Comments on: “The Christmas Box” book giveaway

By: Joan Adams

Joan Adams — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:22:15 +0000

That clock-changing idea is the best and the funniest idea I have heard in a long time. Just passed that one on to our daughter-in-law. I imagine that this year in their house, the clocks will magically be changed Christmas eve! Love it! Thank you!

By: Kathy Sullivan

Kathy Sullivan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:33:38 +0000

On Christmas Eve, we go back in time to a simpler family gathering. We turn off everything electric, stoke the fire in the woodstove, and light candles everywhere. Everyone is invited to bring their favourite candle and candle holder, which they take home with them afterwards, If a member of the family has died during the year, we put out candles in a colour that reminds us of them. After a candlelit dinner, we bring out the guitars and percussion instruments, and amidst laughter and encouragement, we improvise our favourite Christmas carols. We have a special album of photos of this annual celebration, and we pass it around as we sit quietly enjoying the peaceful fellowship. Our tree is lit with some battery operated LED lights, (a bit of a cheat, but safer than candles on a tree), so we can see our decorations, all handmade or contributed by family members. It is the one time during the year when we slow our pace and appreciate, for a couple of hours at least, the magic of disconnecting from the grid and connecting with each other.

By: Becky Jamison

Becky Jamison — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:02:03 +0000

My husband and I give a tree ornament to each grandchild on their FIRST Christmas. It’s signed and dated for posterity! And every Christmas Eve all our family who is able joins us at our house for an hors d’oeuvres buffet, followed by gift opening for only the grandchildren, then family photos are taken. We’ve done this now for 15 years and currently have 16 grandchildren. It’s the highlight of our year for our family. They say it wouldn’t be Christmas without coming to our house.

By: La Bamba

La Bamba — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:17:47 +0000

We give new jammies for Christmas Eve. The adults get new ones as well so we will be comfy opening gifts and eating breakfast. We also make no bake cookies to share with family and friends. You can’t have Christmas without no bakes.

By: Kristyl

Kristyl — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:13:43 +0000

I wish I could write about some traditional Christmas things I do with my grandchildren, but I have none. Yes, that’s awful..they live in Maine, I live in Southern California. Sigh~ Where shall I start? First off, we lost our first grand daughter in September of 2003, due to her dying shortly before birth, reasons unknown. Then my daughter refused to talk with me for a very long time…till she had her next daughter and also another one…a son had just been born when she contacted me. To make a long story short…things have always been strained and I always feel like when I fly there to visit, I am walking on eggshells and only allowed so much input etc with the children,and very little time with them, and I have no idea why. It hurts ALL THE TIME. I am basically allowed to do practically nothing with them and have no one on one bonding time… and NO I am not a drug addict, criminal, or anything else that would warrant such treatment. I’m just a normal grammy …

Then August 2008 rolls around…my husband’s daughter’s baby girl was due in England, and I will never forget the expression and lost look in his eyes when I woke up to him crying and said with a blank stare, “Tilly’s dead.” I have to say, I can’t believe it happened twice in one family, both girls, both first babies to our daughters, both the same size and both full term, with nothing wrong in the autopsies. My heart sunk and it was if I was just living a very bad dream. I almost felt like I just really wasn’t there at all..and I was walking through a numb zone. It also brought back all the feelings of what happened with angel Kaitlin 5 years prior. The only real tradition I have thus far that I can write here is that every year I go to Kaitlin’s grave in NH and ask her if she wants to take a walk with grammy. (she’s the only grandchild I am ALLOWED to take a walk alone with) We walk all through the cemetary and look at the soldiers graves, long lost friends, and her great grandfather’s etc. We also say prayers for all the little angel children we run across. Then I take her back to her resting spot and tell her that I must tuck her back in and leave her with her angel mommies for now and that some day I will be with her forever. It’s all really very sad. But I feel very close to her..our birthdays are only days apart, and I have never had anything break my heart so completely. So, hopefully, anyone reading this can just be thankful that they have their grandchildren to do ANYTHING with. Sorry this is so depressing…California Grammy~

PS Ironically, I read the Christmas Box when it first came out so many years prior to our losses. I would love another copy..I gave mine to a friend after I read it.

By: Grandpa Shayne

Grandpa Shayne — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:57:37 +0000

Thanks for the wonderful stories everyone.

@Grammy Tanda – That was a pretty good trick we played. Now that our children our grown with their own families you’d think we could sleep late on Christmas morning. Wasn’t it ironic that this morning our married daughters and grandkids excitedly called us way too early with “Get up! Santa came, and he brought me…” So much for sleeping in! LOL

By: Grammy Tanda

Grammy Tanda — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:35:03 +0000

One of the traditions that came about out of desperation and sleep deprivation has now turned into a fond family joke that we love to recall each christmas season.
Our family opened presents on Christmas morning after Santa came. Our children, like all children on Christmas Eve, were too excited to sleep. They would wake us at 2.00 and 3:00 and 4:00, At which we finally relented and drug ourselves out of bed to open presents.
The next year we finally we established that 6 a.m. was the soonest that we were going to see that Santa had delivered.
One year after being up most or the night assembling Santa’s trains, bikes, doll houses etc. We could hardly face the idea of getting back up at 6 a.m.
We got the bright idea of setting all the clocks back a couple of hours. It Worked! We got a few more hours of sleep and shared secret smiles knowing we had pulled one over on the kids.
This worked well for a couple of years until we forgot that our daughter was now wearing a watch, and sure enough she caught us.
The following year the kids played the trick on us and turned the clock ahead 2 hours so here we were back at the beginning getting up at 4 a.m.
Sometimes you just can’t win.

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:12:51 +0000

I started a new tradition this year. When I was a child, there was a department store called Ayres which had a fancy tea room and a train which led to Santa’s house. When the company was bought out, that vanished until a couple of years ago when the Indiana State Museum recreated a smaller version for the Christmas holidays. I took my 3 year old grandson, Tyler, last week and started what I hope will be a continuation of what my Grandma Edie did with me. Since Tyler loves trains, it was the perfect outing!

By: Grandma Henke

Grandma Henke — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:22:52 +0000

When I was a little girl my grandfather gave us pajamas and money for Christmas. The pajamas we opened on Christmas Eve, the money we got when we went to his house the next day. He always had a special way to give it to us … something we came to call “the stunt”. One year there was a money tree, one year a goose that layed golden eggs, one year a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow etc. I have taken this a little bit farther in that I write a special Christmas story for my grandchildren and incorporate the money giving into it somehow along with an Christmas ornament that goes with the story. They are always excited to see what Grandma’s “stunt” will be.

By: Jill Kerns

Jill Kerns — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:32:11 +0000

Our 3 grandchildren live with us. The day before Christmas Eve the girls and I spend the day making dozens upon dozens of Christmas cookies. We wind up covered in flour and sugar and love every minute of it. Christmas eve is very special in our house. Each child gets new pajamas so they look extra special on Christmas morning. Each one receives an ornament specified to their “likes” of that year. Some day they will have a very full tree. We make it “snack” night with all their favorite snacks from egg rolls to chicken. We read the Christmas story, we sprinkle reindeer feed for the reindeer outside, we leave cookies and milk for Santa. We play Christmas trivia. I wouldn’t miss a moment of it.