We have a couple of traditions:
We celebrate St. Nicholas Day (December 6th). The night before, children put out their shoes and during the night, St. Nicholas puts treats in each shoe (sort of like a Christmas Stocking). In addition to the treats, we are going to buy our children their "Christmas" shoes and those will be put out instead of shoes they already own.
We have also decided to purchase one ornament for our tree each year... since this will be our second Christmas, we only have one so far. I think that we're going to get the star for the top of the tree this year because it is our first Christmas with the baby. We compensate for the lack of ornaments by using a TON of lights on the tree.
I'm also going to try to put out one decoration each day leading up to Christmas. I'll start small on the 15th of November (which is the start of Lent (Advent) for Orthodox Christians) and build up as Christmas draws near.
I like to put up the nativity under the tree, but I don't put the three wise men with it. For one thing, the Bible does not say that there are only three; it only says that there were three gifts. In reality, three lone rich men would have been a target for highwaymen.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the wise men were not there at the same time as the angels and the shepherds. They did not come until later.
Therefore, I buy extra wise men and put them up across the room or in a different room -- they're coming! ;-D I know that's silly, but why not be as accurate as possible? :) OK, go ahead and laugh at me. But that's the way I do it. :)
Oh, and another tradition I have is saying MERRY CHRISTMAS instead of happy holidays!! Let's give the honor to the Lord!
ReplyDeleteI never thought about what you've said about the wisemen, Leannot... I totally agree with you about saying Merry Christmas! In the Orthodox Church, we greet eachother with "Christ is Born, Glorify Him!" Often one person says "Christ is Born!" and the person that they are talking to says "Glorify Him!"
ReplyDeleteEmma
Wow, I love that! Perhaps we can get that to catch on in other circles as well.
ReplyDeleteThere is a post on my blog about the Merry Christmas thing, if you are interested.
This is our 3rd Christmas and we've bought a new ornament each year too. It's a special tradition. One thing that helped us last year with our lack of ornaments was to buy a smaller tree. We got a shorter, more squatty tree and the ornaments didn't look so spread out. I also fill in with candy canes, which is inexpensive but colorful and old-fashioned looking.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention, we each had a small pile of ornaments before we were married, that we also use.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you like that greeting, Leannot... some people find Orthodox customs to be strange because they are different. In reality, that is how things were for Christians in the beginning.
ReplyDeletePhew! I am so happy that we are not the only ones to do the ornament thing, Mary Ann. Our tree will be looking pretty bare for the next few years!
Emma