Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (with Ann Swindell)
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It’s Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!
If you’re just joining in, start at Day One here.
Today’s guest is Ann Swindell. Ann and I became friends when she joined our First 5 app Bible teaching team at Proverbs 31 Ministries. She is an author who loves to help others fulfill their dream of writing. She resides in Texas with her family. You are going to love hearing about a favorite family tradition. You may even want to adopt it yourself! Now, here’s Ann…
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When I was a kid, our family jumped in the car the day after Christmas to drive up to Michigan and spend our “second Christmas” with my mom’s side of the family. We all piled into one house, and the chaos of cousins and aunts and uncles made the house ring with laughter and conversation. There were two things I loved most about these “second Christmases;” while I couldn’t have named it this way as a child, it was that the sacred and the silly flowed together, and I love that Christmas has room for both.
The Sacred: All of us—aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins and grandparents—stood in a circle to sing Christmas hymns. Joy to the World, Silent Night, Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming: they pointed us to Jesus and to the grace we were experiencing by being together. It didn’t hurt that my extended family often sang in two- or three-part harmony; the loveliness of it was nearly overwhelming for me as a child.
The Silly: The next day, after the big meal, we all sat down for the Annual Snowball Ice Cream Race. Don’t know what that is? I’m not sure anyone does except our family! My grandma started the tradition by scooping vanilla ice cream into balls, covering them with coconut flakes, and then sticking a birthday candle in each one. Somehow, family members started trying to see who could keep their candle burning the longest, and a tradition was born long before I was.
By the time I was old enough to participate, the rules had become clear: absolutely no touching the candle with your fingers—the fork was the only way to manipulate the ice cream and the candle. Doors were not allowed to be opened near the candles, and sneezing was highly frowned upon. Uncle Steve was often the official timer and brought his stopwatch for the occasion. Techniques had been honed and shared with younger generations—candles burned longer when they were placed on their side near the edge of the porcelain plate (no paper plates allowed near open flame!), and avoiding the melting ice cream was of paramount importance. Races sometimes took nearly an hour; family members kept those tiny candles burning as long as possible, and winners were often determined in a difference of seconds.
The winner every year received a family plaque and bragging rights, plus a $20 bill slipped to them with a wink by grandpa. Why did we do this? Because it was fun, and because it was family, and because it was our thing—a way to mark the time and the years together, just as we did with singing hymns.
The Lord loves our praise and our songs and our reverence, and He also delights in our laughter and our silliness and our fun. Christmas is beautiful enough to contain both—the glory and the laughter, the sacred and the silly, hymns and ice cream together.
What is a sacred, or silly, tradition you did as a kid or one your family currently does? I would love to read about it in the comments.
Day 8 Giveaway
Ann is giving away a copy of her book, Still Waiting: Hope When God Doesn’t Give You What You Want, and a $15 e-gift card to Starbucks.
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Ann Swindell is a writer and speaker who is committed to seeing women set free by the love of Christ. She writes for multiple publications and is the author of Still Waiting: Hope for When God Doesn’t Give You What You Want. She has been joyfully married to Michael for over a decade and they are raising their two blue-eyed kids in Texas. Ann loves helping other writers share their stories beautifully and powerfully through her ministries, Writing with Grace and The Writing Mom Course.
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As a child my folks let me open a present on Christmas Eve. I have passed that treat on to my children.
No silly traditions but with my mom being 1 of 7 there was always a 2nd, and 3rd, christmas at least in one day with all the stops. Now, when we go to my parent’s there’s 2 stops, their house then my sister’s. Everyone else has moved to sticking with their children’s families. BUT there’s an annual ornament exchange where everuone is invited ( if they’re in town or csn make it into town ). With 23 grandchildren abd 22 great-grandchildren, you never know who may show up! we do a modified Yankee swap with ornaments no > $10 a piece, from all over the wprld or country, or handmade, which can get rather heated with certain in laws
My parent’s house is always filled with love and laughter and games at Christmas. My middle brother says he started this tradition years ago, but I am pretty sure I was the first to bring it to the family. The way I remember is that my husband and I bought a bunch of mystery gifts from a church bazaar and took them to the family home at Thanksgiving. There was one for everyone, ranging in price from $1-$10. No one knew what was in the mystery packages, not even us. We played it like a typical white elephant gift game with 3 steals allowed per round. “The Game” became an annual tradition with more elaborate gifts wrapped. My middle brother would shop all year round for gifts that were “perfect for the game!!” No matter how many showed up for The Game, that’s how many presents there were. Sometimes it was grabbing something out of my mother’s closet that she had gotten free from mail order, but there was never a shortage on gifts! Tomorrow marks the 4th anniversary since that brother passed away. He was packing up to leave for his trip to the family home (from Arizona to California) when he got very sick. He died 5 days later. When family members went to his house to retrieve his things, they found partially wrapped presents and stacks of already wrapped presents, ready to to be loaded into the car. This game is now played in his honor. I no longer need to try to take credit for it, because it will always be Teddy’s game. I love this particular gift giving game more than any other.
I can’t think of a silly tradition we do, but we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast & take turn serving each gifts one at a time.
My husbands family hides the Christmas pickle in the tree and then we destroy the tree trying to find it first. It was the weirdest thing to me when we first got married! Now it wouldn’t be Christmas without it!
We always have a hot breakfast on Christmas morning – usually waffles!
Thank you for your generosity!!
We have lots of kiddos in our family and my sister thought of doing a kids talent show during Christmas. I really hope that this will be a start to a Christmas tradition for our family.
Growing up- our family had light that hung down at my grandparents house..
As we got older, it became the joke that who ever bonked it w/their head would get this light one day..
Then it started showing up at people’s houses in our family decorated in interesting ways…
Now no one knows what has happened to it or who has it.. but we all await to see where it will show up next…
We enjoy watching Christmas movies together.
I love going to Busch gardens Williamsburg with the kids to see the lights and experience the magical feeling of Christmas. The kids love the hot chocolate, meeting Santa and Rudolph. I love the show Gloria. Such a magical time.
We would always meet at my grandparents for Christmas Eve and go to Christmas Eve communion as a huge family. We would then all come back to my grandparents and have a Christmas Eve party, read the story of Jesus, and end it with the story of Santa Claus. When all was done we got to open stockings and presents. Everyone would go their separate ways, except us because we had to travel a longer distance. It was one of my most memorable and favorite times during Christmas. We still instill some of these for my children, but it’s just on a way smaller scale. I still share my memories with my children and we are creating new traditions, especially since we’ve had some major losses.
The children always decorate the Christmas tree. The last decoration is always the topper. Daddy would always lift the littlest child to place the topper. Now they are a bit too grown to be lifted and can reach it without assistance. Regardless a time we make for family every year!
The kids like to sleep under the tree after we decorate it.
A favorite tradition my Mom’s family did was to caravan out to my Grandparents house with a few Aunts and Uncles (typically 2-3 vehicles); it took approximately one and a half hours and we usually had to drive through blizzards to get there. After enjoying a wonderful Christmas dinner, with a lot of delicious Swedish treats, we would gather in their living room and sing several Christmas songs while my Grandma or an Aunt played the piano. We had small songbooks, and had an opportunity to make requests. It was a glorious time together. My Grandparents have passed on, so these moments no longer exist, unfortunately. I really miss those times but am grateful for the memories.
When I was growing up we used to have fondue for dinner on Christmas Eve. I don’t know why we started doing it, but it was a nice time to be together and slow down for a bit.
My dad used to dress up as Santa and visit my kids on Christmas Eve. Sadly, my dad passed away 4 years ago. My kids never did suspect that it was him.
A silly tradition, started out as an opps by my dad,. but playing with the kids toys on Christmas eve while we are helping Santa.
Oh, what fun! Times with family are always special! I’m inspired to think of a contest for my grands this year!
Christmas Eve dinner with the Kissin’ Cousins! What a hoot!
Growing up we always watched the Christmas classic movies on TV. My kids have enjoyed just the same. We all may grow older each year but, we can all agree that childhood fun like this doesn’t have to keep us our calendar age. Blessings of peace and joy through Christ our Lord!
What a fun tradition! Our family always went to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve! It was so much fun being with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We would open gifts, sing Christmas carols and eat dinner. Once we got home we would be allowed to open one gift. Of course it was the gift that Mom chose and always ended up being our Christmas jammies. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
We always opened up one present on Christmas eve when I was growing up and I continued with my son.
I have amassed a variety of colorful fun aprons… Everyone gets to choose which one they use as we all help in the kitchen… Bumping elbows and posing for a photo op to model our apron style! :)
I don’t know that we’ve ever bag traditions like these. We love to play Dominoes so whenever we get together, that’s what we do. Believe me, it’s not for the faint of heart! It’s every man for himself. And yes, there are desserts, lots of desserts, too easy while we’re play. It’s lots of fun though.