The Christmas season is upon us here in good old Minnesota! The snow will start falling, people will start shopping, secret Santa will begin, Elf on a shelf will be up to his/her shenanigans, and I will be in complete euphoria. I am very sentimental and big on traditions. Here are my tips for embracing the season!
1. Begin and integrate new holiday traditions while maintaining the old ones. What I mean by that, is try to preserve old family traditions from your childhood, start new family traditions with your friends, significant others, and/or children, and mash them altogether. For example, wood fires in our wood burning fireplace was a holiday tradition. I enjoy a wood burning fire Friday-Sunday at my house. I even place the crochet stand alone stockings on each side of the fireplace that I had as a kid. Add in a story time session or two, and you have now integrated new traditions with the old. Story time by the fire on a Friday night is much better than the every night story time in bed. New traditions to be started that seemed to have popped up after my childhood are: Elf on a shelf, Advent Calendars (I know this isn't new), and opening a Christmas book a night for the 25 nights until Christmas. The 25 books before Christmas is a lot of work, but worth it!
1. Begin and integrate new holiday traditions while maintaining the old ones. What I mean by that, is try to preserve old family traditions from your childhood, start new family traditions with your friends, significant others, and/or children, and mash them altogether. For example, wood fires in our wood burning fireplace was a holiday tradition. I enjoy a wood burning fire Friday-Sunday at my house. I even place the crochet stand alone stockings on each side of the fireplace that I had as a kid. Add in a story time session or two, and you have now integrated new traditions with the old. Story time by the fire on a Friday night is much better than the every night story time in bed. New traditions to be started that seemed to have popped up after my childhood are: Elf on a shelf, Advent Calendars (I know this isn't new), and opening a Christmas book a night for the 25 nights until Christmas. The 25 books before Christmas is a lot of work, but worth it!
2. Take the time to pose for a fun family photo for you holiday card. I am not talking about a cheesy, everyone dress the same and smile type photo. Last year, we took our photo at the Christmas tree farm. I scoured Pinterest for tree farm ideas. I loved last year's photo. The key is to have this photo be a surprise. I typically do not post the photo on Facebook until I have sent out our holiday card. I want a unique photo that no one has seen yet since we all know what we are all up to minute by minute thanks to Instagram and Facebook:) I can't disclose what we are doing this year, but it will be a combination of fun, traditional, but with a unique artistic spin. Thanks, Mary Romportl for doing great work! https://www.facebook.com/puresimplelife-photography-by-Mary-Romportl-152663818243244/?fref=ts
3. Make the holidays fun and get your kids excited to wake up in the morning to locate the elf! I just started Elf on a shelf last year and wish we had this around when I was little! They even have a movie about it that our Elf will be bringing to our home upon his arrival. I know it gets annoying to move the little guy or gal some nights, but the key is to write these ideas down on a secret calendar so that you have a plan. Pinterest and Google are great resources for ensuring your elf has a wild ride while visiting. Our elf, Pickles, made a friend while staying with us. His friend often joined him on his adventures.
4. Visit unique holiday themed places. I love historical holiday themed field trips. On my list this season is The Folkways for the Holidays at The Landing from the Three Rivers Park District
https://www.threeriversparks.org/parks/the-landing/the-landing-folkways-of-the-holidays.aspx.
I also enjoy visiting Christmas tree farms who offer hayrides, and pancake breakfasts with Santa. Anoka has many activities as well for the holiday season with their annual Over the River and Through the Shops activities. I especially like their annual tree lighting ceremony the first weekend in Dec. http://www.exploreminnesota.com/events/6810/over-the-river-and-through-the-shops.
Downtown St. Paul/Minneapolis is also always on our list. We love getting a hotel room with the kids and looking at Christmas lights. We will visit Macy's 8th Floor Display, and we used to go to The Depot before they tore it down to visit the train water park. It is too bad they won't be rebuilding it. They also recently started the Holiday Market downtown. I like to visit it on a weekday before our hotel visit. We get hot cocoa, pick out a new ornament, and just walk around enjoying each other's company. I've heard that the Christmas markets are all over the suburbs too. Don't forget about Menards! We love visiting their Christmas forest a few times in December. They go all out. Also, the Mill City Museum does an Almost Christmas play in the flour tower that we will soon attend.
https://www.threeriversparks.org/parks/the-landing/the-landing-folkways-of-the-holidays.aspx.
I also enjoy visiting Christmas tree farms who offer hayrides, and pancake breakfasts with Santa. Anoka has many activities as well for the holiday season with their annual Over the River and Through the Shops activities. I especially like their annual tree lighting ceremony the first weekend in Dec. http://www.exploreminnesota.com/events/6810/over-the-river-and-through-the-shops.
Downtown St. Paul/Minneapolis is also always on our list. We love getting a hotel room with the kids and looking at Christmas lights. We will visit Macy's 8th Floor Display, and we used to go to The Depot before they tore it down to visit the train water park. It is too bad they won't be rebuilding it. They also recently started the Holiday Market downtown. I like to visit it on a weekday before our hotel visit. We get hot cocoa, pick out a new ornament, and just walk around enjoying each other's company. I've heard that the Christmas markets are all over the suburbs too. Don't forget about Menards! We love visiting their Christmas forest a few times in December. They go all out. Also, the Mill City Museum does an Almost Christmas play in the flour tower that we will soon attend.
5. Make time to spend holiday moments with friends. Simply put, my friends are my family. Anyone who has a small family, or interesting family dynamics can understand that holiday friend traditions should continue to be celebrated. Back in college, my three roommates and I started our Christmas Winter Wonderland tradition in 2002. We have continued to celebrate it every year since! Different members have joined and left, but the core have stayed. It used to be at our houses until we all started having kids. We used to have rules such as, whoever gave birth, moved, or remodeled closest to the date could host, but until we are done having babies, we will go out for our celebration for awhile. We always exchange names and buy a personalized ornament to exchange in some unique way. Bingo at Wild Bill's has also been a new norm now for the past two years. One of these days we will win!
6. Decorate, decorate, decorate! Having your house decorated will put you in a happy mood every day:) We put up 8 Christmas trees! Even the Barbie house gets Christmas lights:) Every kid has a tree in their room in a different color, and every room has a tree (except the kitchen, but soon....). I also play Christmas music in my room while I get ready, in the car, and on the T.V. during dinner.
7. Embrace holiday crafts! From gingerbread houses and edible forests, to salt dough ornaments, make memories! Craft with your kids (or yourself)! We love making a variety of things. This year, I am going to create not just a gingerbread house, but a gingerbread house nestled within an edible forest!
8. Have a theme! Is there something your kids are super in to? On Christmas day, we typically have a theme. One year, Santa left Monster's Inc everything for big gifts (tent, scare floor, figurines, etc.), and last year, it was Barbie everything. This year, we are doing a Barbie inspired Christmas yet again, but it is going to be called Barbie Village. A new Barbie house, a Barbie camper, a Barbie tent with sleeping bags, a Barbie cruise ship, and Barbie quad bunk beds. I will also be making a Barbie closet and hanging barbie outfits. Beckham will get some cars and baby things.
9. Make awesome holiday food! We even make food for the reindeer (1 cup of oats, 2 tbs glitter or sprinkles, and a poem- http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/five-printable-reindeer-food-poems). Thanks to my sister-in-law Jaime, that tradition started years ago and made an appearance in my classroom). I make an awesome tear apart ham/cheese/bacon egg bake (recipe on my blog in my Easter post) for Christmas morning and cinnamon rolls with pancakes on Christmas Eve morning. Of course, we bake fun cookies weekly as well! We spread the reindeer food on Christmas Eve night before heading in for the night. We also make a chocolate Christmas cake with candy canes a few days before Christmas to enjoy on Christmas Eve night, and I make a turkey dinner for Christmas night. We like to have hot cocoa bars too weekly. We make hot cocoa and the kids can add marshmallows, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and whip cream as a special treat (credit to my bro for the new tradition we started last year-thanks Wes).
10. Make holiday jammies a big deal. I love picking out holiday jammies for everyone during the holidays! If they match, even better! Lately I have been into plaid for the dressy holiday outfits. I've never been a dress person for the girls, or myself, so I stick to sweater or plaid tunics and leggings.
11. Holiday movie nights are huge at our house! I am partial to the Family Stone (like I watch it every night before bed starting Thanksgiving night:). I also love Home Alone 1 & 2, The Grinch with Jim Carey, and The Santa Clause 1, 2, & 3. We play holiday movies all day on the weekends. Every Friday night, the girls have a sleepover in mom's bed (while dad is banished to the pink bunk beds), and we have pizza or McDonlads while watching Christmas movies. We just saw two new holiday movies recently, Love the Coopers, and The Night Before. Love the Coopers was a little depressing, like the Family Stone unmedicated. The Night Before was hilarious!
12. Our favorite church service to go to is on the day before Christmas Eve at Grace Fellowship Church. They know how to rock out and celebrate the season! They have a live Nativity scene with real animals, and the best music. You can drink hot cocoa in the sanctuary as well. http://gracefellowshipmn.org/
13. Enjoy adult time and relaxation. Kacey and I try to find times to chill out just the two of us right before we lay gifts under the tree, in between holiday parties, while celebrating my December birthday, or on Saturday nights with a movie and a fire going.
12. Our favorite church service to go to is on the day before Christmas Eve at Grace Fellowship Church. They know how to rock out and celebrate the season! They have a live Nativity scene with real animals, and the best music. You can drink hot cocoa in the sanctuary as well. http://gracefellowshipmn.org/
13. Enjoy adult time and relaxation. Kacey and I try to find times to chill out just the two of us right before we lay gifts under the tree, in between holiday parties, while celebrating my December birthday, or on Saturday nights with a movie and a fire going.
14. Embrace the chaos and the mess! Your little ones are only little once and they will carry on your family traditions for years to come! The best memories I have as a kid are from the holiday season.
15. Join every secret Santa thing that you can. It makes it fun to go to work:) If you don't have one, start one.
I could have made this post way longer, but this is more of a "quick" tip post:) Merry Christmas!
I could have made this post way longer, but this is more of a "quick" tip post:) Merry Christmas!