Payne Christmas Traditions

Some of our Christmas Traditions:
1. We buy a hand cut Christmas tree and put up decorations the day after Thanksgiving!
2. We go to the carol of lights, downtown, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving. This is where they light up the BIG Christmas tree in our town, and our mayor talks about the real meaning of Christmas.
3. We attend the Chrismas parade, because our girls are usually in it on a Girl Scout float or an Adventure Guides float. Cal stays home with grandma or rides in the truck with NPayne (who pulls the Adventure Guide float), because he is scared of parades.
2. My children use their own money to buy gifts for each other, their parents and their extended family. This is completely their desire, not mine. They will either make something or go shopping at the Dollar Store.
3. NPayne and I buy our children ONE and ONLY ONE gift for Christmas. That's it! Believe me sometimes that's hard to do, because we face temptations when shopping. We plan what we are buying, and then we stick with it.
4. Santa brings our children ONE and ONLY ONE gift for Christmas. NPayne and I have veto power of things the kids might ask Santa for as well.
5. We attend Christmas Eve candlelighting service at church.
6. We bake a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve, and then we serve the first piece to Santa with a big glass of cold milk. He really enjoys it too! Then we eat the rest of the cake, for dessert, after our Christmas dinner the following day.
7. Our children write Santa a letter on Christmas Eve with a request which is usually the following...A Surprise Would Be Nice! Sometimes there is a specific item on the list but usually they ask for a surprise.
8. Santa, in turn, responds to the letter and tells the children which gift is for which child; since they usually ask for surprises - they don't always automatically know which one is theirs.
9. The children wake up on Christmas morning, come downstairs, go through the dining room (avoiding the living room where Santa has left the gifts), wake us up, and then go sit on the couch that faces away from the Christmas tree. There they wait for us to get Elli up, and then we all read Santa's response and look at their gifts together.
10. We eat breakfast together and then we open our gifts from each other. We stay in our pj's until lunch time.
11. Then our extended family comes over, and we exchange gifts with them, eat Christmas dinner and enjoy each other.
12. We leave our Christmas decorations up until after New Years!
13. We constantly remind ourselves that Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. We read about it all through the season, we talk about it, we sing about it; and if we begin to lose focus, we gently remind each other again. Jesus came for us! He was born for us! He lived His life for us! That is why we celebrate Christmas!