The Magic of Christmas
I love this time of the year! Even though it gets a little crazy with social commitments – it is a lovely time to spend time with people I don’t always make time for during the year. Even though there are a lot of food-orientated events that I have to accommodate for our families dietary requirements for – I always find lots of yummy new recipes at this time of the year. Even though the kids are getting tired and ready for summer break – I love seeing the magic of Christmas through their eyes.
Christmas doesn’t actually cost a lot of money in our house. I haven’t posted a photo of our Christmas tree, but it isn’t like the amazing ones I see in many homes. It has much more meaning to us though. Our tree used to belong to my Nana and Poppa, and every year of my life (until Nana was no longer with us, just a few years ago) the extended family gathered at my grandparents house on Christmas day. I have a ton of happy memories of those times. Our tree is also completely child decorated.
Here are some of my favourite Christmas traditions must-do’s:
Schnizel
Schnizel is our cheeky scout elf. He has been sent from Santa to keep an eye on the kids and see who is being naughty or nice. Each night he reports back to Santa in the North Pole on how the kids are doing. He also gets up to all sorts of mischief while we sleep.
These are some of the things he did last year:
This year he didn’t get off to such a great start with the rest of the toys. On his first night here he tied them all up in a net:
…but it looks like they have got him back overnight!
The excited squeals from Mstr 7 when he saw the box that Schnizel travels in on our longue floor on Sunday woke the rest of the house up!
He is based on the concept of Elf on the Shelf, and there are so many things that different scout elves get up to. I have a board on Pinterest with some of my favourite ideas. With an official Elf, you can also register them, receive an adoption letter and certificate from Santa. The website has a variety of ideas for teachers using a scout elf in their class also.
PNP – Portable North Pole
Santa’s portable North Pole console allows him to send video messages! And best of all its FREE! Visit the website, enter your children’s details and a photo, and Santa will e-mail them a link to a personalised video message! We haven’t received ours this year yet, but in previous years the kids have sat mesmerised watching their video over and over again. I can’t wait to watch them again this year.
Write to Santa
It is great using modern technology and getting video messages from Santa, but there is still something very special about doing it the old-fashioned way. The children wrote their letters to Santa (the younger two children I scribed or wrote for them), then we addressed the envelope and decorated it. These were works of art – I am disappointed I forgot to photograph them before we posted them. The children enjoyed the family trip to the post box to send them off to Santa almost as much as the decorating.
Santa writes back from this address (for letters sent in New Zealand only, and by a special closing date, as then Santa has to get busy preparing the sleigh etc. See the New Zealand Post website for more details):
Santa Claus Santas Workshop North Pole 0001Advent Calendar
Advent calendars come in many forms, and are a great way to count down the sleeps ’til Christmas. While I know many people use the chocolate advent calendars that you can get from the supermarket, children’s allergies and my desire to not dish out sugar on a daily basis has led to us using different ideas for our Advent Calendar. The most simple is the Christmas book idea that I elaborate on below. Every year I have grand intentions of making an amazing Advent calendar (see some of my favourite ideas on my Advent pinterest board) and every year I leave it too late. This year I used the simple idea I had seen floating around on Pinterest: a 24-hole mini cupcake tray!
I used these downloadables for the numbers, and then made a circle template for the kids to draw around and cut out.
I typed up a list of Christmas activities and put one in each spot. Our list includes thing like:
- decorating the Christmas tree
- going for a family bike ride
- posting letters to Santa
- delivering food to the food bank
- watching a family Christmas movie
- having hot chocolate and cookies before bed
- visiting Santa
- choosing toys to donate to other children
- making a batch of Christmas cookies
- colouring in a Christmas picture
- choosing a special new ornament for the tree
- I have also included a note saying “Christmas Chocolate” once every few days, when they get to choose a santa or snowman nourishing chocolate from the fridge.
Christmas Books
This can be used as your advent calendar, or in addition to. Simply wrap up 25 Christmas books (we have done this for the last few years in a row, so we are building our own collection, but still get the majority from the local library). Each day the children take turns opening a book to read as a family. It is a great way to teach children the true meaning of Christmas, there are some beautifully illustrated books of the Christmas story. We have a mixture of traditional Christmas stories, Christmas around the World stories, and fun Santa stories. Little Miss almost 2 has a firm favourite already – her Santa Koala story (a gift from her Aunty and Uncle in Australia) that is sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda. It’s starting to wear a little thin with Daddy though, who is normally chosen to sing it!
Christmas Ornaments
Each year the kids get a special new Christmas tree decoration. The idea is that by the time they leave home they will have their own collection of decorations to take with them. Thank to a suggestion from my friend Lisa, I am now keeping track of whose is who’s using permanent marker to note their initial and the year on the bottom of each decoration.
Christmas Light Trail
Once school has broken up for the year we choose a night (or put it in a day of your Advent calendar) where we wait til it is dark enough and take the kids driving around the Christmas Light Trail. It is a pity that Christmas is in summer time in NZ, so it has to be quite a bit past our usual 6.30/7pm bedtime to really get to see the lights at their best. Use google, local newspapers and recommendations from friends to find the ‘must-do’ streets in your area.
Advent Wreath
An advent wreath is a great way of adding a mindful practice into your day. Before each meal we light the appropriate number of candles (another candle is lit each Sunday during Advent), and spend some time talking about or silently reflecting on the meaning behind the lit candles. This leads us beautifully into an enjoyable family meal.
Candle One (purple): The Prophets Candle or the Candle of Hope. This is where we remember the prophets (especially Isaiah) and the promise that God made to us that he was sending us a Savior. This candle reminds us that Jesus is coming
Candle Two (purple): The Bethlehem Candle or the Candle of Preparation/Love. We talk with the kids about what it would be like for Mary and Joseph getting ready to have a baby. This candle also reminds us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.
Candle Three (pink): The Shepard Candle or the Candle of Joy. This candle reminds us of the Joy the world felt at the coming birth of Jesus.
Candle Four (purple): The Angel Candle or the Candle of Peace. This candle reminds us of the Angels message of peace “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men”.
Candle Five (white): Christ Candle. This candle is in the centre and is typically lit on Christmas Eve. It represents the birth of Jesus, and is white to represent purity.
What are your favourite family Christmas traditions?
This is really beautifully written. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit and will probably even try some of these tips. Well done!
Thanks Patricia! It really is such a fun time of the year, and I know the magic won’t last forever.
Really like your advent calender idea. I hate those supermarket calendars with rubbish chocolate in them too…. But we had to resort to those last year. My husband kept the plastic moulds that were behind the doors at the time-I thought he was mad. But this year, he melted down some decent chocolate and used the moulds…!! I was surprised and just a little bit impressed. He drew a tree for our children to decorate with numbered baubles which they colour in every day and get a chocolate (if they are good…). I still want to make a proper one though that comes out every year and is very much a part of our Christmas – you know the type, with pockets and decorations like bells and buttons…. Maybe next year, I will get round to it. Anyway that’s all. Forgot whose blog this was for a wee minute there……!!!
Thanks Gillian. That was indeed a great idea with the molds and good quality chocolate, thanks so much for sharing as many people will see that as something so do-able! I am with you in still wanting to make a really special advent calendar to use each year, one day! In the meantime I will keep pinning my favourite ideas!
I’m from Canada and what I miss most of all is probably seeing neighbourhoods lit up with Christmas lights in the evening. That trend doesn’t seem to have caught on here (at least not in Funedin). Frankly it just hasn’t felt like Christmas for us since moving to NZ!
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