Welcome to the December Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let’s Talk Traditions
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama.
Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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Will (7) and Christina (2) giving their ornament gifts to Deb after the Christmas Eve candlelight service, 1992.
Homeschooling for our family continued through the winter holiday season except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. We truly had a homeschool Christmas season … a season filled with lots of fun and meaningful family traditions.
Our winter break:
We always set our school schedule around what our family chose for the year, and we never took a normal Christmas vacation. When Will and Christina were young, we preferred to take a longer summer vacation – from the beginning of May to the end of August. So we took very few vacations during the school year.
Later on, we had a different schedule. One year, we went to Disney World in the beginning of December to avoid the crowds while still enjoying the Christmas festivities. For a few years, my children had U.S. Junior National Figure Skating Championships in early December. Later on, my children had U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in January. Those sorts of events were our winter break.
Our Christmas traditions, often woven into our homeschool day:
We had an Advent wreath and devotions.
I was the Christian education director for our church when Will and Christina were young and started an atrium in our church for the Montessori-based Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. At home, we reinforced what we did in the atrium and focused on the mystery of Christmas with an Advent wreath and devotions that went along with the church year and atrium presentations.
We used an Advent calendar.
We typically went shopping together for an Advent calendar. We enjoyed picking out our calendar together and opening the doors each day. When we had an event like Junior Nationals, though, we had to miss a few days and open a number of Advent calendar doors when we returned home. We always allowed flexibility for unusual events in our lives.
We read a Christmas book each day from December 1-Christmas.
Actually, we often started reading Christmas books on Thanksgiving, but we definitely started daily reading of Christmas books on December 1. Of course, during Junior Nationals, we might miss a few days again and read more when we returned home. I think Christmas was probably more special and less stressful because we did allow ourselves to get off schedule when necessary. When Will and Christina were older, we often read a chapter or short story from a Christmas book.
We watched a lot of Christmas movies.
Christina (4), Terry, and Will (9) on our outing to see The Santa Clause during an unusually warm Christmas season in 1994.
We didn’t watch regular television – just videos and figure skating events, so it was a special time at Christmas to watch many Christmas movie videos in the evenings from Thanksgiving through Christmas. We also went to see Christmas movies at the local theater.
One year, we watched a Christmas movie each day during Junior Nationals. On Christmas Day, we always watched a Christmas movie in the afternoon. It wasn’t always the same Christmas movie but was always agreed upon by the whole family.
We made Christmas crafts, baked, drove around looking at Christmas lights, visited Santa (often at the mall), and participated in community events and service projects.
We did all sorts of activities, often varying them somewhat from year to year. We enjoyed seeing which community activities were available. Some years we participated in Christmas activities with our homeschool co-op. Other years, we went caroling or participated in a food drive. One year, we visited Santa and Mrs. Claus at the zoo. Another year, we went to an outdoor tuba concert. Even though our activities weren’t always the same, they were the same in that we enjoyed the holiday spirit.
On Christmas Eve, we had vegetarian chili, celebrated the Nativity, and opened our presents.
Terry, Will (18), and Christina (13) still enjoying our Christmas Eve traditions in 2003. Here, Will and Christina are giving each other gifts.
I made vegetarian chili in the crock pot so I was free in the early evening to wrap presents (yes, I really did wrap presents on Christmas Eve!). We started our celebration with our dinner by candlelight. We often had a candlelight church service.
We never taught our children that Santa Claus was real, only that Santa Claus was a fun story. Will and Christina enjoyed Christmas and Santa Claus stories and movies as much as everyone else – and they enjoyed opening presents on Christmas Eve.
Before opening presents, we always read the Christmas story. When Will and Christina were young, we read a picture book of the first Christmas that we had gotten when Will was a toddler. We all grew so attached to that book that we always read it on Christmas Eve. We sometimes sang Christmas carols as well. Then we opened the presents. I helped Will and Christina make ornaments when they were little for Terry and me. The ornaments were their presents to us. And each of those ornaments is still a special part of our Christmas tree.
Will and Christina opened Christmas stockings on Christmas morning, and we spent time as a family on Christmas Day.
Like many other parents, we gave Will and Christina a gift of new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Will and Christina wore their new pajamas when they opened their Christmas stockings (which they knew were from Terry and me). The stockings were mainly filled with small, fun items.
We enjoyed Christmas as a time just to spend together eating (some years a feast similar to Thanksgiving, some years a simple meal), watching our Christmas movie, playing games, and giving Will and Christina time to play with their new toys. Will and Christina always had books as part of their presents, so there was time for reading as well.
Even though our traditions weren’t always identical from year to year, they were focused on what was best for our family each year. And that’s what mattered.
UPDATES: For LOTS and LOTS of ideas for celebrating Advent and Christmas, see:
December Family Activities (posts from 2010 and earlier – with resources and links that still work)
50+ December Family Activities
40+ Christmas Countdown Activities
Should You Use Unit Studies? (contains links to all my Christmas posts)
Amazon Affiliate:
Christmas Around the World Books for Kids
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Traditions are what make Christmas special in my opinion and I really loved that you took the time to share yours with us. There is something innocent and magical about watching those Christmas movies – perhaps it’s the nice change of pace from the usual type of movies that are out the rest of the year.
Loved looking at the family photos too!
Thanks, BJ! I always love re-visiting posts with family photos and memories! 🙂
I love your relaxed perspective on Christmas celebrations. It sounds like you’ve had a lot of meaningful traditions without being rigid about them, and I can sense the joy and fun radiating through your memories. Thanks for the great ideas and for sharing your story!
Thanks so much, Lauren! We really do have a great time keeping the best of our traditions and adding new ones that we enjoy. And it’s amazing how quickly the new ones become a treasured part of our family traditions!
Wow. You just answered two of my life’s most persistent questions at once! #1, can you use Montessori principles/materials in homeschooling, and #2, can you use them in Christian education?
I am a trained Montessori teacher, a homeschool enthusiast, and a relatively new Christian, and I am so excited about seeing all of my favorite things come together like this! I found you through Lori Ann’s blog mamawit.com, and I will definitely be back to hear how things are going.
Thanks, Kathleen! I have posts appropriate for parenting in general, but my favorite three topics are probably Montessori education, homeschooling, and Montessori-based religious education! I absolutely love all three!
These are some of my favorite posts that you write. I love seeing how you folded in the Holidays with your Homeschooling. As always there are tons of great ideas that I can’t wait to try. Have a wonderful Christmas season!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Michelle! It means so much to me to know my posts are helpful for you! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season, too!
You have some very interesting versions of seemingly “traditional” traditions! My husband would absolutely love the movie tradition! We’ve been watching lots of Scrooged! on television lately!
Thanks for your comment! Our Christmas movie tradition was definitely a favorite – and it’s one that we love to do as much as possible even though our kids now have spouses!
Reading your post has made me realize that there are a lot of other things we do that I don’t even think of as being a tradition. Namely the books and movies. They are always so fun. We keep our Christmas books put away until Dec 1st and then it is a big treat to read our favorite stories again.
Thanks for your comment, Melodie! It’s almost easiest to see family traditions in retrospect sometimes. A lot of things that became traditions for us didn’t start out as intentional traditions – we just kept doing them because they were so much fun and meant a lot to our family.
I have definitely been reading a lot about Christmas jammies in the CarNatPar posts!
So glad to have found your blog through the carnival.
It is great to read about your traditions that you incorporate in to your homeschooling. We will be HSing starting next year and I’m excited to really take the time to explore holidays more deeply with my girls.
Thanks, Sybil! I really enjoyed reading books about each holiday – especially when my children were little – to help them understand the history of the holiday and traditions around the world.
Your memories sound lovely! I’d love to hear how your children incorporate some of those traditions into their own lives now that they are grown. Thank you for sharing with us!
Thanks, Dionna! Actually, we still continue most of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions – with the addition of our daughter-in-law and son-in-law!
Last year, it worked best for Will and Chea to visit Chea’s parents in North Carolina and Christina and Tom to visit Tom’s parents in England for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then we all were together in Colorado the next week. We just pretended December 28 was Christmas Eve and December 29 was Christmas Day!
We had our traditional meals, read our Christmas book, opened gifts on “Christmas Eve,” and had Christmas stockings, games, and movie on “Christmas Day”! It was wonderful! This year, we’ll all be together on the real Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!!
Oh, and we’ve added a new tradition! When our kids can’t be home right at Christmas, Terry and I go to Sunday brunch at the beautiful, historic Broadmoor Hotel. We enjoy the fantastic brunch, amazing decorations at the hotel, huge gingerbread house display, and a walk by the lake behind the hotel. And we’ve added Sunday brunch at the Broadmoor to when our kids are home for the holidays!
Sounds like you guys had wonderful Christmas celebrations! I can always feel the warmth in your family through your posts!
Thanks for your sweet message, Michelle! We definitely loved – and still love – our Christmas traditions!
I love the idea of reading a Christmas story every day.
We tell our children the same thing about Santa, that it’s a fun story based on a man, St. Nicholas, who really did live long ago.
Thanks, Kristen! I know a lot of people find it hard to imagine growing up without believing in Santa at some point. But I was happy growing up with gift opening on Christmas Eve and being told that Santa was just a fun story. My husband said he was very upset as a child when he found out Santa wasn’t real. So it was natural for us to tell our children that Santa was just a fun story except for the real St. Nicholas. But we all are moved by and cheer for Santa Claus in Christmas movies and stories!
I love reading about your experiences in homeschooling 🙂 Growing up we did a lot of the same things (reading Christmas books and watching movies) I look forward to doing some of those things with my kiddos. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Kat! Reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies are two traditions I think can really help us as parents enjoy Christmas along with our kids. There are very few activities I find more relaxing than sitting together as a family in the living room lighted by Christmas tree lights as we watch a Christmas movie!
Thanks for the post. The advent wreath has stayed an important part of our homeschool Christmas tradition even though my youngest is now 14. Christmas movies, too, just like your family. (What Americana!)
Thanks, Vicki! Those are definitely two of my favorite traditions!
Fun! Thanks for sharing your family traditions. I found you via the carnival. Do you remember the name of the children’s storybook for the Christmas story? I love to search for older, used books especially when they’ve been recommended by people who loved them 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Lori Ann! The book we always used was The First Christmas by Marcia Williams. Ours has a 1987 copyright (it was originally published in 1987 in Great Britain), but I found copies easily available online with 1988 and 1989 copyrights. We always liked that the book showed that Bethlehem was 70 miles from Nazareth. It helped put Mary and Joseph’s journey in perspective.
Glad to hear what the book was! I’m actually on the hunt for a good Christmas book like that. 🙂
It’s funny that we kept reading the same book (we have a treasured Epiphany book, too)! We even included our kids’ spouses in our Christmas Eve reading. Fortunately, our kids and kids-in-law are happy to be young again on Christmas Eve!