5th Day of Christmas Giveaway with Melissa Taylor
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Welcome to the 5th Day of Christmas Giveaway!!
Each day, December 1-12th, I am featuring a fellow Proverbs 31 sister and an aspect of Christmas. You’ll get to know her and she, in turn, will offer a fabulous giveaway! Simply leave a comment on her post to be entered in the drawing.
And, one soon-to-be-very-giddy gal who comments on all 12 posts will win the GRAND PRIZE! You may comment on all posts until Monday, December 13th when the winners will be announced. (to see the grand prize and get caught up on the posts click here)
Now, here’s our fifth P31 gal……the sweet Melissa Taylor!!!
Hi! I’m so excited to be a part of Karen’s 12 Days of Christmas. My name is Melissa Taylor. I have been on the Speaker Team at Proverbs 31 Ministries for six years. I also work in the P31 office full time as admin assistant, prayer coordinator, and part time radio assistant. I’ve been married for 21 years and have 4 great kids!
We moved a lot during my early childhood. Before the age of 9, I had spent Christmas in Taylors SC, Memphis TN, Winter Park FL, Albany GA, Greenville SC, and Charlotte NC. Moving around so much was difficult because life was always changing. There were some things however that remained constant.
One of those was my very favorite Christmas tradition. My favorite tradition is one that most families do during the holidays. And it’s one that has provided me with more than just a good time. It represents love, life, family, memories, and it’s something I’ve always been able to count on year after year. Growing up and still today, my favorite tradition is decorating the Christmas tree.
Our Christmas tree was never one that most would consider beautifully decorated. I know in many homes I’ve been in, the tree is amazing. Every ornament strategically placed, every light coordinated to compliment the decor, ribbons and flowers and ting ting spruced throughout looking as if Martha Stewart herself had decorated it.
I have a friend who doesn’t allow her kids to touch her tree. That’s her thing. I know another family who places all the kids’ homemade ornaments on the back of the tree, only the perfect store bought matching ornaments in the front. All that is okay, but that’s not the way it was in my family.
My mom made decorating the tree a true family event. No matter where we lived or what was going on in “real life”, the tree decorating time was fun and memorable. Our ornaments were mostly homemade or purchased somewhere that held a special memory. Each ornament told a story and of course we retold those stories year after year. Life changed, but decorating the Christmas tree brought us back year after year to a place where we felt the love and comfort of home.
This tradition continues in my home today. Tree decorating time is our favorite. My kids love putting up the ornaments they claim as their own. With the Christmas music in the background, party mix and hot chocolate on the coffee table, we come together creating new memories with the same old tradition.
Since my childhood, there have been many more ornaments and memories added to our family tree from my own husband and kids. And this year will be extra bitterweet because we lost my sweet mom, it’s our first Christmas without her. Even though she will not physically be here, with many of the ornaments we hang, there will be a memory of mom and a story to be told. Her legacy will live on partially through decorating the tree.
Melissa’s Giveaway
As you read this, I am vacationing with my family in Walt Disney World. As an early Christmas gift, my inlaws have taken the whole Taylor family to the most magical place on earth. It’s one of my very favorite places because of the special memories I’ve had there during my lifetime with my family.
We will for sure purchase a Christmas ornament to mark the occasion. And so I will purchase 2, one for us and one for today’s lucky winner. If you win today, you will receive an ornament along with some hot chocolate and party mix.
If you have a special tradition or memory you’d like to share, we’d love to read about it. Just leave a comment and not only will you be sharing a special tradition, but you’ll also be entered to win today’s Christmas prize. If you don’t have a memory to share or the time today to share it, just tell us who your favorite Disney character is. :-)
Magical Blessings,
I’m in!
My favorite tradition to make a birthday cake for Jesus. We sing to him on Christmas Day.
We have some of my husband’s decorations. Our favorite decorating time is putting up a little music box with the 3 angels singing and pulling the string to hear the music. We hope to hear that little music box for many years to come.
Merry Christmas!
My favorite tradition as an adult is also decorating the tree. I too LOVE that my ornaments don’t match and that the majority have special meaning to us.
There is one difference though — my mom was very picky about her tree. She would be right on us making sure that the ornaments were spread out, none of the same colors were too close to each other etc. I hated doing the tree with her. The year she decided no more handamde ornaments on the tree was no good for me.
Now that I have my own family I let them do all the hanging. I unwrap and remember and let them hang. I only hang a handful of ornaments that are very special to me.
I love decorating our Christmas tree. This year our kids were old enough to help us decorate the whole tree. We had a great time listening to Christmas music and watching the kids as they put the ornaments on the tree. The bottom of our tree is loaded with their special ornaments. I love it!
My favorite christmas tradition is decorating the tree. As my husband wrestles with the light, the kids and I are pulling out ornaments to put on the tree. The kids help decorate and are so excited to see all the past ornaments they have made at school!
Cinderella.
One Christmas tradition we have is to give our kids one present on Christmas Eve which is something new to wear to our family Christmas. We also take the time to write out “our gift to Jesus” every year. I love to look back at what each of us wrote through the years.
My aunt recommended years ago not to have the perfect Christmas tree but to let the kids decorate it and have happy memories instead. So for years now, my kids decorate the tree. We just put up the lights for them. In the early years the tree was quite bottom heavy but now that the kids are older it is just fine. Moments are spent reminiscing over the ornaments rather than me being manic about the placement. We have been traveling the last four years and have tried to collect ornaments from the places we’ve been so now when we unpack the ornaments, we talk about our fun times had in that place. I feel so blessed. Thanks for all the fun comments everyone shared.
We buy an ornament for each child every year to symbolize something special about them…
Well, being a Florida cracker…..I can understand the fun you’re having at WDW! Enjoy! What a great present!
My favorite character? Minnie Mouse!
She’s so girly….and I like that!
My favorite Christmas memory is one we just started last year with our children. We started using an Advent calendar and reading it at dinner each night. The kids asked in November if we were going to do it again this year…that made me smile that they remembered. So now it’s on every year!
I love decorating the tree with my family. Each year we buy each of our children a new ornament that is meaningful for the past year. Also we buy a “family” ornament and hide it on the tree on Christmas eve and wrap the box. The kids can see what the ornament looks like from the box and then they find it on the tree.
we like making goodies and giving them in baskets.
The yearly Christmas tree search is always so much fun. The second year we were married we planted some evergreen trees on our property. For years we were able to enjoy going to the property and looking each tree up and down to determine which would be “the perfect tree”. We cut our own and then would pull it up to the house. Now 28 years after we planted them they are too large to cut….hey maybe the White House would like one of them someday?? They are beautiful Blue Spruce about 40 to 50 ft tall. This summer I was looking around and found some baby trees growing up in the undergrowth of the taller trees, so maybe our grandchildren will be able to go on their own search of their favorite tree.
Our tree now belongs to our girls… they decorate it any way the want with whatever they want… They are so proud to do that… Its my favorite part of Christmas.
I don’t have a special memory about decorating the tree. And I wish we did. I wish it wasn’t a time of stress, and that we all enjoyed it. I love that my kids like to unwrap each ornament, kind of like unwrapping gifts, they oogle over each one. Sometimes even fight over who hangs what. And taking down the tree is always stressful. Some bad memories. I hope this year will be different. And it will. We are hanging our baby’s special ornament, she went to live with Jesus at birth. :)
I love decorating for Christmas—when i was younger, my mom and I would always put the ornaments on the tree, after dad strung the lights (he was/is in charge of electrical devices during the holidays). My mother kept all the ornaments with our pictures, things that we had made growing up, and of course all the ornaments that we had given each other over the years to decorate with. Now that my brother and I are both married, we have separated our ornaments, and as I put my tree up with my husband, I was able to share with him about the ornaments I had brought from my mothers’ house. I know this will be something that we do for years to come, and then one day, our future children will be able to take their ornaments too!
(and I love the Disney villains! Maleficent is the best (or worst, maybe?)
Every year, growing up, my parents gave my brother and I each an ornament to open on Christmas Eve. Now my husband and I do the same thing with our kids!
We love music and singing at our house…and I have so many wonderful memories of singing Christmas carols growing up. Me and my sister would put on the Mitch Miller sing along album, dance, sing and have such fun! Tree decorating is right up there with great memories too.
We love to decorate the tree as a family every year. We just put on the favorite Christmas CD (our latest favorite is the Casting Crowns Christmas CD) and enjoy hot apple cider as we marvel at the trees transformation. I love Christmas. And I try very hard not to forget “the reason for the season”. To honor and praise the birth of our Lord!
Each Christmas morning our boys wake up to a living room filled with balloons on the floor. They have a blast just going thru the balloons to get to their presents. The balloons are to remind of the bday party for Jesus that day. Then Christmas day we have a bday party for Jesus.
I love getting new ornaments for our family and the kids every year!!
The best tradition is having the whole family here on Christmas day!
We have several things we like to do each year. Each year we set up our winter village first. Then a couple of weeks later we set up and decorate the tree and set up our manger scene with Christmas music in the background. We bake cookies to give to friends and our church puts together boxes of baking for the seniors and singles in our church. The kids are allowed to open one present on Christmas eve. Then Christmas morning they open their stockings first, followed by presents. So much fun!