Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that a mothers Christmas tradition soon would be shared…
Christmas Eve is something I wait all year for. TRADITIONS. traditions. TRADITIONS!
Here is a list of my family’s Christmas Eve traditions:
- Our family loves Christmas carols, hot cider, candles, dressing up, and fellowship. Where can you find all of these great things bundled into one? At a Christmas Eve church service! I figure why not make attending a Christmas Eve candlelight service at church a tradition?! Our church offers this type of service as well as many other churches in the Oklahoma City area. Looking for one? Leave us a comment and we can get you a list in your area!
- To remind my son, Noah, of why we celebrate Christmas (the birth of Jesus), we bake Jesus a cake! After all, you cannot celebrate a birthday without cake! I have Noah help me bake and decorate, then we sing “Happy Birthday to Jesus”.
- Christmas comes every year and with that is a new addition to our family wardrobe… Christmas pajamas! With all the pictures that will be taken, it is kind of a no-brainer that we can absolutely not be wearing the same Christmas pajamas as we did the year before. (It is also a sweet excuse for a new pair of pjs!)
- If your family is like mine, then you will understand the inability to wait just ONE MORE DAY to keep secrets and open presents up. In order to keep all the presents under the tree and the surprised faces in tact for Christmas Day, we do one present exchange the night before, which is always an ornament. When picking out our ornaments for one another, we always try to pick out an ornament that is symbolic or sums up the year for each other. I have gotten some pretty silly ornaments in the past, and somehow I always tend to pick a superhero ornament out for my husband (he is ALL things superhero, as well as MY superhero).
- After an ornament exchange we remember that we need to be polite to guests coming into our home…so we get the cookies, milk, and reindeer food out and set it up for Santa! Noah always leaves a letter for Santa to read so that he can make sure that he has brought him what he has asked for. Santa has always written him a letter back for him to find Christmas morning next to the bare plate where the cookies once were.
Santa will surely be thankful! - Lastly, we snuggle up in bed and read “The Night Before Christmas” and the Bible story of the birth of Jesus – Luke 2:1-20. This is my favorite part of our tradition. The calmness and the peace that is present during our Christmas Eve reading is overwhelming. I always remind myself of how blessed we are. It is not about presents, the food or the hustle and bustle, but Christmas is about family and remembering all that has been sacrificed for us, the grace that we have been so sweetly given. That truly is the best present to have received.
And so I begin my countdown until next year’s Christmas Eve traditions…
“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”” – from “The Night Before Christmas”, by Clement Clarke Moore
What are your family’s Christmas traditions?
