Okay, if you don’t like Christmas STOP reading this post now…I mean it. This one is NOT for you…you were warned. In our house, Christmas is one of the times of the year, where our family spends the MOST amount of time together. Throughout the year, we’re all over the map and of course see each other at the various celebrations, but Christmas it’s pj’s, hot chocolate, Christmas music, endless TV repeats, catching up and basically hibernating. Oh! And of course pressies!
“Tis the season to sparkle…”
While we’re generally a pretty laid back family, and we don’t have a SET of “Christmas traditions” we adhere to fervently, there are a few “loose” things we tend to do every year to get us in the spirit of things.
1- Mom gets out the “Christmas” table cloth and bathroom set. Nothing spells Christmas like our mother buying something new for the house- specifically for Christmas. It’s like a switch.
2- Hallmark movies, (boring according to R1), nothing gets you into the Christmas spirit like cheesy, heartwarming Christmas films.
3- Snow. Not TOO much, but just the right amount to make it “feel and look” like Christmas, but not mountainous piles of the thing. Ideally, as we’re Island People, snow on Christmas Eve sets the tone and scenery for the big day, by Boxing day with reality has set in…ain’t nobody got time for snow.
4- Operation Christmas Child- you’re all probably wondering…what’s up with the boxes in the below picture. One of our Christmas traditions, is filling up a “shoe box” with school supplies, and basic hygienic essentials for a child aged 2-12 for our local church. These boxes are shipped every year right before Christmas, to children in developing countries. It’s the easiest thing to do, and all it requires is putting some thought into your box, and give a small donation to Samaritan’s purse to cover the shipping cost of the boxes. I can’t even tell you how we got into this routine, but it’s definitely one that we don’t see ourselves NOT doing around this time of the year.
5- Sound Of Music- no idea how this began, but every year, we gather at our mother’s house, snuggle up on the couch and sing along to this classic. It’s one of the best movies and you can’t help but be in good spirits (skipping out some of the dark parts).
6- Christmas Eve baking- When we were kids, R2 could NEVER wait till the am to open her presents, so as a compromise, our mother said if we stayed up till midnight, we could open 1 present- as a way to keep busy and stay awake, we started baking. The tradition stuck and now R2 does the baking while R1 supervises (I’m not a fan of the mess of baking). A few faves is the High School Musical recipe book chocolate chip cookies (don’t ask) and classic sugar cookies. Stay tuned later in the month, when we will share some of our favourite recipes!
RnR Recipe:
As Christmas is approaching, we thought we’d be generous and share a quick and fool proof recipe to start you on your way to feeling Christmasy. You can also add, nutmeg or cloves and even pine branches as alternatives. Don’t be afraid to try out different combinations- after all we all have different “smells” we each associate with Christmas.
This Christmas season is going to be an interesting one for our family; as we’re getting older and are either starting our own family traditions or adding other traditions from our partners’ families, but it’s also going to be the last Christmas we will all get to spend together as a larger group for awhile, but no need to grab the tissues, no matter how far apart we live from each other- we will find other ways to get back together, but also hold dear the traditions which mean so much to us. Share with us some of your favourite Christmas traditions or memories- we’d LOVE to hear them!
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