up year after year. Each year when you hang those ornaments on the tree, you’ll think back to the night you made them. Warm up the evening with a little hot chocolate and Christmas cookies.
- Have each child write a letter to Santa, and keep them all in individual scrapbooks or memory books for later reminiscing.
- Research Christmas traditions for the country your family’s ancestors came from, and incorporate some of those traditions into your own celebration.
- Set aside one night during the busy holiday season to enjoy time together as a family. You can watch Christmas movies, make holiday crafts, read stories, bake cookies…whatever strikes you. The important part is doing it together.
- If you choose a “real” Christmas tree, save the part of the trunk you cut off when you get home and cut it into 1/4″ thick pieces to varnish and use as ornaments. You can write the year on them and have a piece of all of your past trees on your current one as the years go by.
There are limitless ways to start your own Christmas traditions that your children will look back on as fondly as you do your own. Be sure to bookmark this blog and come each week to find even more new holiday traditions.
Looking to change up your family’s Christmas traditions this year? Why not go on a vacation together? The Christmas holiday is a great time to travel because December is one of the best months to score a killer deal on a vacation package. You could go someplace warm, or someplace picturesque, or someplace full of snow. Check out ChristmasVacations.info for a list of suggestions on great places to visit during the holiday season.