Traditions With My Kids

“It was a daring move, considering everything. But I needed it, and so did she. Something to cast a Christmas spell.” ― J.M. Leigh, Pine for You

🎅🏼Santa Claus
Of course, Santa Claus was an important figure in our home.  He was important to me as a child, so I wanted to introduce him to my children.  I know it is not ideal for everyone, as some parents believe it is lying to your children, but it was tradition in my home growing up.  My two older children stopped believing when my daughter Sienna did a search on the "truth" and she told Kalib.  They were 7 and 4 years old.  Christopher got the joy of having Santa Claus sneak in our home every night until he was 9 years old.  He was heartbroken for a split second when he found out, but he survived. 

🗓️Advent Calendar
I got my children a chocolate Advent Calendar every year.  I enjoyed giving them something to look forward to.  My two older children would eat all their candy immediately, but Christopher was very diligent in eating one chocolate a day.  

🦌Reindeer Food
When my daughter was in preschool, her teacher introduced us to "reindeer food."  It was a concoction of dried oats and Christmas glitter.  I continued to provide reindeer food for Christopher every year after my older kids stopped believing.  What we would do is put a pile of "Reindeer food" on the ground outside.  When Christopher would go to sleep, I would go outside clean up and mess up the reindeer food to make it appear the food was eaten.  When the morning came, I would wake my kids up for presents and then go outside with Christopher to check on the food, and he would always say, "The reindeer ate the food!"  

🍪Cookies
I didn't always bake with my kids because for a few years, our oven wasn't working.  We would always put cookies out for Santa on a special Christmas dish, whether they were store bought or homebaked.  Their dad, Mike, the other Santa, would always eat the cookies when Chris went to sleep.  But, I, Santa number one, would always put a box of Chinese almond cookies under the tree for each of my children, and one Christmas cookie in a decorative tin from Santa in each of my kids' stockings, even the ones who didn't believe.

Being with Trevor, now, we still make cookies together.  We don't have small kids around to entertain, but both of us love Christmas cookies.  

📔Books
I try and read one Christmas-related book a year.  So far, my favorite Christmas book is called The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman.  It contains recipes as well as an interesting storyline.  I always tell people about it because it really was an interestin book for the holidays.  Basically, it's about a group of women going through different things in their life.  They are part of a Cookie Club.  The rule is to bring cookies to the event, but do NOT make the most common cookies such as chocolate chip, sugar cookies, or oatmeal raisin, etc.  Each person shares their cookies in the circle, and they all talk about what's going on in their lives with their girl friends.  I thought it was such a cool idea, but I have not found a Cookie Club for myself, and I'm not organized or have established enough to have a group like this.

🎁Gifting
Santa Claus always had a different wrapper, pen, and handwriting.  I always did my gifts somewhere else, such as staying after work to wrap presents in paper that I didn't have at home.  I kept things in my trunk, would sneak it into the garage or keep them at my sister Jeri's apartment.  Then, I would sneak it home Christmas Eve and put them under the tree and in the stockings when the kids were sleeping.