I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS. It is by far my favorite holiday of the year, and thus, my favorite celebration. I just realized that we are only 47 days away from Christmas! So what better time to begin a Christmas Traditions Series? In my family, Christmas traditions are sacred to me. They create lasting memories and a wonderful feeling of excitement in our home from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. I look at it as a legacy of mine, hoping that my children will pass on the traditions, or at least the spirit of them, to my future grand-babies; you're welcome, future grand-babies. So I'm happy to share some of my family's favorite traditions and recipes with you over the course of this 10-part series (yeah, I have a lot of traditions...).
Let me start with the simplest of traditions: Hot Cocoa Movie Nights. From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas, we sit in our living room each evening with a cup of hot cocoa in cute Christmas mugs that we each pick out. A few nights a week, we take this time to watch one of the many Christmas movies like Mickey's Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Small One, Charlie Brown Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On nights I have something else planned, it's still very easy to include a nice cup of hot chocolate. I've always used a store-bought variety of cocoa mixes, but this year, I think I'll try making my own mix with this recipe and when I have some extra prep time, this amazing recipe.
There is something so cozy and comforting to sit together as a family and enjoy a nice warm cup of hot cocoa. My kids love this tradition not only because of the hot chocolate, but because they know that each day, we are celebrating Christmas in one way or another, even if it's something as simple as enjoying a cup of hot chocolate together.
I'd love to hear of some of your family Christmas Traditions. Feel free to share them or provide a link in the comments below. :)
Shared At: Thriving On Thursdays, Seven Alive, Creative Thursday, Homemaker By Choice, Little House in the Suburbs, Friday Favorites, Miss Information Blog, Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons, Petals to Picots, It's a HodgePodge Life, Weekend Whatever, Fall Into the Holidays, The Chicken Chick, Anti Procrastination Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Teach Me Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Trick or Treat Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesdays, Earning My Cape, Deep Roots at Home, Raising Homemakers, Show and Share Wednesday, Blog Stalking Thursday, Creative Thursday, Tuesdays Table
What a pretty picture! The last few years we've ended up driving around looking at Christmas lights and going to see Niagara Falls at night.
ReplyDeleteI would love to invite you to link up to Fall Into the Holidays-
http://redcrowgreencrow.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/fall-into-the-holidays-8/
Katie @ Horrific Knits
Thanks for the invite, I'll link up. :) I've never seen Niagra Falls, I bet it looks even more amazing at night! I assume they light it up all pretty...
DeleteYou speak my language!
ReplyDeleteChocolate is such a universal language!! :)
DeleteThank you for the link to the cracker recipe! Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnytime! I hope it works out for you. I absolutely LOVE your blog. :)
DeleteHi Athena: Another Athena here :) (Are we multiplying like jack rabbits? Hardly, although there are tons of us if you visit Greece!) So nice to read about your Christmas movie night tradition--that sounds like fun. We are not always but sometimes out performing over the holidays (my hubby and I sing) so I just really enjoy having time at home, and we will also pick a fun movie to watch and have something nice to eat. It was lovely to hear from you over at my blog, and glad that you want to try making potato chips from scratch. It's a little bit of a project any time you deep fry foods, but they tasted really good I thought :)
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to visit Greece. I'm not Greek though, may parents were just hippies. :) How neat that you sing. I can't sing at all. :)
DeleteHi Athena! I love the tradition, particularly the importance placed on selecting your own, special mugs. ♥
ReplyDeleteI'd like to invite you to join me at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week if you can make it. http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/clever-chicks-blog-hop-7-country-craft.html
I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick
Awe, the party was closed.. Will visit again next week. :) Thanks for the invite:)
DeleteHi Athena. The last thing on my favourite things to do at Christmas time is have a hot drink being here in Australia but I definitely do love Christmas and its my favourite time. Make it a nice cool drink. LOL Great to see you again. Thanks so much for linking up at Thriving on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteAnne xx
Sounds like a nice Christmas Sangria is the order of the day for you! :)
DeleteAthena,
ReplyDeleteI love family traditions too. We have a few from making holiday cookies to my favorite which is hot chocolate or coffee and driving around the neighborhoods to see all the Christmas lights. We also watch Christmas Vacation every year and it never gets old (of course my kids are late teens) Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Thursday. Can’t wait to see what you share this week! Have a wonderful week.
Michelle
I love Christmas Vacation!! :) And looking at all the lights is soo much fun, especially with Christmas music on the radio :) Thanks for sharing!!
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