Christmas with Kids

My friend Michelle sent me a note with her favorite Christmas memory filled with traditions:
“Absolutely, hands down….
Family dinner, followed by the opening of one gift, then Midnight service at church, ending with ‘Silent Night’ by candlelight and coming home and making ‘reindeer food’ with my nieces and nephews.  They’re grown now and we all are [...]

If you are going to give gifts for grownups, give something consumable. Gifts to charities, gourmet foods, event tickets, are all great gifts for grownups.
As an extended family, we’ve decided to forego gifts for the grownups this year.

We have just about everything we want already, unless you count big ticket items.
We have a clutter problem.
Money [...]

Today, let’s take some time to check our progress. How are you doing with the first 50 days of preparation for Christmas? Do you know where you’re spending Christmas this year, or are you playing host/ess? Menu? Guests?
Have you scheduled a family portrait sitting and selected/ordered Christmas cards?
Are you handmaking gifts this year? Knitting projects? [...]

Every kid loves to see their name on various items: books, mugs, placemats, signs, or just about anything else! What could be better than a Christmas Story featuring your child? Our daughter received one of these as a gift a few years ago, and it is still one of her favorite books! Personalized gifts are [...]

This is a novel but necessary concept for many people in this economic climate. Forced by circumstance (lay-off, bankruptcy, foreclosure, health problems, other catastrophes,) many Americans will be having a “Buy Nothing” Christmas, or at least a “Buy a WHOLE LOT LESS” Christmas this year.
Even if you aren’t under tremendous economic pressure, there are many [...]

This tip comes straight from my life. I am, by education and training, a professional musician. Now, while I love music more than many other things, it is something I’m extremely good at and have spent untold time and money getting to that point. Knitting is another story. I love knitting. Am I a professional? [...]

We live very close to our entire family, so our biggest complication is determining how we are going to exchange gifts. When I was a kid, we often had grandparents travel to our house for Christmas. All of the grandparents had worked out a schedule with their kids that seemed to work out. Sometimes we [...]