Our Holiday Traditions

Like any family we have some traditions around the holidays.  Here are a few of ours...

Getting a Tree
We get a Christmas Tree as early as we can.  This year we couldn't get one until December 13th.  Most Austrians don't put their tree up until the evening on the 24th.  I go a little crazy waiting that long.  We could probably find one if we were desperate.  We can't just go down to the local Home Depot, throw one on top of the car and head home.  1) We  don't have a car.  2) We don't have a Home Depot.  We could have found one if desperate, but Dan wasn't too thrilled about the idea of hauling one home on public transportation.

Here they typically sell trees at the neighborhood church.  Ours is just around the corner, where our middle two go to Kindergarten. Dan picked it up on the way home from picking up the boys.  I wasn't there.  I have very little requirements regarding a tree - it needs to be green and fit in our home.  Done and done. From there, Dan carries it down the block, up the elevator to our place.  Welcome Little Tree.

Advent Items
We have a number of Advent traditions.  We have two advent calendars that the kids get to open each day to help count down for Christmas.  They are both Nativity in theme.  The first is a Playmobile one.  The boys get to pick out a piece each day and by the 24th we have a fully functional Nativity set.  They also love to play with it too. And because it's Playmobile - they can! As much as I covet a beautiful hand carved or marble one - I know it would be broken by Day 4 and me heartbroken to boot.  This seems a better compromise.

Our second advent calendar is a magnetic one with little doors that have the nativity pieces.  Another play-able/interactive one.

This year, we received a gift that we added to the daily advent tradition.  The Advent Beer Calendar.  A wonderful gift from our teammates for Dan's birthday. The boys take turns opening all three. Worthy always acts as the middle man and is curious to discover what country the beer is from.

Tree Decorating
Everyone has a few special ornaments that they each get to personally hang up.  And hopefully this is the last year of having to hang ornaments out of reach of baby hands. Even the baby "helps".  He was on light duty.

Christmas Cookies
While Dan & Christian headed the Lights Committee. The other boys and I were on the Baking Team. We made some super yummy Christmas cookies. And the boys took it rather seriously.  They did the dough cutting, icing and sprinkles.  And of course the taste testing.  Don't worry - we didn't give these as gifts. We kept all our germs to ourselves.

Advent Wreath
Every year our church does an event where we make advent wreaths.  Advent wreaths are a big deal here - whether religious or not.  I'm not a super crafty person, but I really love making the Advent wreath.

and I love that we use it each week to usher in another week of Advent.  Each Sunday, we light a candle, read from the Bible and sing a Christmas Carol together.  It's become one of my favorite traditions.

These are a few of the things we do each year.  I love that our traditions are always evolving.  Can traditions evolve or by definition does that negate them as tradition?  Anyway, they feel traditional to me.  I love Christmas - it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!