Making Christmas Traditions

As my children grow older, they have developed strict ideas of our family's Christmas traditions. Some I have worked at instilling in them - for instance, making Christmas decorations together.



Fabric scrap wreath from Burdastyle magazine 11-2010?



Felt baubles from who knows where, fabric stars from the same place. (You can see that our decoration aesthetic is "home-made rules")
Hand made gifts is another tradition we encourage.

Hand knitted cardigans for Sydney nieces.

Most traditional of all is the annual unfinished gift -

this one is a sparkly scarf for my Mum, that she asked for last week. It would have been plenty of time if not for finishing those pesky cardigans.....(I think the unfinished gift tradition is passed down from my mother....)

Occasionally my children remind me of a tradition I had forgotten. I had no idea that we make a gingerbread house every Christmas Eve when we are spending Christmas at home, but my children assure me that we do. I vaguely remember doing this 2 or 3 times before, but this time I only had to make the gingerbread.

Fortunately it does not have to stand up for long.

This year there seems to be a new tradition. It involves me staying up after my night owl teenagers to supervise Santa. I don't think I like this one!

Happy Christmas to all those who celebrate this occasion.