Christmas Traditions Archives

Christmas cruises are becoming a lot more well-known, and it really is straightforward to determine why. On a luxurious cruise ship, sailing about fascinating coasts or islands in a warm climate, you may have a Christmas which you will never ever forget.

Individuals pick out Christmas cruises for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps you just need to do one thing distinctive this year, or want some time in a warm climate. Those are fantastic factors for going on a Christmas cruise.

Other people today may well would like to get away from the ‘regular’ style of Christmas celebration for one cause or another. Maybe you can not face the thought of cooking a further enormous household meal this year. Or if you’re alone in life or have recently suffered the loss of a loved 1, Christmas at dwelling is often a depressing business. But in the event you go on a Christmas cruise, you might be surrounded by friendly persons, some of them likely in the identical situation, and tons of different factors to complete.

So exactly where should you go? There are several possibilities. From North America by far the most common choice is usually a Caribbean cruise. Most cruises sail from Miami, but you can leave from other ports on the Eastern seaboard, even as far north as New York.

A standard Caribbean cruise lasts for a week and visits four or 5 islands. The Caribbean is really a substantial location so you can take a distinctive Caribbean cruise each year really readily.

Further north inside the Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda along with the Bahamas are also really preferred destinations. Or from the West coast, it is possible to take a cruise to Hawaii or fly to Honolulu after which cruise about the Hawaiian islands. Hawaii is a great location to invest Christmas and you are able to anticipate your cruise to have a unique Hawaiian Christmas flavor.

Further afield, you can fly to a lot of destinations worldwide to begin your cruise. In Europe, ships sail about the Mediterranean or along the fjords of Norway. You can cruise about the coast of Mexico or South America, distinctive parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand or down the east coast of Africa.

And what can you expect from Christmas cruises? Needless to say, quite a few of the attributes will likely be the same as on a common cruise. You could expect great food and drink together with a lot of organized activities to assist your on-board social life go with a swing.

At the same time, you can find likely to be some events particular to Christmas and most likely Hanukkah too, if it falls through the time of one’s cruise. You could anticipate every thing from parties to religious services celebrating these festivals.

You do not need to take along anything special on Christmas cruises but if you wish to make far more of one’s seasonal experience, why not pack some decorations to brighten up your cabin? Or take all the cards that you simply have received to display around your bed? This can get you into the Christmas spirit even when the surroundings of sun and sea are not what you’re utilised to at this time of year!

If your cruise contains New Year’s Eve, you can have a terrific time celebrating without ever getting to be concerned about driving residence. In truth, Christmas cruises can take away all your holiday season pressures.

There are lots of low-priced Christmas decorations that you simply can find in stores as Christmas approaches.

Even so, the top low-cost Christmas decorations are those that you simply make your self. Why? Simply because it’s fun, and in producing them you might be producing memories that could be related with Christmas joy for many years to come!

If you have youngsters, they are going to enjoy to help make Christmas decorations with you. Youngsters are constantly impatient for Christmas to arrive and if they are able to be performing something to hurry it along, they’re happy!

Paper chains are several of the easiest low-priced Christmas decorations to make. You’ll be able to either get packs which you stick together, or you may acquire a couple of rolls of wrap in different colors to cut and stick. Then hang your chains around the top of walls in all of your downstairs rooms. This will brighten up the rooms suitable away!

In case you have kept old Christmas cards from last year, you’ll be able to use the images to make other kinds of decorations including hanging them on the tree. Punch a hole in the leading for a colored string and buy some glitter to add sparkle to the photos.

If you acquire low-cost Christmas decorations for the tree, you may uncover that they are not as interesting as the more costly items. But that will not matter – you’ll be able to very easily brighten them up and make them individual for your household. It is possible to spray them with glitter paints or use glue to stick glitter or beads to them. Or why not take a photo of eeachloved one and stick 1 to each ball so that everyone has their very own personalized tree decoration!

Even when you make the majority of your own personal decorations, it’s best to still consider purchasing 1 beneficial quality item for your Christmas decor every year. Opt for something that you are going to be able to mkeep upand use year after year. Gradually, over the the years, you can collect a full range of leading good quality decorations this way.

Keeping your Christmas decorations for reuse in future years is a superb idea whether you purchased them or created them oneself. When you have kids or grandkids, you can be amazed when they realize all all theistmas decorations that the family owns. Keeping the same decorations to bring out year soon after year may possibly seem boring to adults – especially if they are becoming slightly tattered – but kids just adore to see their old buddies coming out of the box once again!

Christmas is such a magical time for kids and trimming the tree is actually an enormous part of the atmosphere and excitement as Christmas approaches. over than the years, some decorations will develop into a critical part of Christmas for them.

This is in particularly true if they helped to create something, whether it is the angel at the top of the tree or the snowman that sits on the windowsill. So if discovering or creating cheap Christmas decorations is your priority, try to have items that will last.

-Shannon

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX, WISCONSIN — Remember when no one started Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving?

Wisconsin author LeAnn R. Ralph remembers it very well.

“When I was growing up on our dairy farm forty years ago, the stores didn’t put up Christmas displays until the day after Thanksgiving. No one was really thinking about Christmas shopping before that,” said Ralph, author of the book Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm) (trade paperback; August 2003; $13.95). “In fact, my mother felt so strongly about it that she didn’t even like to hear the word ‘Christmas’ until after we had finished eating Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Back then, happiness was baking cookies, decorating the Christmas tree, and eating lefse that my mother had made,” Ralph said.

Lefse (pronounced lef’suh) is a flat potato pastry brought to this country by Norwegian immigrants who settled in Wisconsin. Ralph’s mother was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, and their 120-acre family farm was homesteaded by Ralph’s great-grandfather.

“When I was a kid, people enjoyed simple pleasures. The Sunday school Christmas program was an event at the little country church just down the road from our farm that was attended by nearly everyone in the neighborhood,” Ralph noted.

“At the time, if someone had told me the Christmas season was going to change so drastically that you would eventually get Christmas catalogs in the mail in August and September — and that you would find Christmas decorations on sale in August and September, too — I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said.

“I also would have never thought that dairy farming would change so much. I always took it for granted that we lived in ‘America’s Dairyland,’ but today, most of the small family dairy farms have disappeared,” Ralph noted.

According to statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture , Wisconsin has lost two-thirds of its dairy farms since 1969. Forty years ago, Wisconsin had 60,000 dairy farms. Today, only about 20,000 dairy farms remain.

Nationwide statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture show the same trend. In 1969, more than a half a million dairy farms operated in the United States. Today, only about 80,000 dairy farms remain.

“As far as I was concerned, one of the best parts of Christmas was going out with my dad to cut a Christmas tree. We had small stands of pine trees planted around the farm to stop soil erosion. We would walk around until we found a nice tree, and then we would cut it and bring it home,” Ralph recalled.

Ralph earned an undergraduate degree in English with a writing emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and also earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from UW-Whitewater. She taught English at a boys’ boarding school for several years and worked as a newspaper reporter for more than eight years. She is a freelance writer for two weekly newspapers in west central Wisconsin and is the editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer, the quarterly publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Assoc.

For more information about Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm), visit www.ruralroute2.com. The book also can be ordered through amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or through any brick-and-mortar bookstore.

**************************

(copyright 2003/2004: LeAnn R. Ralph)

LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the books: “Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm)” and “Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam” — You are invited to read sample chapters, order books and to sign up for the FREE! monthly newsletter, Rural Route 2 News — http://ruralroute2.com

Contact Information:

LeAnn R. Ralph
E6689 970th Ave.
Colfax, WI 54730
(715) 962-3368
mailto:bigpines@ruralroute2.com
http://ruralroute2.com

By Lesley Spencer

During the holiday season, time is a prized commodity and the preciousness of family is (hopefully) paramount in our minds. How is it then that we get so carried away with things that are not of lasting significance? I wonder too. Are you ready to make a change? Let’s tackle this now and relax sweetly into the holiday season while visions of sugarplums dance in our heads.

First, take some time now to discuss with your family what you truly want out of the holiday season this year. Perhaps it is a good time to introduce or reinforce the original meaning of Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate). Maybe this is the year your family breaks the cycle of overspending and chooses a simpler holiday that involves more time with family and friends.

For instance, I know one family who chooses to give three gifts to each child for Christmas representing the three wise men’s gifts at the birth of Christ. The other giving that is done is to those less fortunate. The focus in this family is on the original meaning of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of Christ and enjoying time with loved ones.

Another way to get more significance out of your holiday is to create and enjoy some family traditions. Do your children look forward to certain things each holiday? A few of my children’s favorite holiday traditions include making a gingerbread house, baking Christmas cookies, watching Christmas movies by the fireplace and decorating our Christmas tree while drinking hot chocolate and listening to our favorite Christmas CDs. Childhood memories themselves are a precious gift to give our children.

Here are some ideas in case you are looking for some new traditions to start:

• Go Christmas caroling with your friends or neighbors

• Roast chestnuts over an open fire

• Make Reindeer food (dry corn, glitter, bird seed) and have your children scatter it on the lawn on Christmas Eve

• Make Christmas ornaments to keep or give as gifts

• Attend church service on Christmas Eve

• Have everyone put on their favorite PJs and drive through town to view Christmas lights while singing (or listening to) your favorite Christmas songs.

• Go to a Christmas play or to a live nativity scene.

In addition to family traditions, here are some other ideas of holiday significance your family can try:

• Adopt a needy family or elderly person to brighten their holidays.

• Take cookies to a nursing home and have your children sing carols.

• Sponsor a child in another country for the holidays and beyond at: http://www.compassion.com.

• Deliver homemade goodies with a smile to the homeless or those less fortunate.

• Invite single neighbors or friends to holiday activities.

• Work in a soup kitchen feeding the hungry.

And for gift giving, celebrate less gifts and more substance with these ideas:

• Give coupons for free childcare to a couple that could use some time alone.

• Give “gift certificates” for a hot meal prepared by your family.

• Draw names instead of purchasing for everyone in your extended family.

• Give to a charity on behalf of a family member. Check out: www.charitygiftcertificates.org and www.justgive.org

• Help hungry families feed themselves at: http://www.heifer.org/

• Make gifts with your children such as:

*Frames, flowerpots, art, self-portraits, family photos and more. Visit these sites for ideas: www.familycrafts.about.com and www.kaboose.com

• Have a silly (White Elephant) gift exchange instead of buying presents. Ask everyone to bring something from home that is no longer wanted and needs a new home. (The sillier / funnier the better.) When everyone gathers, draw numbers to see who picks a gift first. Follow in order until everyone has a gift. The person whose turn it is can choose to take a gift already opened instead of choosing a wrapped gift. If so, the person whose gift was taken gets to pick a new wrapped (or open) gift. Continue until everyone has had a turn.

Just remember whatever your family chooses, choose to create lasting and warm memories that you and your family will cherish for a lifetime. Our families and our time together are precious!

Lesley Spencer is founder and president of the national association of Home-Based Working Moms (http://www.HBWM.com), the HBWM.com, Inc. Network of Websites and author of the Work-at-Home Workbook. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Relations and has been featured in numerous media outlets including CBS News, Forbes, Business Week, Parents, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. She has been working from home for over 10 years and has two children whom she absolutely adores!

by John Martin

Part of what makes Christmas so special are the traditions that get handed down from year to year. One of my favorite traditions is decorating the Christmas Tree with a popcorn garland. When I was younger we did this at home and at school. The toughest part about making a popcorn decoration is not eating the popcorn while you make it.

Materials:
Popcorn
A Popcorn popper (an air popper works best because you don’t need to use oil, which means less of a mess)
A good size sewing needle
A spool of fairly strong (white if possible) thread, so it won’t break when you hang it around the tree.

How to do it:

1) Pop the popcorn and let it cool. The best way to do that is put it in a paper grocery sack right after it’s done popping

2) Thread the needle and tie a knot, but don’t cut the thread. Remember this is going to go around the tree several times, so leave the thread on the spool.

3) Start stringing the popcorn on to the needle one piece at a time, by putting the tip of the needle through the center of each piece. Move each threaded piece further down past the needle as it becomes necessary.

4) Once you think you’ve got enough popcorn on the thread… do some more. It’s better to come up a little long than short, because you can always cut the excess off.

5) When you really do have enough popcorn threaded, cut the thread and tie off each end, then and hang your new popcorn garland around your Christmas Tree.

By C. Bailey-Lloyd

With the holidays right around the corner, it’s hard not to reminisce our childhood memories and holidays of yesteryear. In each culture, there are differing values and traditions which are celebrated in different ways.

During the 70′s, growing up ‘German’ in Europe was one of the most fascinating and magical decades. Having strong German roots, our family participated in many German Christmas traditions. One of those traditions was Advent. The Advent, or Christmas calendar, is picture-box calendar decorated with wintry & Christmas scenes, biblical characters and ‘St. Nicolas.’ On the face of the calendar, are 24 small doors, each containing a small chocolate – one opened each day for the holiday season. The December 24th door, which is the ‘Heiligabend’ (Christmas Eve) is usually the largest door on the calendar and most often contains a chocolate Nativity. As children, we relished in this fun, and tasty feature of the holiday season.

But Advent wasn’t simply comprised of the Holiday Calendar, we also partook in the Advent Wreath, or ‘Adventskranz’ which was beautifully displayed on tables throughout the house. Wreathes held 4 candles; the first candle being lit the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and another one each Sunday thereafter. Around the evergreen wreath of candles, our family would gather as each candle was meticulously lit. My mom would recite a simple, German passage each time she would light a candle:

“Advent, Advent
Ein Kerzlein brent.
Erst Eins,
den Zwei,
den Drei,
den Vier -
den steht der Kristkind vor der tur.”

Which translates into, ‘Advent, Advent, a candle burns. First one, then two, then three, then four – then stands the Christ Child before the door.’

For you see, in Germany, it is the ‘Kristkind’ (Christ Child) who brings gifts on Christmas Eve.

Another childhood pastime was St. Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) was a fun and lighthearted tradition whereby children everywhere anxiously awaited the arrival of December 6th when the Nikolaus, or Weinachtsmann (Santa Claus) came. Leading up to Nikolaustag, we children would have to behave very well, because St. Nikolaus could ‘see everything’ we did. And the night before December 6th, we would have to clean our winter boots meticulously to put outside our doors. Why the heck would we clean our boots and place them outside our doors? Well, I’ll tell you why – if we were good, and our boots were really clean, St. Nikolaus would stuff our boots with candies, little toys and chocolates. If we were bad, we would receive a bundle of switches or lumps of coal.

Unknown to popular American custom, the ‘Weinachtsmann’ was conceived by German-American Illustrator, Thomas Nast, who created the Christmas image of Santa in America – which, ultimately set a precedent for the permanent, symbolic establishment of Santa Claus.

Traditionally, German Christmas is observed through ‘Heilige Drei Konige Tag,’ or Three Kings Day (also known as the Magi or the Wise Men). In some parts of Europe, such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the Letters C + M + B (Caspar, Melchor, and Balthazar – and, ‘Christus mansionem benedicat,’ meaning ‘Christ bless this house.’) are etched with chalk above doorways and home entrances on January 6th. Of course, this is the epitome of the 12 Days of Christmas

Finally, on the ‘Kristkind Abend’ (Christ Child Eve or Christmas Eve), aside from the Weinachts Baum (Christmas Tree custom started by Martin Luther), families receive ‘Bunte Teller,’ or colored plates filled with oranges, candies, Marzipan (comprised of almonds and suger), Lebkuchen (gingerbread), Stollen (fruit bread) and an assortment of chocolates and other goods. Before any gifts are exchanged, Christmas Carols like Stille Nacht (Silent Night from Austrian composer Franz Gruber) are sung by the tree.

To this day, I am still amazed at the profound effects of Christmas’ past have had on me. As a child, the holiday was mystical and magical, as an adult, its beautiful memories are forever etched in my heart and soul.

Wishing all a happy, memory-filled, holiday season!

© A European Christmas – All Rights Reserved by C. Bailey-Lloyd/LadyCamelot

About the Author:

C. Bailey-Lloyd/LadyCamelot is the Public Relations Director & Writer for Holistic Junction — Your source of information for Holistic Practitioners; Massage Schools; Reflexology Schools; Hypnotherapy Schools, and Natural Healing Schools; Alternative Healthcare; Insightful Literature and so much more!