Starting the party…and the season… (With E-Reader Giveaway) Back to Blog
Update: The winner of the e-reader is Julie Kornhausl!
Do you have a favorite way to kick-off the holiday season? Is there a special tradition that really gets you in the mood for holiday magic?
At my house, it’s all about the ornaments for me. When the ornaments come out of the boxes, when I get to oooh and ahhhhh over them, well, that’s when the magic starts.
My ornaments aren’t a perfectly matched set. They aren’t fancy glass balls that shimmer and shine in the light –instead, my ornaments are a totally mis-matched set. A Santa made with popsicle sticks, a snowman painted by the hand of a two-year-old boy. Each ornament has meaning for me, and it’s the memories that matter most.
Every year, I get my son to spend time making a new ornament with me. A new ornament=a new memory. I don’t need to have expensive ornaments lining my tree (my son would have smashed those long ago!), but I do need the memories to hang from those branches.
What about you? Please share your special tradition for starting the holidays with me! One commenter will be randomly selected to win a Kindle Paperwhite e-reader (and if the winner already has an e-reader, I can send a gift card for the e-reader’s price, instead–a value of $119).
And here are a few of my ornaments…hanging proudly from my tree… 😉
See? I told you I had a popsicle Santa.
Snowman fun! Painted by my son, back when he was 2.
She's not exactly a dark angel, but I bet she'd still like Az...
I love decorating. A tree and christmas lights, watching christmas movies is one of the best things to get in the holiday spirit! Thanks for the awesome giveaways!
For us, it’s putting up all the lights and decorations outside that kick off the holidays. Once it’s all done and we turn on the lights in the evening, we admire the heck out it, lol. And then we’re sad when we take them down because it’s boring to look outside.
We bake thousands of cookies each year. 20+ varieties and hundreds of each takes my mother and I a good month to get them done for the first giveaways. We always start our baking with homemade peanut butter cookies with Reeces Pieces on top. It isn’t the holiday season until those are baking in the oven!
I don’t get the tree until later, but right after Thanksgiving, I always get a couple of poinsettias so that the house starts looking Christmassy.
The tree is first in our house! The day after Thanksgiving, while we’re still munching on turkey, up the tree goes. It’s so fun and soothing, and suddenly, we’re together, all of us, and laughing and having a blast. It’s one of my favorite moments of the year.
We decorate the tree together.
My tree goes up day after Thanksgiving although this year I put it up the weekend before. I got a jump on the holidays this year.
For me, it’s not Christmas till I get the tree up (with lights). I can be more leisurely getting the ornaments up after that.
Thank you for your generous gift to one lucky responder. How we start to get into the holiday spirit depends, in our household, when Hanukkah starts – we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. The first thing we pull out is usually the menorrah, and find the matzo meal for the matzo balls. And, then I can start finding my big Jingle Bells.
Oh, I love that you do that with your son. What a terrific idea. My son is now 28 and I have a lot of his ornaments he made in grade school on my tree. They always have a place of honor there. I told him once, that they were my ornaments, and he had to get his own children to get cute ornaments. He also made ornaments with his Grandpa one year. They used frozen orange juice containers. They punched out designs on them. One says joy, one is a heart. They mean so much to me.
We don’t put up a tree anymore because we are’t home, but a fake poinsettia is the first thing to come out. It looks pretty real! When we did do a tree it was all glass balls, because that’s what my Mother had, but as the years went by they were gradually discarded for hand made ornaments which looked much more homey. The ones personally made by relatives have since been given to the chhildren to cherish.
the household is a scrooge about the christmas tree… lol
My sister and I just spent 3 days over Thanksgiving weekend decorating the house before my parents return from vacation. With 3 families in one house, we managed to make the house look classy instead of my father’s way. His way is more Christmas threw up all over the house.
Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas season for me! I actually have 2 trees in my house. The first to go up is my artificial tree which I put most of my son’s ornaments on. The second tree is the real one, in which I put my ornaments on. Thanks for the giveaway!
Getting the tree out and plan a date with friends so we can get some cute decorations!
decorating the tree. I collect ornaments all types. If we travel somewhere’s I try and buy an ornament. so I have an ecletic tree too.
The holidays always start when I pull out the decorations for the tree. I have the same kind of ornaments, lots of different, fun things – like the Santa in a rocket ship, the unicorn on a skateboard, engraved ornaments with my son and my names and the year, etc. Every year, it’s opening a box of memories, and I love it.
We go out and buy a Christmas tree, then all decorate the house, and start Christmas-themed baking!
We always put up lights and go get tree and then we listen top so much x-mas music while putting up decorations that you almost get a little sick of it. Thanks for the giveaway!
My tradition is setting up the Christmas tree with my mom every year before Thanksgiving.
I don’t celebrate Christmas :), but I do have Holiday tradition. Usually I go to my gramps home then we will visit our cousins. And they also have so many yummy foods for us to eat 🙂
My Mom and I will put on a Disney Christmas album and put up the tree. It’s been a while since we did that and I’m hoping to restart the tradition this year. Awesome giveaway! I don’t have an e-reader and I can’t think of a better Christmas gift. 😉
Seeing other home at with their lghts
My tradition for starting the holidays is to start decorating around the house and blasting Christmas songs on my laptop 😉
the holiday starts with my mom and i black friday shopping together. we don’t go to the crazy stores like walmart and we are not those agressive types. but we do get great deals and it’s just fun to spend the day together
Our kick-off is weaving heart baskets from paper to fill with sweets and used to decorate the Christmast tree.
I start collecting goodies to send my adopted soldiers…silly things like coloring books and little games or calendars…and candy.
Holiday traditions? The tree, although my family has done that last minute. :X There were a few times we actually set up the tree ON Christmas day. So, oops!
Baking though – usually I start with holiday type treats; pumpkin cranberry bread, cookies, and all that good stuff. Also? Time off work. LOL That’s a clear holiday to me. 😉
My family always prepares the Christmas dinner together, that’s a good tradition for us 🙂
Christmas is bitter sweet for me. It was my Grandma’s and mine favorite holiday. Each year we would decorate more and more. s
She passed a week before Christmas about 20 yrs ago . I Miss Her So Much. She was my mother, best friend,and mentor. i still have most everything, But when I put her angel on top of the tree It makes the holidays start for me. I Would Absolutely Love an E Reader lol But I would probably be like one of those people you read about who walk into fountains or poles Because I would be reading Not txting LOL
Every Christmas morning we (really I) make homemade crepes for breakfast. My mom did it when she was alive and now I do it for my family 🙂
My silver grapes with the glittery, green leaves come out first to hang on my front door. Then we order catnip fish from Dr. Daniels for the kitties. These fish are fantastic if your kitty loves catnip, folks!
OMG. I would give the Kindle to my sister for Christmas. Perfect. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!!
We always go to the tree farm and pick our tree out and then cut it down. After it “settles” The hubby puts on the lights and then we watch the kids hang up all of the ornaments. They love it. We spend time together as a family and have the best time.
Man,I moved, and had to leave all my ornaments behind for a few years!! we decorate a small tree, have a BIG star covered in christmas lights outside.. dont really have much of any traditions..
We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but my favorite tradition doesn’t start until December 13th. I find little gifts for my daughter and wrap them up. Then I put them in a 12 Days of Christmas Santa Grab Bag my MIL made for me and for 12 days, my daughter get to go in and grab one gift. I started this when she was 5 years old by hiding the gifts each day. Now that she’s older the grab bag is more fun for her.
I normally have a themed tree, either blue and silver or red and white but I always have the special ornaments that my kiddos have made over the year no matter what color my tree is. I love them and each and every one of them holds a special memory.
LOL, we SO do the Clark Griswold yard! We light up the whole neighborhood w/ all our lights ~ I love it! We have deer, penguins, an Igloo, Santa & gifts, and Chistmas trees, and ligts galore! You can see it from blocks away!
Every year we go out to see the Christmas city lights and then that night we decorate the house.