How do you like to spend the time making memories with your children before Christmas? Do you read stories? Go shopping together? Go on drives to look at all the lights? Watch Christmas movies? Do you do any Baking?
In addition to the traditional Biblical account of the birth of baby Jesus, we like to add in some other fun stories. This year, I happened upon a nice, hardback book at the thrift store called The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury
. It has a wide assortment of Christmas type stories and poems that I think we’ll really enjoy. We read our first story tonight and the girls were enthralled!
We plan to listen to The Cinnamon Bear, which is a free download of 26 episodes. I’ve been meaning to do this for years but never got around to it. I think we’ll listen in the car on our way to Branson this year!
Each year, we find an excuse to play the Now That’s What I Call Christmas
CD while we’re driving, cooking, decorating, etc. One year I lost the CD and had to go and buy another one! I definitely prefer disc 1 over disc 2 though as it has a lot of the older songs on it.
Overnight Trip
This year we’re doing something out of the ordinary [for us anyway]! We’re going on a trip to a condo in Branson where we can spend some time just relaxing. Life has been stressful and Mr. Sidetracked and I need to slow down. We’ll have some great shopping nearby and we can do whatever we want with no pressure. Now that’s what I call a great Christmas experience! While we’re there we plan to swim, watch movies, have a family pizza and game night and shop to our heart’s content! I’m sure we’ll play Phase 10
more than once as that has been a favorite around here lately!
Christmas Movies
We have several favorites, but here’s what I can think of that we always record each year on our digital recorder.
- The Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3
- The Polar Express
- Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer
- Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Christmas Lights
We almost always put up lights on our house, even if it’s just a few. This year, since we’ll be gone for a while and I’ve got a needy baby in arms all the time, we are going to pass. I’m a bit bummed about it because I had picked up several strands of nice outdoor Christmas lights at a rummage sale this summer for cheap. I keep telling myself that they will still be here next year! We ALWAYS take the time to go drive around and look at the Christmas lights in our town. I love hearing the toddler in the car each year come alive with excitement when they see the beautiful lights!
Shopping
Another tradition is that I take the children to the Dollar Tree to do their annual Christmas shopping. They insist on buying each family member a present. The older kids go to some other stores, too, but we always make it a tradition to at least go to the Dollar Tree. We’ll also be doing a lot of our shopping this year online and at the Branson Outlet Malls. That’s a fun addition that we don’t usually get to do! When we get home, we all take great delight in wrapping up the presents we bought and getting them ready to go under the tree!
Baking
I’m hoping to still have some time for baking! Mr. Sidetracked has been requesting pumpkin logs and I plan to at least fulfill that request, but I’d also like to make some more of those buckeyes that we made at Thanksgiving as they were such a big hit! I’ll see if I can get you some pictures and recipes of those very soon!
What are your favorite Christmas activities?
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