Nine Ladies Dancing!

We are still celebrating Christmas.

The tree is up. Christmas music is playing. The stockings are even re-hung.

I realize that we're a little...umm...outside of the cultural mainstream on this one. But although there are moments when I'd like to have the tree down and everything put away, I do love how we are celebrating Christmas.

It's a season, not a day.

This would be a harder sell if we'd started around Thanksgiving, but we held off through most of Advent and didn't start the Christmas music until Dec. 18th, when we put up the tree.

This year we are taking a new approach to celebrating the twelve days of Christmas; instead of doing more, we are going more slowly.

On the first day of Christmas (a partridge in a pear tree), we did stockings and the kids opened our presents to them. And a few more from people far away. But at no time did we say, "Put that down. Stop playing with that for a minute, so you can open this one." So we didn't get to all of the gifts sent from far away. We will before Christmas is done.

Two Turtle Doves
On the 26th, we don't open gifts but let the kids shop for them from the World Vision catalogs, which have been floating around our house for months. Bud had gone through and circled with a sharpie things he wanted to give. They talked over and agreed on how to spend their budgets. It went pretty quickly this year. Last year, their giving revolved around animals and agriculture. this year they chose a constellation of things to help girls and women, as well as a couple of health-related items.

Three French Hens
Nutmeg's birthday falls on this day, so for the first time I was planning a birthday "party." More on that later, but let's just say I'm glad the first time I was doing this she was only one and is unlikely to remember.

Another way we've chosen to slow down is to give each of the children one of the days of Christmas to give their gifts. So Nutmeg gave her Christmas presents away on her birthday--we like the Hobbitish nature of that, but in the future will probably bump it back a day.

Giving each of the children a day to be their own for giving has turned out to be one of my favorite parts of Christmas. We definitely plan to do it again next year. For one day, they each got to be the one blessing everyone else. The smiles were at least as big on those days as when they opened their own presents. It is such a gift to be in a position to give; I'd like to encourage them to think from that perspective (I'd like to grow in thinking that way, myself).


Four Calling Birds was Wombles' day this year.



Five Golden Rings was Bud's.



Six Geese a-Laying was Pixie's.



Seven Swans a-Swimming is, of course, New Year's Eve; we gave the children a movie and then all watched it together, having pizza and staying up late(r). I would love to make this a family tradition.

For the remaining days, we are giving them either things they need or games they can play together, or they are opening more gifts sent from far off. On Twelfth Night we'll have some kind of celebration before the kids set out their shoes for the Three Kings.

What are some of your Christmas traditions? How do you approach gift-giving? Our traditions are evolving, and I'm always on the lookout for new ideas.

Again: MERRY CHRISTMAS!