Secular Charlotte Mason

I would love to know how you celebrate Christmas? Your favorite tradtitions? How do you teach your kids about this holiday? Favorite books/ activities/ one could use to teach kids about this special holidays? Thanks, Deepali

Hey- also it will be fun to include places to visit to enjoy the lights and events for this holiday!!

I should atleast include is- what I know so far and have done with the kids is -

bring out our fake christmas tree, decorate it, put out kids stockings on the mantle, we make some cookies each year, make ginger bread house and decorate it! We are hoping to go see the Nutcraker show this year the first time, zoo lights, open presents on Chrstmas morning-- but, besides this we don't do anything else or have taught the kids the real reason for the holiday- gist.. why it's celebrated? I would highly appreciate your ideas on a fun way and fun books- to explain kids about the holiday- Thanks!! D

If I remember correctly, your children are young like mine.  We love Santa and he gets brought up at our house more than Jesus right now.  This year I also want to teach my kids more about Jesus being the reason for the season.  My kids have seen and like a DVD called "Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: The Nativity" and I like the way the story is told.

I also just got a book from Kmart called "My First Read and Learn Countdown to Christmas" by Dr. Mary Manz Simon.  It starts on Dec 1st and counts down to Christmas.  You read a simple paragraph and there is an activity suggestion, 1 sentence prayer (usually fill in the blank) and simplified Bible verse.   

As suggested in the book, we made a paper chain with 25 links and have been tearing off a link per day to count down to Christmas.  The book talks about holiday traditions such as Christmas trees, wreaths, bells, cookies, presents, foods/smells like turkey and of course, the story of angels, Mary and Joseph, baby Jesus, the shepherds, the three kings are woven in day by day. It's a pretty simple but fun look at Christmas with a message of love.  My boys look forward to this book everyday.  I'd say this book would work for preschool to 2nd or 3rd grade. 

We'll go see Christmas lights.  We made our gingerbread house last night.  Our tree will get decorated today.  We got gifts for 2 children off of the giving tree for DHS children (banks have these trees too).  I am making Gifts in a Jar for friends.   A friend suggested for our simple Christmas to get the kids 3 presents: want, need and something to read.  And Santa will bring one present.  Stockings will get filled with oranges, nuts in shell, chocolate coins, cinnamon bears, pack of gum, and little toy(s), maybe tiny books. 

Also, this idea isn't very CM because it involves *rewards* but starting last week we are giving points for helpful or nice things.  We write the number on a piece of paper with child's name and put it in a jar.  (1 to 3 points for something)  Each point is worth 25 cents and that money will be given to the kids so they can buy Christmas presents (or supplies to make Christmas presents).  The money can't be used for themselves and only for presents for sibling, family, friends or charity donation.   I figure doing this once a year is good.  Plus I get to see just how much they are capable of doing! lol

This is mostly what we are doing this year.  HTH  Merry Christmas

Christmas isn't my favorite holiday so I tend to do the minimum the kids will let me. Here are some of the activities and traditions my kids have enjoyed over the years:

*making popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree

*making scented ornaments for the tree and to put on gifts. These make great air fresheners too

* I use to read them one Christmas story a night for the entire month of December

*one year Drakon, my mom and I saw a college production of A Christmas Carol

*most years we make ornaments

*we kept a countdown calender, much like a secular advent calendar

*One year they made a mural on our big picture window using paper and thin cotton batting.It was a winter scene with snow since all we had that year was rain.  I used it to display many of their snowmen and snowflake projects from preschool.

*If it snows we make maple syrup candy

*they use to make "reindeer food" and sprinkle it on the lawn on Christmas Eve. It's basically oatmeal or grain cereal with glitter in it.

*they wrote letters to Santa

*they made cookies and left them with a glass of milk for santa

*we usually go to either Zoo Lights or the Winter Wonderland and Portland International Raceway. The PRW lights are nice because you drive through them rather than being out in the cold. We usually bring hot chocolate or apple cider and listen to Christmas music as we drive through.

*gingerbread house (great way to get rid of the last

*the week after Christmas we read The After Christmas Tree and then we do that with our tree.Basically it is about decorating the tree to feed the animals and setting it outside so they can eat from it. 

That's all I can think of right now.

Neat-O! Thanks, Cori and Gina for all these wonderful ideas! I think I can definitely introduce kids to some of these new exciting ideas- Thanks alot!

Can I ask for one more advice? ; ) What books would you highly recommend, Gina for Christmas pre and post- I would to be able to teach the kids the meaning of Christmas, all kinds of vocabulary, stories.... in addition... to some wonderful suggestions above!

DJ

Hey, Friends- When is a good time to start giving out Christmas presents? Last year, I gave it to someone around this time, they said that it was too early to give out presents?? Really? Serious, I need education before I can educate my littles-- YIKES! ; )

DJ

Deepali,

When you give out gifts really depends on your relationship to the person and how far apart you live. Generally gifts are handed out the week of Christmas or the week before. If the person lives far away it is ok to give the gifts earlier.

I can send over some of our Christmas, Solstice and Hanukkah books if you want. Most of them are more for littles than for KodyGirl's age.

I just had breakfast with a 3 girlfriends on Saturday and gave them their Gifts in a Jar (panko pistachio coating for chicken).  It might have been a little early but I knew I might not see them again this December with everyone so busy at this time of year.

I have a friend who is Dutch and they celebrate Sinterklaas which is around December 5th or 6th.  They have a party, give gifts and get their stockings at this time.

We don't really celebrate *Christmas* at our house, though since both grandmothers do, it gets a nod when Jack opens their gifts on Christmas morning, with photos taken to include in the thank you notes.

We do celebrate Yule, the winter solstice, though.

In years past, we have baked 12 dozen cookies of 12 different kinds and put them in decorative tins and then drove around of Yule eve to deliver them to our friends all over the area. Since we have gone grain free this autumn, we probably won't be doing that this year. We make cookies...but they're all based on almonds, and we've been on furlough a lot of the year, so we really can't quite afford that many almonds. I do plan to make a tray of cookies for us, though.

On the day after Thanksgiving, more or less, we start opening our countdown calendar and couting down the days until Yule.

We have a few storage tubs of beautiful Yule ornaments that we use to decorate the parlour on or around Thanksgiving weekend, and each year we each choose one more ornament to add to the collection. We hang stockings on the hearth, to be filled with small gifts and treats. We also like to make a few beautiful ornaments to send to the grandmothers. This year, Jack decorated almost single handedly, since he was in the mood long before I was.

We also make paper snowflakes to hang in the windows to "call the snow".

We have an electric candle in the window closest to the main door, which we light in late October and leave lit until February, but we refer to it as the Yule candle, since its intent is to "call back the sun".

Starting in November, we hand make about 50 greeting cards to send to family and friends and we take a festive holiday photo to send along with either the cards (if we're sufficiently organized) or the New Years letter that we write to all of our families. (Rod has 8 siblings and I have five and we have four grown sons, so that's quite a few letters!)

We take "Grandpa John", a dear friend of the family, out to see a childrens stage production of a a classic children's book in December every year and this year we added a trip to see Handel's Messiah. One of these days, I'd also like to add Nutcracker Suite to the list.

We read books about the Solstice and what it means, and also about all the other holidays that folks are celebrating around this time. We sing Yule carols, along with our collection of CDs.

Sometime between Yule and Christmas, we have an annual Engineering contest with the family of Jack's best friend. Team Smith vs Team Enkes - -we build a pair of ginerbread houses. Team Enkes invariably wins, while the house we build invariably fall apart before we get the roof on. But we have ablast and then the squirrels and birds feat on our hosues for the next few days.

On Yule day, I take the day off and we invite a few friends over to our house for a religious celebration, small gift exchange, Yule caroling, and a vegan feast, (since they're mostly vegan).

On Christmas day or eve or thereabouts, when I am off work and we have time to play in the kitchen all day, we have a more traditional "Christmas feast" with lamb, turkey, goose, or duck. (We may not celebrate Christmas, per se, but we all LOVE good food.)

On the evening of Yule day, after our friends have gone home, we exchange gifts.

Oh...we also have a game we play whenever we're our driving around this time of year of calling out "On the right!" and "On the left!" to alert one another to beautiful yard displays!

On Yule Sunday and on Christmas Eve, we hang out at the church where Rod sings in the choir and take part in a multicultural celebration of the season.

All this, in spite of the fact that 10 years ago, I hated this time of year with a purple passion. How life does change one!