I love, love, love the Christmas season! Everything is so colorful, happy, joyful, peaceful. These are some of the things we do every year to celebrate:

**My Christmas fun starts the day after Thanksgiving with Black Friday Sales. I am a member at Gotta Deal and starting around October they have a board dedicated to Black Friday deals.

**I collect nativity sets and add a new one each year. I display them on our entertainment center, but all the wise men go on the mantel because they are traveling “from afar”. Here’s my tip for cheaply adding to a collection: I purchase my nativity set for the next year at the after-Christmas sales for 50 – 70% off.

**We decorate our tree the week after Thanksgiving and that night my kids get to open their new winter pajamas.

**I put all of our Christmas books in a basket on the fireplace. I read a cute idea somewhere – wrap 25 books; open & read one each day until Christmas.

**remembering tree – this is something new I came up with last year in honor of our son Elijah. His favorite color was purple & his favorite holiday song was “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas”. We’ve been collecting purple hippos for several years and would put a few on our tree each year. I just happened to find a small purple fiber optics tree at Dollar General last year & I decorated it with all of our hippos. It was really cute, & of course I didn’t take a pic of it!! You will just have to hang around until December to see it :o)

Here are a couple of ideas I want to try this year:

Softening the Manger

This book:

Check out Organized Christmas for a great printable planner.

Do you have any ideas to share? Leave a comment, or add a link to your blog if you want to do a Traditions post. 

Don’t forget to enter my Christmas In July giveaway!

A Christmas Prayer
Robert Louis Stevenson
O God, our loving Father, help us
Rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,
That we may share in the song of the
Angels, the gladness of the shepherds
And the worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and open the
Door of love all over the world.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing
That Christ brings, and teach us
to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy
To be thy children and the Christmas
Evening bring us to our beds with
Grateful thoughts, forgiving, and
Forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen

Comments are now closed. I will post here when I have a winner!

Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is hosting a giveaway carnival , which goes hand in hand with my idea for the week:

This is what I’m giving away: A Home & Garden Party snowman candle holder (I’m an HGP Designer), peppermint candle, & Keeping Christ in Christmas by Steve Russo. Plus whatever else I throw in at the last minute. I stink at the whole camera thing, so click on the pic to get a better view.

Leave a comment with your email or blog link to enter. (US & Canada only please) I will draw the winner at noon Friday.

I will enter your name twice if you play along or link to !!

I will be sharing ideas, recipes, websites, etc. all week & you are invited to play along!

Here’s the schedule:

*Monday – Traditions How do you celebrate our Savior’s birth? What fun thing does your family do every year? What new tradition do you want to start?

*Tuesday – Crafts Share fun activities, websites, pictures of your projects

*Wednesday – Gifts Things to make, theme gifts, frugal ideas

*Thursday – Decorating Give us some creative ideas to enjoy the beauty of the season

*Friday – Food I know you all have some fabulous recipes!