Our Christmas Top 5… the things we won’t be giving up this year!
This post is by regular contributor Sarah Bendeich of Oesch & Doots.
We live a plane ride away from our extended family, and when our kids arrived we decided that we would alternate our Christmas locations between our here and there. So we have two very contrasting Christmas experiences.
A typical ‘home’ Christmas is small, intimate and low-key with a focus on spending time together as a family and preparing beautiful food (did you know we have the best produce in the world here in Tasmania?) The house smells like pine needles, sunshine and shortbread and a big bowl of cherries sits on the table. Lazy summer days with new books to read, bushwalking and visits to the beach.
This year it’s an ‘away’ Christmas which means it’ll be jam packed with people – our large and wonderful families who open their homes and their arms to us at this special time. Lots of grown-up conversation and catching up. Living out of a suitcase and sleeping in twin beds in my husband’s boyhood bedroom. Trying to squeeze all the Christmas presents into that suitcase at the end of it all. For the kids, it’s all about grandparents, cousins, late nights, train rides, tram rides and new places to explore.
There will be no Christmas tree at our place this year, and Santa won’t be squeezing down our chimney. We won’t decide to take our feast up to the foothills of Mt Wellington for an impromptu picnic to gaze over the city and the sparkling harbour. But there are some things which have become traditions which we will hang on to… home or away. So, our top 5 Christmas traditions (as voted by our family, and in no particular order) are:
1. Making shortbread with our friends
Last year we invited our mothers group friends over for a big session of rolling, cutting and baking shortbread. Each child went home with a box full! I would love to make this a tradition – there’s nothing quite like getting everyone around a big table, aprons on, rolling pins in hands. This year we’ll be making extra for homeless people in our community.
2. Making an advent calendar
Last year the kids loved the advent calendar. I used a scribbled-upon scribble pad to make little pockets containing an activity for each day. Each pocket was a little work of art and it cost nothing! This year I’ve scoured the net – there are lots of great ideas out there – and landed on this beautiful, simple idea – watercolour resist paintings made into folded paper dolls. Each apron has an activity written on the underside. It’s from Jean at The Artful Parent.
3. Cherries
Christmas time is when Tasmania’s cherries and berries are at their peak. Even on our away years, we don’t go without cherries. We order a couple of 2kg boxes and they fly with us to Melbourne. We sometimes take lobster too. It’s no wonder everyone’s so happy to see us!
4. Handmade gifts
I love handmade gifts, and do my best to give handmade when I can. Last December I made six Oliver + S Lazy Days skirts (free pattern here) for nieces and little friends, aged between 4 and 10. They were all lovingly received and worn, and that has spurred me on to make more gifts this year.
We’ll be rolling beeswax candles (like these) and decorating them for teachers. I have lots of ideas for everyone on my list – little sewing kits, peg fairy kits, a play mat with roads, napkins, place mats, book covers… should have started in June 🙂
5. Writing to Santa
This was a little surprise that came out of the blue last year – Doots announced that she was writing to Santa. At four, it was the first letter she’d ever written and I was amazed by her determination. Nothing like the promise of presents for a bit of motivation!
Since the Christmas pageant last weekend, when Oesch (2) caught a glimpse of Santa from on top of Stephen’s shoulders, he’s been talking about ‘whiting a letter to Santa’. I suppose that’s how new traditions are formed. I wonder what happens to all of those letters anyway?
Wishing you all the best for this exciting time of year. Do you have any special traditions – old or new – that you wouldn’t miss for anything?
Such a sweet post, I enjoyed reading it! One of our favorite christmas traditions is our advent calendar. I was working on the activity cards for it today. That is something we definitely would not give up. Also, taking time to contemplate on what we are thankful for and giving back by supporting charities. My daughter also looks through her toys before Christmas and weeds out the ones she no longer plays with. We put them in boxes and donate them.
Hi Heather, Christmas is the perfect opportunity to share values of charity and being thankful with children isn’t it? Oh, and I really need to get going with my advent calendar today!
It’s so lovely to have you back posting again Sarah!
I too have to pack up and travel for Christmas this year, I’m trying hard to focus on the fun (like my toddler getting excited about Christmas with her cousins) and not the chaotic. My little girl will be sleeping in our room on Christmas night so we’ve decided Santa will leave her presents at the foot of her bed this year. This will give her some quiet time with us to start the day before we join the crowd in the living room.
Our new tradition is going to be making and painting salt dough decorations with friends, such a great little gift for her to give to family, friends, people at childcare, the neighbours…
Thanks Mel, I’m happy to be back here too! Lots of great ideas in your comment. I will also need to remind myself to focus on the fun and not the chaos… beginning, I imagine, when I’m at the airport on December 22, two little ones in tow, hubby in the middle of Bass Strait on the ferry…
And I’m thinking that if Santa left presents in bedrooms instead of under the tree this year, that might buy an extra half an hour of sleep for the grandparents – a gift in itself!
Breathing deeply with a happy smile on my face – I’m sure that the glorious scents of pine needles, baking and cherries in your warm and happy home would truly signal that Christmas is arriving.
I’ll be pilfing the advent calendar activity idea and hoping that we too can pop in a bit of baking too – I like your idea of sharing these treats with the less fortunate in our neighbourhoods.
Happy day!
Ah Felicity, I’d almost trade it all for what I imagine your Christmas to be like – sandy toes, sunshine, sea breezes…
Oh happy to hear you again Sarah! Woo! Great inspiring post. We made gingerbread last year and have talked about doing it again this year. We rolled out and designed our own houses. It was a wonderful activity- but the idea of doing it with others sounds fabulous! One year I made wreaths with my own mama friends – and I regret not making that a tradition- although we could always pick up again. Enjoy getting ready and thanks for sharing
Making gingerbread houses with friends sounds like a fantastic tradition in the making! In fact a friend suggested it this year, but we soon realised that the sweets would just get gobbled up by the 2 and 3 year olds! We might stick to shortbread for a couple more years, but I think there will be gingerbread houses in our future somewhere.
We made simple wreaths together with the older kids last year, using a wire hoop and lots and lots of strips of fabric. It was a fabulous activity to do in a group and would suit any age child – from the time they can tie a little knot. http://oeschanddoots.blogspot.com/2010/12/advent-adventures.html
Enjoy all your preparations!
I finished my advent calendar tonight (nothing like a deadline)!
We eat cherries and raspberries
We donate to the Giving Tree
We go to the little kids service at the local church
We carol
We make gingerbread and shortbread
We eat too much
We love Christmas
Your Christmas sounds full and fabulous Ally. And I second you on the raspberries! Our advent calendar is going to be a day or two late again this year, oops.
I love the idea of maintaining Christmas traditions no matter where you are. We have a 3 year Christmas rotation: home, his parents, my parents so this really appeals to me. We share the home-made advent calendar tradition and also for about 7 years now all of our friends go for a walk together about a week before Christmas, followed by a pub supper/drinks. It’s great to get everyone together and now we all have our own children it’s great for them to all play together.
For our daughter’s first 4 christmases, we alternated between our two extended families, and didn’t get to wake up on Christmas day at home… but this year, we are staying home and making our own “slow” christmas… for me, some of the traditions I love are: making a “tree” out of stuff around the house, making things for special people (last year it was tea towels, and this year we’re going to try candles too – thanks for the idea!), and gingerbread.
thank you, Sarah, for a thoughtful beginning to the christmas countdown x
Oooh, I hope you post about your tree when you make it – you’ve got me thinking now. We usually have a lovely ‘real’ tree, and I can’t bring myself to buy a plastic one, so this year I was thinking perhaps a big bunch of rosemary in a vase instead (it’s growing thick and fast!). But perhaps we could get crafty and make something for the ‘away’ years.
Enjoy every (slow) minute of your Christmas Catherine, it sounds wonderful.