Ideas For My Pocket: a Support Group for Families: By Golly, Let's Be Jolly!

Holidays are a wonderful time to create happy memories. Traditions bring family continuity. They don’t have to be elaborate. In fact, stress negates the good. Strive for a balance. Mom must find peace in order for the home to be peaceful. So keep your plans simple so all can enjoy the holiday!

Traditions from the past are great, so use the ones that have been passed down from former generations, perhaps tweaked to fit your family or to be even better. But also form new ones that are unique to your own family. It’s not too late to start a new tradition. So be creative. And if the idea doesn’t quite work, adjust it next time, or try something new next year! These foster unity, love, and happy memories.

1. Santa Look-Alike--The Handley’s decided to make shaving crème beards on everybody’s face at Christmas time for a “Santa Look-Alike Contest.” All put on their “beard” and some add a hat or a pillow in the tummy. Everyone decides who looks the most like Santa! (Mom wins hands down if she is pregnant!) They all quickly pose for a picture, laugh at each other, then wipe their beards off, before they started to sting! The Christiansen’s heard about this idea and chose to use whipped cream instead! Yum!

2. Special December Things: For the whole month of December, special tokens can remind all that Christmas is on its way!

The Nortons like to use a Christmas Candle—really just a red or green dinner candle placed on the kitchen table, to make Family Scripture reading extra special for the month. It brings wonder and ambience to their scripture reading. Some mornings, they read about the Savior, instead of at their usual spot. The candle is lit when the family gathers, then the kids take turns blowing it out afterward.

The Hendricks like to put Christmas pillowcases on their pillows on December 1^st. Diane simply sewed them, two at a time, as the family grew, from one yard each of Christmas fabric she purchased. The fun pillowcases help sugar plums dance in their heads!

The Carsons like to have special foods at Christmas time. Their favorites are cinnamon rolls and cran-raspberry juice for Christmas morning breakfast. Suzanne insists the family eat before the tree, thus starting the day out right and prolonging the fun. The Thomas’ have a Christmas tradition of tamales, raisin-filled cookies, and old-time steamed carrot pudding. (I tasted it and it's delicious!) The Parkins always have layered jello parfaits on Christmas Eve, and a huge snack bar on Christmas Day, that includes a veggie try, mixed nuts, cheese and crackers and salami, dill pickles, and cookies.

Kelley Clark likes to make mealtime extra fun, especially at holidays. It’s the dishes, such as inexpensive Christmasy buckets to eat soup out of, or Chinese takeout cartons for some fun variety. Kelley might stick a branch on the table, that has been shellacked, set in plaster in a tin can, and trimmed with seasonal trinkets for a fun centerpiece. She might hide a conversation starter or a surprise under everyone’s plate. “It’s not about the food!” she insists. Boxed macaroni and cheese could be for dinner, but if it is served in new and exciting ways, it is a family dinner to remember!

· 3. Homemade Christmas—Early one December, we read as a family an article called “A Christmas with No Presents,” about James E. Faust’s boyhood Christmas, in which everything was homemade and there were no presents! He loved it!! Ensign, December 2001 We were fascinated by that, the simplicity and the love. “Should we try it?” We talked it over, and wanted to try something similar. We decided that we’d go cut down a Christmas tree this year, instead of our artificial one. Living in a city in the desert, it was a real adventure to go to the snow country a few hours away, and cut ourselves a tree! Then, we strung cranberries and popcorn for the decorations.

Together, we decided that Santa could still fill our stockings that year, but everyone else would hand-make any presents. Mark built each person a small chest out of wood, to hold special things. I figured out how to sew ties for the boys and handbags for the girls. The kids all drew names and made a gift for their “secret buddy.” Mark and I brainstormed with each one to come up with an idea to make. And both of us took one of the younger ones to help make their gift.

That year, there was a minimum of shopping at the stores. Instead, our home and garage became a Santa’s workshop, full of secrets and surprises! Santa was a little more generous than usual with the stockings, and then, the rest of the gifts were homemade! We loved it so much that we now do a homemade Christmas every other year! (However, we did go back to our artificial tree.)

Ideas of things that Mark has built are: pens made of wood, belts, shelves, clocks. Some of the things I have made are: stuffed animals, aprons, recipe books, crocheted pot holders. Some things the kids have made include: tying a quilt, covering a board with fabric and ribbon for a bulletin board, a batch of cookies on a cool tray, a pie. My 12-year old sewed Christmas pillow cases for his married brother’s family. My 22-year old boy made a pvc water bottle launcher for his buddy. My teenage daughter pieced a baby quilt of squares of fleece. My teenage son who is good at computers refurbished one for his brother to use. Dad helped our youngsters make a wood bracket with four pegs, or an over the door bracket with pegs to hold clothes or towels.

These buddy gifts have become the highlight of our Christmas. We do the exchange on Christmas Eve, after our traditional Nativity reenactment and reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 1. No one (almost no one) knows who has who, and we choose who gets to give next by having the person who just gave his gift twirl with closed eyes to point to who is next to reveal his secret. Now that we have grandchildren, we let them do a small gift exchange first, among themselves, so that they are happily playing while the rest of the family gives and receives. I like to take a picture of the giver with the homemade gift and the recipient. Everyone feels good about their hard work to surprise each other, and sacrificing for each other helps our love grow stronger.

My 2nd Favorite Idea:

4. The Peek—Christmas morning, when Santa has come, and left a sheet blocking the view of the living room and gifts, we have to wait until everyone has dressed to go in. In fact, we eat our filling yet fun breakfast first too! In order to help the terrible anticipation that is almost going to pop, we have “The Peek,” in which everyone gets to be lifted by Dad (or an older brother) for a quick peek at the tree and gifts! Oohs and Ahs are heard, but no one can tell what he saw! And all are excited that Santa really did come to our house!

The Robertsons have a house that is situated so that there is a circle in the front part of the house, across the living room and through the kitchen. So, each person gets to Race through the living room as fast as he can. In fact, Dad times each one to see who can run the course the fastest. The purpose is to make the anticipation last, and to make the view of the tree extra fast! But the Robertson’s love it! They wouldn’t dream of letting a year go by without the races past the tree!!