10 UNIQUE CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS THAT WILL BRING YOUR FAMILY CLOSER

The Tradition of Having an Old Fashioned Christmas

A snippet of my friend Elizabeth;

I love Christmas. Actually, my favorite time of year is from October- December. Fall begins and it’s like a fresh start to me. Pumpkins and mums become abundant, fall food is so comforting and the holidays make me just giddy. Then it fades into winter and we dream of a white Christmas while decorating the house, baking Christmas treats and staying warm inside by the fire.

My family has many traditions for Christmas and while some may change with the seasons of life, one thing remains- we have a tradition of keeping Christmas homemade, simple and old fashioned.

Extra Special Christmas Traditions with the Grandkids

A snippet of my friend Barbra-Sue;

The holiday season is a special time. As Philip and I are somewhat newly married, we are bridging our old traditions while we create new ones for our family. Our children are grown and beginning to create their own family traditions. As grandparents, we have the extra special privilege of creating Christmas traditions with the grandkids.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions with the grandkids is updating my Handprint Christmas Tree skirt. Our oldest granddaughter, Addison, is 7 years old. The year she was born, I saw…

The Christmas Chronicles: Scented Salt Dough Ornaments

A snippet from my friend Shawn-Marie;

My grandchildren are seven and a half, six and a half, five and a half and one and a half years old, so they are still on the younger side, but I feel that they are ready this year to create salt dough ornaments with their Nana. So that’s what we’re going to do, but we’re going to make them with a twist… we’re making our salt dough ornaments scented with two heavenly scents that firmly place me in Christmas mode: Cinnamon and cloves. This not only creates a seasonal scent but also makes the ornaments really look like gingerbread. I love adding this twist to the salt dough ornaments just like my grandparents taught me

CANDLELIT CHRISTMAS STORY – FREE PRINTABLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOU

A Snippet from me! The author of this site;

Now that I’m diving into this amazing experience of sharing things on my little website, I wanted to do a complete overhaul of the candlelit Christmas story and re create a modern, printer friendly, downloadable version so that I could get this beautiful experience into as many hands as possible!

And that’s what I want to give you this holiday season my friends. Everything you need (except the candles) to start this tradition in your family. Skip the hours of creating that I had to do back in 2014 and grab the whole thing here, in its updated and printer friendly format!

HOW TO SEW PAJAMA PANTS WITHOUT A PATTERN

A snippet from my friend Meghan;

….Our last Christmas Tradition rounds off on Christmas Eve. We play games, watch Christmas movies, read The Night Before Christmas, and open 1 present which contains a new pair of pajama pants. This year I’m sewing our Christmas Eve pajama pants (and sharing how I do it with y’all!)

This is a fairly simple way. As I mentioned before, PJ pants are super forgiving to make. Since it’s mostly straight lines of sewing, it’s also a great one for beginners! When I took Home Economics in High School, I felt so proud of my pajama pants I made. I hope you are able to find the same satisfaction too.

POPCORN BALLS: A FAMILY TRADITION

A snippet from my friend Rebekah;

Some of my earliest and happiest memories include going over to my grandparents’ house during the holidays with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I come from a very big, lovely family and we always celebrated holidays together. There was never a shortage of cousins to play with, either!

I remember we were most excited when it was time to make the popcorn balls! We would wash our hands and then we would slather butter all over them so the sticky syrup wouldn’t stick to us. We would grab handfuls of popcorn out of the bowl, the syrup was still warm and even hot, and we would quickly make the popcorn balls and put them on wax paper to cool down...

HOW TO MAKE RUSTIC FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIÈRE RECIPE

A snippet from my friend Deirdre;

I am so excited to share with you my family’s tourtière recipe; our favourite Christmas meal that we have been making from scratch and eating on Christmas Eve since before I was born.

Tourtière, or meat pie, has been a French Canadian traditional food for hundreds of years. In some families, it is eaten often but most commonly it was always had after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Historically, it has been made with many game meats, but it is commonly made with pork today.

5 Simple Natural Christmas Decorations

A snippet from my friend Tessa;

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is decorating my house for Christmas! I love the warmth it brings to the space and turning on Christmas music while my husband and I decorate makes for a special evening this time of year. It’s made even more special by our tradition of using natural Christmas decorations...When we first got married, we lived in a 500-square-foot apartment. We had a bit of auxiliary storage, but our limited space meant we needed to rethink the bins and bins of Christmas decorations that are increasingly common. We didn’t want to spend the money or storage space on loads of reusable decorations, either. That’s when we began decorating with natural items, which has become a tradition ever since!

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

A snippet from my friend Brad;

Breaking from tips, this post is my family’s views of Christmas traditions, how we arrive at them, and some examples. As the holiday season approaches, there are elements common to everyone of nativity scenes, open presents, and seeing family members. One thing that is universal, whether we are conscious of it or not are the favorite family Christmas traditions. Whether it’s unique Christmas traditions or religious practices rooted in the Middle Ages, holiday spirit is rooted in building memories.

SAFFRON TOFFEE – TRADITIONAL SWEDISH CHRISTMAS CANDY

Snippet from my friend Holly;

Saffron is one of those incredibly luxurious and versatile spices that I just can’t get enough of. And Christmas is that time of year when it is perfectly acceptable to add saffron to nearly everything!

We have some beautiful Swedish Christmas traditions in our family. Smoking the Christmas ham, writing whimsical rhymes to go with small, thoughtful gifts, and making sweet treats together like this traditional Saffron Toffee. We have one rule and that is that we have to wait until the first of December …Easier said than done in our family!