Amazing Holiday Giveaway!
This is so exciting! For the whole month of December, I’m partnering with Alison’s Montessori to do four giveaways – something from Alison’s and something from me every Sunday in December.
Back when I began selling on eBay, Kharrum and Michelle of Alison’s were just starting their business too. We became good friends and have always enjoyed working together. So I’m super excited to do this joint giveaway!
This week’s winner will land a set of Grammar Symbol Solids from Alison’s and a $25 gift certificate from me:
So, how do you win these fabulous prizes? To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell us one winter or holiday tradition you do at home or in the classroom at this time of year.
The giveaway will close on Thursday, December 10th at midnight CST
The prize ships to the US only (Grammar Solids will be mailed, gift certificate will be emailed)
One entry per email address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Friday, December 11th.
We’ll be running one of these giveaways every week during December (each one will start on Sunday and end on Thursday). Best of luck to everyone!
We always do an ornament exchange on Thanksgiving as family and this year we are doing it between the teachers at our school. It should be fun!
In the holidays we have a special sing along night with traditional winter songs. Parents and children join in the singing on the last evening of school.
We have an annual “Holiday Tea”. It’s a pot luck lunch, with crafts for the parents to make with their children in one classroom, a “Holiday Cafe” in the other classroom, and songs that the children have been practicing at noon. We also have a Gingerbread House that the children decorate prior to the Tea, and get to break and eat at the Tea! I think that’s one of their favourite parts! We also have a Robot Bank that “eats” coins, the children love feeding it, and the money goes to the Salvation Army (they go around to the parents asking for change to feed to the Robot). We also collect food for the Food Bank, and all our leftover treats go to the Salvation Army. The staff make a little gift for each child, and each one gets one as they leave for the Christmas Break.
One thing we do is pack up a Christmas gift for a Missionary family. This year we decided to send a “Family Movie Night” pkg. We sent pyjamas, movies, & microwave popcorn. I think this will be a very special gift for a very special family.
Thanks for offering these giveaway’s! Merry Christmas!
At home, we do an activity for each night of advent and the children love it! I get such joy seeing the wonder they get from simple things like: dinner by candlelight with christmas music playing, cut paper snowflakes and hang them everywhere, deliver food to a shelter. These activities allow us to be together in simple ways to celebrate. Love your giveaway!! A wonderful way to spread winter cheer!!
Becky
At the beginning of Advent I wrap picture books in purple wrapping paper, so we can open one a day until Christmas—this makes a wonderful countdown and makes each of our large supply of Christmas books very special
We make a new ornament every year.
Nothing terribly special here – I try out lots of new cookie recipes, and the kids and I make ornaments. At school we do a holiday party that includes crafts and treats. Very traditional. I’m loving the Holiday Hot Tea party idea above. I might have to talk to my fellow teachers and see if anyone is interested in trying it.
Every year we choose a new Christmas book to read together as a family. We start it on the first night of Advent and read it through until Christmas. We also started a new family tradition this year. We hosted a cookie decorating party for all of our friends and neighbors, and we hope to continue it every Christmas.
We love to read through the Advent book, opening a new door each day until its Christmas and learning the story of the birth of Jesus, the true reason for the season.
Every year we make a “time capsule”, sealed to be opened in the future (20-30 years later).
We make ornaments, we also have the grand parents out every year for the tree picking. This year we are going to chop down our own tree, which we hope will become a tradition! This year we are also trying to make all our wrapping out of fabric…going eco Christmas there
We do a different activity each day of Advent. We kick it off with a Godly Play/Catechesis of the Good Shepard-style presentation of a fabric nativity scene and the telling of the Christmas story. The scene is placed in an accessible location for the season and the kids can work with it whenever they would like.
Wow, lots of great traditions, ladies! I love it!
Please note: I’ve changed the terms a bit – to US shipping only. If you live outside the US and have a friend or family member in the US that we could ship to, feel free to enter the contest too.
We light our advent candles each evening at dinner. This year we have been taking a few moments to think and talk about who has been a “light-bearer” for us during the day. Thanks for the giveaway!
We are just starting a new tradition of making/purchasing an ornament for each of our daughters that represents a special event, activity or something they were interested in for the year. That way when they move away they will have ornaments to take with them that represent a sort of timeline of their life.
We light a candle each night and drink warm milk. Then we open a wrapped book and read it by the candle light.
Well, my little one is only 2.5, so not a lot of time for traditions including her, yet.
(But, as young as she is, I’ve gotten such wonderful info on this site, she’s already starting to read, and count, and I discovered the importance of life skills, thanks!)
One thing my daughter started doing last year, and has continued to do this year, is replace her nativity scene people with her own toys (and her stepbrother’s). She has a nativity scene that we have on our season table, that she is allowed to play with.
Baby Jesus in the manger is now Spiderman in a yellow roadster. Mary is a duck. Joseph is an elephant. The shepherds and wise men are: a banana, a toy phone, Captain America, and Wolverine. The animals at the scene are a penguin, a wooden airplane, and a firetruck.
She did it last year, and has done it again this year. Every night, I put it back the way it’s supposed to be, and every morning she delights in putting it back the way she wants it. My Mom was a little concerned that she wasn’t “aware” of the importance of how the manger scene “should” look. She said, “Oh, how sad she doesn’t know who Baby Jesus is, you need to go to church on a more regular basis.” (We’re there all the time). When Mom said that, my daughter picked up Spiderman and said, “Baby Jesus goes vrrrroooom, vrrrooom, vrrrooom.”
Yikes!
We often head out after dinner in our pajamas to drive the streets of our city looking at Christmas lights and singing carols. Not quite the idyllic caroling wander of my dreams, but always a great time.
We also pick out an ornament each year to represent what the boys are into that year. This year was a challenge– had to find a tae kwan do ornament, and a grizzly bear, but I finally did. My tree is full of the ornaments my mom bought each year for me, and the ones I’ve bought so far for the boys. They love to opens the boxes each year to find theirs.
This year, we are starting a new tradition where everyday we put a craft or giving activity out of an advent stocking that we made. My children are 2 & 4 so I hope that every year, we evolve the activity based on their ages. My full agenda is on my blog: http://www.amichiganmom.com/2009/11/advent-calendar-giving-actitives.html
When I was in the classroom we celebrated all of the holidays by inviting parents to share their stories and traditions; put the festive colors throughout Practical Life; practiced putting candles on the advent wreath/menorah/kinara; did lots of art projects; read lots of stories about how the holidays are celebrated around the world. I’m at home this year with my kids, and we have 2 advent calendars (one with chocolate and one with Lego’s). We will get out the nativity set soon. And we’ll be baking cookies for teachers, friends and family. I get my shopping done early so I can really enjoy the meaning of the season.
Every year our daycare chooses a local charity to support during the holiday season. This year we have spent a lot of time talking about animals and pets. We have decided as a group to support a local animal shelter. We will be taking a trip to the shelter to donate food, blankets, and pet beds. The kids love giving to the animals and are so excited to visit them!
For my family, we help plan an “Advent Workshop” at church where kids make handmade ornaments, sing carols, and participate in a short worship service. It really “kicks off” the season.
At school, the practical life shelves reflect different traditions; Christian activities, Kwanzaa activities, and Hanukah activites.
Our last name is Stockng so we only put Stocking ornaments on the tree. The kids love hunting for a new one every year.
We just started making Christmas cards out of the loads of work my son brings home from his Montessori school. We share his artistic eye and concern for the environment with all our loved ones while having a great craft project too.
We pull out the decorations and talk about the history of that particular ornament. It may be one that the boys made or was sent as a gift. Then we drink hot cocoa or eggnog.
Our preschool class has a gratitude circle during the holidays where each of the children says what they are thankful for this time of year.
We make a Jesse tree with symbols from the Old Testament leading to Christ’s birth.
I love holiday traditions. I have so many many many.
~The day after Thanksgiving we start decorating, and listening to holiday music
~We have 25 days of christmas with a special surprise every day for our babies. Either a small gift, something to make for others, or something to do as a family
~We make loads of cookies and candies with my mother in law, it is so special to watch her immense patients as she cooks with my children. Her 35 years of being a school teacher are completely evident on this day!
~making a plate of cookies for our neighbors.
I really could go on and on. I simply adore holiday traditions. I love making them, and forming them to fit our families rhythm.
Around the World in 80 minutes
In class, we have parents and staff tell about Christmas and Holiday traditions around the world. Using a world map and a Santa’s sleigh cut out we move Santa along to show where he is when discussing that tradition weather it’s Las Posadas in Mexico or A Week of Peace in Finland. This is a good opportunity for parents to share their Christmas story from the homeland and for the students to learn songs in other languages.
We celebrate Hanukkah. One of our traditions is lighting the lights during the week of the holiday. Thank you f or the chance to win it! Happy Holidays!
We have our family holiday meal on Christmas Eve. As a tradition, we “break” between the entree and dessert for a time of sharing all the Christmas cards, letters, e-mails received. All are read and family members share special thoughts about the friends who sent the greetings. It is a special way to bring those who are far away into our home and hearts.
We go home to home singing puertorrican christmas songs, is what we call “parrandas”. The school makes a group and we visit students and teachers. We do this at night so it usually ends in the early morning hours.
We start decorating the day after Thanksgiving. Our boys (2&4) enjoy taking out each ornament/decoration and carefully helping arrange them. As both of their biological grandmothers are deceased we pay extra attention to their special ornaments, favorite music, and cookie recipes. Each day they open an advent calendar either a store one or one that we made and they hang a little ornament on to a felt Christmas advent “tree” (decoration.) And of course there are crafts, hot chocolate, making presents, and usually playing in the snow!
For New Year’s Eve we stay home and fondue. My parents did this with me and my brothers when we were growing up. My husband and I have continued the tradition with our daughter.
My children and I started a Christmas journal. This is the third year that we have done this. They take pictures of Christmas lights, favorite decorations, different holiday parties, etc. Then they write about the things they love at the holidays. Last year, my son took a picture of his favorite holiday cookies and wrote down the recipe.
It has been a lot of fun to see how their picture taking skills have improved and how much more they are writing and remembering about the holidays.
For a gift for my mother-in-law a few years ago, I started a blank book where we all write notes to her about that year. We’ve only had it a few years, but already it’s a walk down memory lane. Boyfriends and girlfriends coming and going, different events in our lives, etc… I’m really happy with it.
We always light candles on our Advent wreath, and play Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving until after Christmas on both our car radio and our CD player at home.
I think we’ve started a couple of new traditions this year. We packed a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, and we attended an outdoor drama “Journey to Bethlehem.”
Each year, we swap homemade gifts & gift baskets with neighbors and friends at a Holiday party. Since many different cultures & religions are represented during this time, we respect and honor each other’s special days. The kids love making things from recycled material or baking special treats.
One of my favorite traditions is making those beautiful oranges with cloves pushed in the peel. Lovely and oh so fragrant!
Growing up, my favorite tradition was my advent calendar. My mom gave me the one I used when I was growing up, but sadly it was ruined. I made ours with kit from Hearthsong. My kids love it and we check the pockets each night.. Sometimes it has A Bible verse, and sometimes a goody! Thank you both for the generous giveaway!
During the holiday season in my classroom we adopt three families from the Women Infants and Children program. In order to help them out and provide for their holiday and everyday needs, we hold a Chocolate Pretzel dipping fundraiser…. the children dip pretzel rods in chocolate and sprinkles, put them in treat bags and fill the orders. Once the money has been collected and counted, the children help to shop for the items on the families’ wish lists, wrap the gifts, and send them to the family. It is a tradition the children look forward to and are proud to help with. It’s a heartwarming and humbling annual experience.
We don’t exchange gifts at Chanukah, but make ‘theme’ nights that we spend together. The first night is cooking latkes. We also do a story night (this year reading Moishe’s Miracle), game night, and arts and crafts night.
Each year we start the month of December with Breakfast with Santa then go home and hang our outside lights. The next weekend we cut down our Christmas tree then decorate it and the inside of the house. Sometime durring the week we go to our zoo and see the Wild Lights display, ride the carousel & drink hot cocoa, then we go out for a nice dinner. On Christmas eve we open the last advent calendar box & hang the last ornament, then get out the “santa” bags so that when Santa comes he can wrap the kids gifts. Our santa bags are large drawstring cloth bags that we got from gifts sent to our kids through Amazon.com.
Our school gives turkey dinners to need families and in the classroom we make an ornament every year that has their child’s picture on it with the date. I also do this with my children and they give the ornaments to their grandparents for Christmas.
My grandchildren come to visit during Thanksgiving, and they expect to do two things: build a gingerbread house, and decorate our Christmas tree.
My grandchildren come to visit during Thanksgiving holiday, and they expect to do two things: make a gingerbread house, and decorate our Christmas tree.
We buy lots of wooden cut-outs (snowflakes, trees, etc.), paint them, label the “year” and put a string on each to make an Christmas tree ornament. All our family and friends receive a unique and special ornament painted by our little one.
My family enjoys doing crafts together every Christmas after dinner. One year we made homemade soap and candles.
I’m a first year teacher with a first year husband and so am in the process of beginning wonderful new traditions for my students and my own family! This year, I’d like to start the tradition of inviting families to share their own traditions in the classroom. I have a lot of students who are first and second generation American from countries all over the world.
We go downtown to Center City Philadelphia and see the annual holiday lights show at Macys, and then visit the world-famous Dickens Village on the 3rd Floor. You step into a 6,000 sq. ft. animated interpretation of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s meeting with the true spirit of Christmas. Over 100 fully-animated figures reenact 26 of the most memorable scenes from A Christmas Carol. With authentic reproductions of period dress, furniture and more, you realy experience the sights and sounds of 1840s London.
In our classroom, the children help prepare a “Holiday Feast” for the class and parents. Each child also completes a picture frame ornament to take home to his/her family. Lastly, after the feast is over and presents are opened (we receive donated gifts from an organization), we have a dance party! Then, everyone promptly takes a much required nap
I’ve created a unit all about holidays that occur in December around the world. It’s a great way to get the children to relate to what others do during the holidays. I focus on what the holidays have in common as well as what’s different about them. Some of the materials include: a holiday symbol matching work, 3-part cards about when each holiday occurs, gift making, candle matching, etc…. It’s really been fun!
A family tradition is to make pizzelles, which are Italian waffle like cookies. I share with co-workers & friends.
We make and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas eve, eaten that night and the next day after Christmas Dinner.
We set up the creche (baby Jesus doesn’t arrive until Christmas morning!) and have a small pile of short straw nearby. Every time one of the children does something Christlike–kind, thoughtful, helps keep the peace, etc–he or she is invited to place a piece of straw in the empty manger. This helps them link the idea of John the Baptist’s “prepare ye the way of the Lord” with repairing and restoring relationships with those around us.
I’m starting a lot of things this year that I hope will become tradition – like my homemade Advent calendar. So cool, made with small plastic glasses and tissue paper glued over them…..each morning, my kids get to “poke” through the tissue paper and get a small treat.
I would love to get more info on Kristi Perry’s unit about holidays! I LOVE that.
I just read all the posts and am pleased with all the fun ideas that are inspiring new traditions for our family. Currently, we make all of our holiday gifts that we give. My three daughters (4, 6 and 7) help, and this year we are making “monster faces”: knitting tote bags with knitting needle slots for the female adults, “monster face” visors with pockets for storing mail, etc for the male adults, and either fun smaller totes or monster-shaped pillows for the younger recipients (both with tons of treasure pockets). It promotes tons of creativity and laughter and time together.
The new traditions my daughters and I have agreed to do (after reading the above posts) are to add a Christmas journal with photographs and notes, and also to read parts of a holiday-themed book of some sort every night before bed (to be determined yet!).
Thanks for the great ideas everyone!
***Every year my children and I discuss their most celebrated and unique experience of the year. We then either buy a button, patch or hand-stitch a symbol representing them and their treasured experience of the year onto their stockings. When they are adults they will be able to look back on all our holidays together as well as their personal accomplishments… everything “cataloged” and ready to share with their own children someday! :0)
Every year I have my students make ornaments out of baking salt dough. They roll the dough and use a cookie cutter for the shape. I insert a paper clip into the end it will hang by and bake them. The children love to paint them and the parents love the keepsake! I also use spray varnish to make them shiny and a metallic permanent marker to write their name and the year on them. For my gift to the parents, I trace my students silhouettes on black paper, cut it out and glue it on white scrapbook paper. I then insert it into a clear scrapbook sleeve. My mom still has one on the wall from when I was in Kindergarten.
One of my favorite family traditions is decorating cookies at Christmas. For the past couple of years, I have also done this with my students. I make a list of all of the items that we need and our parents send in what they can. We then spend a few hours on one of the afternoons before Christmas break listening to holiday music and decorating our cookies. The best part is that the kids get to take home 4-5 cookies that they can share with their families.
Every year we build gingerbread houses (and I try not to help too much!). My older boys are 16 and 13, and my youngest is 3 so this will be his first year. Hopefully he won’t eat too much candy! Sometimes I buy the kits, other times I used graham crackers and homemade frosting. Always fun!
On Christmas day my family 2 brothers ,3 sisters their spouses and all of their (16)children and their children’s children (7) , any friends or people who don’t have anywhere else to go and my mother meet at my oldest sister’s house for lunch and present exchanges. We always end the day with different table games. Every year we have a different theme for the adult’s “Dirty Santa” This year because several of the siblings are out of work we decided to exchange favorite family memories. The youngest children will still get gifts and my 85 year old mother will get gifts,but I believe the greatest part of this Christmas is going to be the time of memories and the fun and games that we will share together.
We started a tradition last year of celebrating the Advent season during December. Each morning we read a scripture from a book called “The Advent”. It helps us to stay focused on the reason for the season.
We celebrate Chanukah and this year I created a fun new work for my oldest son (he’s
to incorporate candles (used in the menorah) and his love of super-secret spy kind of stuff. We made secret/spy messages to each other by writing with a candle onto small sheets of light colored paper. The person receiving the secret message then applied watercolor to the entire surface of the paper to reveal the contents of the message! My younger daughter (age 5) used the same material to draw Chanukah objects (dreidel, menorah, latkes, etc.) and then painted over to create a beautiful piece of art!
Wow! What a wonderful giveaway!! During the Christmas season, we really try to keep the focus on the fact that we are celebrating the birth of our Savior. Once a week during December we do a special act of service as a family as a gift that we can give to Jesus. (“When ye have done it unto one of the least of these…ye have done it unto me.”) We also make a birthday cake on Christmas day.
It is a tradition in our home to decorate the tree together after Thanksgiving. The kids love to take out all of the ornaments, look at them and place them on the tree!
I am a primary teacher at Smaller Scholars Montessori School in Houston TX. In my class we make a wreath for our classroom door every December.
I ask each child to bring in an ornament of their choice (sometimes we do themes…i.e. something that represents their culture or where they are from) and we attach them to a wreath with fishing line.
After all of the ornaments are on the wreath, we hang the wreath from our door.
When the holidays are over, we can remove the ornaments and store the wreath so that we can do it all again the next year!
The kids LOVE it!
In our primary class, each child decorates a clear glass ornament to put on our class tree. The first year (2001) we put green and blue paint inside them, and then turned them upside down to let the paint run out. They came out looking like globes and we wrote Peace on Earth in paint pen. Last year we made snowmen families with the children’s fingers. If they had 3 members in their family we used 3 fingers, 4 members, 4 fingers and so on…We did have to use fingers from both hands once. Turned out very cute.
The children can take their ornaments home when they leave for the holidays so they can place them on their own Christmas trees. Since we have had siblings in our class on many occasions, the parents enjoy collecting all the different ornaments over the years.
We bring in some pine and have each child put part of it on the wreath and make a wreath to display in our classroom.
We love to give secret “surprise” gifts to someone that is in need. My kids love picking out a special gift for someone else, hiding, knocking on the door, and running away.
One year the students in my class secretly made a “The Night Before Christmas” book for me as a gift. Each student illustrated a piece of the poem, and a parent put it all together into a beautiful book. For the last 9 years I have read that book to my own children on Christmas eve.
I teach Pre-K and Kindergarten at a public Montessori school. For Thanksgiving, the children join in a feast of bread that they made and butter that we churned in an antique churner. We talk about what we are thankful for.
For the Winter holiday we study celebrations around the world and make candle holders to take home, since the wisdom of the holidays is enlightenment and light is a symbol is all of them.
We bake with friends but the kids mostly enjoy seeing what gingerbread house we have found for them to decorate. This year they will each do their own….so FUN!
We are a private Montessori school with a very diverse population. In the Elementary and middle school classes we have feasts on the last day of school before our Winter Break. All the families bring in a family favorite to share. Afterwards, we play games and just hang out.
I loved reading all the great traditions mentioned. What a special time of the year! In our family we share old and new books about family winter traditions from around the world and use this as an opportunity to renew our commitment to each other as family members. We also give our children the space to decorate their room, including a small tree in their unique way – adding homemade ornaments. This year we are starting to write down our own holiday traditions in a book that we can look back to in the future.
Happy Holidays!
The weekend we do our Christmas decorating, we hide a special new ornament for each of our children around the house and kick off the decorating by letting them go find it! These will be their ornaments to take to start decorating their own trees one day! Merry Christmas.
Every year we make reindeer and red breast robin thumb prints and we send them as christmas cards to all our family. They get a beautiful christmas card and a thumb print every year from each child. The thumb prints are getting bigger.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone
I’m a toddler montessori teacher and we have a live tree that we leave outside for the birds and squirrels until December. Now it is in our room and we decorate it with paper chains and homemade ornaments. The children love to take care of the tree that has been taking care of “the friends” we like to watch through our window.
In our classroom we use the sensorial materials to create a large tree. The red rods plus the number rods become the tree branches and then we use the knobbed and knobless cylinders as decorations.
Our school hosts a “Winter Program” for our families every year. The parents bring their children and then go up to our fellowship hall for coffee and socializing with the other parents. After about 45 minutes, we bring the children upstairs for their performance. We sing songs around a different theme each year. After the performance, we have a Brunch. Every year more and more extended family join us.
In my class we share our family traditions, make ornaments, learn to sign a holiday song, and study the major religions of the world.
I like to have my class make “9 bean soup” mix for their parents’ Christmas gifts. We use 9 or 10 (depending on the number of children in the class) different kinds of beans. Each child gets a bag. Then we go around the circle discussing what we notice about the beans: color, mottled or solid, size, shape etc etc. Then the children guess the names of the beans. Then we talk about the actual name of the beans and why they have that name. Then each child pours his or her bag into a large mixing bowl. The bowl goes around the circle and every child uses his or her hands to stir and mix the beans. Every child gets 2 cups of the bean mixture and a copy of a 9 bean soup recipe. (There are a bunch of choices online.) They put the mixture and recipe into a decorated bag and voila, a lovely handmade Christmas present!
Cooking as a family is always special to uss during these colder months … traditionally before the holidays we make buck eyes and pumpkin rolls and lots of yummy things. My children always like to help and it is so much fun!
We have so many Holiday traditions at this time of year. It’s hard to choose my favorite. I guess would be decorating our Christmas tree together on the 1st day of December and putting out the nativity. Discussing the true meaning of Christmas with our children.
This month we started a new tradition at my house. I have started homeschooling my children. We have been discussing and doing works around the life cycle of a pine tree. Instead of purchasing a fresh cut tree this year, we bought a live tree. The children are very excited about planting it later and have been helping us take care of it. The love coming in and inspecting it and discussing the parts. It is a beautiful little tree and a great hands on teaching tool!
Every year we listen to the Polar Express. We have a CD with Liam Nieson reading the book and we look at the picturebook. It is our must read holiday book.
For Christmas my family is rather large so we started a “White Elephant” gift exchange. We do not use gag gifts; however, we use gifts anyone might want. It becomes a game of getting what you want. Last year we were all trying to keep the Target gift card! It takes some stress for buying for everyone, because we are blessed to have all our needs met. The food and fun are most important to us.
For Christmas, we all gather at my mom’s house. We have 14 siblings, in-laws, 41 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and friends. We usually total around 100 people. We have an early dinner, open presents and enjoy each other’s company for the evening. Seeing everyone together reminds us of how blessed we are.
Each year we hang our stockings for St. Nicholas who visits on Dec. 5th. It was a German family tradition when I was young and I continue it now with my boys. I also make a stratta ahead of time so that we can spend all Christmas morning in our PJ’s just hanging out together.
We light a candle each Sunday before Christmas and sing carols around the tree. We’re up to two candles right now and our five year old loves picking the songs to sing.
we cuddle up with popcorn and a family movie once a week at home.
My class works on a paper chain from the first day of Dec. to Dec 23, when we leave for break. We see if we can make it loop around the class. The kids love it!
My parents passed the tradition of the Posada on to me from Mexico, and 8 years ago I brought it to the parish I attend. Starting December 16th, we say prayers and sing songs acting out Joseph and Mary seeking room at the inn. The children dress up like Mary and Joseph and stand outside the house with a choir singing and asking for room in the inn. The hosts and people inside refuse them in song, until they realize just exactly who Mary and Joseph are and their important mission. Everyone from outside then joins everyone inside and we say some special meditations to help us prepare our heart for the birth of Jesus on Christmas day. This goes on for nine days (a novena), until Christmas Eve. After the prayers everyone enjoys snacks, hot chocolate and sometimes even yummy tamales! We look forward to this every year, and it really helps us get in the spirit of what is really important this time of year: Jesus is the reason for the season!
I choose the month of December to have the first year students prick the continents to mount on two blue hemispheres. We display the world maps on our door or in the hall with a banner that says “Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin with Me!” We also make ornaments of the painted hemispheres with a peace symbol painted on top as a gift for our families.
At home for Christmas Morning breakfast, I always make french toast using Egg Nog instead of milk. Although it’s delicious for any breakfast, I resist making it any other time of the year to make it all the more special.
We make “gingerbread”houses using graham crackers, icing, and various shapes of candies – they remain on display for the rest of the year.
The students are anxious for snow so I encourage them to wear their pajamas inside out to turn the weather upside down. We pop popcorn at school to make our own blizzard just in case the weather channel is wrong.
In my home, we make a big deal about decorating the christmas tree. Complete with hot chocolate, christmas music, our special ornaments, and the fireplace. Every year we purchase or make a special ornament to add to our tree.
I love the holidays because we make Gingerbread houses together together as a family. I first started with my oldest son. Now that my youngest is 3 1/2, he’ll join in on the fun. We learn so much during the process. It’s almost like edible architecture!
Hi every Christmas we make cards to a family member and put them in a special box. This way during the year that family member can pull ou those cards and read how special they are. It really is nice to take the time to tell someone who you feel about them.
We have so many traditions that have developed over the last three years, now that the kids are a bit older. We have an advent calendar box from LL Bean that was given to us as a gift and we open one drawer–twice– every day. In the morning, I put in two objects–one for my six year old and one for my seven year old. They then use the movable alphabet to spell ‘their’ object. In the evening, when my husband gets home and we are all together, we open the same drawer again and pull out a small treat/gift. We also cut down our own Christmas tree and decorate it with at least one new handmade ornament made by each family member every year. We attend Christmas eve church service every year and then prepare our home for 25 guests for Christmas dinner on Christmas day. We always start the day by reading the Christmas story from the bible. After Christmas dinner–which is a casual dress affair–my daughter runs up stairs and puts on a ‘fancy’ party dress. We then celebrate *her* birthday with cake and ice cream and birthday presents for her. We also have special cake for Jesus too. She was truly the best Christmas gift I have ever received:)
Every year, starting on December 1st we eat home-baked cookies and play Christmas music as we decorate and light our Christmas tree and hang our stockings on the fireplace. After we are all done, we sit down on the couch together and read one story a night from our read and hang ornaments keepsake treasury and then hang it on the tree. That starts our countdown to Christmas.
We have begun using an advent wreath this year. It was a tradition for me while growing up so am excited to be starting it with my little ones!
We have a special candy making afternoon…we make all of the tried and true favorites, but also throw in a new one just to see if we want to add it to our collection. It really puts us in the holiday mood!
At school, we always put out a miniature Christmas tree and ornaments. Every day the children place the ornaments on the tree. There is also paper strips and a stapler for making paper chains to hang on the tree.
We have a wonderful advent calendar that has cards that tell the story of the first Christmas, bit by bit each day. Each morning we add the new card then go back to the beginning and tell the story from the start.
We read different versions of the Gingerbread Man story and then go on a hunt for our own gingerbread men around the school!
Last couple of years the children in my class(lower elementary) made decorated envelopes. During the last two weeks before the holidays everyone could write little notes when they saw a classmate do something nice or just thank them for something. It has been heartwarming to read some of them: ‘Thank you for giving me the ball during playtime’. ‘You’re a good friend’. ‘I like you’.
I’m going to introduce them again this week. Can’t wait!
Enjoy the holidays!
(I’m willing to pay the postage to The Netherlands:-)
White Christmas
We take can goods and cover the wrapper with white paper and then stack them in the shape of a tree. On the last day of school the can goods are taken to a local shelter. Each year the can goods tree grows higher and higher.
We talk about special things that happened to each one of us during this year and after that we wish each other good things for a new year.
Every year, we make some sort of gingerbread related item.
One year, we made a gingerbread train. Another year, we made a gingerbread house.
The year that we made our gingerbread house, our pen pals in Italy were so intrigued that we sent them a kit. Their class made the gingerbread house from the kit we sent them and had a blast!
Still another year, we made gingerbread boy and girl cookies.
This year, we have made a miniature gingerbread village.
It is a fun tradition, makes everything smell great, and is fun both in the classroom and in the home.
This year, my older son, who just turned six, also made a gingerbread pillow.
to see his pillow, please check out our family’s blog page:
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2009/12/santas-little-helpers.html
As a practical life activity one year, we also made soap balls that were scented with a gingerbread scent. These were a huge hit with families.
Both the gingerbread pillow and the gingerbread scented soap balls are great fine motor practice and a nice decoration for the holidays, too.
We talk about how trees in Germany traditionally were decorated with lebkuchen (gingerbread boy cookies) and that before people used the cookies to decorate their homes for Christmas, Franconian monks made a spice cake called Pfefferkuchen.
We also then talk about how in Colonial times, the idea of decorating the exterior of a home with wreaths with pine swags and gingerbread cookies is also something that would have most likely come from Germany.
We used to live in Virginia and would go to the Grand Illumination in Williamsburg every year to see the homes all decorated for the holidays.
Every Christmas Eve we fix our favorite fondue.
Then, it’s off to church for the beautiful candlelight service.
We take the long way home to look at all the lights.
We get home, change into our jammies, fix hot chocolate, serve the Christmas cookies and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
My kids are 26 and 23 and this has been our tradition since their births.
Tammi
Every Christmas, we adopt a needy family for the holidays and purchase food and gifts for them.
Throughout the year, we also help with the local food drive. Our children start the Christmas tradition with 12 days before Christmas by opening a gift from their stockings which Santa delivers every night.
On Christmas Eve, we attend mass to celebrate Christ’s birthday.
We have made it a tradition to go Christmas caroling at a local Hospice House. The kids enjoy shaking their jingle bells while they sing the holiday songs, baking treats in preparation for the event, and making cards for the residents there to pass out before we leave. Last year a family came out of their loved-one’s room and walked around with us as we sung songs and expressed to us how much we were enjoyed. It is wonderful to see smiles and spread some holiday cheer.
I make applesauce cinnamon ornaments with my class. The classroom smells wonderful and they make great gifts for the children to give.
Every year we get each of our 6 children a new ornament. The ornaments hang on our tree until they are ready to live independently. Each one will leave with a set for their own set of ornaments and hopefully start the tradition with their children. My husbands mom did this for him.
At school we have a book exchange between the children. They each bring a wrapped book and then in group, we ask them to think of who would really like their book- and this person doesn’t have to be their best friend…. and amazingly most of the children give it to someone you would least think they would.
With my family (which is large….6 of us kids who are all married, 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grand children), the adults do a gift exchange white elephant style. Most of the time the gifts are really good, but on occassion they are stinkers. We each draw a number and then get to open the gift or steal from someone else…. Its a lot of fun and the older grand kids cannot wait till they get to take part. We have done this for at least the past 17 or so years and have alot of fun with it! It helps especially if someone isn’t able to make it to Christmas-no one is left out if we would have drawn names and it keeps the expenses down rather than having to buy something for everyone!
Every year our family chooses tags from the Angel Tree in our church lobby. We choose tags labeled for children similar in age to our kids and then we go shopping and choose the gifts together. The gifts go to needy families in our community that have been chosen by our church. This year there is no Angel Tree, but instead we will be giving a portion of our Christmas budget in a benevolence offering to help congregation members pay thier bills- many of whom have already had their utilities turned off.
We have always done Christmas Eve with my Mom’s extended family. My Grandma had lots of brothers and sisters and they would all come to the “farm” with their families in tow. There were more people then I could count, and everyone would visit and eat.
I loved having all that family together. We have splintered off into smaller groups now, but there is usually a big sized group and I will always think of Christmas Eve and a time to celebrate with all that family you don’t see all the time.
Since this is my first year of teaching we are starting a tradition of cooking in our classroom to celebrate the holidays. This year we are studying Las Posadas, Christmas and Kwanzaa and have created our menu based on these celebrations. We will be making quesadillas with fresh hot sauce, cocoa and gingerbread men, and a fruit salad. The kids and parents are super excited that this years party is not just cupcakes with juice.
As my children grow we are adding new traditions but we always have the Advent wreath with the 3 purple candles and one pick. We have a white one in the middle for Christmas day to celebrate the coming of the Christ child. My children love it, adorned with greenery from the garden, we wait for the coming of Christmas, of Jesus’s birthday together as a family lighting the candles for prayers each night.
Before our winter break every year, we make gingerbread houses as our holiday/winter celebration. All the kids and their parents build a gingerbread house with graham crackers. We decorate with white frosting and a variety of candy. The kids love this activity and it is a great way to get together with families to celebrate the season. Plus the kids get to take their special house home, if it makes it home in one piece and is not eaten!
We all spend the night at the grandparents, all the little kids in the basement. We remove all the clocks, so no one knows what time it is! The little kids are stirring, hoping Santa came. In the morning they line up at the stairs and wait for the special song “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” to play! Once it does, they run up the stairs and see what Santa has brought.
What a generous giveaway! Our family enters into the infancy narrative lessons from Catechesis of the Good Shepherd through December and January. We have our advent wreath lit. Our house will be decorated for Christmas a few days before the 25th and we celebrate Epiphany in January as well as Candlemas in February. We really love this time of year!
Our school has 12 classrooms and each classroom sponsors a family from Children’s Services and provides gifts for that family. The family receive a gift from each child in the classroom, approx. 20 gifts ranging from personal essentails to completing the family’s personal wish list. The students wrap their gifts. Then a student from each class becomes a representative to deliver the presents to Family and Children’s Services. It is an amazing feeling for such a small school (approx 250 students) to fulfill the wishes of their community. The staff also participate(approx35) and donate gift cards that are used as emergency use for families and teens.
It is a wonderful way to teach children and remind adults how easy it is to give.
Cheers
Every year at this time our 4 Children House rooms collect mittens and gloves to hang from our “mitten trees”. These are then collected and donated to Bread and Roses; a soup kitchen in Lawrence,MA, to be given to needy families. Each contibuting child recieves a decorated paper mitten saying “Thank you” as a treasure of their kindness and caring.
As a teacher, I celebrate Hanakuh in the classroom. Near the beginning date, I set out a Menorah, and tell the story. The first day, I let the youngest child in the class light the first candle with the Shamash that I have lit. Each school day, we light consecutive candles. I’ll call the children to line up beside the table, then I light the Shamash. I hand it to the first child in line, who lights the first candle. He hands it back to me, and I give it to the next child. We do this eight school days in a row. The children enjoy the pagentry, the solemnity, and the responsibility of lighting the candles, and watching them burn themselves out.
At Kingwood Montessori, each year, we choose a country and study all aspects of its culture and traditions for our annual Winter Cultural Festival. We invite all our parents to join us in the evening in mid December to walk from room to room and country to country to enjoy the work of the children and be amazed and appreciative of the variety of aspects of the culture and customs. Last year was China. This year we choose Europe as the continent with representation by classroom of Hungary, England, Scotland, Greece and the Needs of Humans in Western Europe in the time of the Renaissance. You see the focus can vary a bit. Food, art, history, crafts, geography, customs and many aspects of the cultures are on display. We also put on a play or skit or two with costumes, staging, music and song. It is wonderful for all.
When I taught first grade(special education now) one of my favorite traditions with my class was to ask the parents to either bring in or send in something that was traditional in their family at Christmas- a special ornament , a collection or decoration, a story . It left a really warm feeling and closeness in our class.
My brothers, sisters, parents and my family get together for New Year’s eve. We eat most of the night and watch movies. It started when we were still all home, but now that all my brothers and sisters have left home it’s nice to knew we’ll see each other at least once a year and visit all night and just be together. It’s a time that we (including my kids) all look forward too. We, as an immediate family, try to do something for the advent each year — light the candles, and do some kind of event (unit study or read verses.)
Each Thanksgiving weekend, we head out to find and cut our Christmas tree. Then we listen to Christmas carols and decorate the tree. This year we started reading Jotham’s Journey as a family and are enjoying that. The first day of December we start our Advent calendar. Each day the little box has the start of a family-centered activity inside: a couple of pieces from a new holiday puzzle, a cinnamon stick for cookie baking, cloves for making pomanders. It really helps me to remember what’s really important during the holiday season, and it’s not rushing from store to store to find the perfect gift!
Our family has many celebrations in December, but we especially like to Winter Solstice. We make food for ourselves and the birds outside our home. Each year we try a different way of making bird feeders of various shapes, but it seems the pinecone w/vegetable lard and seeds seems to always work best for everyone, including mom! Now that I am in my Montessori training, this year I will bring this activity to the 6-9 classroom I am assisting in.
We enjoy going to the Museum of Science & Industry to listen to the Carolers and look at the trees from the “Christmas Around the World” exhibit!
At the end of the Christmas season, our family writes down a list of “lessons learned” for that year; it is the last thing packed into the boxes before they are stored. The following year, we commence the Christmas season with a special reading of our lessons learned list…it is GREAT! We started the tradition in 1999; after ten years, a house, a daughter and two sons, we have learned sooooo much!
Our tradition focuses around giving. My daughter chooses how much money to take out of her piggy bank and we match it. She also donates her Halloween candy to the local dentist who pays her for it to send to the troops for Christmas. That money is also matched by us. She then takes all that money and uses it to buy presents and other needed items to fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. She has so much fun shopping and adding many things to the shopping cart which she thinks they will like. We use a calculator and deduct the price of each item as she adds it to the cart. Great for teaching math skills as well as teaching compassion for others!!
We have an Advent wreath at home. This year, I put florist foam around it and decorated it with sprigs from our Christmas tree, ivy, purple bougainvilla, and rosemary. Each of the four Sundays before Christmas marks the beginning of a week of Advent… and there are four candles on the wreath. We light the first candle starting on the first Sunday of Advent, the first and second starting on the second Sunday, etc, and we leave the candles burning each night as we eat dinner together. It helps us mark the time that we are waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth each year on Christmas.
We write an annual holiday letter – we started it when our first one was born and have continued that tradition since then. Now the kids get their own paragraph.
Every year the women in our family have a cookie party. This tradition was started by my husband’s cousin. She passed a few years back & in her honor we continue the tradition she started. Her mother gives us some kind of gift with an angel…for Lisa
. I think it’s funny that all the women there are the who’s-who of our nearby school district. Than there I am..all Montessori Philosophied (i know i made up a word) & let’s just say I had wonderful conversations about education there.
In the classroom…we do the yearly Holiday Show…ohh, heaven help us!! Why do we put ourselves through the stress of it all?
Every year we read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve.
Last year we started doing a Jesse Tree. A family devotional each night and a handmade felt ornament to hang on a separate tree. Hoping this tradition will be well loved and remembered by the kids as they grow, and will help to emphasize the true meaning of the season.
During the holiday season, our class likes to learn more about the different celebrations that occur this time of year as well as the history of these holiday celebrations. As the first snows fall, we also enjoy studying animal tracks and plan a snow track detective adventure at a local park mid winter.
We would love to win the prize for the grammar solids for your Elementary Class! Thank you from Merrimack Montessori School in Haverhill, Ma 01830.
Traditions with family, friends, or school are a very important part of our lives. For all the young children in our midst these traditions are creating memories that will impact them for a lifetime. Whether following your family or school wide traditions or creating new ones….the practice is so rewarding!
In my family it is the small gifts that carry the most meaning…..these gifts are usually the little things that you know someone truly needs or will find a great treat! They also reveal your personal care for that person and the fact that you are listening!
With Holiday cheer for all!
Mary
We celebrate Advent with a Jesse tree. Each day of Advent, we read part off the story of salvation beginning with the Creation, the Fall, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. all the way through to the visit of the Magi. Over the years, we have collected or made an ornament to represent each day’s story, and the children take turns putting them on the tree. By Christmas, we have a small tree decorated with symbols of all the stories we have read, and on Christmas morning, we place a small statue of Baby Jesus in a wood manger below the tree.
I have used this tradition in the past in my preschool/kindergarten, montessori classroom and currently in my K-5 ESL classroom.
The children bake cookies and make rice krispie treats. A parent volunteer wraps them up for delivery. The children then visit each classroom, sing a few Christmas carols, and deliver the wrapped treats to the teachers and their assistants. I always tell the children that we cannot eat any, that Christmas is about giving. Of course, the day after the caroling, I bring in a batch of cookies and rice krispie treats that I made because I was so moved by the children’s generosity. The lessons: When you give from your heart you inspire others, lead by example, and give without expecting anything in return.
In our classroom I have the children bring in an ornament that represents their heritage. We get a good variety of items and stories.
my three children have their own box of decorations – collected over the last few Christmas’s. I do the lights on the tree and they do the decorations. We make fudge for the Montessori teachers too. What a fun time of year.
We have the tradition of decorating small brown paper bags with paint–Christmas pictures. We then use these to put our gifts in to one another.
At the holidays we ask that the children gift the classroom instead of the teachers. They bring a wrapped gift that can be used in the classroom. We all sit on the rug and everyone gets a chance to open and show the classs what they brought. The children really enjoy adding to the jobs and it gives them more ownership in the classroom. As teachers we do prepare a list of suggestions but anything is always welcomed.
I set up a Practical Life work in the classroom where the children can wrap a work and give it to another child. This is new this year and new this week but so far common items to be wrapped are sensorial geometric solids, pink cubes, brown prisms, a one hundred flat. No ribbon. I am using recycled wrapping paper so yes it is marginally wasteful (at home we use cloth bags made from holiday prints) but they are doing some great cutting and estimating of size needed.
Since I work with the 0-3 group, I make the effort to keep the environment as calm as possible. There is “so much” out there that it is easy for a toddler to become overwhelmed and overstimulated. When I did involve a holiday theme, it was mostly practical life. For example, we made and baked gingerbread men. (All of the ingredients were premeasured, so it was more about pouring, mixing, and using cooky cutters than anything else.) Together we made peanut butter candy, and a few other “treats” that I knew they could eat that would not give them too much sugar and that would qualify as “real food”, rather than empty calories. I changed the scents in the smelling bottles to smells that are typically associated with this time of year; pine, chocolate, apple cider, peppermint, etc. There were two of each, so matching was possible. I collected different types of greenery commonly used for holiday decorating and created a language /matching lesson, too. (spruce, holly, pine, etc. – NO mistletoe or poinsettia). Nomenclature cards of traditional children’s toys is another example. (tops, jack-in-a box, toy cars, baby dolls, etc.) And, of course, we sang Christmas songs – at least some of the verses; however, I did sing the extended versions to them at naptime. I never have decided who enjoys it most….those very young children or me.
This time of year we have several classroom traditions. We work through the month of December celebrating three different holidays. We start by talking about Hanukkah, and we light the menorah, play dreidel, sing songs, and make latkes. For Kwanzaa we light the Kinara, make gifts to place around the classroom, and taste many different fruits and vegetables for snack. The week before Winter Break we put out a small Christmas tree, make a gift for the parents, sing songs, and talk about some of the different Christmas beliefs and traditions. December is one of the busiest but most interesting months of the entire year. I look forward to it all year long!
Each year in our Montessori classroom, I demonstrate the cutting out of simple folded paper snowflakes. The children may take their snowflakes home, or hang them on the windows. By the end of December, the children have become quite proficient at snowflake paper art, and our classroom windows are beautifully decorated!
First, my students make a December calendar and adorn it with Matisse style cut-outs of symbols of peace from around the world. Next, we make cookies in jar, using the measurement materials from Montessori for Everyone, of course! Then, we drink hot chocolate and taste the delicious cookies we are giviving as gifts, and sing holiday songs. Falalalaaaaalalalala! Peace to all my Montessori friends this holiday season!
We view the end of the calender year as a time of giving thanks to loved ones and prepare for a great new year ahead. Each year we make gratitude cards for family and friends, it is especially fun since the oldest one started writing his own messages. Last year we started a tradition of baking cinnamon rolls for friends and neighbors to give with the cards, this year we hope to add cookie-baking get-togethers with friends to the holiday tradition. With all our family in Africa, we use this time to learn about their culture and traditions. This time of the year we also celebrate Winter Solstice. I am sure our list of traditions will grow longer as the children grow older.
We always decorate the tree the first Sunday of Advent.
My 2 children have a total of 4 cousins. We do a gift exchange among the children where all gifts are handmade by the children themselves. Last year our gifts were pillowcases with my son choosing the fabric and helping me with the sewing (my daughter was only 2 so she put the pins back in the pin cushion as we went along). This year we are using potholder looms to weave potholders and sew them together to make things (a small purse, a placemat etc.). The added element this year is that we purchased undyed wool loops and are dying them ourselves. My 3 year old is very into painting so she is painting a picture for each cousin. The children have treasured the gifts they received from their cousins but even more the experiences of making gifts for giving.
At school we usually learn about winter holidays from various cultures. I enjoy doing the legend of the poinsettia and making poinsettias out of paper with my class. They look beautiful mounted on black paper and the students get to try out some new sounds with the Spanish words from the books.
Our family gathered around the table 3 days before Christmas and made tamales. We made enough to feed our family, relatives, and cousins for days!!!.
They were and still are delicious! My mother is 85 and still makes tamales!
We make cookies and candy for all of our teachers and for the neighbors. We want to give them something that we made for them, but that they don’t have to find something to do with like that unidentifiable pottery project the kids made : )
Our family works together to make and package handmade tin tinsel to give as gifts. It is a fun tradition and it’s always nice to hear people talk about how much they love it each year when they hang it on their tree!
At Amuma’s ( grandmas) house each year my children and their children make a homemade gift for the person that they draw for. We have been doing it for about 8 years now and everyone really enjoys seeing what each person comes up with each year. Even the babies have to make a gift ( with help of course). We take pictures so we can remember what each person has made throughout the years. Some presents are huge others are small but they all are very meaningful and something that each one of us can charish throughtout the year. and may last a lifetime.
We are making all of our gifts to each other this year. I decided this out of necessity but I think out of the real meaning of Christmas, we will do this every year.
All of my generation get together every year and make sugar cookies. It’s been going on since I was a child, and now we are mostly adults and our own children do it with us.
We always try to make any christmas ornament with the child’s hand print I beliave that you can never have enought hand prints from your child.