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Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (with Ann Swindell)

Winners announced here! Congratulations!

*Give Away has Ended*

It’s Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!

If you’re just joining in, start at Day One here.

11th Annual 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (2018) December 4-15 at karenehman.com.

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.

Enter to win Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways with Ann Swindell at karenehman.com.

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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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12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Rules
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  6. All winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced here on the blog on Tuesday, December 18, and contacted via email. Please allow 4-6 weeks to receive your prizes.
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11th Annual 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (2018) December 4-15 at karenehman.com.

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258 Comments

  1. In my family we always play a game after Christmas dinner and presents! I look forward to it every single year because it isn’t often that ALL of us get together and get to relax and have fun! Our family has grown and that I
    Makes this tradition even more fun!! I can’t wait!

  2. as A child Christmas Eve was always my favorite! My siblings and I all had beautiful dresses (my mom usually got them from JC Penny’s) we got all dressed up and we all got together as a family, ate listened to Christmas music reminisced on past memories. It was my favorite part of Christmas.spending time with loved ones!

  3. When I was a child, we always went to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve. Then my dad would take a slow, “long-cut” to get home so that we could look at Christmas lights.

  4. When I was growing up my two sisters and I got to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve, after church. As we got older sometimes our parents let us get carried away…we opened 2,3,4 even 5 gifts one year.

  5. We would go to maternal granddads house on Christmas Eve. The men would go cut the tree and the “grownups” would decorate it. Grandad would give each one two orange candy slices, two chocolate drops, and an orange for Christmas. He kept them in a bottom dresser drawer. We would all spend the night. We kids slept five to a bed. It was a great time!

  6. I am enjoying reading these posts and the comments. It’s wonderful to see all the ideas of different ways to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. There’s a fun tradition that started accidentally a number of years ago. My grandson (now 17) was given the task of putting out three mini perching snowmen when we gathered to decorate our tree. He put them in various places around the house for everyone to eventually find. It has now become an annual task he enjoys and takes “very seriously”; and we all enjoy happening upon them (hanging on a lampshade or peeking out of a plant or…) throughout the season.

  7. As a child, I enjoyed looking forward to opening one gift on Christmas Eve and continued that into my life with our children. I enjoyed Christmas Eve services at church when they’d turn out lights and each person would have a candle. From one candle lit to the next that was lit the room would come to light as we sang. Our family does a Christmas day brunch/ breakfast, also

  8. We always had an outdoor ice skating rink that was put up downtown when I was growing up! My grandma took me every year!

  9. This was a great devotional. My sister and I when we were younger,we had a chair each in the living room and Santa placed our gifts in front of our chair. It was always fun to see what Santa had left us. Another tradition we had as a family was to sing Christmas carols around the piano every Christmas. My brother played the piano. Sometimes when we as a family went to my brother’s house for Christmas,he would play the organ and I would play the piano and the rest of the family would sing Christmas carols.

  10. I love your story of that fun family tradition! My family spends Christmas Eve with my in-laws. We exchange our gifts and eat and celebrate with music, lights and food. My kids love this time with my husbands extended family and we look forward to it all year!!

  11. We used to have guys vs girls gingerbread “house” contests…only we always took it beyond the “house” and even had some trailer parks ;).

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