Return to Sego Lily Intro Page

 Return to Homemaking Page

We have the following Christmas traditions.  We hang up a small white sock. On Christmas Eve we all take a small white card and write upon it the present that we would most like to give the Savior for the following 12 months.  It might be something we are trying to improve in our lives or to pray or study more often etc. etc.  On Christmas morning after we have read the Christmas story we take down the stocking and read the cards that we wrote the Christmas BEFORE so that we can see how effective a present we gave the Savior.  It has always been a very spiritual experience for us.

We also always set another place at table on Christmas Day so that the Savior or the Christmas stranger may visit.

Know I’ve mentioned this before but we did a paper mold of a nativity scene, added some straw for the cradle and made a hanger of jute.  It was put in a clear bag along with a saying--it was a stamp that I can't remember, but was about joy in the season and with friends, but remembering the Savior.  Think we sealed the bags with gold seals.  Everyone loved them and we had a fantastic speaker on your same subject while we were having dessert.

One spiritual Christmas tradition that we established when our children were very young is the three present tradition.  Christ received three gifts from the Wise Men  and that is what we get for Christmas.  You can really make this work for you financially.  Years that we have not had much money it has been one gift from Santa, one from mom and dad and one from sibling.  Now it is usually three from Santa.  One big gift, the stocking and one small gift (usually a video or a CD).  Sometimes we've had three gifts under the tree from mom and dad, pajamas for Christmas Eve, a new outfit and a book or a traditional game for the family.  The three present tradition really does help keep the cost of Christmas down for us. Also we keep the toy and commercial part of Christmas centered on Santa.  Only Santa buys and brings toys at our house.  The gifts under the tree from mom and dad and siblings are personal or family oriented, (clothes, books, games, journals).

Regarding Christmas Traditions;

I try to spend most of the holiday time teaching my children and concentrating on the "meaning of the season", we usually have a "gift giving" time well before Christmas, then we spend Christmas on serving and focusing on others. Usually, Christmas Eve, the children all re-enact the Christmas story with the back to Bethlehem tape, they dress up as shepherds, and Mary and Joseph, my husband makes a manger...etc.  it is so sweet.  Than, we turn all the lights out and put on the fireplace and place a blanket down in front of the fireplace, we get the round loaves of bread...sometimes different styles of bread...fruit...grapes, apples, oranges, nuts and seeds and non-alcoholic bubbly juice...and we have our "Christmas Feast".  We talk about what it must have been like the night the Savior was born...the shepherds and the wise men how they must've felt...the gift that was given to the World...we share our testimonies and sing hymns...

It leaves our children and ourselves with the most beautiful feeling.  They don't go to bed wondering what "Santa Claus" is bringing...they go to bed with the most beautiful feelings of our Savior and the gift He gave to us, and they usually are so excited to be thinking of the gifts they can give to him during the next year.  Christmas morning, we have gone down and served meals to the Homeless and then we come back and open our presents...which are usually one for each child and from Aunts and Uncles.  This year we will be concentrating on homemade gifts...My ten year old son is busy designing an doll house he wants him and his Dad to make for his sisters...

Our Christmas Feast is a tradition all of the children have said that they will be passing on because it is their favorite.

My family really enjoys a little tradition that we do every year.  The first time we did it the kids just had a fit over it!  I announced that we were going to roast marshmallows indoors.  They couldn't believe it since we didn't have a fireplace or anything.   Anyway we all sit around the dining table with a short fat candle in the middle.  I took some thin but sturdy wire and cut into mini little roasting sticks curling under one end for a handle.  Then we pass out the mini marshmallows and roast them over the candle flame.   At the same time we turn out the lights for a Christmas night around the campfire atmosphere, roast our marshmallows and listen to Mom or Dad read the Christmas story in the scriptures. We use a little flashlight to read by and I put the candle on a cookie sheet to protect the table.  Sometimes I even stack small kindling size wood sticks around the candle to give it a real campfire look.