Hi everyone, and welcome to my stop on the Holiday Tales and Traditions blog hop! Bernie at Needle and Foot organized this hop to spread a little holiday cheer. I know this holiday is different from all the others, and at least some of us are having a bit of a time this season. It's been a hard year, so let's pull up a chair, grab a cup of whatever you like, and share some happy stories of our holiday traditions. At the end of my post today, there is a small giveaway just to spread a little more cheer, and also a fun holiday recipe that we have enjoyed for years and years. (And it can be made gluten-free, too!) Read on and enjoy, then share your own story in the comments! Off we go. . .
My holiday traditions story will be quite familiar to people in the Upper Midwest, where Christmas-- and sometimes Thanksgiving or even Halloween-- are usually marked by lots of snow and cold. We always had a "real" Christmas tree, and as soon as our kids were old enough to walk a bit in the woods, we started going to cut-your-own lots, where you can cut down your own tree. We did this until our kids left home, and we have some of the best memories from those times.
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| My very first Christmas ornament, bought for my first "adult" tree almost 40 years ago. |
We usually had a great time getting a tree, walking through the whole lot to get the best one. Then of course the kids each had to take a few swipes with the saw, which really did not make any progress in cutting down the tree, but it felt good to them. One year we picked a tree that came with pinecones already attached, and I saved them and still have them.
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| Non-digital photo that survived from the 1990s. |
My favorite year was the year that it was 5 degrees below zero and very snowy. You would think that we would have just forgone the tradition that year, but nope-- traditions do not die that easily! And we were pretty hardy folks, you know, so we bundled up the kids and went out and found a tree. It was probably the longest time we spent in a tree lot, and it was hard walking through the snow, but it turned out to be one of the best times ever. And no frostbite, either! We all still talk about the "freezing year."
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| Christmas trees meant for eating! |
Of course, after all that activity, we needed hot chocolate and cookies! While the tree thawed out (and dripped) in the garage, we had as many cookies and as much hot chocolate as we could hold. It ruined everyone's lunch, but who cares? They got plenty of vegetables at dinner, I promise. Then, of course, we got to decorate and enjoy our prize tree, which somehow always ended up being way too tall for our room. They look much smaller outside!
Ah, memories! I might be tearing up a bit. I know the picture of those cookies up there is making your mouth water, so now I have two small gifts for you. First, at the bottom of this post is our family Christmas cookie recipe, which makes a *lot* of cut out sugar cookies. Also, I am offering a small giveaway so that you can create something fun in the new year. I have this to share with you:
This is a small package of Christmas-tree-colored Aurifil threads in different weights and types. There is some floss, and a spool of regular 50 weight, and some 12 weight thread, too, I think. I didn't want to open the package, so I'm not super-sure, but I know that someone who enjoys experimenting with these things will have a great time with these threads. To enter the giveaway, just share a happy holiday memory in the comments! If you don't celebrate Christmas, that's okay, too! I'm happy to hear any of your happy family stories. I will choose a winner using a random number generator on Sunday evening, December 20.
This giveaway is now closed! Thanks for sharing your stories!
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And, as promised, here is the cookie recipe:
Note: This recipe makes a LOT of cookies-- between 10 and 12 dozen. Hey, I come from a big family! The dough can be divided and frozen, and it will keep a good six months in the freezer if well wrapped. I have made cookies at Easter from dough that I froze at Christmas, so don't be afraid to make the whole batch and have cookies for months.
I hope this was a cheerful post for you, and I'm really looking forward to reading your stories. I have some tea and some cookies, so I'm ready! Share your stories below, and pass on some Christmas cheer!
55 comments:
Oh yes, Mari. This was a cheerful post for me. I was hoping to see some childhood pictures of you but I can imagine you all bundled up in the snow trying to hack at the tree :-) Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to see you soon.
My dad would take us kids (there were nine of us) for a ride on Christmas eve to see the lights. He always said he thought he heard jingle bells, maybe it was Santa's reindeer. Sometimes he said he saw a blinking red light that must have been Rudulph's nose. It never failed that when we got home Santa had come to our house.
One of my memories is Dad untangling the Christmas lights - they were in series - and the great hunt to find the one dead bulb that kept the whole string from lighting. It happened every year!
Thank you very much for sharing your Christmas memory. Happy Christmas!
My happiest Christmas memory revolves around my Dad. He loved to work jigsaw puzzles at holiday times. We would always have a jigsaw puzzle laid out on their 1950's card table and we'd work on it over the Christmas holiday. I was the puzzle maniac along with my Dad and we spent many precious hours hunched over that table, finally finishing a lovely landscape for all to admire. The only photograph I have is etched in my mind and my heart of those carefree days before I left home, got married and started my own family. My Dad passed away when I was in my early 20's and has been gone for over 40 years. Many a Christmas went by over the years while my daughters were growing up, but I never forgot the fun and closeness I shared with my Dad over those puzzles. One year about 20 years ago, I decided to resurrect this tradition with my own family. My daughters were hooked and now we have a jigsaw puzzle every year. After the "Merry Christmas" greetings at the door on Christmas Day, they immediately ask "Where's the puzzle?". The three of them can work a 1,000 piece puzzle in record time...about 3 hours. And now, my grandchildren (ages 13-18) get into the act, too. And it is all done on that same old card table. It's a little worse for wear, but is as much a part of the tradition as the puzzle itself. Thanks Dad, your tradition lives on and thank you for the memories of the past, present and years to come!
When I was very young, my mother started collecting Christmas ornaments for each of us children, one per year. Sometimes they were purchased, some were handmade, and each was labeled with a name and the year. This lasted for close to 20 years, and I cherish them every year when I put them on the tree.
Thank you for sharing Christmas memories and tradition. Those cookies look so good I'm tempted to bit the screen ;-)
My favorite childhood memory is the Christmas celebration at Church when all us kids did the program, sang songs, and listened to the Christmas story. After the program, we each got a paper sack. In it was a 3-4 inch layer of peanuts, and then a variety of candies. Remember ribbon candy? And always an orange. The orange is symbol of wealth at Christmas time in The Netherlands (I'm an immigrant baby). St Nick left an orange in your wooden shoe if you were good and coal if you were naughty). Our church was primarily Dutch hence the orange :-)
Merry Christmas to you!
I remember all the cookie baking at Christmas - my sisters and I took that over from my mom at an early age - mom made bread but she wasn't into making cookies and cake so early on the three of us took charge of the cookies - at the earliest age we were not very neat and not real creative and would make sugar cookies to decorate but by time we were in our teens we had been looking all year at recipes and we made a lot different kinds each year which the whole family looked forward to.
One of my favorite Christmastime memories is making orange sugar cut out cookies and decorating with tinted buttercream frosting and sprinkles. They were SO good :)
Such happy memories of cutting down the tree. My son remembers that we took him to a tree farm to cut our own tree when he was a kid. It's fun to see a tradition passed down to the next generation. Thanks for sharing.
We also drank hot chocolate after getting our tree. We all had Santa mugs that we only got to use at Christmas and our first use of the year would be after we went to get the tree. It was always special to be able to get the Santa mugs down from the top shelf so we could use them for the next few weeks. I still have my mug. I do not use it any more, the paint is chipping off so it is only for decoration now.
I got such a kick out of your tree hunt tradition. How wonderful!! And thanks for sharing your recipe. I may not do any baking this year but sugar cookies are really my favorite so I might have to.
Our tradition with the girls - and now their families - was a new unique ornament every year. And I made a spritz wreath cookie decorated with icing leaves and cinnamon candy holly berries.
My favorite Christmas was when I was 13 in the late 60s. We had opened gifts at home and made the rounds to both grandparent's homes with a large assortment of cousins of all ages and were the last to leave my paternal grandmother's house. She had health issues and the family was concerned because had a N'oreaster snowstorm starting. She lived alone so I volunteered to stay with her. I was third of 6 children. I never knew a house to be so quiet. I had to borrow clothes-I was wearing a very short dress in those days and the temperature was below freezing. We got over 25 inches of snow over 3 days. I met up with other kids in the village center and we shoveled snow and ran errands for the housebound. To the family grocer, pharmacy, deliver homemade dinners, anywhere someone needed something they would call my grandmother and off we would go. We did not accept any compensation except the homemade goodies forced on us- real cocoa and sweets. It was the most peaceful, exhausting Christmas. But having the grandmother all to myself was priceless.
While my family didn't go out and cut a tree, we usually purchased an already cut tree at a greenhouse. I do recall dad hanging the tree in the garage, so that it could thaw before we brought it into the house. So many fun memories in this post! And thanks for the tip on the GF version of the cookies; my daughter is dealing with some GF issues, so this is helpful.
We also cut trees down until very recently. And, yes, they were often much taller at home then when we cut them down - I suppose they grew on the drive home? We don't have the issue of thawing the tree tho. Ours can just come right in. My husband does the whole bit of centering the tree in the stand and putting the lights on and then the rest of us trim it. One decision each year is whether to put colorful lights on the tree or use all white, twinkly lights. seems like we switch back and forth each year or so.
Great post Mari. Thanks for sharing!
In the mid 60's, when I was 4 or 5, my mother and father decided that we were spending Christmas with my Aunt and her family. This was a big deal as we lived about 8 hours away in a much smaller town, so rarely saw them. People were coming and going from her house all the time!! My grandparents came (who knew that they could travel?) Relatives and friends of my parents were dropping by with gifts!! They usually included something for me! Best of all one afternoon Santa came by in a new shiny Pontiac Convertible!! And he had gifts for all the kids in the house! And I got to talk to him!! Best Christmas ever to my little kid self. I am sure that my Aunt worked hard to arrange the entire visit, and I am grateful to her for doing it.
What great memories. Thanks for hopping with us!
Having grown up in Alberta, I can totally relate to the freezing cold, and crunch of the snow, actually the squeak of it when it got to around those temperatures and lower. Now you've made me crave some sugar cookies!
Thanks for the hop and all the lovely memories! I like the idea of freezing cookie dough!
Love your stories about getting the Christmas tree, Mari! That was always a big in my family, too, both when growing up in New York State, and when my own kids were growing up. My sister is quite tall, so her rule always was that the tree had to be taller than she was at the time! :) Thanks for the giveaway and the recipe, too!
Loved your stories about going to find a tree in the forest and the cookie making/enjoying. Every year my mom would make persimmon fruit cookies. They are definitely not sweet like sugar cookies, but they will always make me think of her at Christmas. Thanks for the chance to win.
my favorite Christmas memory is in the 50s, my dad was sick and my mom let my sister and I help put out santa for our younger brothers. we stayed uup later than we ever had before and when we finally went to bed my youngest brother came in to wake us up and tell us Santa had been there and come and look at what he brought. we hadn't even gone to sleep yet! sweet, sweet memories.
Ah, the first time my husband and I went to cut our own tree, we ended up with a humongous tree and had to actually cut it in half. We felt so bad. But I understand how they look smaller in the forest than in your living room, lol. Your cookies look amazing, especially since I opted out in making them this year. I will live vicariously through your photos!
Our years of cutting down real trees with our kids are among my happiest memories also. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your 'tree' memories with us--always have enjoyed doing a tree whether a real one (until I became allergic to pine) and not the fake ones--but all look great with lights and ornaments on them--
and I would love the thread--I have a hard time finding the right shade of greens for my projects--
stay safe--luv, di
I grew up in Michigan so I remember those cold winters well. My brother was born in mid December. When he was just a week old we had a huge ice storm that came through and knocked out our power. My dad saw those workers out there trying to get it going again. He figured they would work better with hot coffee. So he pulled out the camping stove and made a pot. Our power came back on in no time! Thanks for sharing your story!
This is the story of John's Christmas Tree. Growing up in our part of Texas, we generally waited until the week of Christmas to put up the tree and sometimes even Christmas Eve. We always had a bought tree at the grocery store. One particular Christmas my youngest brother took things into his own hands...he got tired of waiting! He went out to the back of our property (1 acre) and with his pocket knife grubbed up about a 4 ft cedar tree! He was so proud of his tree...of course it went up evening and came down just as soon as Christmas was over because almost everyone in the house was allergic to cedar!
I, too, have very fond memories of being in the forest, except for us it was our Boxing Day hike. We would head out into the woods, hike for a few hours, then back to the car for a picnic of (very cold) turkey sandwiches and hot chocolate. I miss those days, as I now live in California. My kids carry on hiking on Boxing Day in Canada and we join them whenever we can. Sure won't be this year, will it? Also, thank you for the GF cookie recipe. I am new to Celiac and am on a steep learning curve. All the best for a wonderful holiday.
Mari how sweet! I loved reading about your traditions and trees and snow and cookies and all that plus a chance to win??? Merry Christmas to a wonderful woman... love, LeeAnna
Many of these memories I share with you all- cutting down a tree in Michigan with the kids, making cookies, doing puzzles. For years we got a 3D puzzle from Santa and it might take days to get it figured out! We also had a tradition for Christmas Eve. Once the kids were old enough to go to midnight church we would some home and watch a Christmas movie. Usually it was George C Scott in "A Christmas Carol", but sometimes it was Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" too! Good memories everyone!
My best memory is from my son's first Christmas. My father-in-law insisted that we buy a new ornament for the tree to mark the occasion, and we must've gone to at least 10 stores before he found the perfect one - a small metal filigree of a child. I still buy at least one ornament each year - usually something that represents that year for us.
Hi Mari! Thanks so much for sharing this fun trip down memory lane. We had a similar childhood experience except we always cut down our tree on my grandpa's farm. It didn't matter what the weather was - us Wisconsin folks are tough. The hardest part was waiting to put up the tree - we did put it up until Christmas Eve. I remember hopping into the garage every day to check on the tree and to make sure the water was fine. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Enjoy this non-school time to the max! ~smile~ Roseanne
When I was a kid in mid-Missouri, our Christmas tree was always a cedear tree my dad cut in the woods on our farm. They weren't always shaped the best, but the smell was delightful. I loved helping hang the ornaments and tinsel.
My favorite...now is the year the cat knocked over the tree. My dad picked it up, in the middle and the tree broke in half. So my parents took it down before Christmas. My brother and I were *young* and this was The. Worst. Christmas. Ever. Looking back? It's hilarious!
My family has Chinese food every year on Christmas Eve. It started when friends from church and my family would attend the silent Christmas Eve service. We decided to go out to eat together afterwards. One of the few restaurants that was open in town was a Chinese buffet. For the next 15+ years, we'd continue to do this, even when we had family in town, etc. When I moved away (married with kids) we had to find a Chinese restaurant for the Christmas Eve meal. We've continued this for almost 40 years now, inviting friends. This year we will have to make our own Chinese, since we can't eat in restaurants in our state.
I've never been good at making 'shaped' cookies. I've only tried a few times. I might have to try this recipe.
My mother loved Christmas & every year we would go shopping together. afterwards I would help her wrap all the presents. Our annual event.
Thank you for this wonderful writing prompt. I loved reading everyone's stories. I have many happy family memories of every Christmas, but I have to admit that the most exciting one of all was when my aunt gave me a Barbie Dream House when I was 7. I had never even dared dream of asking for one.
No cookie baking this year thanks to Covid. I was going to talk about the cat and the 14 foot Christmas tree but someone else did that one so how about this instead. The most memorable to me is -20 on Christmas day in Chicago, 1983. My kids said it was too cold for Santa to come. Honestly, I agreed.
Those cookies sound lovely....
My mum struggled with the 4 of us kids under 10 when our dad passed away. She had to move 400kms away to be nearer her parents for support but missed her friends. Us kids were lucky enough to still get presents even though it was hard. Yes they included the needed supplies of clothes but there were some toys and games. Christmas Eve we would choose a lounge chair our corner of the lounge and in the morning Santa had been but didnt use up time or money on wrapping paper. We had one of our sheets over the top of our designated chairs. Somehow we still managed to make a mess of the lounge room without all paper scattered everywhere. The simple times were so much fun.
My dad and I used to go find a cedar tree on our property and it was our Christmas tree. Great memories! 💙🦋 angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom 🎄🌟
Thanks for the recipe and for telling your tree stories, Mari!
What a lovely post, and a fun task to think up our fun Christmas memories. Here's mine. When I was a girl, on Christmas Eve, my father would take the 5 of us on a drive to look at all the Christmas lights and Mom would stay home. Towards the end of the drive, he would see Rudolph's nose blinking and point it out. (Little did we know it was a light on the top of the water tower near our house.) He just knew Santa was near. We'd race home to see if we could intercept Santa, pet the reindeer, but somehow, we always just missed the big guy. Meanwhile, Mom prepped everything for our arrival home. We'd walk into a house with presents and proceed to open them. On Christmas morning, we'd wake up with new toys in hand, and drive the 2 hours to celebrate with our grandparents. Thanks for bringing holiday smiles to all of us!
I enjoyed your Christmas memories. One of my favorite memories is sitting beside the Christmas tree watching bubble lights bubble away. This would have been in the 50’s.
One tradition in my family growing up was putting the Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve and taking it down on New Year's Day. At first we had real trees from the neighborhood tree lot and later a series of ugly, unwieldy artificial ones. I remember having to put tinsel on the real trees one strand at a time. I also can remember fragile German blown glass ornaments which sadly are long gone. Thanks for sharing your Christmas tree memory. Enjoy your holidays (and get lots done during your break).
Pat
Love all the stories/traditions. Our parents and us 4 kids would go to a local tree lot in Massachusetts on what had to be the coldest day and pick out the "perfect" 20' foot tree for our 7' space. We would be bundled up & had to have our boots on even if they weren't necessary. My father or the tree guy would tie the tree on top of the station wagon and off we'd go so excited to decorate our tree. One year we heard a big woosh sound and sure enough the tree had come lose and flown off the car into the street behind us. We kids were aghast. Luckily no one was behind us and the tree was in pretty good condition considering. We laugh about that every year. 4 kids' faces plastered against the back window (before there were seat belts in cars) screaming for dad to stop the car to get the tree. It is our favorite tree picking out story.
Merry Christmas, Mari - what a fun post. I grew up in MI so getting a real tree was a guaranteed activity growing up. Although we. only went and cut ours a few times because Dad preferred buying one that was already cut. I used to love laying on the floor underneath our decorated tree without my coke bottle glasses to enjoy the starry effect of the lights - I was always so sad when the tree had dried out and had to be taken down. Thanks for the cookie recipe (our son who now lives with us follows a GF diet).
I had to smile at your comment that the trees look smaller outside...we often drive by a Christmas tree farm and I've always thought the trees look positively tiny. Of course, if you're going to bring it in your house, you probably don't want a 30' tree! Thanks for sharing your memories and your cookie recipe :) Merry Christmas!
We always went to chop our tree down. I don't even know how we did it - 5 kids, 2 parents maybe my aunt or someone else came. It was cold, and snowy but there was always hot chocolate. Trees that look tiny outside are often much larger inside....seem to remember some trimming of a few too tall trees in our past.
Snowy trips to get a tree were often part of our Christmas traditions (depending on where in the world we were living), but to me the best part until I was 11 or 12 was unboxing the decorations my Mom had which had belonged to her grandmother. Beautiful hand blown Santa’s, Father Christmas, Trees, Snowman; each was a work of art to be admired each year one by one as they came out of the tissue paper wrapping. That came to an end one year when my brothers were playing soldier in the basement and used the decorations as hand grenades in their war! From that year on, we bought or made my Mom ornaments each year, but I know she missed that part of her heritage.
When I left home and had my own tree my rule became only handmade ornaments could be used. The last time I put up a tree 8 years ago I still had painted macaroni ornaments that my kids made 40 years ago. Now my children have divided up the ornaments from their childhood and my daughter even shared with her children for their children to enjoy. Some traditions do continue to bring joy 😉
Precious memories. The cookies look tasty- thanks for sharing everything. My earliest memory is my late twin sister and I around 4 years old opening gifts under the tree. One of those old white (shedding!) flocked trees with the electric color wheel turning and illuminating colors all over the tree. Happy holiday wishes.
It was wonderful to share your memories, Mari.
When my family was home we always went out to a forest about an hour from the city where they sold fresh cut tree and we would also enjoy chestnuts roasted on an open fire and hot chocolate. Then we would drive home singing before we attended the Christingle service. We often had our evening meal in a country pub before we finallly dressed the tree. Don't know how we crammed it all into a day.
My family have long flown the nest but they now try to recreate this tradition with my grandchildren.
Sadly this year we are in lockdown again and as they live far off we cannot be together and the only thing I want for Christmas cannot be bought..... to see them all.
Thanks for brightening a rainy grey lockdown Liverpool (England) day.
As the Beatles sang, "All you Need is Love".
Christmas memories: Daddy would take us out under the power lines where the company didn't want trees (I think he got permission to go cut a tree there every year). Since the power lines distort the trees growth in some way there were a lot of Charlie Brown trees to choose from. We'd find one he could "fix" and bring it home. Out came his drill and he'd saw off the bottom branches then reinsert them into the new holes in the bald spots and make a really GOOD tree out of it. Then the old tree lights would be put on by Daddy. Our part was the ornaments and tinsel. We'd "borrow" a pair of Daddy's heavy (big) work socks and clothes pin them to the bottom of the tree. The next morning, me being the youngest, wanted to go see what was out there before first light (I am not a morning person!) and sis would always make me wait till it was at least light out. Then we kids would traipse out to the tree to discover what Santa had left us in our stockings. Sometimes there was so much, too big, for the stocking that there under the stocking were unwrapped gifts on top of the wrapped ones below. We knew that these also went with our stockings. What fun! Mother began setting up "road blocks" so she could hear us so she could watch our faces as we discovered what was out there that we could open NOW!
Some of my favorite Christmas memories are of the plans my brother devised each year to catch Santa. There were 4 of us kids and my brother as second oldest. For a few years my brother was determined to catch Santa in the act, and of course, we all had a part in the capture. One year my brother decided we all had to wear our pajamas over our regular clothes. That way, when we heard the reindeer on the roof, we could whip off our pj's and be outside in a jiffy. Sadly, his plan was foiled when our parents noticed our clothes sticking out of our pj's. Another year, we hid flash lights around the house (including one in the dryer). Then, when we heard Santa in the living room we would grab the closest flash light, turn it on and catch Santa in the act. Sadly, that one didn't work since we all fell asleep long before Santa's arrival. My brother loved devising new schemes each Christmas and we loved trying them each year. It didn't matter that we never caught Santa, the fun was in the planning.
We took the kids (and later the grandkids) to a tree farm several times and had a wonderful time. Of course, we nearly always selected one of the first trees we saw but we had fun walking around looking.
I started the tradition of giving each of my kids a special ornament every christmas, starting when I was pregnant in 1976 with our first son.
Such wonderful memories.
Happy holidays to you and yours.
What wonderful memories! I love that the super cold did not stop you from your tradition!! LOVE it! Merry Christmas to you - and lots of long distance hugs from me ;-)
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