Traditions for Chenowith Elementary School Staff

Here are some Christmas Holiday Traditions that were sent to me. Have fun matching the stories to the following people: Kathy Maxwell, Jeanine Dirksen, EJ Howe, Larry Sprouse, Tami Berthold,Karen Brice, Bernadine Cannon, Diana Weston, Linda Pierce, Carla Potter, Susie Thruman, and Phyllis Turner.

IN MY FAMILY ON THE PETERSEN SIDE, AT CHRISTMAS TIME THE MOTHER MAKES A PUDDING (RUM PUDDING) AND THEN SHE HIDES AN ALMOND IN IT. THIS ALL HAPPENS ON CHRISTMAS EVE. WHOMEVER GETS THE ALMOND IN THE PUDDING GETS A GIFT. THE GIFT USUALLY IS A GAME FOR EVERYONE TO PLAY ON CHRISTMAS EVE. THIS IS A DANISH TRADITION AS MY MOTHER WAS BORN IN DENMARK. HAVE FUN WITH THIS.

We make scripture rolls. The rolls are baked with little slips of paper in them with scriptures on them. The rolls are passed out first and if you have a scripture in your roll you get to read it outloud around the table before dinner.

I've always enjoyed making Christmas 's to hang on our fireplace mantle for new members of the family, whether by birth, marriage, etc. and also have made 's for my kids as they left home for them to hang in their own home wherever they wished.

We have tamales for breakfast on Christmas morning. A carry over from my husband's Mexican heritage! My married daughter has carried on the tradition!

Every Christmas "Eve", with the extended family, (which usually happens two days after Christmas), Granddad reads the Christmas story from the Bible, the kids all perform something special they've been working on (a piano piece, a song, an art project etc.) and then we light candles on a little wooden Christmas tree and sing "Silent Night". The next day we open presents and have a second Christmas. I enjoy spreading my Christmasses out.

Our favorite thing our family does every Christmas season is that starting around December 1st, we put the manger in the living room and leave the hay box empty (we hide Jesus until Christmas morning). Every day when we get home from work or school, we take a piece of hay and put it in the hay box for each kind deed we did that day. By the time Christmas arrives, we place Jesus in the haybox, offering him our kind little deeds we have done which are represented by the hay pieces. Every Christmas "Eve", with the extended family, (which usually happens two days after Christmas), Granddad reads the Christmas story from the Bible, the kids all perform something special they've been working on (a piano piece, a song, an art project etc.) and then we light candles on a little wooden Christmas tree and sing "Silent Night". The next day we open presents and have a second Christmas. I enjoy spreading my Christmasses out.

WE HAVE THE ADVENT CALENDAR THAT IS HUNG BY EACH CHILDS DOOR AND WE HAVE SPECIAL STORIES WE READ AGAIN AND AGAIN EACH YEAR. WHEN THE KIDS WERE YOUNGER WE BAKED JESUS A BIRTHDAY CAKE AND ATE IT XMAS MORNING BUT SINCE ALL THE KIDS HAVE OTHER ACTIVITIES WE HAVEN'T DONE THAT THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS. WHEN I GET GRANDCHILDREN I AM GOING TO DO IT AGAIN. NO MATTER WHERE WE HAVE XMAS OR WITH WHO WE ALWAYS HAVE OUR OWN PRIVATE LITTLE GIFT EXCHANGE JUST BETWEEN BOB, THE KIDS AND I. IT'S ALWAYS BEEN A SPECIAL TIME FOR US TO SHARE THE SPECIAL THINGS WE HAVE THOUGHT TO DO FOR EACH OTHER DURING THE YEAR.WE ALWAYS DECORATE THE TREE TOGETHER BECAUSE EACH ONE OF THE ORNAMENTS WAS GIVEN TO SOMEONE IN OUR FAMILY AND THE KIDS HAVE FUN WHEN I TELL THEM ABOUT THE STORY BEHIND THEM. SOME OF THESE TRADITIONS ARE MORE FOR WHEN THE KIDS ARE YOUNG.

One tradition I started when the boys were young was about a week before Christmas I put a small gift wrapped and hung it on the tree for them to find. Was usually a small toy or piece of candy. The name tag was large with their name on it. This was a game to see if they could recognize their name and also find where the gift was hiding in the branches. As they have gotten older they still love to look for the gift in the branches each morning.

One of my favorite family holiday traditions is the decorating of Christmas Cookies. My mother has a recipe for thin cookies that we cut out in shapes and decorate. Even when my girls were little, we went to Grandma's house to "do the cookies". We usually have at least eight colors of frosting, numerous "sprinkles" & toppings (ranging from tiny M&Ms to different colors of sugar sprinkles), and 10-15 different cookie shapes. We decorate 10-12 dozen cookies and that will keep us busy for a couple of hours. A larger cookie, usually in the shape of a Santa or a gingerbread man, is made for each of the children to decorate as their own special cookie. It is a time of sharing, teasing, a little competition to see who can create the most detailed cookie, and just all-round family togetherness. I look back each year now when my daughters are helping me decorate those special cookies, to the time when my brothers and sisters would decorate cookies together. What started out as a chore many years ago, has become much anticipated and enjoyable tradition!

Well our family had a tradition of going out each Christmas Eve and Christmas caroling around our local area. We went with our friends and our neighbors and took candles to light while we sang. I remember it being so much fun that last year we did it again including a whole new generation! We used flashlights instead of candles because we hadn't planned this ahead, but it came up as memories of childhood Christmases.

Baking and eating lefse was a tradition during holiday time; my mom, now 87, still makes it. It's wonderful! Another tradition was having lutefisk--not so wonderful--actually pretty disgusting in my estimation! That's a tradition I WILL NOT continue!

One of our Christmas traditions since our kids have grown is on Christmas Eve we still have our stockings (hung with care, ha) but each of us have bought each other little gifts for each others stockings. Before going to bed we sneak into the living room and put our little goodies in each others stockings. It is was more fun when the kids were little. Because as hard as we try, we can't help but notice something delightful hanging out of our stocking that one of the family members put in (while trying to put other goodies in the socks). We have learned to keep some of the gifts in paper sacks and put it under their socks just so they won't see until Christmas morning. What is fun is when say I am just finishing putting things in their socks and one of my kids come in next. They start putting things in and since I am still there I can't help but see and I might say, "Oh, I love that kind of hand lotion. So my

son will say, "Ok, I'll put it in your sock but then I want something out of your sock. I might trade him two packs of gum. We are cracking

up and in the background you can hear the other kids say, "Hey no cheating in there, you can't look until morning!" Of course we deny it. Even tho we are way past being little children and Santa, no one wants to give up "the socks!". After all, its TRADITION!