As each holiday season comes and goes, we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of shopping, presents, Santa trips, holiday parties, concerts, etc. It is easy to lose sight of the celebration when you are wrapped up in all of the “must dos” Last year I found myself in tears over the stress of everything going on in life. With a toddler running around this year the holiday season has been a completely different situation. From excitement over gingerbread houses to having a blast going through each and every one of my homemade Christmas ornaments Little Man has made the holiday season so much fun.
We have a number of family traditions and I feel like each year our traditions are continuing to grow. Some come from my family, some come from my husbands family and others are ones we’ve started together like our Ugly Christmas Sweater tradition. One of my favorite traditions that Little Man is now getting to experience is our handmade Christmas ornaments from my Grandmother & Aunt.
Up until my 3rd or 4th Christmas I received a special handmade ornament from my Grandma. After she passed away my Aunt took over the tradition and has been making them ever since. After my husband and I got married our ornaments turned into ornaments for Little Man instead.
This weekend we had a whole crew of decorators helping to decorate our Christmas tree. On more than one occasion they would come over (along with Little Man) and ask me questions about the Christmas ornaments. It was such a fun way to go back through ornaments from the last 30 years.
There were care bears, cheerleaders, a Frenchmen, a gymnast, a green bear (don’t ask), the entire Wizard of Oz crew and Christmas ornaments from our wedding. Each ornament is hand stitched with our names and the year on the back. I am and always have been a sucker for all things homemade but these are my favorite Christmas decorations to get out each year. Each Christmas ornament comes with a memory attached.
As we were decorating our tree this weekend, Little Man’s ornament came in the mail from my aunt. I had him open it up and he immediately ran out of the room to place it on the tree. It is safe to say we are good to go for another year. My parents tree is filled with many of their ornaments and I have been able to fill a lot of our tree with my homemade Christmas ornaments from my Grandmother and Aunt. Someday I hope Little Man can fill up HIS own tree with these ornaments and have stories to tell with them.
The rest of the weekend was spent baking a few cookies (but not too many), putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations and sneaking out of the house for an AMAZING four mile run. There was lots of memories made, decorations completed and we even attempted our first gingerbread house. Despite the fact that it crumbled we were able to get it back together and high enough up that Little Man can only look at it now. Needless to say that has been one of his favorite crafts so far.
What did you do this weekend?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Many moons ago, I quit setting out my Christmas Villages because my kids kept trying to play with them and ruin them. This year I found a couple in the far corner of the basement. Now that my kids are 13, 11, and 7, I guess I could have put them out at least two years ago. Still, they delighted in (and the older two had totally forgotten about) the villages – especially the Rudolf Christmas Village. So, they were put away for stress, but now they are out.
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I love the idea of handmade ornaments! How adorable. I love that your son asks about them. Such a great way to keep the family tradition going.
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Very cute pictures! My daughter and I are doing Christmas cookies tomorrow night
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I love that you had your “elves” assisting. Such a great family time.
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What a wonderful tradition!! Love things like this that get passed down from generation to generation. My mother-in-law sends all of her grandkids personalized ornaments from overseas each year. It’s so fun to put them up each year and reflect on the ones from the past. We also made some cookies this weekend, and will be making more next weekend. Love the holidays!
These are super cute! We usually put up two trees. One that’s fashionable an one that has family mementos and ornaments we’ve accumulated over the years.
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We have the same tradition! It’s so special to look back over our various ornaments and remember all the years they come from. It’s like a scrapbook! Yours are so cute. Love Wizard of Oz – I think those ones would be my favorite!
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I love the idea of handmade ornaments. I’m especially digging the elf on the shelf one. I always head to Disneyland in December so my little tradition is to have my boyfriend and I both pick ornaments to add to the tree for that year, but I’m really liking the idea of making a few ornaments in the future!
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