every year our family has celebrated December with our own spin on the advent calendar...counting down the 25 days until christmas with a small fun gift hidden behind a door or cleverly wrapped for each day.
even now as they are getting older (dare i say teenagers) they still look forward to this tradition.
AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
it has been really fun thinking about Christmas in the new house because i can reinvent our look for christmas.
so i decided on a burlap theme
a new 12 ft tree ( our 6 ft tree of 15 years was dwarfed, lol )
a new theme
a new way to advent!
i found this really fun, inexpensive burlap box at Hobby Lobby
and wrapped all 25 gifts in brown kraft paper and using my sewing machine, stitched the ends closed
(brown paper packages sewn up with thread?)
stamped the large numbers (1-25) using my numbers stamps
and tossed them randomly in the box.
they like rifling through them and trying to figure out what they are, but i am way smarter then them, lol!
our tradition for deciding the order for opening the gifts has always been drawing straws...the longest straw goes first and the shortest last.
they all want the longest straw because the first person to open gets the extra present on Christmas day( 25 divided by 3 is 8.1 which means the first child gets 9 gifts and the other 2 only get 8 )
this year mckenna drew the long straw.
like millions of others, we too have an elf on the shelf, his name is Zippy.
he makes his appearance every dec 1 morning.
we decided this year, now that the children are too old to believe in the traditional elf story, that the child who opens the gift has to hide Zippy.
and they have discovered Pinterest, lol!
let the Zippy games begin!
Day 1 - Zippy was found hanging over the pantry threshhold
for our Family, Christmas is about traditions, laughter, shared experiences
as the kids get older, i find myself nastalgically hoping that they will always take the spirit of our traditions with them...
being goofy
excited to unwrap the silly advent gift
hanging the stockings
fighting over who gets to put the new seasons family ornament on the tree
( which consequently this year we are marshmallows )
and genuinely making it more about the gifts of joy you can give an receive this season than just about waking up Christmas morning to the gifts stacked under the tree.
i always love this time of year and i think its kinda fun to peek into how people celebrate the season
it would be fun to share some of your favorite holiday traditions in the blog comments today
i would love to hear about how you and your families celebrate the season!
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for past advent traditions click on the year links below to see some of the variations over the most recent years
Love this!!! Merry Christmas Downeys!!!! :)
Posted by: Mary W | December 02, 2015 at 10:14 AM
Sounds like your Christmastime is off to a good start!! All of your decorations and new home are beautiful! You as marshmallow people... what a thought!... lol.... but it did make me think of a favorite song, Marshmallow World by Carl Sigman. :) I saw an elf "working" with another action figure raking a little snowman over a kitchen grater, making little mini mellows pop out.... bwahahahaha..... Merry Christmas!!
Posted by: Caroline Duncan | December 02, 2015 at 10:19 AM
How wonderful, so miss not having my family at home. Both are grown up now one got married this year my daughter 30 but still likes her chocolate calendar. As for my son he is just a barhumbug he cannot be doing with it. Ours will be a noisy get together with family and friends just the way I like it. Wishing you and your family a wonderful time. Merry Christmas xx
Posted by: Sandra inwards | December 02, 2015 at 11:26 AM
I love that your kids hide the elf! I never hear about families with older kids and how/if they keep up with him.
Posted by: Nicky H | December 02, 2015 at 01:52 PM
cool!
Posted by: armella | December 02, 2015 at 03:22 PM
What a wonderful post. Happy December! (BTW, I had brought an ornament for your tree and found it when I got home and unpacked.)
Posted by: Debbie McIntyre | December 02, 2015 at 10:56 PM
Donna, I love your advent traditions so, so much!!! Thanks for sharing yet another one and I am TRULY loving how you created your own spin with the Elf on the Shelf now that your kids are older. Brilliant and I bet that is going to be a riot as each kid tries to outdo each other. I hope you share his hiding places and antics as the month goes on!
Posted by: Carisa | December 04, 2015 at 01:45 PM
I LOVED reading this post. Growing up in an Italian family, our Christmas was always imbedded with traditions. I think having family traditions is not only fun, but important. Though I have kept some of the traditions from my own childhood, I have created new traditions for my kids. Every year we always seem to adopt a new tradition to keep Christmas fun and exciting. Some of our traditions are drawing "secret Santa" names on Thanksgiving all the way to our Christmas Brunch on Christmas day. We always string popcorn and cranberries for our tree. We love filling the house with lights and candles. We do an Advent Wreath with candles. Each year everyone gets a new ornament, so one day when each of the kids has their own families they'll have all the ornaments from their childhood. We also make trays of cookies for giving away, most of the cookies we make are recipes that came over from Italy with my grandparents. Christamas brunch is our biggest tradition, with food we only make on Christmas and after we eat, we play games and watch movies all day. Now my kids are getting older, with my oldest having a family of her own, we still make certain events a family event, now we include the grankids. Though getting presents is fun, Christmas for us is about family and giving.
Posted by: Kimmie Hogan | December 17, 2015 at 02:46 AM