Happy Musings Thursday my friends! I’m back with another musings post. I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
It’s Thursday. It’s less than a week until Christmas. I’ve got today and tomorrow left of work, and then I’m done for the year. What’s there not to be excited about?
Oh, yea. This Christmas Event.
So let’s stay on the excitement topic…and let’s not talk about Christmas in TSTO. Seriously, this is going to be a very NON-TSTO post. So if you’re only here for TSTO information, and don’t think anyone should have a thought outside of TSTO, this isn’t the post for you.
There’s your disclaimer, so if you complain that this isn’t a TSTO post in the comments…you have no one to blame but yourself. I want to stay on the topic of excitement. I don’t want to talk about TSTO this week…instead, let’s talk about Christmas in general.
This week, I’m musing about some general warm and fuzzy feelings about Christmas Traditions!
So, as you guys know…I’ve got a couple of little kiddos. Sam is 1 and Riley is 4. Riley is very much into Frozen…and has been for a while. Yes, we took her (and Sam) to see Frozen 2. So this time of the year, she likes to play the Frozen Christmas Movie…Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. It’s on almost every day at our house. At least it’s only 30 minutes. I’ll take her watching that over the full Frozen movie any day!
Anyway…for those who haven’t seen it…in the movie Olaf goes door to door in Arendelle looking for Holiday Traditions. He sings a catchy little song (it’s Disney, what do you expect), that goes “Happy Merry, Holly Jolly, Seasons Greetings Here. I’m wondering what your family does at that time of year…”
So on that note…I figure the Addicts Community is international. And we ALL have different traditions and ways we celebrate the holidays. So I want to know what you and your family do at “that time of year”.
As far as my house. Well, you guys know I love Christmas. And so far we’ve hit every one of our “pre-Christmas traditions” except for one.
First, on Black Friday (in some cases before) we decorate for Christmas. This year, we did it the weekend before but saved putting the ornaments on the trees for Black Friday.
And our decorations, I would say are fairly American. We have trees, garland with lights, and a few blow-up Christmas decorations outside. Oh and that scout elf on the shelf! Ours is named Mickey! (Riley named him…)
Every year we carefully go one by one through our ornament box and decorate two trees. Yes, two trees.
One is a Disney Tree. Filled with ornaments we’ve picked up on our many trips to Disney, or with ornaments, my husband has picked out for me or vice version.
The other is our family tree. That’s filled with homemade ornaments from Riley (Sam’s still too little), Ornaments we received as wedding presents, other (non-Disney) ornaments we’ve given each other, and photo ornaments. Every year we add another photo ornament to the tree, either of just the kids or of the whole family. It’s a lot of fun.
Another tradition is the Gingerbread House. We always decorate a Gingerbread House as a family and really let Riley show her artistic side. (with mom holding the icing bag of course) And this year Sam even got in on the action.
And of course, we bake Christmas cookies. Loads and loads of Christmas cookies. We just finished that up this past weekend. Over 300 cookies. Sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip, and pizzelles. Quite a lot of baking!
The only “pre-Christmas tradition” we do, that we haven’t done yet is watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” with my mom. And we plan to do that one this weekend. Such a great movie. One of the classics. It doesn’t get much better than George Bailey yelling “Merry Christmas” through the streets of Bedford Falls!
Beyond the “pre-Christmas traditions” it’s just simple things. Every year my husband and I exchange ornaments, and we also pick out specific ornaments to match our kids’ personalities or something they did that year.
Then we spend all of Christmas Day in our PJs. Eating great food and way too many cookies.
And that’s really it. Nothing too crazy, but simple traditions that we love to do every year!
Now it’s your turn! I want to hear what you do “at that time of year”! Do you decorate trees with real candles? Do you hide the pickle in the tree? Do you go caroling? Do you have a specific gift you exchange each year? If you’re south of the equator, and it’s summertime for you, do you have a BBQ? Go swimming? To the beach? Please, share your traditions in the comments below!
I love that this is an international community. Sure most of the readers are from the US, and then Canada, but we have readers from all over the world on this site…and I’m really curious to see how you each celebrate the season!
And on that note, it’s time to wrap up this week’s musings. I’m taking next week off from musings (and TSTO for the most part…there will still be posts, don’t worry), to spend extra time with my family. My kids are little and they’re only that way for a little while. So I’m going to soak up every possible second of fun with them this holiday season while I can! So, I’ll be back with another musings post in two weeks.
Enjoy the holiday time with your family guys! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And I’m looking forward to seeing how you all celebrate “that time of year!” 🙂
