Search Results for: blog holiday traditions

Ways to Keep Kids Busy During Their Holiday Break

  Tis the season for parents to rack their brains coming up with ways to keep their children busy during the extended holiday break from school. Whether you will be home alone with two kids or you’re hosting a house full of hooligans in the days leading up to Santa’s arrival, consider the following holiday-themed boredom busters to keep your sanity intact: Activity Pages:  Print out free Christmas coloring pages from the Internet.  Not only do the jolly images provide for hours of holiday fun, but also, they’ll save you precious cash during a time when most moms and dads … Continue reading →

Basking in the Post-Holiday Glow

Does your home still look like this? If it does, then you have my heartfelt thanks… and that of my young daughter who is utterly enchanted by outdoor holiday light displays. Big, bright and gaudy is best, in her book. While there are many of you, who strip your homes of festive knickknacks and toss out your Christmas tree by noon on December 26th, I happen to appreciate folks who keep the holiday spirit glowing well into January. Why yes, I am one of them. And no, I don’t throw up an extra string of red lights in early February, … Continue reading →

Holiday Journaling

Now that most of the Christmas commotion has died down and out-of-town guests have vacated your home, it may be a good time to collect your thoughts for your holiday scrapbook. After a whirlwind of cooking, cleaning, wrapping and caroling, it’s nice to reflect on the memorable moments of the holiday and look ahead to the New Year. While some people find journaling to be an intimidating proposition, scrapbooks really benefit from unique perspectives. You will find that a layout can only be enhanced when you include your thoughts or commentary on certain events and photos. If you are struggling … Continue reading →

Extending the Holiday Magic

(Our Tannenbaum) Here’s a sight you don’t want to see on the third day of Christmas: a bare tree dumped on the curb, stripped of its holiday lights and ornaments, waiting for the city recycling truck to pick it up and chop it into mulch. Oh, the horror! It’s like seeing Santa standing naked on the side of the road. My eyes! My poor eyes! It’s the third day of Christmas, people. Where’s your holiday spirit? Knowing that someone undressed that tree’s lovely branches and prepared it for disposal within hours of Santa’s visit is utterly heartbreaking. It’s especially gut-wrenching … Continue reading →

Creating Thankful Traditions All Year Round

We often think of the Christmas season as a time to celebrate family. Thanksgiving is our time to be thankful. Valentine’s Day is a day to show love. Of course, while it’s good to have particular seasons and special days to celebrate these things, you can feel and show all of these emotions all year round! Whether you follow a particular religion or not, creating traditions of thankfulness is important. As many of us head off to sales, it’s a good time to stop and remember all that we have. The economy can be tight, and finding a job can … Continue reading →

Holiday Traditions

Each family has its own unique set of holiday traditions. Whatever the traditions in your family, it is likely that you can look back through the years and see how certain things became a part of what your family does. For example, my father’s side of the family has always gotten together on Christmas Eve. I think that this tradition started when my cousins and I were born because each set of new parents had two sets of grandparents to include in their Christmas visiting schedule. Instead of trying to have each set of cousins make it to two sets … Continue reading →

Preserving Holiday Memories

Christmas Eve is here. While it’s easy to get caught up in the celebratory madness, if you are planning to scrapbook the holiday, you want to remember to document the festivities. Grab your camera and snap your family and friends partaking in holiday traditions, including sipping hot chocolate by an open fire or baking cookies to leave out for Santa. If you are planning to make a massive holiday meal, preserve the recipes to add to a recipe scrapbook or at the very least, place the directions in a journaling block along with photos of the finished products and shots … Continue reading →

Not-So-Merry Christmas Traditions

According to my 7-year-old, the Grinch could take lessons from me on how to ruin Christmas. So, without further ado, here are just some ways to have an un-Merry Christmas: Lesson #1: No one in the house gets to open presents on Christmas morning until he/she eats at least a few bites of the special holiday breakfast Mommy lovingly prepares. Lesson #2: All family members must pose for at least one photo in front of the tree while wearing Christmas pajamas prior to ripping into holiday loot. Lesson #3: One (and only one) gift can be opened on Christmas Eve. … Continue reading →

Scrapping Holiday Family Fun

The holiday season provides a litany of opportunities to create memorable scrapbook layouts featuring your entire family, and I’m not just referring to the same ol’ boring page designs of people opening presents. Since most clans tend to gather for either Christmas or New Year’s Eve, don’t miss the chance to document and expand on your family’s favorite traditions. Forget about creating a chronological timeline of Christmas Day; rather, select a few standout events and tell the stories behind each. Some special seasonal layout ideas include: Caroling: You don’t have to participate in an elaborate Christmas caroling event around the … Continue reading →

Tasty Traditions – Cookies and Family History

No matter what holiday your family is celebrating this time of year, one thing is probably a given. There are likely to be many sweet treats on your table that are not usually there throughout the year. Did you know that if you have European ancestors, they may have started baking Christmas cookies as far back in time as the 1500’s? Sweet treats have long been associated with celebrations throughout the year, as the ingredients used to make them like sugar and spices were too expensive for most people to have on hand all year long. The array of cookies, … Continue reading →