UPDATED
I will be keeping this post at the top of the page and updating it as I have time, so please visit often.
Please visit Tiany HERE (oops ~ try HERE instead) and join the festivities.
- How do you keep Christ in Christmas?
We use the Advent season as a time of Bible study, devotion, and preparation ~ we talk about Jesus making His home in our hearts.
We look for opportunities to share with others about the Greatest Gift ever given ~ the True Reason for the season.
We keep santa out ~ although we do learn about Saint Nicholas ~ a real man who loved and served Jesus.
more to come...
- Share some fun things you do with your family, traditions, is there a new tradition you want to start?
We end our academic year at Thanksgiving.
I try to never shop the day after Thanksgiving.
On Saint Nicholas Eve we each decorate a new felt stocking and hang them along the stairs. (We don't have a fireplace.) We usually open them on the morning of the 6th, but this year I had one child who really really wants to open them on Christmas morning, so that is what we are doing.
If we have a tree, we usually get it and/or decorate it on our wedding anniversary, which is 23rd of December. This year we are planning on going to a nearby tree farm to get a "Charlie Brown tree" on the 22nd.
Although I am not Catholic, I have always wanted to attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Maybe this year...
We read the Christmas story out loud from the Bible either last thing Christmas Eve or first thing Christmas Morning or both.
We have a big Christmas Day brunch and open house.
I usually go out shopping early the day after Christmas.
We celebrate the twelve days of Christmas in some way; although, it has varied greatly from year to year.
I give my gifts to my children on Epiphany (or Three Kings Day). I have done this for probably 15 years now, but have been trying to attach more meaning to it. Well, thanks to a few of the other ladies who are participating in the Holiday Open House, I have found a wonderful resource here. Thank you! (When I remember which blogs they were, I will mention them specifically.)
We begin a new academic year on or around 7 January.
more to come...
- Share fun activities, projects, crafts, unit studies or websites you might incorporate into your homeschool/home.
Read Alouds ~ here is a list of books/stories/poems we are reading over the season:
Amazing Peace ~ a Christmas poem by Maya Angelou
The Joy of a Peanuts Christmas
The Birth of Christ by Alfred Tennyson
The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
So, Now is Come our Joyfulst Feast by George Wither
Christmas in the Olden Time by Walter Scott
Christmas Eve at Mr. Wardle's from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Christmas Carol by William Wordsworth
The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen
An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola
The Miracle of the First Poinsettia by Joanne Oppenheim
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin
Rocking Horse Christmas by Mary Pope Osborne
Country Angel Christmas by Tomie dePaola
The Real Santa Clause by Marianna Mayer
While Shepherds Watched by Jenni Fleetwood
A Moon in my Teacup by Anita Riggio
The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola
The Animals' Gift by Szaboles deVajay
King of Kings by Susan Hill
The Night of Las Posadas by Tomid dePaola
Lullaby for a Newborn King by Jozef Wilkon and Hermann Moers
They Followed a Bright Star based on a poem by Joan Alavedra
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojcieshowski
A Cowboy Christmas by Audrey Wood
- Gifts~ Share gifts that you will be making, gifts from your kitchen, frugal ideas etc…
This year we have felt convicted to really get to know our neighbours, so we are going to be making goodie baskets for the 9 or 10 houses on our half-block. We hope to deliver these next week. There will be a loaf of pumpkin bread and a loaf of ginger bread and some cranberry oatmeal cookies. We also will make a card and an ornament of some sort, and include an invitation to our Christmas day open house. All of the details aren't yet sorted out, but we are really looking forward to doing this.
- Food~ Please share a tried and true family recipe for the Holidays! Side dish, cookies, cake, appetizer, drink etc.
still to come...
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