The best part of Christmas is the traditions! I love them. It makes all the craziness worth it.
We have a lot of fun traditions, but the kids like our daily traditions the best. It works out well that we have four kids, because we have four traditions each day. I have a list. Really. I had to type up a list, day by day, of our traditions to keep it fair. It's even laminated.
First tradition is our nativity calendar. I painstakingly handmade this about 13 years ago. I had fun with it and it is really a treasured family heirloom. I'm thinking each child might get one when they get married because they all want it when they are 'old'. Each day we put on a part of the nativity story.
Second tradition is our activity calendar. It's a muffin tin with pieces of paper in each cup. Written on each piece of paper is an activity. This is where our big traditions come in. On the days that we have a busy night, we do something simple - like our ornaments. Some nights we do bigger things - like make sugar cookies, decorate gingerbread houses, Temple Square, etc.
When the activity is an ornament, that child gets to pick one of 12 star ornaments to hang on the tree. Each ornament has a name of Christ and a scripture to explain what the name means.
Third tradition is a Christmas book. We have 24 Christmas books that I wrap and put under the tree. Every night, a child gets to pick a book, unwrap it and we read it as a family. They all get excited when their name is on 'book'.
Fourth tradition is the elf. Now, our family does the elf differently because my kid's mom is exhausted and just can't add one more thing to her December. She admires the moms who do because it looks like so much fun and their kids love it, but Fowler Mom is tired, stressed and honestly needed one more tradition to equal four! So, when it is your night for the elf, you get to hide it and then your siblings try to find it. The kids love playing this game and we usually hide it a few times a night.
Enoch made our elf an honorary chair to rest in at night.
Such fun every night (at least the nights that we have time!)
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