| | | | |

12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (2017) – Day 4

 

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.

*Give Away has Ended*

GRAND PRIZE!!!

One of you WHO COMMENTS ON ALL TWELVE POSTS AND ALSO SHARES ABOUT THE SERIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA will win a grand prize from me, pictured here.

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.

REMEMBER…in order to win the grand prize, you must leave a comment on all 12 posts. You can start with Day One HERE.

OK, let’s get started with our fourth day’s guest, Lindsey Feldpausch!

**********************

Just Three Things

Christmas festivities and decorations were always slightly different when I was growing up.

We started with Santa as our tree topper, and then we had an angel and then a star. Sometimes my mom made oatmeal scotchies. Other years she made sugar cookies or spritz cookies. Sometimes my dad would make an ice rink in the backyard. Other years he seemed committed to showing us all the classic Christmas movies. Some years we would go to a little chapel in my mom’s hometown to attend an evening candle-light service and other years we turned in early. Some years my parents put gifts under the tree early and other years we could hear them frantically wrapping well into the night on Christmas Eve. Some years we had professional pictures with fake fireplace backgrounds and some years there was no formal documentation of the occasion.


Christmas at my house had two things in common each year.

  1. People got gifts under a tree
  2. on December 25th

Sure, we had the same ornaments to hang up. You could generally count on my dad to make wise cracks while we were opening gifts and you could also usually predict that my mom would have a steaming cup of coffee in her hand as she watched us tear through the presents with excitement.

Other than that, we didn’t really have a Christmas tradition unique to our family. Truthfully, now that I have a family of my own, Christmas looks pretty similar.

I wanted to let you know, that if you’re kind of like me— it’s okay if you’re a little low on Christmas traditions. Hey, that’s why this series from Karen is so fun— there are plenty of ideas to try this year! If it doesn’t work out, try something new next year!

My parents became Christians when they were 38 years old. I was 13 years old at the time. That’s when they taught me the true meaning of Christmas.

Ever since then, we’ve had 3 things that are always the same around here:

  1. People get gifts under a tree
  2. on December 25th
  3. because Jesus came as a baby to rescue us from sin forever.

My husband’s family likes to act out the nativity story, complete with bedsheets and rehearsed lines. My parents usually enjoy reading the biblical account. My husband and I like to watch The Nativity Story with our kids. Either way, we praise God for sending his Son. What a wonderful Christmas that was when we learned the true meaning of Christmas.

Day 4 Giveaway

For my giveaway I’d like to offer a throwback package that reminds me of one of the many different Christmases we had. One particular year, my dad kept the fireplace filled with long-lasting flames. I sat, read, and wrote by the fire. It was especially quiet that year. My mom played a variety of music (everything from Gladys Knight to Andrea Bocelli to the Muppet Christmas Carol Soundtrack). My heart was full.

Here are 3 different journals/notepads because I do believe a girl can never have enough things to write on, a pack of thank you cards, and an iTunes giftcard to download something new.

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.


Lindsey Feldpausch is a writer, speaker, and graphic designer. She lives in a small town outside of Grand Rapids Michigan. Married to a humble, handsome Youth Pastor, together they have four children. She is a Projects Manager for a Proverbs 31 Author & Speaker Karen Ehman, Spokeswoman for Jonathan Park Audio Adventures, and Reviewer of Family Products at TheBetterMom.com. She can’t wait to tell you a story and can’t wait to listen to yours. Jesus is her Savior. She is currently unfinished.

You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

**********************

12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Rules

  1. You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 17. All posts are linked on Day One here.
  2. U.S. Addresses only please.
  3. One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments and all winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced on Wednesday, December 20.
  4. Share the giveaway with your friends and followers using the share buttons below.
  5. If you’re not already subscribed, click here and receive an email notification each day of our series.

Similar Posts

407 Comments

  1. Growing up we had just a few traditions. As an adult and a mom I started a few with my children. Traditions just add something to the celebration of Christmas. We still keep up the traditions now that my children are grown and have their own lives. Happy to know that my son has kept some of the same traditions alive in his family.

  2. How wonderful that you learned the most important lesson of Christmas as a child and are now passing it along to your own children.

  3. We have a lot of traditions bur as some familiy members leave thia world and others are born into it, they change foe the good!

  4. My family always went together to look at Christmas lights. We gathered at my grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve and opened gifts from the family. Then at midnight, we went to a candlelight service at church. I miss those Christmas Eve nights.

  5. My family growing up was always big on tradition. When i grew up and got married and had kids of my own, our traditions have changed. We use to go look at Christmas lights on Christmas eve. Now, the grandma and Aunt take them several times during the month of December and I am okay with that. I still make sugar cookies with my kids just as my mom used to do with us. And one tradition that we will always have, is reading Twas the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve at bedtime. My dad read it every year before bed on Christmas Eve and I loved that tradition. Things can change, but what will always remain is that we are together and celebrate Jesus’s birth.

  6. As a child I had both sets of families that lived in a small town so Christmas was a absolute blast seemed like Christmas lasted for a week! Now as life has taken it’s toll on the families I have had to make new traditions as my husband of 40 years has passed. The new traditions are fun to make as my grandchildren say making new memories!!! May God bless y7ou and your family this christmas.

  7. Growing up I had traditions as to when the tree was bought and set up and exactly which set of grandparents homes we went to when and when we got to open our gifts under the tree at home and when the tree was taken down. There was always a Christmas jello mold I got to help make for the holidays too. Now that my kids are older traditions are hard to keep.

  8. The only real tradition in our house was we put up our tree Christmas Eve because trees were cheap or free! My children are grown but I love these ideas. It’s never too late to start a tradition.

  9. As a child from divorced family, our holidays were always different. I am married to a man who has divorced parents too. On top of that, most of our families live in different states. Each year many things are different for us- some ways I am sad about that but overall we are home every Christmas morning since our son was born- my mom does come over Christmas Eve night and ‘surprises’ her grandson in the morning- followed by some food for breakfast and opening gifts. Oh, we do have 1 thing- every year we let our son open 1 gift on Christmas eve– it is always a set of pajamas–so he can look fresh for christmas morning :) I hope to keep that tradition alive even after he is grown and has his own family some day.

  10. I had wonderful traditions growing up, now we are working on creating our own traditions bringing in a few from both of our childhoods.

  11. We don’t really have any Christmas traditions. My husband and I live several states away from all of our family – so Christmas is low key. The only thing I do every year is bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning – my husband’s mom started it years ago!

  12. Writing in journals is something that I love to do but even better is going back and seeing where I have been. Beautiful journals!

  13. How did I manage to miss this! Well … it’s because I’m also one of those moms who doesn’t quite have it all together, and who certainly doesn’t do Christmastime with Elvin speed and grace. Your post made me cry. Yes, I’m also a weepy mom. Ha! You hit a sensitive nerve when you wrote that it’s okay if we don’t measure up to all those Christmas Pinterest moms. I send sincere kuddos to them — they keep me striving! But at the end of the day I’m lucky if I’ve managed to buy a boxed gingerbread house (let alone scheduled a day to build it!) and not forgotten yet another day of Advent. I have managed to make at least one little simple Christmas tradition in our home. It makes me weepy to think that it’s become a “tradition” to our kids — because oh my gosh I’ve made a tradition, but also oh my gosh it’s such a lame tradition! LOL! But it’s a tradition to them. And hearing their excitement to do it just lights my heart. And speaking of lights, our tradition is all about the beautiful Christmas lights. We bundle up (in an Arizona kind of way, anyway) with our hot cocoa and candy canes and drive around town to look at Christmas lights. They love it and I love that.

  14. I loved making Christmas ornaments with my kids pictures on them. They still have them and hang them on their tree each year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *