Childhood Christmas Traditions: Then and Now (Macy’s Gift Card Giveaway!)
When I was a kid we had a bit of an elaborate Christmas celebration. On Christmas morning, after all of the gifts from Santa were opened, we packed up the car and drove to Tennessee to spend the rest of the holiday with my grandparents. The whole family came, from my great-aunts and uncles to all my cousins.
And after our Christmas dinner, before we could open any presents, we held a family Christmas cantata. I’m very serious. My grandfather read the Christmas story and each of us were assigned a carol to sing at certain portions of the song. Mine was Away in a Manger, as evidenced by this computer printout of the family cantata scheduled circa 1995:
I was always slightly perturbed that I didn’t get a solo. I mean, sure my second cousin Kevin was a voice major and all but I totally won the solo spot at our fifth grade graduation so I felt as though I deserved a chance at the Christmas cantata. I mean, my fifth grade teachers entrusted me with Whitney Houston’s “A Moment in Time” and so I could have rocked a Christmas carol. I could have taken over “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” which for some reason was mysteriously scratched from the program.
After all of the singing, we formed a circle and lit candles, which is why you should definitely read this post I wrote entitled That Time I Burnt Down Christmas.
Then we hung these things called Chrismons on the tree, which were little golden glittered ornaments that my grandmother made. She read out what each ornament represented and each of the grandchildren took turns hanging them on the tree. I have been pestering my grandmother for years to send me a copy of the Chrismons symbols, so that I could continue the tradition with Scarlette. And this year she surprised me by sending me the entire set of our family’s original Chrismons, along with the full Christmas night tradition.
I gave Scarlette the envelope to open because she loves “supwises” and she was so excited about new “ornymints.”
I am so looking forward to bringing a piece of my own childhood tradition to our family’s Christmas celebration. While we won’t do the full family sing-a-long, I think having her hang the special ornaments on our tree on Christmas Eve will be such a sweet way to continue our Christmas tradition.
I tried to find a picture of myself with the Chrismon ornaments but they must still be in storage. So instead, please enjoy this Christmas picture from 1989 (I was six). This is what it looks like when you make four children 6 and under sing a full Christmas cantata and wait for hours before opening their gifts
(Contrary to this picture, I do have very fond childhood memories of this Christmas tradition but this made me laugh.)
Macy’s is all about Christmas traditions and when they asked if I wanted to host a holiday giveaway I said yes because I mean, when people ask me what my favorite things are I’m all “MACY’S AT CHRISTMASTIME.” I pretty much stalk their holiday display.
They let me choose a holiday outfit from their holiday selection for Scarlette for this post and I picked this sweet Nordic-inspired snowflake top and cream colored corduroys because I like that it wasn’t overly Christmas-y and kids just look so cute in little adult outfits. For size reference, if you are looking for this outfit on their site, it is a size 24 months. Yes, my four year old is THAT small.
Share your favorite family Christmas tradition in the comments below to be entered for a chance to win a $100 Macy’s gift card!
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 12/8/2014 – 12/25/2014.
Be sure to visit the Macy’s Kids Holiday brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
The post Childhood Christmas Traditions: Then and Now (Macy’s Gift Card Giveaway!) appeared first on Kayla Aimee Writes.
Links may be affiliate or referral links, which helps host this site, thanks so much for your support in this way! Click here to read my disclosure and learn how you can use affiliate links to earn an income from blogging
Feeling chatty? Come hang out with me on twitter or facebook!
Let's all chat more in the comments!
- My favorite traditions involve my favorite people and favorite ... by Erin
- https://twitter.com/devyjackson/status/543926277229379584 by Deb Jackson
- Opening presents in our pj's is our tradition. by Deb Jackson
- Plus 7 more...
