This is the first advent season that we will be childless, as our older three have moved out (one just got married) and our youngest is at boarding school. We live in Georgia and I am thinking of waiting for the beautiful leaves to fall before moving on to Christmas decorations, though some have had their Christmas lights on since early November. I am also thinking of making Advent more of a “fasting” time, so that the feast of Christmas will mean more. I love your encouragement for walking more! Keep encouraging us!
Sounds like you are moving into a different kind of Christmas season without children at home but by turning toward fasting during Advent you might discover a new tradition to keep (did you see Tsh Oxenreider's post on this topic?). Enjoy your walks :)
My wife and I decided to bundle up and do more walks at a nature reserve in our town. Even though we both somewhat loathe colder weather, leaving indoors and walking through leaveless trees in the dead quiet of late fall/early winter helped us feel connected to each other and the immediate present of our lives. Also, we probably had some of the best conversation we’ve had in a month. 10/10 highly recommend the walking rebellion.
So happy to hear that you decided to brave the weather. We have lived in horrid weather climates (including five years in Newfoundland) where the winter months were often gray, drizzly, and dreary. This is where we learned to go outside no matter the weather, I cannot recall ever regretting having gone for a walk. The connection and conversation are a definite benefit and often it is during walks where we get to truly focus on each other. Thanks for sharing and hoping you'll walk on :)
My biggest conundrum with walking without my phone: not having Merlin Sound ID and the Seek app. I use Merlin to identify birds I can't see by their call, and I use Seek to identify all kinds of plants and mushrooms. Both of these apps help me to enjoy the world around me, and are among the few apps I actually have added to my phone over the years.
But I dutifully left the phone at home during my Walking Rebellion walks. I discovered it was actually kind of nice to just enjoy the bird songs without having to know for sure what kind of bird I was hearing. It's possible to make enjoying nature into a kind of "work," too, so this helped me to detox from that.
And if I wanted to ID that weird red and white-spotted mushroom on my neighbor's lawn, I could always come back later (though I'm sure they wondered what I'm doing!). :) (It was a Fly Agaric, for anyone wondering.)
Thanks for collecting these beautiful Christmas tradition ideas! The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is one of my favourite Christmas books as well, and you've inspired me to locate it and bring it down again for Christmas this year.
Thanks for sharing your experience Meg! I am impressed how many people took the "tech-naked" aspect very seriously. I think leaving the phone at home helps one to develop a welcoming feeling to simply not knowing everything. Because all information is at out fingertips constantly, we lose part of the aspect of wonder. I have encountered trees before that I could not identify; I would look them up in a reference book when we got home (and sometimes I simply didn't find the answer).
We give all of our family gifts on St.Nicholas Day. Stockings will be opened on Christmas morning. It allows us to enjoy the pace of the season instead of feeling that the Christmas Eve service is just “one more thing” it becomes “TheThing” Giving gifts early helps us remember what the season is really about and. Slow down to enjoy it. On Christmas Day there will be Luke 2 being read, and we will eat the gingerbread house for breakfast.
We have some friends who keep the same tradition (and it used to be the custom throughout most of Europe) and it certainly helps to focus on the true celebration. Gingerbread house Christmas breakfast sounds like a splendid idea too !
One of our most treasured Christmas traditions is reading a Christmas story (or two) out loud each evening. We read almost exclusively from Joe Wheeler's Christmas in My Heart story collection series--the paperback numbered versions are the best; I also think the earlier books in the series are best, but all of them have a few gems.
What a fabulous set of traditions! As I’m staring down a very busy few weeks of work before we close for the holidays, I’m deeply in need of the simple and nourishing in my personal life. I’ll be adopting some of these for myself.
And as a Canadian, I burst into a grin when I saw “Dave Cooks the Turkey” on your list. It’s a must-listen in my family and even after decades of listening to it, it still hasn’t stopped being hilarious.
Listening the Steuart McLean never fails (we already heard Dave Cooks the Turkey twice this week). Somehow the stories just get better over the years, almost because there is an accumulation of humor by having it heard many times before. Have you listened to Christmas at the Turlingtons or Dave Makes Snow? Too many to pick a favorite :)
Yes, I’ve heard those ones, too. 🙂 Several years ago, I bought my dad the full set of Maclean’s Christmas stories on CD for my dad, and we’ve enjoyed listening to them all.
My morning routine now includes a longer walk just before dawn with my dogs and taking a moment of gratitude for the beauty of nature and the peace and quiet. It is definitely a great way to start the day!
My Christmas traditions have changed slightly as my kids have grown but decorating gingerbread houses is always a favorite. Thank you for sharing your traditions and the beautiful artwork too!
Walking before dawn sounds like a most excellent start to the day! Dogs are certainly a helpful motivator (at least the chickens make me step into the garden early in the morning:) I just discovered that Monet spent some time in Norway and had never seen these lovely paintings before; glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Christmas:)
As a child, we were gifted a new Christmas tree ornament each year so as an adult we'd have a collection of our own. My MIL, who recently passed, used to hand make ornaments for everyone in the family each year. I'd like to combine these efforts and have my boys make their own nature-based ornaments each year so they have a collection when they are older.
Handmade nature-based ornaments are a wonderful tradition to add! We also used to make some with salt dough (snowmen, hearts, stars...); these keep for many years and are fun to make.
We too read Christmas stories, light advent candles, and have an advent calendar. One of our favorite celebrations during advent season is St. Lucia Day, and my son loves singing and waking his father and grandparents next door before dawn with fresh baked saffron buns and gingerbread cookies and coffee wearing a crown of candles (he gets to wear the crown since we don’t have a girl in the family to be Lucia!). I have such magical memories of the holiday from when I was a child, and it feels magic and sacred to me still. I organize the Lucia procession at the Scandinavian Christmas fair in our city as well, so we can share the beauty with our wider community.
Thanks for sharing this tradition Sarah! So wonderful that you can share this beautiful tradition with your community (and that there is a Scandinavian Christmas fair in your town:).
When we were raising our seven children we decided early on to move gift giving to St Nicholas Day and devote Christmas as much as possible to the birth of our Savior. They hung their stockings and put out their shoes (gold chocolate coins were left in them). We were pretty minimalist in gifting so they learned well how to be happy with simple gifts. It was easy for us to make this shift as we homeschooled and had no TV as well as a kept out of malls and shops. The consumerist culture was not part of our life. Many of them have tried to continue this focus with their own children. (A little tougher if in-laws aren’t on board)
Thirty years ago when the only son was eight, I made paper Jesse tree ornaments with scripture addresses printed on the back of each to read. Beginning December 1, the epic story of creation, fall and eventual redemption was built with increasing beauty, evening by evening, as we read these passages. It’s the one tradition from “home school days” we’ve kept and continues to fill the empty nest with joy.
I spy Zimtsterne! my absolute favourite cookie. Though sadly no Plätchen for the Turner household this year in the busyness of the move which is happening this weekend.
Yes, Zimtsterne are simply delicious - my son just ground almonds for them this afternoon and we'll be baking them after dinner. Alll the best with your move this weekend and wishing you a wonderful Christmas in your new home!
We wait for Christmas by having fewer sweets than usual (except on a few special days). And we introduce the recorded Christmas music slowly… a new album or two a week, with new songs available every Sunday. Singing is allowed at most any time, though! My side of the family is Latvian, and we observe the Latvian tradition of preparing a poem or other presentation (song, Bible verse, etc) to recite before the family on Christmas. Not all the presentations are special, but a few are long remembered… and the poems stick in our heads, too!
This is the first advent season that we will be childless, as our older three have moved out (one just got married) and our youngest is at boarding school. We live in Georgia and I am thinking of waiting for the beautiful leaves to fall before moving on to Christmas decorations, though some have had their Christmas lights on since early November. I am also thinking of making Advent more of a “fasting” time, so that the feast of Christmas will mean more. I love your encouragement for walking more! Keep encouraging us!
Sounds like you are moving into a different kind of Christmas season without children at home but by turning toward fasting during Advent you might discover a new tradition to keep (did you see Tsh Oxenreider's post on this topic?). Enjoy your walks :)
My wife and I decided to bundle up and do more walks at a nature reserve in our town. Even though we both somewhat loathe colder weather, leaving indoors and walking through leaveless trees in the dead quiet of late fall/early winter helped us feel connected to each other and the immediate present of our lives. Also, we probably had some of the best conversation we’ve had in a month. 10/10 highly recommend the walking rebellion.
So happy to hear that you decided to brave the weather. We have lived in horrid weather climates (including five years in Newfoundland) where the winter months were often gray, drizzly, and dreary. This is where we learned to go outside no matter the weather, I cannot recall ever regretting having gone for a walk. The connection and conversation are a definite benefit and often it is during walks where we get to truly focus on each other. Thanks for sharing and hoping you'll walk on :)
Of course we will !! Thank you for the encouragement!!
My biggest conundrum with walking without my phone: not having Merlin Sound ID and the Seek app. I use Merlin to identify birds I can't see by their call, and I use Seek to identify all kinds of plants and mushrooms. Both of these apps help me to enjoy the world around me, and are among the few apps I actually have added to my phone over the years.
But I dutifully left the phone at home during my Walking Rebellion walks. I discovered it was actually kind of nice to just enjoy the bird songs without having to know for sure what kind of bird I was hearing. It's possible to make enjoying nature into a kind of "work," too, so this helped me to detox from that.
And if I wanted to ID that weird red and white-spotted mushroom on my neighbor's lawn, I could always come back later (though I'm sure they wondered what I'm doing!). :) (It was a Fly Agaric, for anyone wondering.)
Thanks for collecting these beautiful Christmas tradition ideas! The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is one of my favourite Christmas books as well, and you've inspired me to locate it and bring it down again for Christmas this year.
Thanks for sharing your experience Meg! I am impressed how many people took the "tech-naked" aspect very seriously. I think leaving the phone at home helps one to develop a welcoming feeling to simply not knowing everything. Because all information is at out fingertips constantly, we lose part of the aspect of wonder. I have encountered trees before that I could not identify; I would look them up in a reference book when we got home (and sometimes I simply didn't find the answer).
Have a wonderful Christmas Meg!
Happiest of Christmases to you and Peco too! :)
We give all of our family gifts on St.Nicholas Day. Stockings will be opened on Christmas morning. It allows us to enjoy the pace of the season instead of feeling that the Christmas Eve service is just “one more thing” it becomes “TheThing” Giving gifts early helps us remember what the season is really about and. Slow down to enjoy it. On Christmas Day there will be Luke 2 being read, and we will eat the gingerbread house for breakfast.
We have some friends who keep the same tradition (and it used to be the custom throughout most of Europe) and it certainly helps to focus on the true celebration. Gingerbread house Christmas breakfast sounds like a splendid idea too !
One of our most treasured Christmas traditions is reading a Christmas story (or two) out loud each evening. We read almost exclusively from Joe Wheeler's Christmas in My Heart story collection series--the paperback numbered versions are the best; I also think the earlier books in the series are best, but all of them have a few gems.
We have an advent calendar that I made a few years ago that has these little boxes, and inside each box, is a Bible verse that we read each night 🎄
Oh that's a lovely idea!
What a fabulous set of traditions! As I’m staring down a very busy few weeks of work before we close for the holidays, I’m deeply in need of the simple and nourishing in my personal life. I’ll be adopting some of these for myself.
And as a Canadian, I burst into a grin when I saw “Dave Cooks the Turkey” on your list. It’s a must-listen in my family and even after decades of listening to it, it still hasn’t stopped being hilarious.
Listening the Steuart McLean never fails (we already heard Dave Cooks the Turkey twice this week). Somehow the stories just get better over the years, almost because there is an accumulation of humor by having it heard many times before. Have you listened to Christmas at the Turlingtons or Dave Makes Snow? Too many to pick a favorite :)
Yes, I’ve heard those ones, too. 🙂 Several years ago, I bought my dad the full set of Maclean’s Christmas stories on CD for my dad, and we’ve enjoyed listening to them all.
My morning routine now includes a longer walk just before dawn with my dogs and taking a moment of gratitude for the beauty of nature and the peace and quiet. It is definitely a great way to start the day!
My Christmas traditions have changed slightly as my kids have grown but decorating gingerbread houses is always a favorite. Thank you for sharing your traditions and the beautiful artwork too!
Walking before dawn sounds like a most excellent start to the day! Dogs are certainly a helpful motivator (at least the chickens make me step into the garden early in the morning:) I just discovered that Monet spent some time in Norway and had never seen these lovely paintings before; glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Christmas:)
As a child, we were gifted a new Christmas tree ornament each year so as an adult we'd have a collection of our own. My MIL, who recently passed, used to hand make ornaments for everyone in the family each year. I'd like to combine these efforts and have my boys make their own nature-based ornaments each year so they have a collection when they are older.
My grandma made a Christmas ornament for her 8 children and many grandchildren every year--we treasure them!
Handmade nature-based ornaments are a wonderful tradition to add! We also used to make some with salt dough (snowmen, hearts, stars...); these keep for many years and are fun to make.
We too read Christmas stories, light advent candles, and have an advent calendar. One of our favorite celebrations during advent season is St. Lucia Day, and my son loves singing and waking his father and grandparents next door before dawn with fresh baked saffron buns and gingerbread cookies and coffee wearing a crown of candles (he gets to wear the crown since we don’t have a girl in the family to be Lucia!). I have such magical memories of the holiday from when I was a child, and it feels magic and sacred to me still. I organize the Lucia procession at the Scandinavian Christmas fair in our city as well, so we can share the beauty with our wider community.
Thanks for sharing this tradition Sarah! So wonderful that you can share this beautiful tradition with your community (and that there is a Scandinavian Christmas fair in your town:).
I love hearing about others’ Christmas traditions. Thank you for sharing these. I’ve always wanted to participate in the book one!
When we were raising our seven children we decided early on to move gift giving to St Nicholas Day and devote Christmas as much as possible to the birth of our Savior. They hung their stockings and put out their shoes (gold chocolate coins were left in them). We were pretty minimalist in gifting so they learned well how to be happy with simple gifts. It was easy for us to make this shift as we homeschooled and had no TV as well as a kept out of malls and shops. The consumerist culture was not part of our life. Many of them have tried to continue this focus with their own children. (A little tougher if in-laws aren’t on board)
Thirty years ago when the only son was eight, I made paper Jesse tree ornaments with scripture addresses printed on the back of each to read. Beginning December 1, the epic story of creation, fall and eventual redemption was built with increasing beauty, evening by evening, as we read these passages. It’s the one tradition from “home school days” we’ve kept and continues to fill the empty nest with joy.
What a wonderful list! Thank you for sharing. I’ll be looking up the fun Canadian stories.
I spy Zimtsterne! my absolute favourite cookie. Though sadly no Plätchen for the Turner household this year in the busyness of the move which is happening this weekend.
Yes, Zimtsterne are simply delicious - my son just ground almonds for them this afternoon and we'll be baking them after dinner. Alll the best with your move this weekend and wishing you a wonderful Christmas in your new home!
We wait for Christmas by having fewer sweets than usual (except on a few special days). And we introduce the recorded Christmas music slowly… a new album or two a week, with new songs available every Sunday. Singing is allowed at most any time, though! My side of the family is Latvian, and we observe the Latvian tradition of preparing a poem or other presentation (song, Bible verse, etc) to recite before the family on Christmas. Not all the presentations are special, but a few are long remembered… and the poems stick in our heads, too!