A Christmas Party Theme Built Around Children’s Letters To Santa

I live on a street full of children. On our short little dead end road there are twelve children. These kids range from preschool to high school age.  Over the years I have built friendships with the all the other moms who live on the street. During the school year while we wait for the school bus we get a chance each morning and afternoon to chat about whatever issues we might be facing with the kids. It was at the bus stop that we decided to have a Christmas party for the kids.

We decided the theme for our party would be letters to Santa. We started making plans right away. Edith had just built an addition onto the back of her house over the summer that would provide us with ample space. Everyone agreed to mix up a batch of cookies to be baked the day of the party. Meryl and I volunteered to do the shopping for the party supplies.

At the craft store we found beautiful paper for the children’s letters to Santa.  We gathered pens, glitter, stickers, and so many other things that would help to make a perfect letter to Santa. Meryl found the cutest bags for everyone to use to take home cookies after the party. Edith already had decorated the party room so wonderfully we didn’t have to spend time on decorating. At the grocery we stocked up on milk, juices, and lots of paper towels.

On the day of the party we put the kids on the bus and set about our work. Carol brought her card tables down so that we would have plenty of space for all of the kids to write their letters. We taped down cheap plastic table cloths to help make the clean up easier when we were done. Laurie and Meryl cut out pictures from Christmas cards and sale ads for the kids to glue on to their cards and Christmas letters. Edith kept a steady stream of cookies coming and going from the stove to the plates. Carol and I split up the supplies on the different tables. Then we waited for the buses to show up.

When all of the kids had made it in the door we served up hot cocoa and warm cookies. The kids had a great time making their Christmas letters to Santa.  The party turned out to be a success. We had so much fun that we plan to do it again next year. I am lucky to have such amazing women as neighbors and friends. I know whether I need to borrow a cup of sugar or a listening ear I never have to look further than down the street.

           

Christmas Cookies Add Flavor And Fun To The Season

Baking Christmas cookies is an important tradition in our house. At some point everybody gets involved. It gives me a chance to spend quality time with all of them. All my adult kids and grandkids have their favorite cookies to help with. Out of all of them only one wants to try something new every year, the rest stick to same recipe year after year.
My oldest granddaughter is about to turn sixteen. She finds a new recipe every year for us to try. She flips through cookbooks and magazines. It makes it an adventure when we have to find ingredients we have never heard of in the grocery store. She is no longer a little girl. I am so proud when I get a glimpse of the woman she is on her way to be. Now when we make cookies we talk about college and her goals for the future. This year we made what she called snow crackles. They not only tasted great, they were so much fun to make. She definitely made Santa’s nice list this year.
Jackie is thirteen and pure teenager. She has always made cutout sugar cookies. It surprises me that she jumps whole heartily into decorating the cookies stars and snowmen. She lines the tables with her icings and sprinkles. We didn’t talk much while we did the cookies last year so I was surprise that she reminded me like every year that we still needed to make the food for the reindeer. I really didn’t think she was into the holiday spirit, as she is the one that always avoids spending time with me. I was so glad to see that Christmas even sneaks into the heart of my too cool girl.
The boys both have their favorite cookies to eat. They lose interest in baking pretty quickly so for the most part they drop the dough on the cookie sheet after I have mixed it. They do however have a job they take very seriously. They mail letters to Santa for the family. It is a major event for them every year. The day we go to the post office I collect all the children’s letter to Santa and the boys put them in their special mail bag. It is funny watching them, as tall as the big blue mailboxes are, I always think back to years ago how I had to hold them so they could drop the letters in and then over the years they finally could do it on their own by standing on their tip toes. Now they can easily reach the mail box. Soon they will be too old for writing letters to Santa. They really do grow up too quickly!
My youngest little granddaughter loves gingerbread cookies. She, more than any of my other grandkids, likes to cook and bake. She likes to take her time while decorating the cookies. I love that she eats her mistakes! If a gingerbread man loses an arm then she eats it. She almost needs no help at all from me. It makes me so pleased that I could pass down my love of cooking to her. I tell her every year that baking cookies is a sweet way to get on Santa’s list.

Christmas Shopping – The Fun, The Memories, & Christmas Letters

Every year my husband and I head out to the stores and malls to collect gifts for all of the people we love.  We plan on going during the weeks when the stores aren’t as crowded. We go out and have dinner alone together. We love to see how the store windows are decorated. I don’t understand how anyone can help but be caught up in the spirit of Christmas. It gives us time out of the house to reconnect during the sometimes hectic holiday season.

There are many people on our Christmas list. We try to find something special for each and every person on our list. That is easier for some than others. Let’s face it – there comes a time that children become difficult to buy for. At least that’s how it seems to me. Not only do the gifts they want get more expensive, I honestly have trouble picking out what they will actually want or use.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago when getting a letter from the North Pole was the highlight of my grandkid’s Christmas. Now they ask for things I have to Google just to find out what I’m looking for. I gave up on buying clothes for my older grandkids - I have been told that I don’t know what is in style. Besides socks I take them with me to buy their clothes. I remember going through this same thing with my own kids as they were growing up and with my parents when I ‘suddenly got smarter than them’. It happens to all of us as we age. It’s simply part of becoming a teenager.

Okay, back to shopping. When my husband and I are out shopping we like to recall memories about Christmases we have shared in the past. We laugh about how cool the kids thought they were the year they got an autographed picture of Santa. We have collected so many Christmas memories together that we never run out of things to talk about while we shop. As we talk we collect more and more bags. Every once in awhile we will run across something that we just know someone special will love. Those are the gifts I look forward to giving the most.

We still buy toys for the youngest children. John and I love going to the toy store. We revert back to children as soon as we walk in the door. We have no trouble finding a gift from Santa for every kid in our life. Sometimes I have to remind John to behave himself. I think we try out about every toy in the store. Little kids are so easy and fun to shop for. Every year we go overboard at the toy store - I guess we just can help ourselves.

We try our best every year to get what is in our kids' letters to Santa. we have never had a Christmas where the little kids were unhappy with what they got. I like it when they open up things they weren’t expecting. I enjoy the surprised look on their faces. We try our best to give all the children in our lives happy Christmas memories to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

         

       

A Family Tradition – Christmas Day Dinner

On Christmas day our family makes a huge Christmas dinner. Every person in the family is responsible for at least one dish and one dessert. We start to prep for Christmas dinner about a week before Christmas. Each one of our children has their signature dish. My husband and I help as much as the kids and grandkids will let us. We all love cooking together as a family. On Christmas morning the kids like to find a package from Santa to all of us. It is always something we can use while we cook together.

Angela, my oldest makes the best mashed potatoes. She likes to use new red potatoes and real butter. It is a dish we all look forward to at Christmas. She is teaching her daughter Savannah her recipe. Savannah no longer leaves out cookies with her Santa letter; instead she leaves out mashed potatoes. She is old enough now that she hardly needs any help from Angela while cooking the potatoes, but I still remember her standing in a chair trying her best to mash the potatoes during Christmases past.

Andrea, Derek’s wife, likes to make broccoli casserole. She has made it so many times she has everything under control. Her dessert dish is always where she needs help. She likes to make beautiful dishes. We have had fun over the years trying out her recipes. Some of the dishes looked like the pictures on the recipe others at least tasted good. I am glad she is open to attempting the foods that ‘look good’ but seem complicated to cook. Many of those are a turn off for me when it comes to cooking – but I love to eat them!

Daniel is my oldest grandson and the picky eater of the family. If it is green this kid isn’t going to eat it. His mom and dad have tried everything to get him to eat a variety of foods and nothing helped - not even when he had a letters sent from Santa asking him to. Daniel makes corn on the cob. It is his favorite. For dessert he always without fail wants to make brownies.

Johnny, my oldest son, always makes an interesting dessert dish. He does searches on the Internet and finds ideas for something we’ve never had before. I love it because he gets recipes from around the world. You never know what he will fix. He also makes a delicious baked bean casserole every year.


Madilynn, the baby of the family makes the deviled eggs. She loves peeling the shells off the eggs. One of the adults helps with cutting the eggs and mixing the ingredients. Madilynn gets to peel the shells off the eggs and fill them. She has three special plates to hold the eggs when they are finished. Her favorite is blue glass with snowflake engraved in the bottom.

Derek is quite the cook. He usually does the ham or turkey, as well as at least two or three main dishes. Macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, chicken and dumplings and hash brown casseroles are some of his usuals. I almost always prepare candied yams using my mom’s recipe. And I try to find a special tea recipe each year. My husband doesn’t take anything on by himself, but he does help me with whatever he can. The truth is we all bump into each other and have fun in the process.

The fact that we all contribute to our Christmas dinner makes it much more special. I know that I am blessed to have such a close knit family. That is the greatest gift Christmas can bring.

Christmas Snow Blown In From The North Pole

The first snow of the year just happen to fall on the same day my kids received their letters from Santa. When we woke that morning we turned on the T. V. and sure enough school was going to be out that day. Like all schoolchildren my kids were overjoyed. There just something special about a day when school gets canceled due to snow. They went straight to the closet and started to pull out their snow gear. It was only two weeks until Christmas and that’s all they could talk about.

They had all been checking the mailbox everyday waiting to get a letter back from Santa. My son Johnny said that he thought it had been forever since he had sent off his letter to Santa.  In reality it had only been a week or two. Thank goodness it seemed like the snow was giving them something else to think about that day. I made them come in and have warm up breaks. No one protested because they knew that hot chocolate and cookies were waiting for them inside.

At lunch time them came in and had chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. The conversation turned once again to their letters. My daughter said that maybe a letter from the North Pole brought all the snow with it. We all laughed and noticed that the snow was still falling outside. The snow had really begun to pile up everywhere. My husband John made a fire and the kids gathered around close to warm up. Once they had warmed up they went right back to playing in the snow.

I heard the front door open and a troop of snow boots running across the room. They were all yelling and holding in their hand a letter from Santa. They had seen the mailman coming and met him at the mailbox. There was a letter to each of them from Santa. My youngest, Derek, said he thought the letters really brought the snow with them from the North Pole. He called his Grandma to tell her all about the letters and the snow. My mom told him she was glad he could get a letter back from Santa.  

The snow kept right on falling and our city shut down. Every morning the kids waited to hear that school was canceled. The kids said they thought it was just a gift from Santa for being so good all year. School was canceled for the rest of the week. We spent the time just hanging out together and playing in the snow. There was some Christmas magic in that snow and just maybe it had been sent from the North Pole.

Christmas Stockings – With Care

A couple of years ago I decided to make all the grandkids a stocking. I took each one individually to the fabric store and let them pick their fabric and trim. I did have to set some limitations because my older grandson wanted camo and a skull pattern. The girls I have to say coordinated their colors very well. Once I had all of my supplies together I sat about sewing. At some point all of my grandkids one by one (except Mathew, of course, he’s not talking yet!) came and talked with me while I sewed the stockings.

My youngest, Madilynn, spent the most time at my side. She is never short on conversion, especially about Christmas. She bragged about being the only kid she knows to ever get a letter from Rudolph. She has never once forgotten to set out food for the reindeer. It was her idea that I make the stocking curve at the toe like elf shoes. It did give them a whimsical touch. She left me no choice but make her stocking first. I loved the blues and silver she had picked. The fabric glimmered like fresh snow. The trim on her stocking looked like icicles.

Savannah’s stocking was very elegant. Hers was trimmed with intricate lace trimmings. She even drew the pattern for the shape she wanted her stocking to be in. She is almost eleven going on 18 if you know what I mean. It seems that although she hasn’t hit the teen years yet she is still dealing with teenage dramas. I sew while she gives me a play by play of everything everyone said that week in school. I was glad to have the chance to be her friend instead of just grandma (actually it’s me maw).

My older grandson, Daniel, stopped by every now and then to give me a peck on my cheek, or ask what there was to eat. However, he did sit beside me long enough to write letters to Santa. He’s at that in between point – he knows that Santa Claus is not real but he likes the magic that Santa brings to Christmas. He would never let his friends know he wrote a letter to Santa – after all, Daniel is 12 years old! He only wrote it to make me happy. It’s one of those family traditions, and this will probably be the last year that I will be able to get him to write a letter of his own. I imagine he will stop writing them all together for a few years and then perhaps help the younger kids.

One by one I finished the stockings and they all turned out very pretty. The kids were so excited to hang them up and see what Santa would put in them.

Santa didn’t disappoint them. Along with all the goodies and toys there were letters from Santa. The kids took turns reading their letters while we ate Christmas breakfast. I am so glad that I made those stockings. It gave me the chance to talk with the kids and hear about the world from their perspective. We also now a have a new way to celebrate the Christmas holiday as a family.

Christmas Eve – The Fun & The Struggle To Fit Everything In

Since I’m now a grandma, I have changed my Christmas Eve routine a little. Now the kids have to come to my house – funny how it’s true what they say about history repeating itself and all that! Well anyway, my family does have some true Christmas traditions and many of them revolve around Christmas Eve. Let me take you back in time – Let’s say about 20 years ago when my kids were all little and I was trying desperately to keep them happy and make Christmas wonderful for them.

20 Years Ago:

Christmas Eve is always a busy day for our family. After we finish our breakfast we start wrapping gifts for all the people we plan on seeing that day. It amuses me to watch how much care the kids put into their work. Our living room becomes a maze of bright shiny packages as we wrap. My daughter gets the job of putting her cousins' nice certificates from Santa in envelopes. They live in Canada. She likes decorating the envelopes with glitter and lace. We all help to load the van and clean up the scraps of paper and ribbon.

Our first stop is to my mother-in-law’s house. It is nice to have a chance to see all of my husband’s family. They all play music so there is always a cheerful Christmas melody filling the air. The kids bounce around waiting to open the presents. Christmas Eve with my husband’s family is always such a festive time. We finally let the kids dig into the presents scattered under the tree. I love to watch the excitement on the faces of the kids as they rip through the wrapping paper. There is always a gift from Santa for each of the kids hidden under the tree somewhere.

By the time we arrive to my Mom’s the sun has already set. When the door opens we are greeted by joyful laughter. The dining room table is covered with the most scrumptious food. We greet everyone and many warm hugs are exchanged. We all make plates and find a place to sit and talk. It’s nice to see my kids spending time with all of their cousins. My mom is always the one to hand out the Christmas gifts with my Dad as her helper. She is the best at buying the perfect gift, how she knows what a picky fourteen year old will like I will never know. My mom sends the kids home with reindeer food from Santa.

By the time we head home it is pretty late at night. We like to take a short drive to look around at the Christmas lights. It gives us a chance to calm down from all the excitement of the day. There are certain houses that the kids want to see every year. My sons Johnny and Derek insist on visiting the subdivision on the other end of town that has real reindeer as part of the decoration. Who could blame them? Angela likes the house with angels and music. Our goal is to try to drive around until the kids are tired – that doesn’t happen, after all, Santa Claus comes tonight!

Once we get back home we put out a plate of cookies for Santa along with the kids letter to Santa. The kids all put on their new Christmas pajamas. After awhile the kids get settled in and fall asleep. My husband and I like to sit together in the quiet for awhile surrounded by the glow of the Christmas tree lights. And then Santa goes to work!

Back To Today:

Do I miss those days? Well you know, as I write about it, I do sort of wish I could spend just one day with my kids as they were as little kids – just one day. But there really is something to be said about every age. Now that I am over 50 I can honestly say that it’s a great age to be. My Christmas holidays are less stressful – I get to enjoy my kids and grandkids without the worries that I used to have associated with the holidays. I see everyone on Christmas Eve and usually on Christmas Day too. Fortunately all of my family lives very close to me.

What about you and your Christmases – are they better now than they used to be? Have you carried on family traditions? Why or why not?

One Stormy Night…

Okay, I admit that the title has been used before, but this story is based on facts. Years ago, when my kids were all young, we received a special Christmas gift – on a stormy night just before Christmas. Bessie was a beautiful black Lab mix. The kids and I were returning from Wal-Mart, we had just bought some extra glitter and other craft supplies; we planned on spending the evening writing letters to Santa and making snowmen out of Styrofoam. But when we got to our neighborhood we saw Bessie wandering down the street; this was on a night when the temperatures were well below freezing. She was so skinny and shivering from her nose to the tip of her tail. I told the kids to stay back until I was sure how she was going to behave. As I approached her she cowered down. I gently stroked the top of her wet head. The letters from Santa to the children were going to have to wait.

We coaxed Bessie into the house with leftover hamburger patties from the night before. She looked so pitiful with the melted snow dripping off her fur. I had the boys fill up the tub with warm water. I was a little nervous about giving a strange dog a bath but I knew that would be the quickest way to raise her body temperature. To my surprise she didn’t give me any trouble about taking a bath. The boys laughed when she ran through the house shaking and playing. It was as if she turned into a different dog. After playing with the kids she curled up by my side and went to sleep.

That night the snow kept coming down. I told the kids that we could use their old baby gates to keep her in the kitchen. We didn’t have any dog food so the boys fixed her a plate of our dinner. While we ate the boys said they couldn’t wait to write a letter to Santa Clause to tell him all about the dog. My daughter brought up some old blankets from the basement to make her a bed. When I went up to bed the children were all in their beds and Bessie was sleeping in the kitchen. When I awoke the next morning the boys were asleep in the living room floor and between them was Bessie.

The snow storm had left us stuck in the house for a few days. While we were stuck indoors Bessie fit into our family as if she had always been there. We shoveled our way out and posted signs around our neighborhood about Bessie. No one ever called to claim her and we were really glad – the truth is that each of us had grown to love her and she had formed special bonds with each member of the family. After a few weeks we stopped looking for her original owners and just accepted her as one of the greatest Christmas gifts possible.

Bessie always got Christmas gifts just like the rest of the family. She was a wonderful family pet. In fact, we would send her out on Christmas morning to find packages from Santa. She would sniff out the treats that we would hide around the house and the yard. Bessie is without a doubt one of the best Christmas presents our family has ever received. And it’s this kind of gift that keeps the magic in Christmas. After all, we had no desire for a dog at all, it was just a fluke that we found her. And it’s not what we did for her as much as what she did for us – that precious dog brought a ton of fun and love to our family – she truly was a magical Christmas gift.