Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a safe and healthy start to your holiday season! Now that I’m starting to feel in the holiday spirit I thought I would share some of my traditions and favorite things to do. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of Christmas, but I love the traditions we have kept and the new ones we have added this year! Enjoy the picture above of my dog Rosie on a snowy walk! 🙂
Deck the Halls with Decorations
Once December 1st rolls around I am ready to feel festive! My mom and I use to decorate our house during the first weekend of December, but this year we luckily had time to start decorating on the first! Over the years we have found a certain setup for the decorations, but this year we switched it all up because as my mom says it’s the year of “un-traditions and new traditions.” It was fun going through everything and finding new places to display them. My favorite decorations are the collection of penguins we have, mostly crafts I have made or stuffed animals, but none the less they are my favorite because I LOVE penguins. My mom and I also decided to spruce up the outside of our house. We added some garland and big red bows to the posts we have on our front porch and some lights around the garage doors.
About 2 weeks before Christmas we get our tree from a local farm, where I always buy some homemade maple candies. Every year my dad strings the lights on the tree and the next day we decorate with an assortment of ornaments. Some of my favorites are these two ballerinas my Nana got me, this silver and gold “snow scene” that’s all made of metal, and these white glass balls with sparkly lace. Now that’s not super helpful for you, but I’ve included some pictures to give you a better idea of what they look like.
Traaaaadition… Tradition
Does anyone get the header, aka one of my Dad’s favorite musicals? Let me know if you do! 🙂 Anyways, every year usually the day after Thanksgiving the ladies of the family will all get together for a Christmas craft. I always look forward to this because I love crafting and it’s a great time to chat and enjoy each other’s company! In years past we have painted snowmen on wine bottles, of course, I also painted a penguin, painted various designs on plant pots, again mine is a penguin (do you see a theme here?), made a mini Nativity scene, and made a Santa out of mini stacked plant pots. A family member of mine is very crafty, so she finds great ideas and pulls together the materials for us and I appreciate it each year! With everything going on this year, we did not do a craft, but there are already ideas for next year’s!
I think the tradition that shocks people the most when I share it with them is that my whole family used to stuff nylon stockings with various wrapped gifts. We us to all get together on Christmas Eve to stuff them and then after we have our own Christmas mornings, we’ll have dinner together and go around in a circle to unwrap our stocking gifts. This year my mom went through some old photos and found one of the stockings all hung at my Grandma’s house and I thought I’d share it with you so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about.
When I was younger my Nana started a collection of talking and singing snowmen, specifically the ones from Hallmark. They always came out with a new one every year and I always looked forward to seeing the new addition when I went over to her house. Well, our collection stemmed off of that, but with different animals. We currently have marching penguins, a caroling dog, a jumping snowman, a “Santa Baby” bear, sledding snowmen, a “Feliz Navidad” snoopy, and the newest addition, a dancing Jack Skellington as Santa. Oh, there are also some singing cardinals, but they’re motion activated and will go off at random times, so we don’t put batteries in it anymore. I think they’re such a fun addition to have and I always enjoy seeing what other ones I can find.
I decided to ask over on Instagram what some of your traditions are and I loved hearing about them, so I decided to ask my boyfriend if he would like me to share some of his traditions as they are new traditions to me. His favorite thing to do on Christmas is absolutely nothing, he and his family watch movies and enjoy the day! I was very fortunate to be able to spend the holidays with them last year in Hawaii. It was such a different experience for me, but now one of my fondest memories. Some of their traditions are having cinnamon rolls for breakfast and getting Chinese food for Christmas dinner, just like in A Christmas Story, it was so different for me, but it is one I am looking forward to taking part in every year.
We’ve had a holiday party for a while since our family friend moved away. It’s a potluck, snacky stand-around kind of party and it’s something I look forward to every year. Not only is there lots of yummy foods, but it’s a great way to see everyone during the holidays. We will not be having our party this year, but I am still going to bake my favorite treats that I make for the party each year. I’m hoping to bake this weekend, so if I publish a post next week it will be all about my favorite holiday treats! 🙂
My Must Watch Holiday Film List (that I usually don’t get through every December, but always try)
The Polar Express
The Grinch
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer
The Nightmare Before Christmas
A Christmas Story
Elf
Arthur Christmas
The Holiday
Home Alone 1 & 2
Shrek the Halls
Jack Frost
A Christmas Carol
The Santa Clause
Scrooged
Miracle on 34th Street
A Little Renée’s Reads
If you have been following along with my blog then you know how much I love to read and I couldn’t write about the holiday season without recommending some of my holiday reads! These are all illustrated and I haven’t actually read all of them, but I still thought I’d pop them in here!
The Nightmare Before Christmas: by Tim Burton – I never knew an illustrated book existed until I happened to see one last year while I was on my backpacking trip. I didn’t care that it would add extra weight to my bag, I bought it and I am so glad I did! It is filled with classic Burton illustrations and the story is even better than the movie! If you enjoy his movie, I definitely recommend checking this out as well.
The Polar Express: by Chris Van Allsburg – One of my favorite holiday movies and an even better book, filled with stunning illustrations and the magical power of believing. I have yet to read the whole book though, so maybe this is the year to finish it!
The Night Before Christmas: by Clement Moore – The version that I have has more of a European feel to it because of the illustrations, but the poem is still the same. Every year my parents would read the story to me, alternating pages depending on which side they were sitting on next to me.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: by Dr. Seuss – You know the story, there are Who’s in Whoville who love Christmas, but up on the hill lives the Grinch, who detests Christmas. It is such a great story with fantastic drawings and you should check out the full story on Spotify (not sponsored) to listen to it! Fun fact I have the coloring book version and I think I may color in the pages like the original book.
Merry Christmas, Strega Nona: by Tomie dePaola – My go-to classic favorite is this story of Strega Nona and how she prepares for her annual Christmas feast. I love dePaola’s writing and illustration style and I hope you look into picking up this lovely story.
Nutcracker: by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Lisbeth Zwerger – Now I have never actually read this book, but I have seen the ballet a few times. This version of the story is filled with intricate drawings that create illusions as the ballet does. I know one of these days I will read it, but for now the illustrations will do.
More of my Favorite Things
Music: This year I’ve been making playlists on Spotify (not sponsored) for different moods or various months, so I decided to make my own winter playlist, filled with holiday classics and some contemporary pieces. Feel free to give it a listen over on Spotify!
Candles: I LOVE candles and holiday candles are no exception. One of my favorite places to find candles at a good price is at TJ Maxx (not sponsored), which is also where I picked up quite a few of my gifts this year. They always have a great array of candles from different sizes to different wicks and a large variety of scents. This year I also discovered that Bath and Body Works (not sponsored) candles and really great! They are long-lasting and strong-smelling, but not overpowering. I will definitely be looking at more of their candles in the future.
Holiday Cards: Something that I started about 10 years ago when I was in middle school was making homemade cards to send to my family for Christmas. My first idea was to take past cards and cut them and glue them into new cards, but over the past few years I have drawn designs, and this year I decided to paint some snowmen with a snowy backdrop. I love making cards for any occasion and I hope sometime in the future to sell some right here on my blog.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my traditions and leave me a comment below of some of your favorite holiday moments! Have a wonderful holiday season and stay healthy! I’m not sure if there will be a post next week as it is Christmas, but follow me on Instagram @aneclecticplace or like my page on Facebook, aneclecticplace to stay up to date!
Take care and stay safe,
Renée