Since it’s Friday, and since I love you this much, it’s a perfect day to continue with A Stitcher’s Christmas, and to venture into that realm that most stitchers can’t resist: tools…
…and more specifically…
Scissors!
I haven’t met one committed stitcher in my life who doesn’t love a good pair of scissors. Sure, you can get by with anything that’ll cut a piece of thread, but the pleasure that comes from using a Really Good Pair of Embroidery Scissors? It’s hard to beat!
So here it is – A Stitcher’s Christmas #4 involving scissors! We’ll also find out who the five winners are of A Stitcher’s Christmas #3 – embroidery kits and magazines from Inspirations.
Read on…and don’t forget to follow the give-away guidelines if you want a chance to win some fantastic embroidery scissors!
Ohhhh. There they are! Lovely, wonderful, delicious, superb, luscious embroidery scissors.
I love a good pair of embroidery scissors. And these two…they’re really good!
More below…let’s do the winners from Monday’s give-away first!
Double Delight Stocking Kit & Magazine Winners
There are five winners from Monday’s give-away sponsored by Inspirations Magazine.
Speaking of Inspirations…if you put one thing on your embroidery-related gift list this year, it should be a subscription to this magazine. It’s a gorgeous gift that keeps on giving. So drop hints to the right people! It’s worth it!
Here are the winners, whom I will contact by email: Seanna Carey, Becky Hamilton, Jack Markade, Kay (Hari), and Stacia Mountain Mom.
Congratulations! Enjoy the kits!
Scissors!
Now, let’s get to the point. The sharp point. Scissors.
Today, I’m giving away two pairs of scissors, one each to one of two winners.
The first pair, courtesy of Hedgehog Handworks, is this pair of diamond stainless 3.5″ embroidery scissors from Dovo, of Solingen, Germany.
I had these scissors once. I made the Big Bad Mistake of lending them to someone and I haven’t seen them since. They’ve gone the way of Lost Things. They were by far my Favorite Scissors Ever. I wrote about them thoroughly right here, if you want to see what they’re like.
The second pair (the red and white), courtesy of Nordic Needle, is this oh-so-pretty (and functional, and excellent quality) special edition pair from Gingher, also made in Germany.
These scissors are a cross between downright pretty and even super adorable. I love them! I’m a sucker for red (if you can’t tell by my website), and these just captivated my little scissor-loving heart. I put them on my wishlist for this year! For the scissor collector who likes quality scissors that catch the eye, they’re a great addition to the tool box! And Gingher’s made-in-Germany scissors are always excellent quality.
Give-Away Guidelines
If you’d like a chance to win one of these two pairs, please follow the guidelines below.
This give-away is now ended. Thanks for participating!
1. Leave a comment below. You can follow this link to get to the comment box. Comments left on other articles on Needle ‘n Thread or sent in via email are not eligible.
2. Please leave a recognizable name either in the name line or in the comment box, so that there’s no confusion when the winner is announced. Please do not fill in the “Website” line on the form unless you own your own website. This is for folks who have their own website or blog. Please leave it blank if you don’t own your own website or blog.
3. In your comment, please answer the following question:
What’s your favorite holiday tradition? (If you have one. If not, tell us what you like about this time of year!)
4. Submit your comment by Wednesday, December 14, 5:00 am central standard time (that’s in Kansas, USA). The winner will be randomly drawn that morning and announced in the next give-away. I’ll also notify the winner by email, so please make sure you enter your email address correctly on the “email” line on the form.
5. The winner will need to respond with mailing information within 48 hours, or another winner will be randomly drawn.
The give-away is open to everyone. You can enter each give-away in A Stitcher’s Christmas when they are published here on Needle ‘n Thread, but you can only enter each give-away once. Please don’t leave multiple comments on any one give-away.
Now, let’s cut to the chase – go leave your comment, because you know you want a new pair of scissors for Christmas!
Don’t fret if your comment does not appear on the site immediately. Comments are queued for moderation, to avoid spammers. Sometimes, it takes a while for me to work through the list, but eventually, it will show up!
I love going for a drive to look at holiday lights and decorations. Have always loved it, since I was a little girl. ☺️
My favourite Christmas tradition is going to church on Christmas eve. Especially now that I live in a tiny village; I truly love the cosiness of it all. Candles, beautiful music and lots of friendly faces. I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world!
Christmas Eve carols in church with candles, beautiful music and friendly faces are all wonderful things to treasure. Sounds wonderful!
FAVORITE tradition building a gingerbread house with the leftover Halloween candy and burning it down with the blowtorch my children gave me one mothers day.
My mother made holidays special because she made wonderful meals for the four of us and now as adults we celebrate Christmas, other holidays, and birthdays with our families. Christmas is a series of special times starting on Christmas eve with a special dinner at my sister and her husband’s, with her daughter, husband and five grand daughters. After dinner, we have Christmas gifts that always include new pajamas and other gifts for the grand daughter’s. Last year we made 5 new fleece blankets to replace worn out ones. Christmas day everyone has Christmas with their spouses and children and then later in the day we travel to a designated home and have a pitch in dinner of favorite foods with desserts and special family time.
I enjoy eating Chinese food and watching a Woodland Critter Christmas with my best friend. Although this year, we might mix it up and watch Krampus instead.
Our Airedale Christmas tree! It was a small tabletop type decorated with photos of our Airedale (each framed in those little plastic frames from the craft store), silver (painted) dog bones tied with lace & topped off with an Airedale angel complete with flowing white dress, wings & halo. Sadly the tree is no more but the ornaments & angel topper are safely packed away. Perhaps next year. Thanks for bringing back the memories Mary!
Thank you so much for doing these giveaways!
My favorite tradition is going to my brother-in-law’s home on Christmas afternoon. We used to go to my MIL’s; but once she sold her house, my BIL took over. It’s a chance for us all to get together, have a great meal, and sit around in the living room and sing when one of my nephews brings out his guitar.
I do not have a favorite holiday tradition. I like this time of the year since it lets me spend time with my grand children.
My favorite holiday tradition would be driving around and seeing the decorated houses and/or going down to temple square and seeing their lights.
What a great giveaway! My favourite thing about this time of year is the combination of early nights and all the holiday lights. It’s so fun to drive around and see all the streets and houses lit up at the darkest time of the year. It feels like such an expression of optimism and hope!
When I get together with my sewing buddies I am always checking out their scissors. Just once I would love to have the “perfect pair” and be the envy of my group.
Baking cookies is my favorite tradition as well as some of my favorite memories.
We love doing a jigsaw puzzle during the Christmas holidays!!!
I LOVE those Hedgehog scissors!!! My favorite Christmas tradition is having a party after Midnight Mass. It’s so joyful and laughter filled- being so late at night helps the laughter be a bit more free!
I love the family tradition of opening just one present on Christmas Eve. As a young girl, it was so exciting to see just one thing and helped relieve the anxiety of waiting for morning!
My favorite tradition for this time of year is gathering the family together, my husband and my three boys and playing games a watching Charlie Brown Christmas.
My favorite tradition is baking my Christmas cookies every year and sitting down with the children and decorating them while making a mess with frosting and sprinkle! Back when I was in school I had a friend who brought these cookies in one year when his mom baked them. After he shared one with me I fell in love and he went back and told his mom so from then on she always made extra to send in for me. I forgot to get the recipe from him so I spent the years after hunting down cookie recipes until I finally found them! From then on I bake them every Christmas!
Can’t wait to see what Santa adds to my stash.
Merry, mery to all.
Favorite tradition is getting together with family, reminiscing about times past.
Our family tradition is opening up our presents on Christmas Eve. My husband’s family did it and so we did it too. It is at 7 pm on the dot and we all look forward it and countdown until it is 7.
I love sitting around the Christmas tree after all the gifts have been opened, having a coffee (with a tad of Baileys!) and watching everyone admire the presents. Then, I love a good board game with the family, followed by a walk before dinner. Heaven. The aftermath of the excitement.
I have been dreaming about those Dovo scissors!
Making Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve with all of the nieces and nephews – have done this every year since they were little. Some of them are now in their 30s – one year we had to skype one in to be together but were together in spirit!!! it started as a way for their parents to have some last minute time before Christmas and has become a great tradition.
I love to drive around the town looking at all the holiday lights!
Hmmm… my favorite holiday tradition? Not sure I have one…we moved around so much that we aren’t really geographically close to family and traveling in this season is no-one’s favorite, know what I mean? So I guess it would have to be receiving and reading all those cards, photos and Christmas letters from all the friends we rarely see any more.
As for what I like about this time of year? It looks pretty when it’s snowy…but not so nice if you have to be out in it.
Decorating the Christmas tree is the best part of the holiday. We do it first thing after un-decorating from Thanksgiving, always to Christmas music, usually really loud Christmas music.
Putting the tree up with all of us together is my favorite tradition – each putting on their favorite or personal ornaments and then lighting it up for the first time!
I am always in need of a pair of great scissors! You have so inspired me to get back into needlework and I’m enjoying it more than ever.
My favorite tradition is listening to Christmas Carols. I look forward to the new ones for sale, especially by Enya and Loreena McKennitt. When I was a child, I remember driving to the store, making visits and so forth with my parents during the Christmas season, listening to music on the radio. So beautiful and inspiring. We would all sing together. I dearly miss those times, but am so happy for the great memories.
I have never met a pair of scissors that I didn’t think I needed!
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It is a less stressful time. My family is usually free for the long holiday weekend. We catch up with each other and play games. Good food and good company!
I was born on Christmas Day. The treasured holiday custom is to go to church on Christmas Eve and wish the baby Jesus a happy birthday. He is what makes my birthday special.
During the 4 weeks of Advent, we Light our Advent candles and never, never, never shop or go out to eat on Advent Sundays.
I love my Dovo’s. So much that I might get a second pair just in case they stop making them.
My favorite tradition is being together. This year it is even more special due to my fathers skin cancer diagnosis.
Saint Nicholas Eve! (or “Sinterklaasavond” in my native Dutch). I do like Christmas, but when I was a child this was very much when the whole festive season started. I would put out my shoe overnight the week before, with a carrot for St Nicholas’ horse, and he would leave a chocolate letter or something similar. Then on the evening of the 5th, a knock would come at the door (provided by a kindly neighbour, previously arranged by my mother) and when we opened it there would be a bag with presents (ranging from the obligatory satsuma to more chocolates to one or two toys). Then after St Nicholas was over, we’d start getting ready for Christmas with the tree and the decorations. Loved it! (Still do, perhaps even more so now that I lead an ex-pat existence in the UK)
My favorite holiday tradition is listening to my grandchildren read “The Night Before Christmas” to the entire family while we cozy up together with hot chocolate and a fire in the fireplace if the weather is cold. It’s a beautiful thing!
I think my favorite holiday tradition is decorating my home. I usually start the day after thanksgiving. The tree goes up with new and old, store bought and handmade ornaments. Ornaments from stitch exchanges and ones I made. Hanging the stockings that are crazy quilted for each member of the family and adding new ones for the new members. Sitting in the living room enjoying the decorations while, watching Christmas shows and stitching away. And the last would be watching each family member open their gifts with expectations. Christmas is my favorite (maybe because it’s also my birthday 🙂 )
Ronda
Thank You for the chance to win, I just love embroidery scissors. Traditions change over the years, used to be the large family getting together, but the family has shrunk, now its my Son & I , checking out the houses-love lights-and just spending time together. We’ll go out for dinner and give out waitress/waiter a large tip, after all, it’ll be Christmas! And we appreciate them.
Oh those lovely red scissors. So easy to see. You could decorate your whole tree with them. My favorite Christmas tradition is the big dinner. All your family and friends gathered around the table. Almost everyone at the table passes on the candied sweet potatoes but I still make them because my Mom did and it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.
Thanks for your beautiful embroidery. True inspiration.
I love the cold and snow. It means there is a good chance to be “snowed in” and time to work a jigsaw puzzle.
My favorite is decorating the tree. I have collected ornaments for over 40 years and each brings back memories of places I have been or people I have known. Afterwards I make a large cocoa with marshmallows and sit by the fireplace listening to Christmas music and looking at my glowing tree and the sparkle from ornaments. The peace of the season truly embraces me.
I love to set out the decorations my Mom used as I was growing up. They are filled with such wonderful memories and I get to think of her and Dad lots this time of year.
My family and I bake and frost Christmas cookies of all sizes and shapes. We even have a Christmas Easter bunny and dinosaur.
Christmas Favorite:
I love that my 2 teenage kids still get excited about putting out our Little People (Toddler Toy) Nativity set.
Oh, oh, that’s my birthday!!! Maybe THAT will be my lucky day! I never win anything, so it must be time… LOL.
My favorite tradition… hmmm. There are so many. I don’t think I can pick a favorite. But I can pick a favorite day of this season. It’s Dec. 24th. Yup, the day before, because, well, let’s face it, the most fun part is the anticipation of it all and THAT day is the day that is the culmination of all that excitement, just before the “big” day. I love, love the day before and all that it entails to prepare for, the whirlwind of making and doing so that “the” day is perfect. So, in a way, that is my favorite tradition. The preparation. 🙂
Merry Christmas season Mary, and ALL your readers too.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with my family-hanging the ornaments my children have created over the years!
Congrats to all the kit winners! Some serious stitching fun to be had there!
Our favorite holiday tradition is putting up the tree. Because the grandkids, nieces, and nephews help, our tree is always bottom-heavy with ornaments, but I don’t care. No one is going to feature our Christmas tree in a magazine spread or blog post, but what’s better than my niece announcing that “this is the prettiest part of the tree because I put ALL the snowflakes here”? Once I get past the tedious task of winding lights around and through the tree, we let the kids have at it. The very last ornaments to go on are the glass-blown German ornaments I collect (those live nearer to the top of the tree, out of reach of small hands), and the star, which the kids design and make every year. (We’ve had some pretty atrocious stars over the years, with the Lego and I-found-a-dead-cricket-to-glue-onto-the-star being the best of the worst!)
Favorite holiday tradition was going to the tree farm to select a tree and bringing it home to fill the house with the aroma of the woods. The kids hanging the decorations and the excitement on there faces is a lasting memory. And speaking of great scissors, having to hide my good sewing scissors so they weren’t used for their craft projects.
A good set of small embroidery scissors are like shoes “A girls can never have too many pairs “. Well that’s my excuse anyway!!!!
Keeping alive the magic of Christmas- whether it’s waking up to filled Christmas stockings or the Elf moving around the house at night- I love the magic!!
Christmas is when my family want, and do come home to be together. We celebrate and enjoy each other, and exchange small homemade gifts.
I am not a true baker, but this Christmas time tradition started when my kids were little. Crisp sugar cookies, buttery shortbread and of course, Buckeyes as I live in Ohio. Who doesn’t love homemade cookies?!?
I love to hang my Christmas quilts. I can never stop making them because they are so cheerful and the patterns are adorable. I already have 4 more kits to finish and would have more but I finally told myself to stop with the Christmas quilts!!!! Never enough time…
Thank you for the lovely giveaway. I have learned so much from your blog – I appreciate all your blog posts!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is smocking Christmas delights for the children in my life. I just remade my boys elf knicker suits from the 80s for my granddaughter and the little girl down the street. Children love embroidery! And I’m smocking in Salina. I love reading your Kansas blogs! It’s good to know there are other stitchers around the state.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the Christmas Eve Service at our little country church. I was born and raised in this church and still have 4 generations of my family still attending. It is a wonderful service.
Our favorite tradition is putting the ornaments on our Christmas tree. Each one is a gift from friends, both current and some that have passed, or an ornament we bought on our travels. As we hang each one, we think about the person who gave it to us, or the trip we were on when we bought it. We have been married for 47 years and our collection of ornaments could never be replaced.
Thank you
Chris
My favorite holiday tradition is watching the enjoyment and appreciation my children and now grandchildren have for their handmade Christmas Stockings. From Bucilla Crewel stocking kits from the 70’s to the latest custom designed project, they all remain favorites and a tradition I am proud to be a part of.
One can never have too many good pairs of scissors and mine are always going astray so I would love to win another pair for Christmas.
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, and we adopted the Hanukkah potato latkes as our Christmas Eve dinner. This has become a holiday tradition now, and I continued it with my children, and I’m sure it will continue on to the next generation. It’s a delicious way to celebrate, and to honor other faith traditions!
New! Really good scissors! What more would a stitcher want?- or should I say “What would a stitcher want more?”
Our best Christmas tradition is after all the packages have been opened and a great dinner consumed we take a much needed rest we end the day with left over sandwiches. Once we did not have enough turkey left for sandwiches and we were at such a tizzy
Decorating the tree with lots and lots of ornaments. I like to think of my tree as a memory tree since the ornaments have been added through the years.
My favorite tradition — so many! I love the way the house smells with all the holiday baking. I like getting out all my decorations (more and more hand made every year) and putting up the tree. Once the tree is up I love turning all the lights off, with just the tree lights on, and enjoy watching it with a glass of holiday cheer. And most of all I enjoy getting together with family and friends.
Two Holiday traditions comments to my mind equally. The first really is eating snowball cookies with hickory nuts in them, from the big hickory tree down by the road. The second is singing “Silent Night ” at candle light service with just the wonder of human voices. Magical!
Christmas traditions here begin with the Springerle cookies made with a special cookie press passed down from my Grandma. Then, we started opening gifts before Mass on Christmas Day when our daughter was small because she just couldn’t wait any longer. Now we have a new tradition that I think is the one I like best: making reindeer cookies with the grandchildren! My hope is that they will never outgrow this special time together. Merry Christmas!
Oh these scissors look great!
My favorite tradition is going to midnight Mass and coming home to open stockings.
My favorite holiday tradition is dinner with my parents and family on Christmas day. We get together early in the afternoon and spend the day relaxing, chatting, and sharing stories.
Our favorite holiday tradition is loading all the “grands” in the car and going to look at the Christmas lights. A stop for hot chocolate is usually involved. They all love it and look forward to it, regardless of their age.
What a great giveaway! I was digging for a pair of scissors just the other day! My favorite holiday tradition is going up in the mountains in New Mexico with all my family to cut down a Christmas tree.
Family time, Christmas tree, cancel light service at church… So many things to be thankful for a time of renewal knowing the baby born would take away our sins. Merry Christmas, Everyone
Our new tradition is to help serve dinner at our local community Christmas meal, open to everyone!
Family gatherings, and how they’ve changed over the years. And Midnight Mass, of course!
I’d love to win some new scissors, Mary! Thanks for the chance. My favourite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with my family. We listen to carols, sip hot apple cider, and enjoy seeing 40 years worth of hand-made and gifted ornaments. Some ornaments the children made when they were very small. All the memories are precious.
On the first weekend of Dec my sister and I with our daughters get together to bake 5 times each of 14-16 recipes. Wonderful smells and lots of laughter fill the house. This year we used 38.5 pounds of butter. We broke last year’s record!! It was fun to watch the girls make the Norwegian recipes for the first time. Now they understand what it means when we say “The dough has to feel just right!” God Jul!!
Sadly I have to hide my embroidery tools and especially my scissors! My husband seems to think my sewing box is his own personal specialty tool box. I have become so good at hiding my favorite scissors that I can’t find them myself !
Wonder if they make sewing boxes that you can lock??
We participate in the local Holiday tour of homes by the local Historic Foundation. We have decorated, guided and/ or toured for many years. Always a nice start to the season!
I love the magic of Christmas. Family, decorations, food… but the decorations collected throughout my life hold such meaning and wonderful memories.
Baking cookies together when we were growing up. Now I just make some baklava from my grandmother Catherine’s recipe.
I know it’s nuts, but my favorite thing is Black Friday–I’m a sucker for the crazy bargains!
I know how you feel about red! Our favorite tradition is driving through the neighborhoods that have luminaries on Christmas Eve. So peaceful and beautiful.
There are so many traditions it’s hard to pick just one. Perhaps the tradition that makes me happiest is driving around looking at Christmas light displays.
My favorite Christmas tradition is hosting Christmas Eve dinner.
My favorite holiday tradition is the night of the candles. In Colombia it is a tradition of many years ago on the night of December 6 to light candles, So we welcome the Christmas in our homes. That day the Christmas tree lights up and the whole family gets together to share a meal together and ask for wishes with each candle lit! In my family we always gather and prepare typical Christmas dishes, such as natilla y buñuelos. It is a very beautiful and special night, full of much affection and good energies…
Karyne
My mother would always make leuken which is a Belgian Iron Cookie for Christmas, as did her mother. I have since taken on this tradition. I always wondered why we never make them any other time of year. They are so so yummy.
My favorite holiday tradition is the Advent Calendar we started with my son when he was 3 or 4 years old. It has little boxes for tiny toys and candy. Sometimes we send him on a scavenger hunt for a few items that are too large to fit in the box. He is 10 now and loves it – checks it first thing every morning.
Please enter me in the drawing for the scissors. Thank you and happy holidays!
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the Christmas tree. The entire family would participate with putting on the lights and ornaments on Christmas eve while the kids got the pleasure of putting tinsel on the tree. At the end of the evening, a plate of frosted sugar cookies would be left for Santa.
I like the feeling of peace – the happiness from giving and sharing with others unknown
to you – so the connection with community…..and when all that is said, done, accomplished – having time to enjoy the little things I treat myself with,
the hot cocoa and some stitching even if only for a little while. Makes me smile.
Our family opens gifts one at a time. We go around the room and everyone takes a turn opening a gift. It takes longer but it is so much fun!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is putting up the tree. I am always excited to see all if the ornaments that we’ve collected through the years. Once the tree is up, the holiday fun begins!
Favorite tradition? Hmmm. There are a lot of little ones I have through the whole holiday “season” — especially in preparation of the holidays. Buying that bag of York Peppermind Patties that my girls love to “sneak”!! Decorating the house with the same old decorations. Cookie baking. You know… Probably one of the most favorite I established when my girls were young — each making their OWN gingerbread house and decorating it with much candy and royal icing. It makes me happy to see that they each do it with their own families now. And they always invite other kids to join in the “gingerbread house party” that have never done it before — to help spread the fun! I think the biggest “party” we had (when mine were young) was 17 houses. A lot of work, but special and so memorable.
I lvoe your blog. Would love to win a pair of scissors. Thanks
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Fall is my favorite time of the year, the leaves turning colors and the weather cooling, especially here in Texas. Thanksgiving is my all time favorite Holiday. That first smell of the turkey and dressing, being with family all at once under someones roof, in the past it was always my home but the last couple of years I’ve handed it over to my son and his beautiful wife. It’s time for all the grandmothers to take it easy and not have all the stress.
Wishing you and your staff a Wonderful Christmas and safe travels.
Dee Wilvox
My favorite holiday tradition is our advent calendar. Even as high school students, my children enjoy pulling out a felt shape from each pocket and pinning it on the calendar’s tree. We’ve used this felt and sequined calendar their entire lives. I love seeing them turn back into 3 year olds as they try to remember whose turn it is to start the calendar and who gets to reveal Santa on the last day.
Christmas Carols! I have a very shaky relationship with many of the religious elements of Christmas, but I have a remarkably uncomplicated love for just about all Christmas Carols, especially Medieval and Renaissance ones.
I love listening to the Christmas music. It lifts my spirits when the days are without sun and speeds my needlework along.
Sounds weird, but my favorite tradition is going for Chinese food Christmas eve. LOL
My favorite tradition of Christmas is Christmas Eve with a candle light service at church, then gathering with family with lots of food!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies with my kids.
Thank you so much for this giveaway. My aunt always hosted the extended family gathering during the holiday season and I very much looked forward to it growing up. Now that she has passed on, I have taken it over and enjoy having everyone together at Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition: seeing my grandchildren come down the steps and see what Santa left for them.
For us, food has been a big part of our Christmas traditions. Giving plates of food to dear friends. Making mock nog and speculaas for some of the treats. Having treats together makes it a special celebration that we all pitch in with and enjoy.
Making my Christmas puddings, stirring the mixture with my eyes closed and making a wish! Brings back memories of childhood in the kitchen with my mum, brother and sister. The delicious aroma and the excitement of having a wish, seems like only yesterday.
Although my children are adults, Santa still comes to the house and leaves them lots of goodies. It’s always fun to see their faces. After which we spends the morning together around the kitchen table eating a nice warm breakfast and sharing stories. I can’t wait for this year!
My favorite holiday tradition is one my husband and I started for our first Christmas that was just the two of us. I suppose that deciding to spend some Christmases without our families is also a tradition…
That first time, we ordered pizza, got two bottles of champagne, and rented two movies that we hadn’t seen yet, for Christmas Eve. Watched a movie, ate/drank, opened gifts, more eating and drinking. It’s been our tradition every year that we spend Christmas Eve with just us. The movie decisions have been the hardest part. This year we’re considering The Lobster, The Martian and The Secret Life of Pets. The weirdest combo we did was Dark Knight and Up. Two VERY DIFFERENT movies, but both good. The last time we did it we watched The King’s Speech and Iron Lady. Also both very good.
Thanks for the giveaway, Mary!
Carol S.
When my children were small, my favorite Christmas tradition was attending the locality’s carol singing. When they got bigger, they had other interests and carol singing wasn’t the same. Tonight I went to my son’s neighbourhood carol singing- with his wife and my 16 month old grandson. It was wonderful- and we’ve already made plans to go again next year!
My favorite is the birthday cake for Jesus. A day or two prior to Christmas, we decide on a special cake (like a red velvet cheesecake), make it from scratch, decorate it, and then save it for Christmas day. After dinner on the 25th, (after everyone has calmed down from the frenzy of Christmas morning and meal preparations) we gather the family for the birthday celebration complete with candle and song. It puts the whole day in proper perspective and is a special time we have together as a family.
My favourite Christmas tradition is making gifts for friends and family. Starting early in the year enables me to enjoy the process throughout the year. It is fun looking for the projects also. Thanks for your give-aways – is very kind of you.
We love driving through the neighborhood and looking at all the beautiful Christmas decorations. Each is a work of art, it’s a time to reflect on a year gone by, and share love and kindness. But the important is to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Happy Birthday baby Jesus.
One of the many “favorite” traditions in our family is hanging the Christmas stockings I stitched for my husband and two sons in front of the fireplace. Where’s mine you (and they) always ask? Well, I finally started mine this year! I won’t have it finished in time for this Christmas, but hope to have all four hanging in 2017!
I would love a new pair of scissors as the ones I use are manicure scissors I got from the Dollar Tree (don’t laugh, they actually work pretty well!). Thank you for the opportunity to enter! My favorite holiday tradition I guess would be getting my Pfeffernusse cookies! I love those little buggers (as my waistline will attest to) but the holiday season wouldn’t be the same without finding them (not so easy), purchasing 2 bags, start having the first bag on Thanksgiving and then saving the other bag for Christmas 🙂
The day the grand kids come out for Christmas (not necessarily on Christmas Day). So much fun to watch their excitement
I love that our oldest granddaughter Kelsey (she’s 7) helps us trim the Christmas tree every yr. She’s been helping since she was 2. I also love spending Christmas Day with both of our daughters & their families. A truly wonderful time of the year.
My favorite tradition is going to the barn on Christmas Eve and giving my horses a special dinner of a warm molasses mash. And standing there, watching them enjoy their Christmas treat and taking in the peace of that stable so much like one long ago.
Sorry, didn’t fully read the instructions. My favourite traditions are making my family’s traditional Scottish shortbread, will listening to Christmas music. Also a new tradition with my grands is watching the antics of the elf on the shelf, This was not know to us in Canada when I was small or when my Christmas perennial were small.
Should say my children. Autocorrect is so useful sometimes – not !!!
For me, my favorite tradition began when I was a child. Because my grandfather often worked on Christmas Day, we started having the (extended) family Christmas and gift exchange on Christmas Eve. Even now, and I’m a grandparent, we continue the tradition since it makes Christmas morning easier on those who are now parents. My daughters and their children are firmly convinced that this it the way it has been (and should be) for ever and ever.
My favorite thing to do this time of the year is gift wrap! I still like to actually wrap packages (rarely do I use gift bags unless it is impossible to figure out how to wrap an oddly shaped item). I put as much thought and effort into the wrapping as picking out the gift.
My favorite Christmas tradition is simply hanging the ornaments on our Christmas tree. The reason is that nearly every one has a special memory attached to it. As Mike and I hang each one we reminisce about the past – our trip to Alaska, the little horn from my Grandma’s tree which I blow every year – yes it works, our first Christmas, our trip to Hershey, PA, the oh-so-fragile ones also from Grandma and Grandpa’s collection, the picture of his son Ed on Santa’s lap when he was 5, the antique ones my husband has had since he was a child and so on. We drink eggnog while we decorate and then admire it for weeks during the season.
I have given each of my children an ornament for Christmas every year of their lives. Sometimes they are random purchases. They’re adults now so last year each of them received a little blown glass beer stein. Some years I bought ornaments during family vacations as remembrances. None of them are very expensive, but they’re always treasured. The last few years I have made them. I’m stitching felt ornaments for them today.
What wonderful gifts you are providing! I guess the baking is the tradition most loved. As a family we celebrate our Norwegian roots with baking these foods in a group and alone, oh the warmth and aromas of the holidays!
Mary Kay from Montana
Of course then comes the groans of the New Year working off all that baking!
My favorite holiday tradition is coffee with my Mister on Christmas eve. We sit down to a favorite cup together, just before fill stockings and making sure Christmas morning is perfect! It’s always a magical and abundantly blessed feeling moment!
My favorite tradition is a piping cup of hot chocolate and driving around and looking at christmas lights.
My favourite tradition is watching White Christmas and singing along!
My favorite holiday tradition is staying up Christmas Eve to finish knitting, embroidering or sewing last minute gifts!
I love listening to Christmas music.
My tradition is not to have a tradition. I like to let the holiday play out. Each year there is always one or two surprises that makes a memory. The fun part is adding to the list each year. So, for now it’s wait and see.
My family is Polish and Christmas is a very special time of sharing tasty foods and homemade ornaments with each other. This year, I made Mill Hill beaded ornaments. Gifts made from the heart are most special.
Sweet Holiday Wishes to all.
Our family starts Christmas morning with saying “Christmas Gift” to everyone –as if you say it first– then YOU will be the one having fantastic luck the whole next year. My parents and grandparents did the same thing– so we continue it generations later.
Merry Friday! My favorite Christmas tradition is to see the play ‘A Christmas Carol’ with my dad. It’s always been his ‘thing’ to get into the Christmas spirit. When I was young, I neither appreciated nor understood this tradition. Today I absolutely adore that he has a tradition, that he still loves Christmas, and that he chooses to do something with me that is so special to him. As we’ve both grown older, I’ve come to cherish this activity with him.
I think this time of year makes people come together, people stop and spend time with their families and friends. People always seem more charitable at this time of year, and think about others less fortunate than they are.
Kidneys sauted in sherry with our Christmas bacon & egg breakfast! So good!
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies. When my children were young, we would bake and decorate Christmas cookies together. I always wanted the “perfect”, most beautiful cookies, but the kids had other ideas. They would make purple reindeer and orange and green gingerbread men with tons of various sprinkles! And each year, the color combos were reinvented. But there was a lot of fun and laughter, and some special memories. Now I bake and decorate cookies with my grandson, who has his own ideas about the “perfect” cookie!
My favorite tradition is making gifts for family and making christmas ornaments. This year we are doing the old clothes pin soldiers. Only thing is as family increases so does the amount I need to make. Grand kids are helping paint the clothes pins. This year if we give 12 we need to do about 8 dozen. Also, love to sew and doing a casserole carrier for 9 X 13 inch pan and embroidering names on bath towels. This year I opted for bath sheets. So much fun but so little time.
My favourite holiday tradition is pulling Christmas crackers! This is a tradition we brought with us from England and I have introduced many Canadians to it. One year I even made my own crackers, complete with the “cracking” pullers as I found then in a shop but I have never seen them on sale here again. I am in charge of the crackers and make sure we have enough to pull crackers at a couple of big meals over the holidays, not just one!
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking tons of cookies and sharing with my friends.
My favourite tradition is attending midnight service to welcome in Christmas. Thanks for the chance of wining some gorgeous scissors.
I love to watch a Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, we go to the Vesper service at church then gat her at Mom’s for a Seafood Gumbo, a Cajun dish.
My favorite holiday tradition is to get out all of my Nativities. I have a lot! Years ago I started collecting different types of the little figures, then I decided that I really had a lot so I decided I would stitch Nativity pictures. Now I have lots of those, plus a whole folder of Nativity pictures that I want to do. Sunday I will be having my Annual Nativity Open House for anyone who wants to see the collection, which numbers over 200, from tiny to big. I have a few favorites, especially one of a parade of little angles saying “go tell it on the mountains.” I love the song and the sweet angels. I sew at least one or 2 new ones each year. I’m a CS nut. Pat in SNJ
My favorite tradition is the Holiday party. We have a potluck and sing carols give gifts snd just enjoy the company of friends.
Opening presents on Christmas eve was a great tradition when I was a kid. Would love to be opening a gift of sissors
You’re right! There’s nothing like a great pair of scissors,
My favorite thing about this time of year is all the lights. It’s the darkest part of the year and I love seeing all the twinkly lights everyone puts up. It makes everything feel special.
My favorite holiday traditions are of spending time with family and having all of my kids home. We go to Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church and then come home and have a dinner of appetizers. On Christmas morning, after opening presents, we always fix a special breakfast with honey pecan French toast, fresh pineapple, and fresh squeezed orange juice. There is nothing better than family time. Then I look forward to relaxing during the afternoon and getting my embroidery out and stitching away.
I guess I am a Christmas Tradionalist because I have so many. But they are a changing as the kids are gone and won’t be here for Christmas. I love baking the cookies, decorating the tree, a special Christmas Eve supper, opening gifts on Christmas Eve after church from the Grandparents that are not visiting, Christmas morning breakfast of biscuits and gravey, Christmas morning church Service, etc, etc, etc.
Oh scissors!!!!! I love scissors.
My tradition is my granddaughter comes over the first part of December and we play Christmas music . We decorate the 2 trees. One is white lights with angels and Santas on the tree. The second is multi coloured lights and this has handmade ornaments that I’ve received from friends and some I’ve stitched. Then we do the village. Some were my mums. She’s been coming over for 10 years now. This year as she is 17 I asked her if she wanted to decorate. Her answer was yes, I love doing it with you.
Denise H
Christmas…oh, I enjoy a natural tree with all the stitched ornaments, especially the ones I was stitched while waiting for my first son to arrive 38 years ago. Now the day his daughters and I decorate a gingerbread house is so much fun.
Happy Christmas and Stitching. Thanks.
My favorite tradition is baking cookies. I have fond memories of helping my grandma when I was a child. We usually made sugar cookies. She’d roll the dough and I’d cut the cookies. I now have the cutters in my kitchen.
Our favorite tradition is trimming the tree. We’ve gone from a 15 ft tree to a 3 foot tree…but still enjoy seeing all my favorite tiny ornaments…..like meeting up with old friends
Cyndi J
My favourite thing to do is put up the tree. I don’t know if that qualifies as a tradition? Hope you have a lovely Cristmas, Mary!
My favorite Holiday tradition is having my 10-year-old daughter and 2 granddaughters here on Christmas Eve to make Christmas cookies. Then Papi reads the Christmas Story to them. We’ve done this since my oldest daughter was born 29-years ago.
When I received custody of my nephew (15 years ago–he’s 28 now), we started a Christmas Eve tradition. Homemade chili in Fiestaware bowls (the ones with colored lights ), followed by watching both the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Claymation Christmas”, and ending with opening one present (which is always a hand stitched ornament from Aunt Debbie). This tradition has expanded to include my best friend (how moved in with me three years ago), my mother (who came to live with me earlier this year), and anyone who is at the house on Christmas Eve. I look forward to this almost as much as Christmas morning!
Hello, Mary! I’m subscribed to your email newsletters and always enjoy them! Both your attitude and your work are beautiful! I hand embroider scapulars, and studying your articles has taught me a lot. So thank you!
To answer your question: I’m a Catholic, so my first favorite Christmas tradition is attending Mass on Christmas Eve (I’m the organist and cantor at my church, so I get to choose my favorite hymns!). But my 2nd favorite tradition is a new one for my family: my siblings and their significant others and I hold a “Secret Santa” drawing, and we get together the day after Christmas to exchange presents. It is so much fun!
Thank you again, Mary, and I hope your Christmas is joyful, peaceful, and restful!
Family. The good the bad and the ugly. I love ’em all and Christmas time is when we all get together and laugh and each and just enjoy the heck out of each other. There are also tears for those who aren’t with us anymore as we sure do miss them. Dad, Nana, Nana, Jaimie. Uncle Sal. But it’s usually tears through laughter which is the BEST laughter after all. Family. My favorite thing AND the tradition I love most this time of year.
Thanks Mary for once again your generosity. I sure hope to win a pair of these fabu scissors!
My grown children still love the beauty of waking up together on Christmas morning, so they do their very best to sleep over. Midnight Mass keeps us all up late, then they make treats upon returning home, curl up by the tree, and finally fall asleep in the wee hours. Bodies are everywhere when I finally slip in to make the coffee. Can’t wait for grandchildren to be added to the mix!
I love making the the family recipes from those who are no longer with us. It’s as if they are alongside helping me make each one. Then I get to share these wonderful foods with those that are with us around the table passing it along to the next generation. It is almost as if we are all together for the holiday meal
Our favorite holiday tradition is to have the grandchildren decorate the tree. As they have grown, they can reach higher and higher with the ornaments. One day they will be able to do it all by themselves, though that is a sad thought now. They spend weekend nights with us during December so their parents can have “date nights” with friends at different holiday parties, and we cherish this time with them, all lights and smiles and Christmas wishes.
Every year my whole family goes to Phoenix Arizona to celebrate the holidays. There are ten of us. We rent a big house and have lots of fun.
My favorite holiday tradition is doing puzzles with my kids in front of the fire with Christmas music playing. Thanks for having a scissors give away!
My favourite tradition is decorating my Christmas tree. For the last 50 years, whenever I’ve travelled outside North America, I’ve bought something for my tree. So decorating it takes ages because everything I put on it brings back memories of countries around the world.
P.S. I have 3 rules about the ornaments: 1. They must represent the country 2. They can’t be Christmasy 3. They have to be dirt cheap.
I love seeing the wonder, hope & joy on children’s faces. I also love that most folks seem to be kinder to one another. I love the decorations, holiday baking and sharing with friends & family.
I love scissors! I have several, some I’ve bought and some I inherited from my Mother. But I need scissors where I stitch, in my stitching bag to take with me, and so many other places. Ideally I would have a pair in each project bag so that I would never be without. Nice scissors that fit my hand and have nice small sharp points! Lovely!
One of my favorite things about this time of year is driving around viewing all the different Xmas light displays. They are so festive and creative! Happy Holidays!!!!!
I love making gifts for family and friends. Although it can get hectic, I love doing it.
Mama Gwen
The best thing about this time of year is making my little gals’ Christmas dresses while listening to Handel’s Messiah or some other beautiful choral Christmas music, in my warm and cozy house, while it’s cold and wintery outside….with awesome scissors that make my labors less laborious. Ok, and preparing all the Christmas goodies we like to enjoy through the holidays…And in fact, the reality is the preparing of all Christmas goodies and the IDEA of stitching away on sweet little Christmas outfits in a nice, cozy, peaceful house….with awesome scissors! Hope all your Holiday dreams come true, Mary!
My favorite holiday tradition is my mom’s homemade pierogies. While Mrs T’s are delicious, they just aren’t the same.
I love decorating the tree because each of the ornaments have a special meaning to me.
Not a Christmas goes by without our family making a big batch of italian cookies, a recipe handed down for as long as I can remember. Not only has it been a tradition in my family, but over the last ten years or so, my friend and I meet on the first week of December to make my family’s italian cookies and her family’s fig cookies. Christmas just would not be the same without these traditions.
I love this time of the year as it reminds me of Jesus coming to earth as a baby to start the journey that would lead to his sacrificial death that bought my salvation and Iever one else who would receive it.I
My favorite holiday tradition is baking. Cookies, breads, candies, all sorts of things. If I had a big enough family, I’d make dozens of things this month!
And I love stitching tiny ornaments to decorate the tree. Cross stitch, needlepoint, crochet. All of the above!
As they say, “I never run with scissors”. Those last two words are unnecessary…ha!
I do a lot of embroidery and detail work on linen. I’m happy with my embroidery and hemstitching but the scissors I currently use are like using hedge clippers. Would love to have these beautiful scissors. Thanks for thinking of all of us during this holiday season!
I have never met a pair of scissors I didn’t like. Well, lets change that to “scissors that cut well!” Would love one of these.
Breakfast morning with all of the family is very special in our house. Ham is served on Christmas Eve so that I can make Eggs Benedict on Christmas Day! Great fun.
My favorite tradition is putting up the stitched holiday stockings (mine and my husbands were stitched by my mother) and seeing the ones that I stitched for our family. Mine are the BH&G’s rooms. The ones I stitched are by Shepherd’s Bush. Love all of them
Hi Mary,
I have been collecting Dept. 56 Christmas Village pieces for years. I’m not even sure exactly how many I have, every year, I set up my Christmas Village, I just love it! Fluffy cotton for snow around the buildings, trees with light, and a skating rink with skaters skating! It’s a real labor of love for me each year, and it’s beautiful and very festive
Thank you for the chance to win the scissors.
Favorites at this time of year are many – sitting by the fire with hot cocoa admiring the twinkling lights on the tree with Christmas carols playing in the background and snuggled up with a Christmas quilt all cozy with my hubby and puppy. It doesn’t get better than that. As for the scissors, this duo looks amazing. I have my first pair of Gingher shears acquired over 25 years ago, still use them. A stitcher cannot have too many pairs of scissors. There is no such thing. But I appreciate the finely crafted ones most.
Growing up in France, the “Crèche ” is a treasured trafition for many generations in my family. A Crèche is a lilliputien size nativity scene, with “santons” (little lifelike painted baked clay figurines) bythe hundreds! There is of course the nativity scene but also: farms, churches, villages, water holes, all populated by regional characters, animals, etc. The crèches can extend the length of two large dining room tables, have multiple levels! The best thing is that they are never twice the same..
As an “ex-pat.” American living here in London I always insist on making divinity fudge at this time of year. It reminds me so much of my childhood and family Christmases back home in Sanger, California. I use my Aunt Daisy’s recipe and have to pay over the odds for corn syrup but it is worth it for the great memories. My English family love it too!
We have started going to Christmas Eve services and it is my favorite part of the season.
I love everything but especially our kids getting home for Christmas.
My favorite thing is decorating my tree and remembering the story or person connected with each ornament. I have a LOT of Needlepoint ornaments that have been gifts or that I have stitched…they are my all time favorites.
Good morning. What a wonderful giveaway. My favorite tradition is setting up a Mary star path to count down the days until Christmas.
What I enjoy most about this season is thinking about our Saviors birth. After many years the thought of his actions still amazes me. I also enjoy what this season brings out in people. They seem to have more joy. In addition, the creativity that this season spawns is amazing. I love the art of the decorations, crafts, and gifts. I love being busy making things for my friends and family. These scissors are truly beautiful and a “cut above” ;). Love the red one best.
You’re right! I love scissors and have many pairs but could always use another. My favorite tradition this time of year…..On Christmas morning my adult daughter cooks breakfast for us. She makes a “tortilla” (a Spanish omelet/pancake made of potatoes, eggs, and onions) for each of us. She learned how to make it in Spain when we sent her on an educational excursion in High School. Another favorite tradition on Christmas morning is that we sit in our living room by the Christmas tree and we each take turns opening presents from our Christmas stockings. And the last tradition I’ll mention is on New Year’s Eve when my mother (89 years old) comes over and we all make tamales while nibbling on appetizers my husband makes, drinking margaritas, and when the work is done we all try and finish a 500 piece puzzle before midnight-New Years Day. I hope you have a Wonderful Holiday Season. Thank you so much for all your advice, encouragement, and knowledge!!!
When I was little, Santa brought our tree, so we never saw it until Christmas morning. So to me, the tree means Christmas is here! As an adult, we found keeping up that tradition was a little bit too hard to manage, but we still don’t put it up until close to Christmas. But the Christmas tree has a very special place in my heart. I have made and collected many beautiful ornaments over the years, so many we can’t fit them all on the tree.
When we recently decorated for the holiday, I counted the number of other stitched pieces I have made for Christmas, and not counting ornaments and stockings, I have 15 pieces on the walls. Though some are over 20 years old now, I still love them. So I guess besides the tree, my favorite tradition is Christmas itself!
My favorite part of this time of the year is seeing family. My favorite tradition is secret Santa. My two daughter, my husband and I all pick names out of a hat. You have to make something for that person. Over the years as we have gotten older the hand made gift have gotten better and better. There were some interesting gift when my girls were younger. My whole family cant wait to see what everyone has made
Favourite holiday tradition… well, I am English, so I think my favourite tradition is Boxing Day. We have a 2-day holiday, not just the one! I think that should be adopted here in the States too.
Otherwise I think it is the Christmas tree. Mine is nearly 11 feet high (yes we have very high ceilings) and drips with sparkly glass ornaments. I love the sparkle. All my ornaments have to shine. I don’t believe in being able to see the actual branches, so I have 24 big grey bins of decorations in my attic! I takes a long time to dress the tree, and even longer to take it down. S0me of my ornaments date from when I was a baby. The first year we moved into this house I had a Christmas tree in EVERY room, even the laundry and the garage! That is how much I like this tradition.
I love Christmas Eve! We spend the day baking up a storm ( all the old family favourites -Molasses Krinkles, Shortbread, Cranberry Bread, Nanaimo Bars). Later in the evening we watch the Christmas Carol ( with Alistair Sim – the definitive version in my world) and wrap up the last of the gifts. I should confess some years all the wrapping is done Christmas Eve. When everyone else has gone to bed and the house is quiet and still, I sit with only the tree lights on and remember Christmases past. Then I raise a glass of wine or cup of tea to wish all the people I have ever loved a Merry Christmas.
My favourite Christmas tradition is the decorating. I love decorating for Christmas and have enough decor items to do my whole house (possibly twice). Of course, this includes putting up a whole selection of Christmas needlework.
I love going to church on Christmas eve and singing Silent Night, with the lights dimmed and everyone holding candles. That is my favorite tradition.
Thank you for your wonderful site, and all you do for stitchers.
Sally Dea
Decorating our tree. The ornaments are all handmade by me, my children and my friends. It’s really a memory tree!
My favorite is the Christmas eve gathering at my moms, eating snacks and playing games with family…
My favorite tradition is looking through all of my stitching patterns and deciding on a new start for January 1. I prepare the fabric and gather the floss and have the needle ready to put in the first stitches. Then the hard part begins–waiting for the new year.
My favorite holiday tradition, by far, is enjoying that very first bite of Christmas Stollen. There’s something about that buttery loaf, chock full of fruits, nuts, and spices, and topped off with sugar crystals, that is truly magical.
Thanks so much for sponsoring another terrific giveaway, Mary!
I love the anticipation of the busy weeks leading up to Christmas Day!
I love the holiday baking and candy making for family and friends.
My favorite tradition is getting together with my sisters & their families. Since we all live in different states now, it is great to have everyone together.
My favorite tradition is the family pyramid! The new babies are always at the top! We have years of pictures of the annual pyramid. It is fun to see how everyone has grown and changed!
My favorite part of Christmas is listening to the handbell choir at church. And my all time favorite Christmas song is Carol of the Bells. Hearing a handbell choir play this song brings tears of joy!
I love setting up our Christmas tree and bringing out the same ornaments year after year. As I hang them on the tree they bring back memories of the places we have been and the friends we have had. The lights on the tree brighten the dark, grey, rainy days here in Oregon.
My favorite tradition is singing together, particularly carols and hymns. Thankfully the next generation has good strong voices, so my weakening one isn’t so noticeable.
We go camping in the Berg with kids and grandchildren.
For those unfamiliar with the term “Berg” it is the Drakensberg in KZN in South Africa.
Lucretia Strydom
Christmas Eve we all go out and see the winter lights on the houses. So beautiful with the snow. Then we go home for hot chocolate and sweet treats.
My favorite Christmas tradition is cutting down our Christmas tree. We’ve been doing it for 48 years. The red and white scissors are just adorable! Red is my favorite color.
Carol b(cc)
It’s the one time of the year when we get in touch with people we’ve not heard from for awhile.
What a dream come true this would be! My favorite Christmas tradition? I don’t know if it’s one really a single tradition and I know how cliche it sounds but I love doing all our Christmas traditions with my husband and children. Watching them listen to Luke 2, decorate the tree, make a mess- I mean cookies, making gifts for everyone. Knowing that they will remember these smells and feelings for their whole lives and maybe pass it on to their children!
Call me old-fashioned, but my favorite tradition is putting up the tree and listening to classical Christmas music. Nothing makes me happier, and I look forward to it the entire year! If I could get away with leaving the tree up year-round, I would.
Oh this is good timing! My embroidery scissors were sacrificed for cutting leg bands on chickens (lesson learned…watch how fast your baby chicks grow!). I loved those scissors and so I’m in the market for a new pair.
My favorite holiday tradition has to be decorations. I love lights and greenery!
We have a big family Christmas party on Christmas Eve, lots of good food, games and simple gifts.
One tradition my daughter and I have is the making of apricot-almond biscotti. Not only is the biscotti very tasty, it creates a great bonding time for me and my daughter (who is now 38). We turn on the Christmas music and make it a fun time. We have been doing this for years.
I would like new ✂️.
We have so many Christmas traditions, but the best one is always the first one each year. At the beginning of December we attend the Christmas Concert at our alma mater. Thanks for the chance to win!
On Christmas Eve I read out loud to my family several children’s Christmas books. We started doing this when our boys were little and we have just kept on. The boys aren’t little any more (university freshman and high school senior), but they still want to hear: The Nativity, The Christmas Kitty and The Night Before Christmas. Me too.
I love scissors too! I hide my good ones so that no one uses them to, say, cut wrapping paper or ribbon….
My favorite Christmas tradition is not strictly speaking “Christmas”, but the lighting of the advent wreath. Every year the kids cut evergreens from our trees and shrubs to make a wreath. The wreath has four candles – one for each week leading up to Christmas. At dinner the candles are lit and we say an extra prayer over our meal. Its an extra nice family time when we have some of our best conversations and builds anticipation for the arrival of Christmas.
Since I was a small child family got together to make cookies a week before Christmas. I am now 71 and we continue the tradition. The grandchildren enjoy this and yes sometimes an egg lands on the floor.
My favorite holiday tradition is having a special, no holds barred dinner with my family the night before the Big Day. By no holds barred, I mean we may have prime rib that night and it would be the only day that year we would spend that much for a cut of meat. In short, the budget be damned for that one special dinner. We have candles on the table, and use our best china. Having a small, quiet special dinner the night before things get crazy, means everyone can go into that next day in a perfect state of mind.
Hi Mary,
Since my children are all grown up now there is one tradition that remains my favorite. Everyone still comes home to my house for Christmas day. They arrive early in the morning and help prepare our Christmas day meal. Being Italian we make homemade Manicotti with plenty of other Italian dishes added in. I make the shells and the girls stuff them. My son is in charge of entertaining his niece and nephew. There is plenty of laughter, love and catching up on events in their lives. Later in the day I show them my latest stitched pieces. So, that is why I am entering this contest. I could use a really good new pair of scissors!
Just being with family and friends is the most important part of the holidays. Hoping everyone is well and seeing people you haven’t seen in a while. Seems like the holidays bring out the togetherness in people and it is wonderful. Hoping you and your family have a wonderful holiday.
We have a blended family in all the right ways. My husband’s ex is truly a good friend (and family member). My favorite holiday tradition is our annual blended family get together. We used to host it, but when we moved 3 hours away, others now host it. I truly feel blessed on the day we all gather to celebrate.
My favorite holiday tradition is spending the day after Thanksgiving baking cookies with my daughter and granddaughter. We bake enough cookies to give to friends, post-person, newspaper person, waste removal persons and donate to local charities for the holidays. We have done this for years and the tradition will continue way past my time here on earth. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night…
Debbie Dillow
My favorite holiday tradition is stitching ornaments for the ones I love. You can always add another ornament to the Christmas tree. I manage to create something different and original every year.
My favorite tradition is putting out small pictures of family that is no longer with us. When family comes we always have funny stories to tell about the ones not here. This way the little kids get to hear those stories and know the relatives they never met.
Thank you for this Mary, Hedgehog Handworks, and Nordic Needle. My favorite traditions are singing Christmas carols and Midnight Mass.
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas lunch the ladies at our church host each year. We set up round tables of eight, and each table has a hostess (or hostesses) who decorate and set the table. Some are fancy with fine china, and some are homey with Christmas stoneware, but they are all beautiful. Many of us contribute door prizes, and it’s fun to watch them being given away before and after the meal.
I love to cook and to watch people enjoy the food that I make. I have two holiday parties every year and invite all my neighbors, friends, and anyone else I can talk into coming. After cleaning the house, I cook for 3 days straight. Most of the foods are unknown to the folks that come, but they know now to try everything, and then they come back for more! They still don’t know what they’re eating, but they enjoy it anyways.
My most favorite part of Christmas is food and music. There is nothing more exciting than Handel’s Messiah and nothing more wonderful than steamed lobster!!!!!
My favourite holiday tradition is the Christmas tree. Every year decorating it connects me to every Christmas past, right back to childhood.
Thanks, Sarah
This “time of year” comes early for those of us who love to stitch Christmas ornaments and other decorations for the Season. This year I made a specific ornament for 18 members of my group and started in March. I think the kindness and goodwill associated with this Season are best when exemplified all year long and stitching provides me the reminder to share the blessings of Christmas at all times.
My quilt group exchanges gifts at Christmas and we all make gifts for everyone in the group. Most of the gifts are handmade and related to quilting, embroidery and stitching. It’s quite a fun and exciting gift exchange. This year I gave each of my quilt friends one of the little bee hive and lavender needle books that I made from your Lavender and Little Things ebook. They loved them! My embroidered gifts have become a big hit over the years and it pleases me immensely that these dear women friends love and appreciate my embroidery. So thank you, Mary, for that wonderful ebook and the inspiration to stitch those wonderful little needle books.
What I like about this time of year is recognizing the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ.
My favorite holiday tradition is my kids waking us up (too) early and we all sit in our bed opening our stocking stuffers. Thanks for the chance!
All my children are grown and are on their own now so holiday traditions are for their families now. The best tradition when they were small was to make a “Angel Food Cake” for dessert on Christmas Day and Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus! To this day they all love an Angel Food Cake when they come to visit…It really has wonderful memories…by the way the cake is made from scratch!
On Christmas Eve my family gives each other new PJs (the wilder the better), snacks, and bubbly. We put on our PJs, set out the snacks, open the bubbly & settle down to watch a Christmas movie – Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life or Hallmark Channel! As you can tell, there are no little ones in our family, so it’s like a slumber party adult style! Such fun!
My favorite time at Christmas is making cookies with my daughter. We do it every year and now my granddaughter is joining us. Cant wait for this week end.
Hi Mary
My favorite tradition is getting together with my family and making ravioli for our Christmas dinner. My mother just turned 93 and we are getting together this weekend. My mom is Italian and we have had ravioli for Christmas every year.
My favourite tradition has to be the coin toss for who has to go out and feed all the livestock after a Christmas lunch that makes you so full you don’t want to ever move again.
After our turkey dinner and gift opening time, we gather around the table and have a loud and lively game or three of “Pit”. A card game of trading commodities. Wouldn’t be Christmas at our house without it.
My favorite Christmas event starts with Christmas Eve services in a small, quiet church, holding candles for light. Few people attend and the solitude is a good time for reflection. Hopefully, there will be a light dusting of snow on the way home. There my rescued greyhounds are waiting for their Christmas treats. We turn the tree lights on, the other lights out. Then we relax . . .
Priscilla
I love baking and preparing tuns of edibles to distribute throughout my neighborhood, mail to friends and family (especially my 4 grandsons)!
It’s a wonderful time of the year to bake and—-win a pair of sharp scissors
Oh what a stitcher I would be
if I won the scissors indeed
So pick my name and send them quick!
Trudy
My favorite holiday tradition is now just a memory from childhood. My mom baked the Christmas cookies at night after we went to bed and then stored them in metal tins on top of the kitchen cabinets. None were eaten until Christmas morning when my mom, my very particular about what we were allowed to eat when mom, laid a tray full of the cookies on the table or buffet to eat after Christmas mass.
Carla in PA
My hubby and I play Blue Santa and Mrs. Blue Santa, for the local police department. Starting with the lighted Holiday parade, We then spend the first 3 weeks of December helping wrap gifts , for the under privileged children of the community. On Dec.22-23 the children come see Blue Santa and Mrs. Santa and get their gifts.
Christmas Day we spend with our own children and grandchildren.
Nina Burnsides
My favorite holiday tradition is the making of Christmas cookies. It started when my children were young and continues with my grandchildren. Usually the first weekend after Thanksgiving we bring out all the favorite recipes and start making cookies. Yum!
I guess I just love listening to Christmas music. I have it on in the house, car, at work, wherever I am. It just really puts me in the Christmas spirit.
I love Christmas because of the magic, love and family. We always spend more time with family and give to the ones that need it. To celebrate the birth of Jesus.
My favorite holiday tradition went out the window the day my oldest son went to prison. Devastation for the first few years is what reigned. I really don’t have a Christmas tradition any more. I enjoy using that day to loose myself in crafting. Sometimes, quilting, other times knitting, but since I have fallen in love with embroidery, I think I will loose myself this year starting embroidery Christmas gifts for next year. I love your newsletter by the way. Thank you for my new craft.
My favorite tradition: Getting all the family together Christmas Eve for a wonderful meal and gift giving after. Especially beloved as we only see one of our children once a year and it’s usually Christmas.
My favorite tradition is making tha annual Christmas ornaments. Some of the previous years have to be given away to make room for new ones. And of course plenty of extra ornaments are made for gifts…great fun!
My favorite is going shopping for presents, listening to Christmas music, enjoying the decorations.
I love making things for my family and friends during the holidays, whether it is baking cookies, knitting scarfs and socks, or stitching up a handkerchief or two. I always try to start early, but we all know how that goes. 🙂
Love the scissors! Before my divorce, I would cook for hours and then everyone would fall asleep after eating. After my divorce, I cooked for hours and ate dinner with my two boys and then off to the movies we would go. One of my sons still does this with his family. Our own little Christmas tradition. Lois A in Mackay
I love going to a local tree farm the day after Thanksgiving and cutting down the perfect tree. That is the best!
My favorite holiday tradition is watching my husband and 2 kids bake and decorate holiday cookies. I have always let my husband take the lead on this one and I take pictures and watch them frost and put sprinkles on. It gives me such joy to watch them make a mess and be so proud of their cookies.
My favorite holiday tradition is playing Christmas music in the car on the drive home (from my parents’ house) after Thanksgiving.
In Oz boxing day is a big one for new release blockbuster movies so one of our family favourite holiday traditions is a family day at the movies. Excellent to ecsape the heat and unwind after a huge day of baking and washing dishes the day before. The other seasonal traditiona is the more personal one of catching up on ufos during the quieter time of summer holidays.
Of course there are many traditions in families surrounding holiday time. Thinking on what I have brought forward from my own childhood and maintained every year with my own children, is something that might go unnoticed in this world of big ideas. I always put a mandarin orange and a small net bag of golden chocolate coins in the toe of the christmas stockings. It is somehow comforting…
Decorating the Christmas tree with ornaments that have been passed down in my family.
Favorite holiday tradition on Xmas Eve?
Go to a movie & Asian restaurant! Most people are celebrating at home w/ family and many restaurants are closed, but movie theatres and Asian restaurants are open & the parking is easy. Then Xmas Day it’s sleep late & leisurely open presents.
One of my most favourite Christmas traditions is attending the annual “Tuba Christmas” outdoor performance. We started attending the year my daughter was in grade six and playing the euphonium in her school band. And tuba players – of any size tuba, any age of player with any experience level – are invited to join in this celebration of the tubas playing Christmas carols and songs. Tuba players from the local Naden Armed Forces band, the marching bands around town , University of Victoria music students, local school band members and former band members from around Victoria and communities near by all get together for two rehearsals (one on Friday night and the second on Saturday morning ) and then the grand performance in the open air atrium of Market Square! All monies collected from the wonderful performance are donated to a local charity.
Since we are grandparents now, the gathering of the children and grandchildren on Christmas Day for dinner and opening presents at our home gives us joy and the best gift of the season. Also decorating the tree with the many needlework ornaments made over the years is a pleasurable undertaking.
Christmas time is extremely important in France and especially for me. It is a family celebration and we all meet on this occasion.
We prepare the Christmas meal together: oysters, salmon, snails (yes, and it is very good) then the turkey or another roasted poultry with chestnuts and cardoon Christmas, cheese, and in Provence the Thirteen desserts. Yes, 13 !!! : Traditional Christmas log, black nougat and white nougat, “oil pump” (a special dry cake with olive oil), dried fruits (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts …), fresh fruits , and special chocolate candy wrapped in shiny papers called “papillotes”. After the meal, we exchange gifts.
Formerly, there was a first supper before midnight mass. Nowadays, we avoid to load as much the stomach …
Unfortunately, now, my sons live abroad : The first one in Canada, two in Denmark and the youngest one in London, England. So I’ll have a lonely Christmas. Excuse me for my broken english….
This year I am very fortunate to be with my grandchildren, 12, 10, and 6. Being with them brings back memories of my youth and making Christmas crafts. We haw made a chain garland (we did need a good pair of paper scissors for this)and a popcorn garland form the tree. Next, up plastic canvas kiss holders. What fun we are having making memories. Oh yes, there are also the other sewing projects to complete and a good pair of scissors are always welcome.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is baking my great grandmother’s cut out cookies. I always used to make them with my Mom the weekend after Thanksgiving. My Mom is no longer living but my daughter now bakes great grandma’s cookies with me.
Linda Mc from snowy Erie, Pa
Family, family, family!! I cherish seeing family at Christmas. We are scattered around the U.S. and it is so good when we can all be together under one roof.
I LOVE the red handles but the gold ones are gorgeous.
When my son was younger every Thanksgiving & Christmas morning we got up early, left our home before doing anything else & helped prepare & deliver meals to home bound seniors & those in need. There was a lady in town who opened her restaurant to make these special meals. She received a few donations thru out the year but the bulk came from her pocket & her time. Thanksgiving & Christmas mornings this restaurant was filled with joy, laughter & love as we cooked & filled boxes with tasty food & delivered meals.
I really miss those special times with my son.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions involves eating. We get up Christmas morning to the aroma of fresh baked cinnamon rolls arranged in a christmas tree shape and sprinkled with colored sprinkles and coffee or hot chocolate to enjoy while we open our christmas presents.
My favourite event at this time of year is setting up the Christmas Tree. Although, for the first time ever, I have an artificial tree, I still got one that is very realistic. I will pull out my collection of birds, that I have collected over the past four decades, and decorate the tree with them. Then, once a thick cup of cocoa is made, I will sit and look and remember Christmases past, and my parents who are long past, who loved this time of year.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies with my daughter. I’ve been doing this since she was small. This year my almost 6 year old granddaughter will be joining us. Thank you for all the giveaways.
Scissors are one of my most important tools. I love to have a nice shiny sharp one ready to work for me.
Linda Schirmer
I love everything about Christmas, especially unpacking all the stitched ornaments I’ve done over the years and seeing the progression of not only my stitching but also the finishing ideas. But my favorite part of celebrating Christmas is the music, when I sit at Mass and hear the choir it just gives me goose bumps. Of course spending time with family and friends is way up there on the list. I told you I love everything about Christmas !
My favorite tradition is to read the story of Christ’s birth before opening the presents–gets everyones attention that way. Arlene Ritz
There are so many favorite traditions…but perhaps decorating AND undecorating the tree are my favorites. To set up the tree I put Christmas music on, pour a glass of wine and look at each ornament, hold the memories of happy Christmases past. When I take the tree down, I do EXACTLY the same thing, even though the celebrations are past. It makes it somehow a meaningful and happier task….
Scissors are one of my most important tools. I love to have a nice shiny sharp one ready to work for me. My favorite tradition is talking with my far away loved ones by phone.
Linda Schirmer
I too love scissors. We were on a Baltic cruise a few years ago and stopped in Rostock, Germany and I purchased a set of three scissors in graduated sizes. I love them. But you can never have too many pairs of good scissors. My favorite holiday tradition the last few years is with my hubby. We cook Christmas dinner together on Christmas Eve (no shopping or going out everything is done) listening to Christmas music and drinking wine. We enjoy our meal around 5pm at my decorated holiday table. After clean up, we sit together listening to Christmas music in the candlelite room while drinking eggnog spiked with Jack Daniels. (our children are in Atlanta, Ga busy with their families and we’re fine with that). Merry Christmas, Mary and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.
My favorite tradition is gathering with family. Next is decorating the tree. I love hanging each ornament that I have collected over the years.
A simple supper of chicken noodle soup on Christmas Eve while listening to Christmas music or watching an old fashio. christmas movie such as Miracle on 34th Street.
As a child I remember my family piling into our station wagon to go choose the “perfect tree”, cut it down, and bring it home. We had to wait until Christmas Eve to bring it in the house and decorate it;so Santa had time to decorate the trees of others who couldn’t do it themselves. Now my husband and I continue the same ritual, except we don’t wait until Christmas Eve to decorate it, we do it right a way. I love the fresh tree smell. It always brings back those good family memories.
My favorite tradition at Christmas is having my three children pick out a new ornament for themselves, to put on the tree. I started this with my three children, so that we have the memories of Christmas together, and they will have something of theirs when they move out. The other tradition we have is one that was started by my garnets, the kids take turns getting a big gift, I start it by age, they plan all year what they really would like to have, and that is what I will get them. Then the next year, it will be the next child to pick their big gift out. My kids really love doing this.
No matter the weather, even at -40C, on Christmas Eve, my hubby fire up the barbeque grill, cooks traditional South African sausage (Boerewors) and everyone has it on freshly baked Portugese Rolls, with tomato and onion relish. Our neighbours in North America have been known to think we have lost the plot, until they have a taste! The crowd for Christmas Eve has become quite large, we don’t mind. The only thing we cannot do on, Boxing Day, is go to the beach. Which is what one do, in Southern Hemisphere….
My favorite family tradition is the first night of Hanukkah, when everyone gets together to make and eat crispy latkes with sour cream and homemade applesauce. After dinner, which includes braised brisket, my brave husband makes sfugiyot (homemade jelly donuts) that we eat while sharing gifts.
Every year for about 40 years I have met with my best friends to build gingerbread houses, first with their children and now their grandchildren. There is usually more icing on the children than on the houses and more candy in their tummies! Fun!
Consider it a joy without words to attend the Divine Liturgy at The Orthodox Church with all it’s beauty and grace.
The water treatment plant (the water works) in our city is a very beautiful building. Understated, classic, stone, with mature plantings – it’s one of the few high spots here. Every year the city decorates it and driving by and seeing it all lit up is one of my favorite holiday things. I was just in town this week after dark – and made a point to drive by.
I remember my parents taking us into town at night specifically to see the lights. We’d go to the water works, city hall and to my dad’s place of work. He worked for a GM plant, and they decorated the front of the plant with a big Santa in his sleigh – being pulled by 8 (6?) shiny new cars! And they weren’t on the ground pulling the sleigh, oh no, everything was somehow suspended at the roof line of the building so it looked like the cars were flying away. My sisters and I were always amused. They stopped putting up the display decades ago, but I still remember.
My favorite new holiday tradition is having family over to prepare meals. My Mom isn’t in good health and hasn’t been cooking – so this year I’ve set her up as our official cooking consultant on a comfy bar stool at my large kitchen island. For dishes she normally would have made one of the “younger” cooks gets guidance from Mom on making her dish. It includes her in the event and makes her feel valued while passing on traditions to the next generation. Wish I had done this years ago!
Angela G in O’Fallon, MO
I will have to try these scissors since I seem to think the only scissors are ginghers.
Both of my parents passed away this year. They were the keepers of the Christmas traditions. This year, will the the year of incorporating some of those family traditions and creating new ones.
On the Winter Solstice, watching and listening to every version of “Here Comes the Sun” that I can find and posting my current favorite on my FB page.
I am struggling with changing family dynamics and changing traditions. The older I get the less stuff I want and would love the gift of time from my kids, prior to the holiday to help me decorate. I love a decorated house, have a snowman collection of over 100 since 1970 and without help, I can’t get it all done. So, my new tradition would be a decorating date with my kids. Then, I’d be content to snuggle in and stitch quietly though the holidays! Thank you for such wonderful newsletters! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
My favorite holiday tradition is the annual tree trek. We have nine children, and over the years the numbers have dwindled some…kids grow up and I can’t do a thing about it!! This year there will be only four of us going out to a local tree farm. We get all bundled up, and generally try to do our search in some sort of theme… last year was a Star Wars theme, so every comment or suggestion had to tie in a line from one of the movies. That was a challenge for me because I have a terrible memory for movie lines…usually because I’m stitching while trying to watch a movie with the family…my mind is among fibers while theirs are engaged in the story line…..Anyway, hunting for our tree as a family has become my favorite holiday tradition.
I don’t have a favourite holiday tradition. One thing I like about the season, though, is seeing people’s Christmas lights on their houses.
I love this time of year with all the gathering, preparation and making of gifts for my family & friends! Oh-and the decorations! Thank you, Susan from Mississippi spierssusan52@gmail.com
I love baking cookies with family and then bundling up boxes of cookies for family and friends. The scent of the tasty ingredients, the fun of sharing the various tasks, the laughter, the warmth and joy … all of it is one big happy party. Then the grins of people receiving the cookie boxes is an added joy. Plus, we get to sample as we create. What could be better than that?
My favorite Christmas tradition is the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church preceded by homemade soup (either clam chowder or oyster stew) and grilled cheese sandwiches.
When I am lucky enough to find it on the radio: listening to
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge LIVE. I try every year. Listening to it with just a twinkling of light? Even better. Happy Holidays to all.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is playing games together as an extended family after Christmas Dinner. We talk and laugh as we play. I have many good memories about these times. I am so hoping for these scissors because I am currently without good embroidery scissors.
My favorite holiday tradition is just being able to spend time with my family and friends and enjoying good food and togetherness. 🙂
Ever since I was a young girl, we packed the family into the car one night to drive around town to look at the Christmas lights. I still carry on this tradition-though it does lack some of the beauty without the snow swirling all around (I live in San Diego now!).
My favorite holiday tradition is having a cookie baking weekend with my sisters and nieces. Everyone sleeps over and we drink margaritas and bake cookies and watch Christmas movies. It is very fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree with all the collected and hand made ornaments from the past…esp. the needlework ones!! I have a 6 foot cast iron and wood Christmas tree I can take out of a box and put together and then decorate. Very environmentally tasteful. We have on Christmas music and eat Christmas goodies while (or after) the decorating. I just love this tradition.
I too love good scissors. And I have several pair. If I win the Dovos I would give them back to you because anyone as kind, generous, and giving as you deserves to have her own pair of cherished Dovos.
My favorite Christmas tradition is opening up stockings on Christmas morning. As a child I was in trouble for getting up too early to do this 🙂
One of my favorite tradition is the Christmas Tree. I like very much « dressing » it and seeing it more and more attractive.
I wish you and all your fans a very beautiful Christmas.
Diane from Montréal in Québec
Since my daughter was very young and could barely contain her curiosity about presents under the tree, we have opened one present on Christmas Eve. That present is a new pair of pajamas or a nightgown, usually very sweet…or very silly! We now continue that tradition with my grandson and he gets the trendy pajamas!
My favorite holiday tradition is homemaking my Christmas cards that include a handmade ornament. I had to cut my list to 40 a to be able to get them all done on time. Really this is a year long project . I always seem the get an idea each year at Christmas for the following year. The cards always tell about the story of Jesus birth. It is always a joy to give each year.
My favorite holiday tradition is a hike on Christmas day. And, I DON’T have a decent pair of scissors and would love to have a pair!
My favourite thing about the holidays is the music!
One of my favourite holiday traditions is going to look at Christmas lights. Every year when growing up, my mom, dad and three siblings piled into the car and drove around the city to look and laugh. My hubby and I continued the tradition with our kids. Nowadays, it’s something we still do, but it’s more fun with a crowd of people!!
Back in the 30’s, my grandma clipped a recipe out of the Des Moines newspaper for pfefferneusse (peppernuts in English). Some one in our family (currently me) has baked them every year since then. Kids, grandkids and sisters all get a small bag. As I shared some with a German friend once, she says they are not real pfefferneusse. Oh well. They are a California translation of an Oregon improved version of an Iowa rendition of a German cookie. And that’s how it is!
I love getting together with friends and family, especially now that I live further away. We always do a “Chinese” gift exchange and my handmade items are always a hit
I love making handmade gifts of one sort or another for Christmas. This year I also made cards by embroidering on paper! Such fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is putting all the ornaments Mother and I have stitched on the tree. Each one has a memory and even though my children have theirs on their own trees now, I have enough to cover a 7′ tree. It is the first year without a new ornament from Mom, but the warm feelings I have are carrying me through the first Christmas without her.
My favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas my kids & grand kids are together the whole day! From unwrapping gifts to eating, watching movie, playing games. So lucky that we are all close. Merry Christmas everyone!
My favourite holiday tradition? When I was small, all children from the family gathered, sometimes it would be as many as 10 of us. On Christmas eve, before going to church, we walked along the whole village and stopped at every house where a relative lived, also at the neighbours, stood in front of a window and sang a christmas song. They then came out or often invited us in and we all got some sweets, maybe apples or oranges, nuts, and perhaps a few coins. We even had a small bag especially for this occasion.
I enjoy making peanut brittle for friends and family, everyone is so happy to receive it. And the kitchen is filled with the scent of warm candy. And the bags of brittle lined up on the counter, with their bows and ribbons. Ah……,
Shelia in Oklahoma
My favorite Christmas tradition is making all 8 kinds of my grandmother’s cookies. I also have made a dark fruitcake from an Annapolis recipe for 35 years. Yum!
There are so many things I love about the holidays! Not necessarily a tradition…but I LOVE the glow of my Christmas tree. The warm lights are so comforting. They make my heart, soul & body smile! They fill me with good, loving thoughts & energy.
My favorite part of this holiday is getting together with family in a relaxed and joyous mood enjoying one another’s company and great food!
Cinnamon buns for Christmas morning breakfast – preferably homemade.
Thank you Hedgehog Handworks and Nordic Needle for sponsoring this wonderful giveaway! My favorite holiday tradition is my family has a post holiday get together. That way everyone is able to get together without the pressure of visiting two families in a day or missing out entirely if they alternate years. Its fun and relaxed and extends the holiday season in a very good way.
Mary in Billerica
We have so many lovely traditions it is hard to pick one. Going to the tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree is a favorite way to start the season though.
Oooh oooh!!! Aren’t you so generous 🙂 and those red ones from Nordic are gorgeous xx
Love, love, love sharp little scissors!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the old French Canadian one of Reveillon. Go to Midnight Mass, come home and make merry until you can’t stay awake any longer. Breakfast for the ones who want breakfast. Dinner leftovers for those who want dinner. Laughter. Presents. Sleep in the next day, knowing that when you do finally get up, your whole family is there and you can continue the fun.
My favorite tradition at Christmas is making a recipe that my Grandmother used to make. Recently I found the original in a cookbook with handwritten notes from my Gr-Grandmother. I think it is at least 80 years old. It’s called Heavenly Hash and I only make it on Christmas day, but I make enough to last for at least 3-4 days. My husband and I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we love it so much. Pearl tapioca, pineapple, marshmallows, and whipping cream. So light, you never feel stuffed. My grandmother only made it at Christmas and I try to keep the tradition going.
I love getting out Christmas decorations from my childhood for the holidays. My fav is a Santa candy jar.
My favorite part of Christmas is watching my kids open presents.
My favorite Christmas Tradition is baking cookies!! Lots and lots of cookies! I love to collect at least 2 new recipes each year to try out.
My favorite tradition is Christmas Eve dinner, Mom’s Wedgwood (the classic blue with white grapevine) and my grandmother’s damask linen tablecloth. Washing the dishes by hand is not my favorite thing, but oddly I don’t mind ironing the tablecloth after it’s washed. Linen is so beautiful and shiny when it is pressed. It’s kind of magical.
I enjoy a lot of the Christmas prep, decorating, baking, etc. Before I moved one of my favourite things was the party I threw every December for my friends.
My favorite holiday tradition is sitting on the couch one night with my love and watching Christmas Vacation. It’s so funny because everyone can relate to it!
We like to enjoy a low-key Christmas Eve because we know that Christmas day is going to busy and loud – 20 people this year at my sister’s house! So on Christmas Eve, we usually go out to dinner, go home and enjoy a movie and some dessert, and then go to Midnight Mass. My son and daughter-in-law are newlyweds and will be spending Christmas with us. They both love this tradition as well.
Christmas Greetings, Mary! My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family and friends – hopefully for a meal, LOL!
Thanks for this opportunity to win a good pair of scissors.
Jennie from WV
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies.
Joanie
I don’t really have Holiday traditions, other than watching movies while doing embroidery.
The three day weekend is pretty good for that! 😀
My favorite holiday tradition is putting up the tree. I love looking at all the ornaments I’ve collected over the years and remember the significance attached to them. I also enjoy displaying all my hand stitched ornaments.
Sue Gustafson
Christmas is my birthday so it is a terrific time of the year!!! My favorite tradition is asking the kids to River of lights. The entire botanical gardens is done up in Christmas lights! They have music with live musicians and they will put whiskey or bailey’s in your coffe or cocoa. It is always freezing and when it has snowed it is quite beautiful.
My favorite Christmas tradition is getting my grandmother,mother,aunts and cousins together at my home to make tamales for our Christmas get together
on December 24th. We have loads of fun, the grands telling stories of my mom
and aunts when they were young doing this very same thing.
It is a great time of love, sharing old and new stories, and a renewed sense of what family represents to each one of us.
Merry Christmas
New tradition started this year by our 8 yr. old granddaughter,,she wanted a Elf on the Shelf, they have one in the classroom,,i bought it,,so now we are hiding it everyday before she gets off the bus. She told her Gramps we are do a tradition,,he said-we have never done this before–she said BUT IT’S A NEW ONE..
Thank you for the giveaways,,i hope it’s a ‘tradition’ 🙂
C. Going
I love gathering with family at this time of the year. The numbers seem to increase year on year as children produce more children, all wonderful.
Our favorite tradition is Christmas Eve tapas bar. It started many years ago by accident and it is still going on even though the kids are grown and have children of their own. It is fun to see what they come up with.
I love getting up on Christmas morning, putting breakfast in the oven, and joining the rest of the family for prayer and then opening gifts.
Christmas Eve service at church followed by family gathering for oyster stew.
My favorite Christmas tradition is making Christmas cookies with my two grandsons, 4 years and 18 months. All the giggling and creative cookies that are produced lasts me for a long time. Hope this tradition will continue for many years to come and will finally include my new granddaughter, 3 months old!
My holiday traditions are no longer but I like the festive surroundings. Thanks for the chance!
Our holiday tradition is always using my mother’s silverware for dinner. I only have a few of my mother’s things and her silverware is my most prized possession. It is not because it is the most beautiful but it is the most important thing I have to share with my family. We shine it up each year and use it on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This way my mother is with us. She was a very special lady. Because of the silverware we usually share memories about her on these holidays which has become the tradition. She died in 1976 and my children don’t really remember her. So she comes to life through me, for them.
My favorite Christmas tradition is being around family. We are all so busy during the rest of the year, that, we as a family, make sure that we are together at Christmas.
We “hide the pickle” on the tree. First the grandkids get to look for it, then the grandkids hide it for their parents. The finders get a gift, usually something they can share like a gift card to a restaurant. It brings about a lot of laughs and excitement when they find it.
These days, we no longer have any traditions- our parents are gone, and family is scattered. It’s sad, because I loved Christmas morning with my in-laws and family, and I loved searching for the perfect presents for them.
I love a lot about this season- I’m a sucker for shiny things, for things all lit up with tiny lights, for people thinking about others. I love the get-togethers. I love snow, although not too much of it.
I don’t think I have just one favorite holiday tradition. Having at least one eggnog latte before Christmas is one of them. Watching “Miracle on 34th Street” (the original) and “The Christmas Carol” with George C. Scott is right up there also. Thanks Mary!
My favorite tradition right now is reading a passage of scripture that is a prophecy about the Messiah every night with our kids.
Christmas Day walk with the whole family and dogs.
My favorite holiday tradition is lights: on the trees, on the bushes, as candles in the Windows and on an Advent wreath, as huge spreads in the local parks, even on the neighbor’s homes when they WAY overdo it! Perhaps it’s because this is the darkest time of year or because as a stitches I need lots of light or because light is what unites at least three major faiths (Christians with Christmas, Jews with Chanukah, and the Hindu with Diwali): whatever the reason, light resonates with me.
Cookies, candy, pies, songs, decorations, cards….where to begin! I love all of the season’s traditions. The colors, snow, church festivities, lights, hustle and bustle they are all part of what make Christmas special to me. Compared to many, my traditions are pitiful. Advent candle lighting, sugar cookies for all 12 days. Decorating the tree together with Christmas music playing while we all share the stories about our sentimental ornaments, a new one every year. Bacon cooking for Christmas breakfast is why the smell of bacon always makes me feel warm and nostalgic. Church early on Christmas morning has replaced small children running down the stairs in the wee morning hours. Driving around to see the Christmas lights at night is the one thing that my sons still humor me with the week before. Now they drive while I spot showy targets to ooh and ah over. It seems so bare and bland when the lights are put away. Something to look forward to next year.
My favourite tradition is putting candles in walnut shells and setting them on water. It is supposed to predict your future
Our favorite holiday tradition is our breakfast menu of homemade cinnamon rolls, delicious stuffed egg dish, and thick cut bacon!
My favorite tradition is going to the midnight Christmas Eve service. Love the music, the candles, the message of what Christmas is.
LOVE the little scissors – thank you for the giveaway! Christmas tradition: My daughters birthday is December 10 and we always put up our Christmas tree on that day. So, she gets to celebrate and have fun twice! She’s grown now with children of her own, but still follows that tradition in her own home as well.
Thanks again!
Barbara Brannon
Baking! I love baking, I love the smells of cookies, nut breads, and cakes waftimg through the house.
My favorite Christmas tradition is the talent show we put up each year before opening presents!
I relish taking time to make handcrafted gifts for my family and loved ones. It has become such a tradition that the planning and actual start of the onset of the gift making itself has become a known tradition.
has to be the full turkey dinner – stuffing, cranberry sauce, the works. love snow covered trees or even frost covered trees. so beautiful.
My favourite holiday tradition in our family is our pajama gift on Christmas Eve. When our children were little they wanted to open one gift on Christmas Eve. By chance the first gift they chose from under the tree that night was a pair of pajamas. It worked out so well they were excited to put on their new pajamas to sleep in. So now, for more than 50 years, this is the gift we open. And now we have a baby due on Dec 25, and the tradition continues on. Claudia B.
You can never have enough scissors!!
The holiday traditions that I treasure most are music, lights, and family gatherings. Carols and Readings in church on Christmas Eve ground me spiritually. Lighting displays evoke joy and the memories of Christmases past. And the happy noise and glad smiles of family members as we gather to feast and celebrate together ground me emotionally in gratitude. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
For me I love the family tradition of all getting together when possible over Christmas. Also the thoughts that go into making presents as much as one can – especially love the ones made by little grandchildren and they are treasured for ever. Thereby they are taught the spirit of giving with thought for the receiver. We make many of our decorations each year and give to others in the family. For many years (when our children were young) we could not afford expensive presents and even now that we are pensioners money can be tight and I start making presents early in the year and only resort to buying when I have not had time and especially find the males of the family difficult to make things for. Your blog and others and Inspirations magazine give me ideas all through the year.
My favorite holiday tradition is cookies in every flavor!
Hello Mary,
I used to love to watch the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” around the holiday time but I confess I haven’t remembered to watch it for a while! My husband and recently relocated, but we are now quite a ways away from our family, so we don’t get to enjoy much holiday time together anymore.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas season!
My favorite holiday ‘tradition’ so to speak is the end of the academic quarter – my husband is a university professor so up until grades are due things are pretty hectic at our place. The peace that descends when grades are turned in and we have time for family things again is heavenly!
When I was a kid my parents would take us for a drive to see Christmas lights. My dad would pack his giant work thermos with cocoa or apple cider and my mom would bundle us up and give us each a box with crackers, meats, cheeses and fruit “for the road”. Once we got to driving around Dad would put on the Christmas music. We would sing carols, eat our snacks, and ooh and ahh at the lights until my brother and I fell asleep in the back seat. When we moved to Texas this tradition had to change. It is rarely cold enough for apple cider and bundling up so, now we go for a bike ride thru the most decorated neighborhood we can find. The Grandkids are small enough to ride in a bike trailer with their own box to munch from.
Cookies, yes cookies. Springerle cookies made with the rolling pin that has been in my family for 5 generations. (We’re making them this weekend.) Ethel’s sugar cookies from my great grandmother’s caretaker. Russian tea cakes because they’re my son’s favorite. Spritz, Cocoa Drops, French Swiss, Zimmersterns, Coconut Macaroons, Brown Sugar cookies, and on and on and on. Now my life would be much easier if I didn’t bake at Christmas. For goodness sake – I own a store that ships packages and sells toys; my husband works for UPS. It’s not like we’re not busy; but, Christmas isn’t Christmas without homemade cookies.
Tradition: favorite is Christmas morning; breakfast in pajamas, open presents, more eating, watch movies or football. Then trip to families home for desserts!. It is the most de-stressed day of the year. All ‘mandatory’ large family gatherings occur before or after Christmas. Christmas Day our family reserves for individual family time. It’s perfect. Of course, a good a new pair of great scissors would make it extra perfect – HaHa. Thanks Mary.
Christmas Cards!
I love to send them
I love to receive them
(I have every Christmas card I have received tied in a bundle by year including the one I sent that year – yikes!)
Now, that I am a little older, I guess my favorite tradition is to get out my Santa collection, my holiday travel ornaments and my nativity set. I light a Christmas candle, get a good book and settle in to a comfy chair with my sweet Yorkie and promptly fall asleep!
One thing that I always look forward to during the Christmas season is singing at Midnight Mass. My youngest daughter and I have sung with our choir at this Mass for several years and I always feel like I am enjoying the true gift of Christmas when we join our voices with the choir and the congregation in singing Christmas carols and responses before and during the Mass.
We have a family tradition of everyone helping to decorate the tree. We have tall people ornaments, short people ornaments, and the middle gets everyone involved. A very vital helper separates the hooks that always get tangled. So all of us get to help and then enjoy cookies and cider while gazing at our beautiful tree.
My favorite Christmas tradition is fudge made from my father’s recipe. No marshmallows or chocolate chips, just cocoa, sugar, milk, and butter that boils into melt in your mouth goodness that goes straight to your bloodstream.
My favorite holiday tradition is playing for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day services. Also, getting together with family.
Every year I made Christmas ornaments with my children in an age appropriate medium. It is fun to see the ornaments that they made. For example, we made Pom Pom ornaments, clothespin ornaments, fake stained glass ornaments, salt clay ornaments, and many others. It’s a great memory for both parent and child although sometimes I would get the comment, “Mom, why are you keeping this pathetic looking ornament?” Only a mother would truly know the answer…..
My favorite tradition around Christmas is to make about 9 dozen decorated cookies (mostly bears and angels) to take to a low-income residence in downtown Seattle. I’ve been doing it for at least 25 years and really enjoy the creativity and the enthusiastic reception!
Love love love these scissors! My favorite holiday tradition is spending time with my Mom. As she is living with us now, I get to enjoy the holiday even more!
Thank you, Mary, for the give away.
Christmas in our family is special because our son was born on this day (quite a number of years ago!). So this year we look forward to spending some time with him at Christmas and catching up with all his news and his activities.
With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Hi Mary, thanks for the chance to win a wonderful pair of scissors. My favorite holiday tradition is when my brother and I get together a week or so before Christmas and make tons of holiday cookies. We are of Norwegian heritage so there is always krumkake and rosettes! We always make some for gifts but this year we’ll be making extra so my dad can give some gifts to friends that have helped him out this year. Susan Leschke
Thanks for these giveaways. I’d love one of these scissors. My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree. The ornaments have fond memories attached to them – whether they were made by my children when they were small, or ones made by myself and friends. It’s fun to remember.
Happy holidays to you.
Judy C
Christmas Eve is my daughter’s birthday! We celebrate with dinner, her gifts (no Christmas paper on them, of course!) and cake! Then it is off to midnight services at Church and Christmas is ushered in on candles, song and faith.
I don’t always decorate for the holidays, but when I do, my favorite moment is opening the boxes of ornaments and beginning to visit the old friends within. There’s always something I’d forgotten about that brings a new smile to my face.
This year’s decorating will be limited to unbreakables on the mantle, because we have a 7 month old puppy and an 8 month old kitten. I now know that puppies will EAT anything, and kittens will DO anything!
I like to start early and head out to the woods for a hike. It’s peaceful and quiet and hardly anyone is about. It is also a great way to burn off some of those extra calories from all the parties, dinners and cookies that turn up this time of year.
Enjoy reliving the family traditions, special ornaments, cooking together, enjoying each other’s company. Especially now that we get together only every few years.
Pam Westphal
Love watching the Christmas tree with the lights on and the ornaments glistening like to turn out the lights and just watch
I love the holidays in general….but I guess my favorite tradition is decorating my tree. I have a really cute vintage pink tree and collect vintage ornaments. My daughter and grandchildren come over and we have snacks and hot chocolate and listen to holiday music.
Love these scissors! My favorite Christmas trad ion is celebrating Christmas Eve. We go to church, then open our presents. Then we sleep in Christmas morning!
My favourite holiday tradition is attending our local Nanaimo Concert Band’s Charity Christmas Concert. The music is wonderful, the hall is always packed and people give generously to the Salvation Army.
I have scissors for many things: fabric, embroidery, crafts, paper, chicken, flowers etc. I like them to be sharp, clean, clever, short, long, etc. One day I will have a scissor that even plays Bach or country western.
My favorite holiday tradition is something my husband and I do every year – we have Christmas movie watching nights! We watch our favorite movies (Elf, Home Alone, etc.) with snacks and wine! 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition is stitching gifts for family & friends. Over the years, I have made counted cross stitch gifts, embroidered tea towels & hand appliquéd wall hangings.
I love to bake Christmas cookies – especially spritz through the old-fashioned screw type cookie press. No food coloring added, but lots of sprinkles!
Christmas carols – my mother and I would always spend the day trimming a huge tree (often with tinsel) with the radio playing Christmas Carols and we singing along, often in harmony. I still sing while trimming the tree (no more tinsel, tho!) – and every time I get a chance.
Carol at Notre Dame
Love to watch the Christmas tree with all the lights and the Christmas ornaments all shimmery and bright like to turn off the lights and just look
I love decorating and seeing my house take on the Christmas spirit
I love seeing all of the decorations at this time of year – from the rustic to the elegant, from the simple to the over-the-top, the quiet greenery to the brightly lit character scenarios. I love them all!
My favourite tradition at Christmas is the wishing on the Christmas pudding. my mother always used her mothers Christmas Pudding recipe and once the ingredients were put together each of us kids were to stir the pudding and make a wish. i have continued to make the pudding and just like when we were kids, our own children now stir the pudding and make a wish!
My favorite xmas tradition is Embroidering gifts for friends!!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the Christmas Eve service at our little country church. The children used to present a Christmas pagent but the number of children in the little church has fallen so some years there is only the Christmas story read by the children. Love the Christmas music!!!
I would love to win a pair of scissors.
Linda Given
I think my favorite tradition is getting together with my family for Christmas dinner and opening presents. Everyone contributes to the dinner, and of course, we eat until we’re stuffed. Then we pass out the presents and take turns opening them. That way we get to see (and ooh and aww over) what everyone got. It’s a wonderful day where everyone can be together for pretty much the entire day.
Christmas dinner. We have a fairly consistent menu of dishes we reserve almost exclusively for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re just a small family group, and we’re pretty informal in our dress and approach, but we get out formal dinnerware and linens, and someone always gets inspired to prepare a table arrangement, and we all sit down together (a rare event). And, most important to me, we linger.
Mary, thank you so much for all you do and and all you contribute to your readers’ lives. Your work is a joy to read and I hope it sustains you for many, many, many years to come.
I love the family all home for the holidays and I especially like the years I get to stitch something for one of the family members. Handmade is special to make and receive.
Oooo, both pairs of scissors are so, so nice! My favorite Christmas tradition is that I stitch one Santa ornament each year from a Mill Hill Kit. I have hoarded many of these adorable little kits in my stash and each year I choose one or two to stitch. I have a “skinny” tree that I’ve hung all the ornaments on and now it’s got well over 20 ornaments and it is just my favorite tree ever. The beads in the ornaments sparkle in the lights of the tree and the dimensional features of each Santa are so much fun to look at. I love setting the tree up and seeing all these fun Santa’s each year as they come back out of storage.
June 1967 McCall’s magazine featured The Bride Makes Cookies for Tea. A simple recipe that you could shape, decorate and glaze. I have made this cookie every year since, decorating it various ways. Each year the decorating gets simpler. Presently I cut rectangles, bake and dip half in melted dark chocolate. Definitely the family’s favorite.
Love your daily postings!
My favorite holiday tradition is to make needlework ornaments for family and friends.
Our tradition has been Christmas Stockings. My husband loves shopping for the little items to wrap and put in them. We open the packages in the stockings first and have so much fun with that before opening larger gifts.
I love the giving spirit of people at this time of the year. Wish it could happen more often throughout the year.
Favorite holiday traditions are the making of everyone’s choice of cookies and decorating the tree. Oh, and driving around town to look at the lights.
What I like about this time of the year…is that the start of a new year is right around the corner.
Opening presents on Christmas eve is my favorite tradition! Thanks for this nice giveaway!
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve service and checking out the Christmas lights in our area. Followed closely by watching White Christmas at some point.
Merry Christmas, Mary! Is it possible to have too many embroidery scissors? I think not! Thanks for entering me! Diana
I love using these small scissors. These are wonderful scissors for cutting in small areas and stitches. Wow, would love to win a set of these.
Merry Christmas and have a Sew Wonderful day!
My favorite tradition is the challenge to see who can open the LAST present! We all try to hide one so we can pull it out and say Oh look! One more!!!
Hm, I love the music. Not the Jingle Bell Rock stuff that’s on the radio and in the mall (argh)–my taste runs to older stuff. Proper carols and so on.
Also I always produce a lot of hand-dipped chocolates, which is a neat tradition. I make a lot less now than I used to, because having two teenagers is exhausting, but I’ll go back to doing the whole range in a few years.
Another great giveaway!
My favorite holiday tradition would be putting up the tree, unwrapping and hanging the ornaments from Christmases past, especially the handmade ones, remembering when the ornaments were made and by whom.
My favorite holiday tradition involves always setting out certain decorations year after year. But now that I have a grandson I look forward to making new traditions that will revolve around him and make things special for him growing up.
My favorite holiday tradition is making treats with my children and sharing them with others. 🙂
Every year I make a new ornament for each of my children and now grandchildren. They love to pick them out and then marvel over them all year while they are being stitched.
Every December I the train to Seattle with grandchildren. We visit Santa, the gingerbread houses, lunch at Cheesecake Factory, ride the carousel, and then each child picks out one book at Barnes & Noble.
My favorite Tradition is our Holiday breakfast. We always have what my Grandmother called T-ring she used to make several to give to relatives and friends and then my mother continued the tradition and now I am doing it as well.
Becky Voisine
I love spending quality time with friends and family during the Christmas season, and making Christmas cake of course
I would love to win either pair of scissors and My favorite holiday is Christmas. One tradition I have is making Christmas morning coffee each Christmas Eve.
My favorite holiday tradition is to go look at Christmas lights with my family on christmas eve. We wait until dark and then take our dog out walking around the neighborhood. After we get back it’s time for hot chocolate and new books. It’s fun to see everyone else out walking too, and it’s a good way to pass the time before bed!
Love going to see the beautiful home and park decorations in our community. Just an important tradition for us to drive around town to “Christmas Card Lane” and the downtown park, especially after a snowfall.
Dear Mary,
First, a blessed Christmas to you and a fully healthy New Year. I love the scissors!
When the children were young, our family had a “Giving Tree”. The girls were too young to buy much for each other, so we devised a big felt green tree with apple pockets, to hang over the mantle. In the pockets, we all wrote on slips of paper offerings of service for one another for the coming year; e.g. I shall do your dishes or I shall walk the dog for you, etc.
It went generally well until people got aggravated by the frequency with which others were “cashing in” their gifts.
Oh well, we tried and the family always has something to say about “the Giving Tree” now when we join with their children — either a groan or a laugh!
Thanks for the giveaway.
Because it’s difficult for us to get away and visit our family in other states my husband and I celebrate together. Because we both love the outdoors, our favorite holiday tradition is to go for a hike during the morning. Then we hit the coffee shop for a warm drink, head home and munch on small appetizers and share a bottle of champagne for the rest of the day. We get fresh air and a healthy start to the holiday and it puts us in a great mood!
I love the long winter nights by the fireplace to get cozy with friends and family. Board games are a great way to reconnect and have fun.
Sharon
PS – I love those red Gingher scissors too!
My favourite holiday tradition is buying presents. Funny thing is, I don’t like wrapping them. I always buy them so early that all those wrapping services in the mall aren’t up and running, so I have to do it myself. If I just lef it til the last moment, I could do the fun bit without all the restling with sticky tape. Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks again Mary for this opportunity! My favourite tradition is when my husband and I find a few quiet moments to sit back look at the tree and appreciate all the wonderful blessings that have surrounded us through out our lives together!
You are so incredible. I LOVE your website and all the tips and tricks you’ve put on your site to help new embroiderers. Thanks for the chance to win some awesome scissors!!
So many traditions, stirring the pudding, hanging the wreath, dressing the tree, flaming the Christmas pudding, hanging the stockings, putting out the milk and treats for santa and the reindeer, the Queen’s speech…Hmm which one to pick. I think pulling the crackers before Christmas lunch is my favourite…
Penelope Darby
Oh, this is hard. There are so many, but I’m going to pick, making gingerbread cookies, which I have been doing for over thirty years, usually with my kids. I use the recipe in Joy of Cooking and add some extra spices (Julia Child suggestion from many years ago in a magazine) and voila. Keep it simple: no icing, just some red hots and maybe a few sprinkles.
Being of Italian descent, my favorite tradition is making lots of Italian cookies and breads like pizzelles and knots. My other favorite tradition is one we always did when we were young. We would all visit my mom’s brothers and sisters houses over the holidays to see their trees and gifts. It’s one I get homesick for, especially now since I am grown and most of my aunts and uncles have passed away. But their are wonderful memories!
I love the Christmas Holidays most. I cherished the memories of the traditions and new things we do each year. Best of all I love to hand the handmade ornaments of the tree(s). Most of these ornaments are mine, but many have been given to me by friends or family. I usually make one holiday ornament or decoration each year as a gift.
I , Judy lawrance, jblawrance@embarqmail.com, like to sing the Christmas caroles! Also I enjoy looking at the lights people put up for the holidays!
I love those little scissors! Winning the drawing would make me have a very Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!
We have a keep sake tree to which we add one item that represents a significant event from the year. It is a history of our marriage and our children’s lives.
In my family we do a whole Christmas Eve celebration, complete with one special gift per person. While Christmas morning is always super fun it always felt a little special to have our own celebration on Christmas Eve. Now that I am older it helps us to balance the different families and houses because no one has a competing event that night. 🙂
I love the lights on everyone’s houses!!
my favorite part of the holiday is making embroidered presents for everyone! I need to start a year in advance.
My favorite part is the stocking stuffers my boys when they were small live the stuffers so much more than the big items it was fun stuff. I mean the stockings were overloaded with trinkets of Legos, color crayons,soliders, stickers and candy. I still do it every Christmas but the toys are usually tools and such. When my son brought home his fiancé i made a stocking for her and did he stuff it but it was cute when they were packing she was putting the stockings in her suitcase and my son told her it stayed home so I could put the year on it for the next year. I enjoyed sewing them when they were small fitting their personalities to match their stockings.
My favorite tradition is opening party crackers at dinner time and wearing the tissue paper crowns.
My favorite thing about the holidays is all the lights. I love the bursts of rainbow light in the dark. They make me so happy!
Our family, from the time our boys were babies till now (ages now 37 and 38), has always taken the time to read the account of Jesus’s birth from the chapter of Luke before we open our gifts. Precious time together for our family.
Marilyn Sulzer
Dubuque, Iowa
Christmas morning breakfast is our favorite thing, hot cocoa, giant cinnamon rolls and sausages and bacon wrapped in a variety of ways. It’s purely simple and comforting.
My favorite holiday tradition is the baking of kringles and lefse that have been treasured recipes from our family for generations. These are given away to friends and neighbors before Christmas. Of course we have family members come in for a day of baking. They leave with boxes of goodies that last through the holidays.
Lo qué más me gusta de la Navidad es recordar cuando de niña mi madre armaba hermosos pesebres para mi hermano y para mí. Feliz Navidad!
My most favorite holiday tradition is baking a large assortment of cookies. I really love the way the cookies make the house smell so nice.
By the way, thank you for each of these wonderful surprises.
Hi Mary, my favourite traditions are our dinners with close family friends on Both Christmas Eve and Day.
I love that our family goes to Christmas eve mass together and then has a simple dinner afterwards of homemade potato soup and homemade bread and, of course, Christmas cookies. There is always conversation about past Christmas celebrations- It’s Perfect.
Oh, I’d love a great pair of scissors! My favorite holiday tradition is getting the whole family together for Christmas dinner. We live in different states and don’t get to visit often, so Christmas is special.
My favorite thing about Christmas is seeing family. Making gifts,the music, pretty decorations and the yummy foods.
Beautiful scissors!
Hi mary,
I like decorating the house , then when its dark turning on the sparkly light and watching all those fab movies like 34 th street with a hot chocolate and marshmallows!
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas jigsaw puzzle that we start every Christmas Eve. Beginning in the mid to late 1990’s, I have brought a new Christmas jigsaw puzzle for the family to start on Christmas Eve. I started this because my late father was a tremendous puzzle fan and it added a fun element to Christmas. We always finish on Christmas Day, no matter how late it is . The only time we failed was when I brought a 1,000 piece puzzle. Now, it’s a maximum of 750 pieces! This Christmas, my most competitive puzzle mad niece will be at home, so it will be extra special.
I love winter, the colours and the detail of the trees are so amazing. Of course all the other season are amazing, but winter allows you to spend more time doing embroidery what could be better. My favourite holiday is visiting different cities and finding out what their traditional embroidery is and doing a piece in the traditional stitch.
Lovely scissors, just the thing for my embroidery!
My favorite thing about the Christmas season is the exchange of Christmas cards. Many “old” friends I only hear from once a year and I love getting their cards with a note on what’s going on in their lives. Since we live in such a huge country it is not possible to see many of these people. The little girl who befriended me in grade 1 lives 3000 miles away. I haven’t seen her in 68 years but we,ve always kept in touch at Christmas. We’ll both be 80 in the coming year.
My favourite Holiday~Christmas tradition is to make Hungarian pastries and then when those are done, I love to embroider Christmas ornaments for friends and family. This year I am making snowmen. Some in blues and some in fuschias. They are hand embroidered with a variety of stitches including French knots, back stitch, hem stitch and some more fancy stitches. I glue one of my business cards on the back of each with the date made. It gives me joy to give!
I love the outdoor lights. Our community has really good participation in the putting up lights and decorations department. I love driving around looking at the beautiful displays people have created.
I love unpacking the Christmas tree ornaments. Some date back to when my husband and I first set up house together. There are ornaments our children have made through the years, and the ones they chose every year until they left for university. Our Christmas tree is a glorious jumble and my favourite thing in the dark days of December.
My Mom had all of the family at her house on Christmas day for dinner and we had steaks on the grill! It didn’t matter if there was a foot of snow, my brothers would brave the weather and perfectly grill our steaks to order. Now I do this with my children and grandchildren. I hope they cherish this tradition as much as I have.
Hi Mary
What i like best about this time of year is that energy is expelled toward the goal of loving and forgiveness with good cheer added in!
I would love a good pair of new scissors. I love to embroider and do it every day. I am addicted! Hope all is going well with you and you have a Happy Holiday
My favorite tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights. When I was little we always looked at lights and after I had my own family we continued to drive around to look at lights. Now it is just my husband and myself at home but we still spend a night looking at lights.
Thank you for these great giveaways! Happy Holidays!!
Our family tradition is “the Whiney Xmas present”
Everyone says what they want the most or whines the most.
The one who is chosen gets their present.
The only ones allowed are the adult children.
Everyone gets chosen eventually lol
I love good scissors!
My favorite holiday tradition is letting the children open their stockings the minute they get up- it gives the adults just a few minutes more sleep.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating our Christmas tree with my collection of 400 plus ornaments that shimmer and sparkle and glimmer and shine! Every branch is dripping with prettiness! I hide a glass pickle ornament that my grandkids have to hunt for. They think it’s great fun!
Decorating our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Growing up in Germany I had not been used to having the tree up so early (my dad would decorate it – behind closed doors mind ya – on Christmas Eve to reveal it to the family in the evening) and I really enjoy the twinkling lights and my favorite ornaments – all the way till 1/6.
My favorite holiday tradition is opening ONE gift on Christmas Eve (one for everyone, not one each). Since we’ve reached the age of reason, we all agree to make it a game — then we play the game together as a family, often right up until midnight (when we scatter quickly to give Santa the all-clear). Love your site, Mary; best to you as always.
Getting up earlier than anyone else and just enjoy the peacefulness of the season
We have no real Christmas traditions in our house; but we love the season!
My favorite holiday tradition is hot chocolate. It’s pretty much the only time I have hot chocolate and is a splurge for me. Not the most exciting, but it makes me happy. Happy holidays everyone.
Aaaah a good pair of scissor who dose not desire them – I am just getting started with embroidery – all my current scissor have been used cutting paper and plastic templates for quilting. No I do not have a dedicated paper scissors. I guess that is why I am entering this contest…LOL
My favorite holiday tradition used to be exchanging ornaments that would go on the tree…decorating the tree was really my all out favorite thing. These days i am content to know that the tradition lives on in other places and homes. One of my favorite things about the season itself is that people tend to be nicer to each other in general, at least it seems that way to me. Even with all the stress,crowds,and acquisitivness, there are many many moments of pure grace.
thanks so much for your website and effort.
kaethejean
My favorite Christmas tradition is opening presents on Christmas Eve. These giveaways are wonderful. Thank you.
Mary…my favorite holiday tradition occurs early in December when my hubby and I sit together at the dining room table and write out our Christmas cards. We take that time to share memories with each other about the folks on the Christmas list as we write them a message, then sign, address, and stamp each card. We noticed this year that many of our memories seemed to be from years ago…um…could be because we are getting older and older!
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together on Christmas Eve and wrapping all the gifts. We always let the kids open a small gift to help them get through the agonizing wait for Santa! Lol
Merry Christmas Mary!
Hugs,
Catrina Byrge
My favorite Christmas tradition is my children and grandchildren traveling to their childhood home for a week or so. We have 9 additional bodies here and it makes for a raucous and throughly enjoyable time. (Son #1 is in the army and unfortunately he and family usually can’t make it. Otherwise we’d have 3 more). We’re fortunate that we can accommodate all of them here. I love having my children and grandchildren together for the holidays. Ah, yes do I need another pair of scissors? Probably not. Do I want a another pair of scissors? Absolutely? Especially one like these.
Favorite tradition is just making sure we all get together to enjoy that time together.
Me! Me! Me! Pick me! (I tried to come up with a more adult and eloquent comment, but my inner six-year-old would not pipe down. And I’d really love either pair of scissors.)
I make cinnamon rolls for my children.
Valerie Neer
I love putting the snow under the tree and arranging a village in one area complete with deer and snowy pine trees, and a nativity scene in another area, right under one of the tree lights.
Thanks for the giveaway. I like going to Christmas Eve church service and then coming back home to have champagne and Buche de Noel with family.
Oh, I love these scissors! I have an old pair of Gingher scissors that I just adore.
My favorite family tradition happens after we have had our family dinner together. We snap open Christmas Crackers and enjoy sharing the jokes and trading the surprises inside, but the part comes when we all don our colored paper crowns and pose for the annual crown photo!
These might very well be the best family pictures from Christmas throughout the years!
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve Mass, then home to have dinner with all my children and grandchildren; then the chaos of watching the children open their presents! Heavenly!!
My favorite holiday tradition is writing Christmas cards – I so enjoy hand writing a short message to everyone on my long list and checking it twice!
Christmas Eve dinner with my brother and his wife.
My favorite holiday tradition ~ Christmas Eve celebration for all the relatives at our house with a buffet for dinner. On Christmas morning my family would eat leftovers for breakfast. We did this until my parents were notable to have Christmas Eve anymore. Someone else in the family took over the Christmas Eve celebration, but the Christmas morning breakfast was not the same.
I love the feel of my home with all the Christmas decorations up around the house. I wait until 12 days before Christmas and by then I’m champing at the bit because I’ve been seeing decorations in the shops and restaurants for weeks before hand. The tree is artificial because I live in a hot country with no fir trees but the decorations are from all over the world. Putting up the decorations is a trip down memory lane which is heartwarming and just right for the season.
My extended family always was at my maternal grandmother’s on Christmas Eve. When she died my cousin bought her house and we continue this tradition except it’s usually not Christmas Eve because the family has spread out and we pick a day that most can be here.
I like the feeling that this time of year offers. The warmth and excitement of the upcoming celebration, the thoughts of those special to us, a time to enjoy the good feelings of the beauty, love and strength that is associated with the season.
I love that people are more friendly at this time of year.
My favorite Christmas tradition is using just Christmas lights and candles after 7pm on Christmas Eve. My mother started this when I was young. My siblings and I couldn’t wait until after dinner when dad would turn off all the lights except for the Christmas lights. Mother would turn on Christmas music and we could see all the pretty lights. Then we would sing songs, listen to dad read the Night Before Christmas and hang our stockings. Such a beautiful, magical time!
Christmas morning, before we could open presents, we would serve mother champagne and orange juice in thanks for all her hard work! Let’s face it, mother decorated, cooked, baked, cleaned, shopped, planned everything since Thanksgiving. She deserved the Champagne!
I have continued these traditions with my own family. Now, my children do it also!
Thank you for offering these great prizes!
Barabal D.
You can’t have enough scissors, I certainly agree. Dovos are my favorite brand. My favorite thing about Christmas is putting up decorations. Every year for over 2 decades I have made a Christmas stocking and putting all these up and remembering where I was when I made that one and who I made it for is a reminder of how special the holidays are.
Last year with my family and this year with my husband’s, we had “Show and Tell”. You can either bring an item to show, or tell your latest joke or riddle, or do an object lesson or say a Christmas piece, you name it. Littlest down to the oldest. Of course, the kids steal the show, but everyone has a lot of fun doing it. And you can ask questions about the items, however you want to do it.
This is the time of year I love to come home to the smell of bread baking, soup simmering and family laughing. In my quiet time I sit in my favorite chair with an embroidery project in my lap, sewing a while and dozing a bit. Nothing like looking out on a crisp clear afternoon as the snow begins to coat the grass, knowing I can stay inside and still enjoy this time of year.
Hi Mary,
My favorite tradition is to burn a pair of real bayberry candles down to nothing on Christmas Eve. It is to ensure health, happiness, and prosperity during the coming year. My mother always did this and I have carried the tradition on in my home for the past 49 years.
Thanks for another great opportunity to win!
Sandra F.
I love our family time on Christmas Eve, we go to candlelight service, have dinner, exchange gifts and watch a movie. Always a fun time. I love little scissors, thanks for the chance to win.
My favorite tradition is getting together with family.
Love,love,love scissors ! Could easily become a hoarder of scissors!!
It’s got to be midnight mass at out local 14th century cathedral, St Corentin. Merry Christmas to you
I love this time of year in southern NM. The weather is usually in the 70’s and it is awesome to see my geraniums on the front porch blooming on Christmas Day. We can spend time outside with the granddaughters.
Since I have been a Nana for 21 yrs to 2 granddaughters n a grandson, at Christmas I will wrap their gifts n paper of their favorites…like Barbie or Winnie the Pooh. No matter how old they get the theme paper stays the same. No name tags on their gifts. They r 21, 18 n 16. I think deep inside they look forward to the paper.
I have had a tradition of having brunch at my house on Christmas morning. I didn’t realize that the menu was inadvertently set in stone! I must serve: french toast, ham and bacon quiche, refrigerator cinnamon buns shaped like a christmas tree decorated with maraschino cherries, and creme de menthe brownies. I can swap out other goodies but if I miss any of these someone will notice and comment.
My favourite holiday tradition is opening one present on Christmas Eve.
My mom was getting too old to host the Christmas Eve dinner so I took over. I decided we would start around the world…first stop: Mexico. The next year I had planned to go to another country but EVERYONE said, NO, stay in Mexico. We’re still there! Since I moved from KS to Houston I’ve picked up some really good Tex/Mex recipes as well as my take on them.
Definitely Birthdays and New Years. They are the beginning of a new year. What a great way to continue your and others lives. Dotty
I love visiting the seaside on a cold frosty Christmas day, walking along the beach, watching and sharing the excitement of children trying out their new gifts. Having hot chocolate and later, Christmas dinner.
Alex Taunton UK
I love going to the Christmas markets for a mug of Gluehwein! Am flying off to Berlin on Sunday for some full-on German Christmas Spirit. 🙂
I am thankful for the birth of Christ and possibility of salvation for our world!
I love the gathering of friends and family for Christmas dinner with conversation and love. I see the grandchildren who are in awe of the decorations and presents, and bring back my memories of Christmas past!
Christmas Eve….once the stores are all closed and everyone is home, it seems a peace and quiet descends that you can FEEL! Listening and/or watching the updates of Santa’s trip through NORAD….it just seems magical!
There are so many, but the dearest to me is decorating the christmas tree. I like to take time to do this because it takes a while to go down memory lane with the ornaments: made by my children over the years, homemade by friends and myself, and those collected on road trips we have made. How sweet the memories!
On Christmas Eve we have a big Mexican dinner of enchiladas and tacos with all the trimmings, then we go out and look at Christmas lights.
Taking the grandkids to buy presents for their parents and each other. There have been some interesting choices over the years.
My favorite holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve, when I still lived at home with my family! After we got home from Midnight Mass, before we go to bed, my father would put on Mannheim Steamroller’s “Still, Still, Still” and we would all sit in the dark in the living room and watch the lights twinkling on the Christmas tree. It was such special and calming time right before bed. Really put you in a magical Christmas Spirit.
Good luck to everyone on the giveaway! And Merry Christmas!
When I was a child and we went to my grandparent’s for Christmas, it was always open the stockings first, then breakfast, then head to the tree. I remember my father having to hold on to the back of my younger brother’s pj’s so he didn’t escape from the breakfast table before everyone else was ready. We don’t do stockings any longer, but they are hung up and on display all month.
MY favorite holiday tradition is making toffee. I make at least 15 batches and it doesn’t last long. I send it as Christmas gifts and my kids sample every batch.
Those scissors are so pretty! Thank you so much for all you do for the embroidery community – I love reading about the techniques you show, and am emboldened to try a few new things!
Ooops – I forgot to tell you about my favorite Christmas tradition. I have two to tell you about – the first is from my childhood. About now (December 10-15 or so) on a Friday night, (well, it seemed like night because it got dark by about 4:30 p.m., my parents would pick us kids up from school and we’d all go downtown to do our Christmas shopping. We’d go to maybe two stores (Kresge’s and Eaton’s – in bustling downtown Port Arthur, Ontario). Really, it was (and is) a sleepy little town in Canada just north of Duluth. But we’d do ALL our Christmas shopping on this one night. At about 6, we’d go to a restaurant (unheard of!), and have dinner, and then go home and wrap our presents all the while trying to keep things secret from each other. Such a simple little tradition, but filled with the excitement and air of Christmas. It was all special, because usually, we walked home, rather than ride, we NEVER went out to eat, and there was just so much joy to be had.
Today, I live in Seattle, and my favorite Christmas tradition is one my husband and I have done since I moved here, 26 years ago – on December 23rd., we go out to see “the Christmas ships”, which is a parade of boats all decorated for Christmas with lights. We watch from a table in our favorite lakeside restaurant as they stream past us. The ships do it all through December, but the 23rd is special because it’s the last night, and more boats come out for that one than any other night. And on this night, their route takes them right past our window table! Beautiful!
I love decorating the house for the holiday, from putting up nativities to setting out favorite Santas, with a few projects stitched by my mother, mother-in-law and myself.
On Christmas day, when all the shops are closed and there’s nothing but reruns on tv, the stage is set to remember just how much fun friends and family can be. We .make the most of this by inviting all our friends and family for a summer braai (hmmmm…”barbecue” would probably be the non South African word). The glittering pool completes this perfection.
Here is my favorite thing to do at Chrismas time. I love sitting in the livingroom, with my husband, with only the lights of tree for illumination. AND listening to Christmas Music.
OOhh…. those scissors are delish!
Thank you for this give-away Mary! I have some beloved family heirloom embroidery scissors, but they aren’t as sharp as they used to be anymore…
My favourite holiday tradition is backing Plätzchen (aka German Christmas biscuits): vanilla half-moons, cinnamon stars, orange hearts, and I usually try a new kind every year (the orange hearts were last year’s innovation, but they were so good I’m making them a permanent addition). I lock myself up in the kitchen for a full day to bake about 500 every year and then give them up in pretty packages to loved ones… and I also eat a lot of them myself!
Christmas is a day like any oher to us. A good time to sit and stitch.
Never having won anything, a new pair of scissors would be perfect(my are sad and not sharp)
Love reading your newletters/reviews and do glean a good bit of information from them. Thanks for your hard work.
My favorite thing about this holiday season is our family getting all together. Our children live in four different states, and during the holidays they all come home (and bring grandchildren!), so the house is a noisy, grand place to be.
12.9.2016
My comment describes a phenomena I learned from my Mother when i was small…..after all the presents were opened she would mysteriously come up with just one more that always had her name on it…..and then she would act all innocent and open something she had wanted….Christmas has never been the same since my husband died but I still maintain this tradition…something I bought, usually handwork , but never played with…..
From Janet Kovach
My favorite holiday tradition is baking. I got together with my mom two or three times in the weeks leading up to Christmas and we baked our hearts out. We would make at least 20 different types of cookies and squares and pastries. A few years ago one of my daughters joined us to learn from Grandma. My mom passed away last December 4th so I am now the “teacher” and carry on the tradition with my 3 girls and grandkids.
My coworker gives each of us a Lush Bath Bomb as a gift each year. I always save it for Christmas Eve and take a long hot bath while I read and relax in the tub to unwind from the holiday madness. That has become my favorite Christmas tradition. (Sigh)
I just found your blog and I am loving it. I have been sewing and recently have incorporated more hand sewing into my table runners, pillows, etc. My Mom got me started on hand sewing. My favorite tradition of all has to be being with my family. I am one of six children and we are all still living and breathing. I love seeing my family and the loud and obnoxious sounds we all make when we are together. We still draw names and it’s so fun to see what everyone gets, sometimes thoughtful and special, sometimes odd and quirky.
Midnight Mass!
My favorite holiday tradition is gingerbread! When my children were young, we used to make elaborate gingerbread houses, but now that they are grown up, I just bake literally hundreds of gingerbread cookies for all and sundry. I really love the smell of gingerbread at Christmas.
We love baking cookies! Who doesn’t love all those yummy cookies!
I love to eat Christmas dinner!
Oh, these are so great. I have been coveting the Gingher scissors for ages, but both pairs look lovely.
I am not a huge fan of Christmas, but I do love Advent, so my favourite tradition is an Advent carol service, especially in the evening, so that you come out into the dark and cold night.
We love the late morning drinks and nibbles at our best friends’ house and lots of great chat, followed by the walk home – hopefully in crisp, cold, sunshine!
Best Christmas tradition is putting up the tree. Every year I buy a new decoration to go on the tree to remember the year.
My favorite tradition is listening to all the kids read the bible verses of Christs birth. They each read a section and pass it off to the next person.
Love the scissors.
I’ve always fancied a pair of Dove or Gingher scissors so this is very exciting! My favourite Christmas tradition is adding a silver thruppenny bit (an old British coin) to my Christmas Pudding and then seeing who finds it and gets a year’s worth of good luck on Christmas Day….just have to make sure you don’t break a tooth!
Alison
Godalming UK
My favorite part of Christmas is watching the kids open their gifts and Mom’s pecan pie yum!
My favorite holiday tradition has been making a Christmas stocking for each person in our immediate family. We all fill the stockings with small gifts that pertain to that person. For example, o son is obsessed with a certain childhood candy…it’s always in his stocking. If a funny incident happened to a family member during the year, a gift reminding them of the funny incident will be bound to be in there too. There’s a great deal of anticipation and laughter as we remember the nice events of the past year . This happens after December 25 when we celebrate “little “Christmas and peek into our stockings.
Carolyn S.
I love the tradition of going out together and picking a real Christmas tree and then bringing it home and decorating it. The smell when the tree is first in the house is so beautiful.
I love all the Christmas lights at night!
If only I could stitch everyday!
The whole preparation in anticipation of Jesus birth with advent calendars services and daily readings. Liz
Love the scissors and your site. Your stitch descriptions are so easy to follow and the history tidbits are wonderful.
It always gets me into the season to make a new type of Christmas tree ornament each year!
I love everything about Christmas It is my favorite holiday. We start with eggnog on Thanksgiving Day and decorate on Black Friday. We party all month and finish by putting away the decorations on New Years Day.
Thanksgiving, love getting together with the family and count my blessings.
My favorite holiday tradition is to bundle everyone into the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights. Thermoses of hot chocolate and cookies are a must!
When I was little, my favorite part of christmas was decorating the tree. Daddy would set it up – since it was fresh cut, we had to let it thaw and settle in the house before trimming it. Then only Daddy was allowed to do the lights. Such waiting, patience and anticipation for a little girl. Finally i got to hang the ornaments – many old and handcrafted – and make the popcorn and cranberry garland. Once decorated, i would sit and stare at it for hours. Now that i’m older and my parents have passed, my husband and i have a new tradition: chinese food and Doctor Who! vastly different – but still fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is going with my family to choose a fresh-cut tree, then decorating it to classic Christmas music. The kids are getting bigger, so these are moments in time to cherish.
Getting out my Nativity scenes (I own several) and setting them up makes the house feel like Christmas to me!
I haven’t had a holiday for years! Every Christmas I look forward to all my children and their partners and their children (and sometimes even a pet or two) returning “home”. I love to see their happy faces, the noise, and the games we all play. I secretly marvel at how much they have all grown during the previous year.
My favorite holiday tradition is watching “A White Christmas” with my family. This old holiday movie is my gift to me. I love the singing and dancing and the beautiful ladies dresses. Usually one by one, members of my family find their way to watch this movie with me and get caught up in the dance routines. Yes, I enjoy doing all the decorating, the cookie baking, gift buying, and visiting with friends and family. This is my holiday treat.
My favorite holiday tradition was that each year I bought my children a Christmas ornament of their own. I tried to match it to their interests, hobbies, etc of that year. Now that they are in their 30’s, they have a nice assortment of meaningful decorations for their own trees!
As a child, the best part of Christmas was visiting my grandparents. But as an aging adult, the true
meaning of Christmas is the most important part of the holiday; celebrating Christ’s birth. I do, also,
enjoy stitching ornaments,
My favorite Christmas tradition is attending a Latin Mass on Christmas Eve, wherever I am.
My favorite holiday tradition is sitting at the piano and playing Christmas hymns and carols.
My favorite holiday tradition is writing personal notes in the cards to send out. I am not able to spend time with everyone I would like during the holidays and I enjoy letting friends and family know that I’m thinking of them at this special time of the year.
Ever since I can remember, we watched “A Christmas Carol” on TV. It was always the 1951 British version with a musical score by Richard Addinsell, which is heartbreakingly beautiful. When it was over, my mother would say, “Now it’s Christmas.” And it still is.
Favorite tradition– Spare ribs for Christmas Eve that dates back to 1875 when our dairy farm was established.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is that Santa leaves each person a box of cereal for breakfast.
My favorite thing is to try new cookie recipes or trying something new to make in lieu of cookies. This year is making truffles.
I love everything Christmas. My favorite tradition is to bake cookies with my nieces.
I’ve been working on a scissors keeper, the kit’s origin was from Inspiration Magazine, and a fine pair of scissors would just set off my stitching.
candelight Christmas Eve service at church–when the church is dark and lit only by candles and everyone singing Christmas carols–such a warm spirit.
I love this time of the year because it allows us to meet with friends and enjoy meals and drinks together. It is also the time to forgive and forget the old arguments. Thank you Mary for the nice Christmas gifts. Merry Christmas !
I always made a loaf of stollen bread for Christmas morning, and I continued my grandmother’s traditions of hiding a quarter in the dough before the loaf is cooked. Whoever found the coin in their slice was guaranteed good luck for the next year.
My favourite Christmas tradition is making my fruitcake and then sitting back and enjoying a nice glass of sherry. Ahhhh, bliss!
Judith Peckham,
St.John’s, Newfoundland,Canada
I’m not sure I have a favorite Christmas tradition, but I’m a Spode Christmas Tree china junkie and I love getting it all out and using it all month long!
My favorite Christmas tradition for my family is a very standard one – sitting in the room with the Christmas tree lights on and ceiling lights off, listening to Christmas music and talking/ reminiscing with family after a wonderful dinner.
We have a large family, around 45 each year show up for plenty of food, presents for the children, a round of Dirty Santa present swap for the grown folks, and just plenty of laughs. The gathering is our tradition and it is always fun! Thanks for the chance to win a gift Mary! Hugs, Kathy
Christmas is my favorite Feast Day/ Holiday!! My favorite Christmas tradition is going to Midnight mass. We are fortunate enough to attend a church that has a schola choir. An hour before mass they sing beautiful Christmas carols and then mass begins with candles and a solemnity that really takes one back to Bethlehem and in the spirit of the season. No matter how rushed or hurried the time before Christmas has been for me and for my family, when we leave Midnight mass on Christmas Eve we are immersed in the spirit of the season and Holy Day.
Well, I don’t know if it’s real tradition but could be considered like that I supose. Every year I must buy, some new ornaments for the Christmas tree and little houses for my Christmas village. Before I used to buy a lot, now just one or two, because I’ve so many that the tree is absolutely covered, the branches are no longer seen and they usually go down due to the weight. Besides that, there’s no place where the village can fit, it goes from furniture to furniture, and never ends.
But I can’t break the tradition so, I’ve already bought the ornaments and I’ m looking for a small, beautiful porcelain house.
My favorite part about this time of year is finding that special something for the ones that we love. I love the look on their face when you get something that they really liked.
I love to bake cookies. At Christmas time I make six or seven different varieties, package them up and give them to people that I have interacted with during the year, ex. doctors, dentist, mechanic and so on. At first it was probably six or seven packages. Today it is close to fifteen or twenty. The smiles on their faces, warms my heart. I feel very fortunate to have them in my life.
My favorite holiday tradition is traveling to Williamsburg, VA with my sister to attend the Annie’s Needlework Festival (formerly Christmas in Williamsburg) in December. We spend four days with world class teachers and serious students, and evenings sipping a lovely wine while watching boats pass on the James River. A fabulous holiday retreat.
My favorite Christmas tradition is the Friends Dinner given by my very good friend. It’s so warm and cozy. I’ve moved so this year I’ll have to host my own Friends Dinner!
I’m a scissors collector, so hoping that one of these come my way. One can never have enough great scissors! When I was little, I was very frustrated by those crumby kid scissors that wouldn’t cut anything. That must be why I have a ‘thing’ for sharp, super scissors.
Thank you for the fun give-aways, Mary, and Merry Christmas! (Want to come to the Friends Dinner?)
Gathering with the entire extended family, when everyone can make it home at the same time.
There are so many traditions that I enjoy. It is difficult to pick my favorite. After much thought and a coin-toss or two, I have picked Sing-Along Messiah (as in that big choral work by Handel) performances. I participated in my first Sing-Along Messiah my freshman year in college at Occidental College. We sang the whole thing, from cover to cover during one week of lunch hours just before final exams in December. We had soloists and an amazing organist. My mother purchased the score I still use. I try to find new places to sing this and revisit places that have done it for a long time. The Walt Disney Concert Hall and El Camino College are two places I continue to return to.
Val Reece
Homemade/handmade gifts and treats for family and “surprise friends”(definition – neighbors or perhaps just people encountered in day-to-day life).
Every year when we’re decorating the house, we go into the wood on our land and find one of many trees with thick strands of ivy growing up them. My father saws through the bottom of the strand near the root, and then we peel it off the tree. It’s as tall as a tree, so several people are needed to carry it (small children love this job!). It then gets woven through the bannister rail on the long minstrel’s gallery in the house entrance and decorated with lots of tiny lights. Beautiful!
Each year, my immediate family and their children, husbands/wives, craft multiples of ornaments and then we present them to each other on Christmas Eve. Each crafted ornament is representative of that individual’s interests, where they traveled over the year, their occupation, or whatever strikes their fancy. The following year, we all decorate our own trees using these family ornaments and the ornaments of years past. Even though each family member decorates their own trees in quite varied styles, each tree shares these common ornaments.
My favorite tradition is the Christmas Eve service at church.
We always read ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales’ on Christmas Eve, my Dad always read it to us when we were kids! Then on Christmas Day me and my Mum would do jigsaws, which I now do with my daughter! We love Christmas and are always making new traditions 🙂
I ,love seeing the house decorated !!! Being older and widowed, my daughters decorate for me, and it’s always lovely. I of course have suggestions, but the physical part is theirs including bringing up boxes from the basement and putting them away,
New scissors would be wonderful, as I find fewer and fewer places want to sharpen embroidery scissors….and I love to make or receive fobs for them.
I like just about every tradition. Special food (gingerbread, stollen), special hymns (Veni, Veni Emmanuel), sparkly lights, door to door carolers, candlelight church service, the smell of the tree. A feast for the senses.
I particularly love being Jewish at this time of year, as my city insists on celebrating a mis of Chanukah and Christmas, which means double the sweets. I also love entering contests where I can win German scissors.
Our family Christmas party! Tis the only day of the year where we all come together from miles apart. Happiest day of my year
For over 30 years I have made gingerbread horses. My grandmother fashioned and used a cardboard cutout which my aunt used to make metal cookie cutters. My record is 22 dozen which I divvy up in decorated paper lunch bags for the neighbors and friends. My cookies were featured in the 1996 BH&G Christmas Cookies magazine and a few years ago I began to welcome the help of others, usually teens, to decorate with me because I have rheumatoid arthritis and my hands appreciate the help. Everybody imparts their own “signature” on the cookies they decorate and they are always amazed that they too can create something so cute.
My favorite Christmas tradition is going to midnight mass and coming home afterwards for snacks and a hot chocolate or whatever beverage! We never know who in the family or group of friends will join us but all are welcome! Everyone enjoys it from grandparents to youngsters!
On Christmas eve we always play neapolitan bingo, and I love it! This year it will be a little bit sad because my grand mother passed away last october, but I know she’ll play with us from wherever she is!
During the holidays, I love displaying my collection of Christmas music boxes. They range in size from three inches to tabletop size and were gathered over the years from many places. When my children were young they especially enjoyed the snow globes. Soon it will be my grandchildren’s turn to be entranced by the colors and the music.
Trifle and pavlova, no question! For some reason we only have them on Christmas Day.
One can never have enough scissors. I lov scissors and would love one of these..
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family and decorating the tree! Also, eating Christmas cookies. :^)
I have two favorite holiday traditions. I have been making “Chipits Noel”, chocolate chip cookies with red and green marchino cherries, since I was a little girl. Also, my family always enjoys re-watching “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” – it always makes us laugh together! The scissors are gorgeous 🙂
Sharing with my georgous family, especially the youngest children, and our four legged family, pranging around in their tinkly bell Christmas collars.
Needlework!!! what a joy to have such an array of color and texture at our fingertips! Oh to only have the time to do it all!
Christmas Day is special for me. Early Christmas morning we go to our son’s and daughter-in-law’s house, watch our grandchildren open their presents while we munch on chocolates and cherries and drink coffee. Breakfast is usually waffles with real maple syrup. We then go back home and take the dog for a walk, rest a while and then go back to their house and enjoy a fabulous Christmas dinner which our son and daughter-in-law prepare. I don’t have to raise a finger to clean or cook. I love it! I am thankful for my family and all that we enjoy.
My favorite Holiday tradition is enjoying my Mom’s Cranberry Sherbet recipe with Christmas dinner. I don’t make it every year. It takes lots of time and a fair amount of freezer space, which is not always available. So, when there will be just two of us for Christmas dinner I ‘settle’ for homemade cranberry, pineapple and orange relish instead. But I can always call up the memories of past Christmas dinners and the tang of the sherbet. Yum!!
I love the Christmas season. My favorite tradition is going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It gets me into the true meaning of Christmas after the chaos of getting ready, travel, etc. Thank you for this opportunity to win some scissors!
I LOVE everything about the holiday season! I listen to the music non-stop from Thanksgiving Day. I love spending the time with my family. I love seeing the holidays through the eyes of my grandchildren.
The scissors are lovely! Thank you for these drawings.
diana
In 1990, we all went to see Home Alone in the theater on Thanksgiving. We still watch that movie every year in December. We love the music, and my adult children can quote every line. On Christmad eve, my husband reads Berenstein Bears Christmas Tree out loud to the whole family…we all chime in and say the lines that we have memorized. Great fun, and those traditions now span the generations. 🙂
I love making Christmas Cookies and eating them. It reminds me of growing up and decorating cookies with my Mother.
My favorite holiday tradition is a relatively new tradition only 3 years in the making. Now that I have grandchildren, I just love taking them to NorthPark Mall in Dallas to see the Ronald McDonald House train exhibit and the holiday puppet show. Too much fun!
My favorite part of the Christmas holiday is hanging the stockings on the fireplace mantel. My husband and I have stockings that were both made by our mothers from 70’s kits that used felt and lots of sequins so they while they are each our childhood stockings – they really go together. The only problem is that my husband’s stocking is 4 times the size of mine 🙂 Our kids now have stockings that weren’t completely hand embroidered, but their names were added by their grandmother – so lots of great memories every time we hang them up.
I would so love to win a pair of beautiful embroidery scissors! Thank you for having this drawing 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition is to gather as many family members and friends and see Christmas lights, carol, & have dinner.
My favorite activity this time of year is sending stitched ornaments to my friends and relatives in the US and abroad, especially to Estonia now that it is free and able to celebrate Christmas again. I am fond of adapting folk symbols into patterns suitable for stitching on perforated paper. This creates a flat ornament that can be enclosed in a holiday card. This year I adapted folk symbols of the Seto people of southeast Estonia. I am told these are the favorite ornaments on the recipients’ trees.
Christmas Eve Swedish Smorgasbord!
Playing Christmas music while decorating our tree has been my family tradition. When I was a kid, my family got together with relatives before Christmas for food, games, and opening presents.
I love Christmas music at our candle lighting service at Church and especially singing the music with the rest of the choir. The decorations, service and fellowship are special!
Christmas Tradition was and still is…color and sugar popped corn then string it
on a sturdy thread. Decorate the tree but always leave off a few strings for the
little ones to munch on.
My absolute favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve dinner with my family. the clan gathers and eats a roast beast meal, wine & board games after. It’s wonderfully fun and silly.
I don’treally have a favorite tradition. Since my family have grown up and moved all over the place, we don’t get together for a big holiday dinner any more and that was my favorite thing. I miss every one here, talking at once, sneaking tastes before dinner was served,catching up on everyones news and life happenings. Dinner was a big deal, wheather its was a big brown turkey or a jucy ham. Umm, umm, Umm oh those dinners. I would love to win the drawing, my son uses my embroidery sissors to cut paper, cardboard and whatever. I really need a new pair.
I so enjoy making individual gifts for friends and family that are one of a kind and special for the person. It may take me all year to pick and stitch each gift but each is given with love!
I have two favorite traditions! The first one is building a gingerbread house. We save all the leftover candy from Halloween and with a few purchases we have a candy-filled extravaganza. The house usually collapses before we are through decorating it (because who can wait a full 6 hours for it to dry totally?) but that is fine. We just make up stories like it was hit by an avalanche or the Abominable Snowman stepped on it. The second one is where we drive around to look at holiday lights and give out awards! Usually an ornament and a card and we all jump out and ring the doorbell and say happy holidays!
I am in the process of making a new scissor fob so a new pair of scissors would work out well. This way I can show both items off. Plus I will be able to find them. With an extra pair of scissors I can start an additional stitching project and have all the items needed for it put together. I simply pick up that bag and GO! With the Christmas season upon us and the snowy time arriving there will be more time to stitch. It will help me keep focused rather than eating (MMMMM).
Thank you.
Love watching the excitement in the children’s eyes when they light the Christmas lights in our town’s park. Christmas is my very favorite holiday.
I love traditional Christmas decorations, so much so i put my trees up in November. I also love Christmas music. Actually I just love everything Christmas, I should have been one of santas elves.
MY all time dream of any holiday is to be at home by my self and do any craft 24/7.
I have always worked and cared for others and yet if I attempt to have a me day, all hell breaks loose.
O’ to be free do do my thing just for once.
My favorite tradition is having Christmas lunch together with my family.
Hi Mary,
My favorite Christmas Tradition is finding the perfect gifts for the ones I love, and watching their faces light up when they open their gifts. Sometimes, I even manage to make a few of those gifts, and there’s always a great scissors needed 🙂 Thank you again for your generosity, and Merry Christmas, Mary!
Cathy in PA
My favorite tradition is decorating the tree and house on the first of December
I love decorating the Chrsitmas tree – the decorations get added to from year to year, but many remind me of the Christmas when they joined the collection – the ones my boys made at daycare when they were tiny, the ones I made in my teens, my Christmas angel which I bought when I first stated working, an assortment of decorations from when I was working in London and so on.
Dinner with the family, turkey with all the trimmings (even in the Australian summer) and pudding!
I love to made a Christmas decorations, ornaments, and decorate the house and Christmas tree together.
Decorating the tree, baking cookies, taking part in the beautiful church services, and making people smile with thoughtfully-chosen gifts.
Hi Mary, Sitting in front of the lit tree late at night on Christmas eve, quietly taking in the peace and stillness, and sending out wishes for peace and love for everyone on the planet. Thanks for the giveaway!
Thank you Mary, Nordic Needle and Hedgehog Handworks for a lovely giveaway
Our family usually spends boxing day at the beach. After sleeping off the excess of Christmas day, a day outside with simple enjoyments is wonderful. We usually take sandwiches and salads, made up from Christmas leftovers, and fruitcake to eat. Sometimes the total fire bans are not in place and we can have a BBQ.
A bit of swim and several innings of beach cricket is also good to use up the excess calaries typical of Christmas.
BTW- We have a summertime christmas down under
My favorite holiday tradition was making cookies. I would start early in September and bake a few from each batch and then freeze the rest of the dough. Take the assortment of cookies to our community fair and win some ribbons for them, and then when Christmas was nearer bake the rest of them up and have a Christmas open house, where except for some chips, I had made everything. Now I physically can’t do all that anymore, but my younger son has gotten insterested in making cookies and candy for Chsitmas so he comes to my house and I coach him through. When Nabisco quit making fudge covered Oreos, he figured out how to make them himself.
Those are cute scissors. I won a pair of gold handled Gingher embroidery scissors once, and I have worn out several pairs of the cheap little ones that came with my embroidery scissors, but I still have to hunt when I want to use them!
Thank you for the opportunity, I have never had a really good pair of scissors. My favorite holiday tradition is putting up the tree; I put on Christmas music to get me in the spirit.
After Christmas dinner, over coffee, we sometimes talk about what we remember about Christmas while growing up. My parents and my husband’s parents have all passed away, but it was a special treat when they were with us at the holidays to listen to what Christmas was like for them many decades ago. That made an extra special sharing time.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to the Christmas Church services on that special day. I know that sounds kind of hokey but it reminds me of the real reason for the Christmas season, which we all need to remember.
My husband and I married Dec. 27th, 1975. My best friend (and second cousin) was my maid of honor, and for the last 15 years or so, I have sent her a calendar with pictures and art work of horses, her favorite animal, for Christmas. It’s become a tradition for us, as she loves getting the calendars, and I love giving the calendars!
Wishing you a Happy and, I hope, healthy New Year!
Hanging out with friends and family I haven’t seen. We are magnificent, champion hangers out!
My favorite during Christmas time is the ”Réveillon”( Christmas Eve celebration) with the family. Chatting, eating, laughing……
Nicole
Coming together with family & friends for Christmas Eve dinner. Our meal is Japanese to honor our mother.
One of my favorite traditions is making Christmas cookies with my family. When they are done we all have one with some eggnog. Thanks for this wonderful giveaway offer!
In our home, we always took our tree down on my mum’s birthday, January 7th, as was done by her parent’s in their home when she was a child. I do the same in my home. Thank you for this great giveaway. I have a pair of really good applique scissors that are a dream to work with.
Getting together a small transportable embroidery kit to take with me. I did a little pincushion with a blackbird last holiday and also made up a scissors keep for one of my granddaughters. She had done her first cross stitch of a little cottage. I bought her a pair of embroidery scissors to go with it and showed her how to make a cord from DMC thread. On my hols I always love some quiet stitching time,
ooooh I need these!! 🙂 My favourite thing to do in December is to celebrate my mum’s birthday…. 84 and counting… I get together a box of her favourite things…. tea, cookies, candies, books, word seek puzzle books, pampering stuffs(moisturizers etc) and mail it to her…. she lives 4oook away…. and she calls me when she gets it and opens it with me on the phone… it’s almost as good as being there! I also like to celebrate my wedding anniverary on Dec 26 35 years and counting 🙂
My favorite tradition is putting up the Christmas tree with all the ornaments collected over many years and many places. And always a real tree-love that scent.
I love Christmas Eve paella with my family. It’s great when we can all be together for Christmas Eve.
What a wonderful giveaway Mary! My favourite holiday tradition was something we did as kids. We always wrapped a jar in cotton wool, then wrapped an orange or satsuma in it as well, which sat on top of the jar and we then decorated it to look like a snowman. We each did our own one, and for me as a child, Christmas didn’t start until we’d made our snowmen! Carol x
My favorite Christmas tradition is our family tree-raising party. We gather on our back porch (in Florida) and string popcorn, eat pizza, and decorate a 9-10 foot, live Christmas tree in our great room. Then we sit in a circle and each read a few lines from “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore. This is followed by a reading from “The Christmas Story,” a children’s book based on the gospels according to Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, retold by Deborah Hautzig. This year we decorated our 41st tree in the company of our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
I love putting up lights outside. At this time of year it is so dark and the lights are comforting to me.
My favorite tradition is decorating the house. Not after New Years when you need to undecorate the house.
Elaine in New Mexico
Not something that can be guaranteed, but I love a white Christmas early enough so that the roads are clear, but the fields are still beautiful. It can leave just after the New Year.
Thanks for the opportunity for the embroidery scissors.
I love to drive around and look at the outdoor lights people put up.
There is a street in PtLoma, the old fisherman light up and another when I visit FT Worth. Amazing lights.. I suspect they are visible from the Space station. A great time shared w kids and thermos of Hot Chocolate.
Merry Christmas
On Christmas Day (and Easter, Thanksgiving, etc), we always volunteer at a local soup kitchen which provides holiday meals for needy folks who wouldn’t have a hot meal — or much of a meal at all.
My favourite Christmas tradition is singing Christmas carols.
The big thing for me at Christmas is lights, lights everywhere. We drive the neighborhood at night to see how other folks are lighting up. I put as many light as our apartment will allow and buy batteries in bulk. Fun Fun. To share our home with family and friends, sharing food and enjoying the real reason for the season. Jesus. Ruth
I love all traditions; especially Christmas ones….but my favorite would have to be caroling. My earliest memories were of caroling with neighbors in Ohio when I was 5 and 6. We moved to California when I was 7, and rarely could find many people interested. (sigh) I guess I could do a solo tour around the neighborhood.
watching It’s a Wonderful Life… for the 50th time.
I love having Polish breakfast on Christmas Day with my large extended family. Pierogis, kielbasa and kishka are the traditional foods served that day. Happy memories and great food enjoyed by all!
Jane R from Madison, WI
I love this time of the year as it’s when all my family get together and I get to see my Granddaughters 🙂 I love sewing and embroidering all the Christmas gifts 🙂
Listening to Christmas music and “preparing” for family to come together. I find I love to clean everything, bake treats and just see all the lights. My memories of childhood Christmas time were wonderful and I am transported back to that time.
Would love to own one of these scissors, I truly love tools that are both beautiful and functional
My favorite tradition is having Swedish food for dinner on Christmas Eve to celebrate our heritage. I especially enjoy baking the special breads, Cardamom for Christmas morning breakfast and Limpa for dinner.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve!
My favorite thing about this time of year is the comfort I feel when I’m in a warm house and working on my stitching. Knowing I don’t have to venture out into the cold is such a wonderful feeling.
Time for family and friends to gather. Time to put aside our complaints and woes and to share in the joy Of Christmas with memories of loved ones, laughter (maybe a few tears) delicious food, and prayers for peace.
This time of year I love the coziness of my little home and enjoy doing hand work at night without the guilt that I should be doing yard work.
Ohhhhh…. Only ONE? Really?? The season is filled with so many traditions–old, new, and in the making. But, for me, the one(s) I hold closest to my heart are those I share with my familyb that now includes children, stepdaughters, and 6 wonderful grandchildren.
The best is when we go together as a family to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. During the final hymn, the sanctuary lights are dimmed. The acolyte carries a bit of flame from the Christ candle to the ushers, who each have a candle in hand. Then, the ushers take the flame (Light) to the outermost person on their assigned rows and that person shares it with the next person, who shares it with the next, etc. Everyone, even children (with parent’s permission), receives a candle so they can participate. This tradition represents sharing the gospel message with others and the importance of sharing it with those who seek it from us. It is called “Passing the Light.” I think of all, this one is my (most) favorit(est). 😉
Christmas dinner with all the fixings!
I love it when our cloth doll club decorates the library display cases in the foyer (1st Saturday in December) – this makes me feel like Christmas is finally here. As most of us do other crafts, the window is filled with much more than cloth dolls and every year I think “this is the best display yet”. 2016 was no exception!
Mary,
I love your blog and still have plans to make the Hungarian Redwork Runner – someday!
My favorite Christmas trafition is going to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. Afterwards, we always drive around and look at Christmas lights. It’s a simple thing and yet it wouldn’t seem like Christmas without it!
Warm regards,
Ruth L
Fabulous scissors! I’ve been loving seeing the tools you enjoy using.
I love the present opening time with all the family. We open one at a time going from young to oldest and guess who is the oldest!
Hi, Mary,
I sure could use such gift as you offer in a give-away today :}
My relatively new Christmas tradition is preparing personalized handmade gifts for special people. Each year it’s a new challenge, big or small, but satisfying and enjoyable
Thanks!
My granddaughter is 14 years old now and for each year we have a new bauble for the Christmas tree..a special, loving together time spent with my beautiful granddaughter.
Love getting together with family and friends and catching up on what everyone has been doing.
Hubby and I like looking at all the decorated homes as we travel.
My favorite holiday tradition is midnight church services on Christmas Eve. All the preparations for the holiday have come to a close and the peace, joy and sense of mystery during a candle-light service really ‘make’ Christmas for me.
I love to drive around with my husband to look at Christmas lights while listening to our favorite Christmas songs.
I don’t really have a Christmas tradition but I am loving visiting the Christmas market in Germany this year, thank you for this awesome giveaway
We make many kinds of Christmas Cookies and candy and make plates to share with those special people in our lives
Favorite holiday tradition: December 9th is my big brother’s birthday. Growing up, it was also the day that we set aside to decorate our Christmas tree. Hanging ornaments, lights and tinsel was a festive way to celebrate my brother and the season. Today, we live hundreds of miles apart, but the tree still goes up in my house on Dec. 9th, and the smell of fresh pine trees will forever be associated with my brother. Happy birthday, Big Brother! (Posted Dec. 9th, 2016)
What do I love about this time of year? Let me count the ways. I was born on Dec. 18,1947. My parents were depression era kids & didn’t have a lot. My dad wanted me to be named Mary after my mother & his mother. But since it was close to Christmas & I was their present they named me Carol Mary. So I got the best of both worlds. I was their Christmas Carol & still carried the name Mary.
I am still a little kid at heart. I love holiday shows, candy, cookies & presents under the tree. I love to give gifts, see friends & family & be happy. (I strive for that every day).
As for the scissors. I have Gingher dressmaking scissors & love them. I know of the brand Dovo but have never had a pair. My scissors are used every day & have traveled all over with me.
Good luck to all.
My favorite tradition is doing a secret Santa or 12 days of Christmas for someone I love. I like this to be a neighbor or friend. The other thing is I hand make my gifts so every stitch and thought is overflowing with love. Kathleen Higham
I love them would make good use of them would Not Lend them
I can’t pick just one favorite holiday tradition, but my most favorite thing about the holiday season is spending time with my family and extended family.
My favorite Holiday Tradition is Christmas Morning brunch. It’s during those morning hours when presents have been opened but we haven’t yet begun to get things ready for the big family dinner. Before their passing, my parents always joined us to give them a small break from cooking. It’s a very simple feast of eggs, bacon, fruit, croissants and Irish coffee or mimosas but it’s the one morning of the year that I insist we all sit down for breakfast together. Only Christmas music is allowed and I can’t remember a year when the weather didn’t cooperate and give us sunshine.
We don’t really have any traditions that we do every year….but my favorite part of the holiday is the shopping for gifts for friends and family. Love picking out things that I think people will enjoy and anticipating their looks of surprise and/or joy when they receive their goodies.
These scissors are beautiful and would make a VERY nice gift for ME!!!!
The family gathering for Christmas lunch is my favourite tradition. It’s the only time of year that the whole family can get together and it’s just delightful. Love, love, love it :)!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the sock exchange. We don’t really exchange socks, we each buy 3 or 4 small gifts for one another and put them in the other’s stockings. Then on Christmas morning we open our stockings and try to guess who gave what to whom. We have done this since I was a teenager and now I do it with our kids and their significant others. We have a lot of fun and it’s always interesting to see what we get. Sometimes it is really hard to guess.
I always loved when our family took time out of the hustle and bustle to watch “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. Mom and Dad would sit on the couch and us three kids would be on the floor laying on our stomachs so we could get as close to the tv as we could. Dr Seuss has always been one of my favorite authors. Always felt so good at the end of the story when the Grinch’s heart grew three times bigger! Some are in Heaven now and others not close enough, but I still watch it every year. Just is t Christmas without it!
Christmas Eve, we gather together answer share a big traditional English dinner then we spend the night playing games and in the morning we wake up for gifts and breakfast!
My favorite thing about this time of year is finding the perfect gift for someone! It’s a good feeling!
Hi Mary,
My favorite part of this time of year is the quiet waiting of the Advent season. Finding some peacefulness amidst everything else that needs to be done. Thank you for all you do here, I always enjoy reading your blog. Claire A.
My favourite Christmas tradition is watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” while decorating the tree with my handstitched ornaments, most I have stitched myself but I have a few very special pieces that are cherished gifts.
We don’t have a tradition per se but every Christmas season I make a huge batch of Anise flavored Pizzelles. I have a Pizzelle iron that makes two at a time and I make about 250!! I set up a portable dvd player and play all my favorite Christmas dvd’s to pass the time. I LOVE both of those scissors! Thanks for the chance to win…
My favorite tradition around Christmas and New Year was baking “oliebollen” , a dutch sweet treat we only bake on the last day of the year, together with my mum and my daughter. But sadly this year it is just my daughter and me, mum is in a home for the elderly now and she can’t do it anymore. We will miss her greatly!
I have so many favorite holiday traditions . . . hmmmm . . . . I think it would be getting out ornaments that originally belonged to my Mom & Dad and have been on every Christmas tree of my 58 years!
I like looking at the holiday lights both in the city and out in the suburbs. Most years we like to go to a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion when the show comes to NYC. Unfortunately we can’t go this year.
Around the holidays, I have to say I really enjoy the decorations one sees all around town. While I agree with many people that stores sometimes start too early, overall I love the festive bling the decorations bring to what would otherwise be just another errand.
Down here in Australia our blueberry crop ripens just before Christmas. So in the days between school closing for the year and Christmas Day we pick like crazy so we have blueberries for summer pudding, fruit platters for the beach and gifts for all in pretty Christmas punnets.
In our extended family, we open our presents one at a time so we can ooh and ahh over them. It’s such a delight to see their faces when they see their gifts.
My favourite Tradition? Well I moved to New Zealand from the UK about 16 years ago, so we’ve gained some new traditions in keeping with Christmas Being in the Southern Hemisphere Summer. Perhaps my favourite ‘new tradition’ is going for a swim in the sea on Christmas Day in the afternoon, when the sun has warmed the sea up enough to make this a great way to cool down!
My favorite holiday tradition is jumping in the ocean with my in-laws and extended family on New Year’s Day, because nothing makes you feel like a family like ALL being insane together.
Mary my favorite part of this season is our family get-together. It really is about enjoying each other and creating memories.
Dear Mary,
My favourite Christmas tradition is the Christmas baking which allows us to express ourselves in ways differing from the rest of the year. Wonderful Xmas cake, crunchy Florentines, yummy Almond Shortbread and truly decadent Truffles. We enjoy the aromas of baking and then the sharing and finally others enjoy the scrumptiouness of our love for them.
Ooooooooooooh mary the red scissors, I’m with you in this give away. Currently I am stitching a hussif I have designed using Marie Suarez.s book, Mon Cahier de Broderie and of course it is in her signature colours of red, white and natural. All I need when I finish is a pair of co ordinating scissors!
Seasons Greetings,
Jenny
Baking lots of Christmas cookies for gifts!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking, especially cookies. Each year I try a couple of new recipes and I also do some old favorites like Spritz and biscotti. This year I am baking for my sister’s church’s Cookie Sale, held each Sunday during coffee hour. A nice chance to try new recipes…
Certainly Christmas Mass and preparing and sharing Christmas meals with family…but my favorite is pulling out recipe boxes and books and baking favorite and new cookies and candies that make an appearance only once a year.
Being in Australia having warm weather( usually!!) we MUST have roasted red capsicums. I like to do this on the BBQ to keep the house cooler. One year I left them for a few minutes and came back to the very close by paling fence on fire-with the capsicums! That is my red vegetable for Christmas- sliced with olives and sprinkled with olive oil and served at just room temperature.
Merry Christmas with your family Mary and perhaps it will be a “White One” for you there
My favourite thing is eating leftover pumpkin pie with my daughters for breakfast on Christmas Day.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with my kids and grandkids.
Oh I would absolutely LOVE to own a set of the dovo scissors!
About 6 years ago we moved to a different state where we knew no one. We baked cookies for several days and prepared cookie plates for neighbors. Now we enjoy the baking and the neighbors so much that being a cookie Santa is our new Holiday tradition.
Ooh, I have never had a pair of embroidery-specific scissors! What a treat that would be. So, here goes:
My favorite holiday memory and tradition would be when I was young, my dad would gather me and my seven siblings together on Christmas Eve And read to us “The Night Before Christmas” poem. It was a treat for all of us, but I think that he also meant it as a treat for my mother, whose birthday is Christmas Eve. She had some guaranteed quiet time without someone needing anything from her. Merry Christmas to all!
My favourite Christmas tradition is spending as much time as possible around my friends and family with good food and board games
My favorite tradition has become hanging all the hand stitched Christmas pictures. They are the first decorations put out and the last to be put away.
Why do you in USA call it holiday time instead of Christmas time, which it is..
Well, anyway, here in The Netherlands I love to go to church on Christmas Eve (also my birthday, sadly), listen to my husband in the choir from the Anglican Church singing his heart out with 9 Lessons and Carrols and then on Christmas Day he will cook his English Christmas dinner with Christmas pudding and brandy butter from good old England for my Dutch taste (suddenly turned into English …..) and listen to the King’s speech and then the Queen’s speech on tele. Of course there will be a bit of embroidery or knitting been done.
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas brunch! My family comes over and we drink delicious hot apple cider and eat yummy brunch foods, and it’s so lovely to have everyone together. 🙂
Our favourite tradition is eating warm croissants packed full of butter and jam on Christmas morning – it’s the only time of year we let the kids do it and is worth the wait!
We don’t have any particular tradition associated with Christmas, but I do love the holiday season. Originally from Chicago, I love the snow, the cold and all the holiday lights. Then, after January 1, I want the snow and cold to go away. Now that I’m in the Pacific NW, I still get enjoy some cold, many lights and maybe a little snow for a short time. And after January 1, most of it does go away!
Food! My family loves cooking and with three chefs in the family we have some scrumptious get togethers ! Christmas Eve has become the time when the extended family all get together to celebrate and the food is always outstanding! I’m drooling just thinking about it!!
Christmas Eve with our large family is a favorite where we have a white elephant gift exchange. Each year there are a few hilarious gifts and a few personal joke gifts which lift all our spirits. Enjoyed by all ages and looked forward to every year.
My favorite holiday tradition is “decorating” – with items I have made of course!
When I was a little girl my mother always baked a date and nut cake in a Christmas Tree cake pan and I remember the cream cheese icing. I loved putting decorations on the icing and licking my fingers. I love doing this with my grandchildren now.
My favorite holiday tradition by far is stringing popcorn and cranberry garlands for our tree. We host a big family party and everyone joins in (just like busy elves). It started with my parents, and my husband and I are carrying it forward. I love it!
My favourite Christmas tradition is putting up the tree and turning on the lights for the first time. Each Christmas I used to take my children shopping and they could each choose a new ornament, so my tree is ‘eclectic’ with lots of happy memories.
My favorite Christmas activity is making Christmas cutout cookies with my family.
The holiday starts with a town wide thanksgiving dinner to start the festive mood for the next month.
Just like you I lent/lost my favorite embroidery scissors and never got them back (and they were engraved as I had won them in a sewing contest).
My favorite part of the holidays it that we get together with family and friends, we might not see for months/years at a time. Christmas is very big in my family.
Wishing you a very Happy Holiday Season.
I cherish the many embroidered ornaments that my mother made for me over the last 40 yrs.– I love to hold them again and hang them in a prominent place on the Christmas tree each year. I even have a couple that I made for her and they have returned to my collection now that she’s gone. Hope you have happy holidays!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies. I usually bake at least 3 varieties and way too many and take them with me to my sister to celebrate christmas.
Tania
I love scissors too. Either of these would find a welcome home with me!
I love those scissors – such a brilliant and generous giveaway too. A stitcher can never have too many pairs of scissors!
I love your blog and your ‘how to’ videos which are wonderfully clear and simple to follow – I’ve even managed some decent bullion knots thanks to your guide!
Our Christmas tradition is a meal in the city then a walk back home along the River Ouse here in York. It very rarely snows here at Christmas but we are sure to have some rain!
As I am a widow I choose to spend Christmas alone and my tradition is two tasks to be completed in December. Firstly I must finish off a UFO and secondly I start and finish a new project. This has to be finished by New Years eve. I have to admit to working very hard on new years eve. This tradition keeps me focused on a positive goal.
My favourite Christmas tradition is two-fold! I love attending the church service on Christmas Eve with my son. That is my favourite tradition that we started years ago. My second tradition is the fun of Christmas crackers at the dinner table. The noise of the frackers, the funny jokes and the silly hats….all great fun!
Our fun holiday tradition is breakfast on Christmas morning of green eggs and ham plus our family’s special Slovenian bread just like Great grandma made it.
My favourite tradition is baking Christmas cookies with my daughter, and now my granddaughter, as well.
Seeing my grandchildren on Christmas morning!
My favorite holiday tradition is my baking frenzy and giving away the goodies to neighbors and friends! Thanks for the giveaways (even though I never win a thing! ha!)!
We have rice pudding with an almond in it on Christmas Eve. The finder of the almond opens the first present.
My favorite holiday tradition isn’t done at this time of year. It is stitching ornaments for my grandchildren. And in order to have them stitched and finished into ornaments, my favorite tradition takes place over the summer.
I do thoroughly enjoy the lights and the trees at this time of year.
Every year whatever children attend Christmas dinner set the table. I put out the right number of plates, silverware & glasses. And then they are on their own. If there are lots of kids chaos soon reigns but they have so much fun. There is no criticism and we all live with what they have done. One year I had 3 forks! If there are only one or two I will get some help for them but they are in charge. You would be surprised how few broken dishes there are. It’s fun. And we don’t make them do any after-dinner cleanup.
My favorite christmas tradition is the tree…I collect ornaments and also have some from my childhood. Each holds a special place in my heart and I am a sucker for sparkle, so I hate to take it down. One xmas I had foot surgery and ended up leaving it up all year!
Thankyou for the lovely giveaway and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
I love scissors!! I have numerous pairs for all the different crafts I do. I keep a pair of Ginghers in my Japanese stackable sewing basket and a pair of the small Karen Buckley serrated scissors in my single-project sewing basket for embroidery. Then I have ones for jewelry-making, for wool applique, for paper cutting…I love how every craft calls for a specific tool, and they really do make a difference. I also have a half dozen pairs that just sit in a basket because in spite of their ads, they fell short in performance. I’m always looking for the real deal! It would be nice to have some pretty ones like the red ones. Thanks for sharing, Mary! And many thanks to Nordic Needles and Hedgehog Handworks for the giveaway, too.
My favorite Christmas tradition is going to church on Christmas Eve.
I love wrapping and decorating all the presents for my Great Nieces and Great Nephew, and this year is special for me as my first Grandchild Ethan who is just 16 months old will be aware and love seeing all the decorations and the wonderful joy of sharing the time with all the family. Pure Joy.
My favourite holiday tradition is breakfast with my immediate family on Christmas morning. My children and their children have arrived, parcels have been ripped open, the children are happily excited and the adults are ready to relax around the table over croissants, mangoes and other fresh fruit and fresh coffee. Laughter and chat and a gentle start to a busy day.
My husband say I have a scissor fetish (in a good way) I have thirty pairs including kitchen and first aid kit scissors.I have never had a proper expensive pair .I would love either of these.My favourite pair are DMC stork scissors that I received from my daughter for my 50th which are almost 25 years old .Theyare a bit faded now but still snip well.
Our children and grandchild live on the other side of the Country. So, every year at Christmas my husband and I fly there to see them. When we arrive we go to a local Inn that puts on a Christmas party at night, with music and singing and decorated trees, Santa, etc… It looks like a wonderland! They have huge Gingerbread men you can decorate and all the families get busy at tables decorating the Gingerbread men/women together. They provide dishes of candy of all sorts for decoration, and tons of icing in piping bags. It’s so much fun to watch my little Grandson decorate his Gingerbread man. We help, sometimes we decorate our own! The Inn serves drinks and delicious cookies and treats to eat while you decorate. It’s really a lovely time for us all, and I’d say that’s my favorite tradition!
Thank you Mary, for this giveaway, and as always, for your wonderful blog!
Almost everything we have and do at Christmastime is traditional in some way.. Foods, decorations. family get togethers, parties. One thing I enjoy very much is driving around the neighborhoods looking at trees, lights, and other decorations.
Our favorite thing this time of the year is getting together as s family to make the Italian cookies that have been made for several generations this way.
There is nothing like a good pair of scissors…………
I have 2 pair of embroidery scissors and I never loan out the best of the two. One pair for me and one for a friend to use…………
Ooooh, you are so right (as usual) about the stitcher’s love of a good pair of scissors!
As I’m in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas means barbecue, beach and beer. My favourite thing about Christmas evening is staying outside in the summer weather late into the night, enjoying leftovers and just chilling out.
Getting together with our families and watching the delight and joy on the little faces of our great grandchildren.
Watching my daughter gets so excited while she decorates the tree.
My favorite Christmas tradition is my husband’s apricot chicken!
I love the tradition of Christmas food on Christmas Day. The turkey followed by Christmas pudding mmmmm. Then on Boxing Day cold turkey sandwiches and trifle. All swallowed down with a big helping of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Dickens.
Merry Christmas to all. My favorite tradition is going to midnight Mass at my church. I also enjoy baking my pecan cake and giving it to friends. I love everything about Christmas.
My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating the house in readiness for all my family to come for Christmas lunch. Really it’s as simple as that!
Caroling with family and who ever else we can drag along….we love to visit elderly people in their homes who have a hard time getting out….warms my heart like no other to spread alittle Christmas cheer!
My favorite holiday tradition (even though it’s tons of work) is our family holiday party, usually the weekend before Christmas. Our four children and the spouses and children come “home” for a holiday dinner together and for sharing gifts. All ten cousins get to open their Christmas gifts and play together. It’s a great time for family and it seriously reduces the Christmas morning confusion and hysteria.
My favourite Christmas tradition is watching Nightmare Before Christmas every Christmas Eve. Even though the kids are now 29 and 25, they still insist on it. If I am not with them on a particular Christmas Eve, I have to watch it where I am and they watch it where they are, so that we are all still watching it at the same time.
Christmas and crafting go together hand in hand in my household. I try to create at least one new item each year and involve as many family members as possible. I can’t resist Christmas shopping. I have been known to go overboard (slightly 😉 ). Still remember my daughter singing “Let it Go” in my ear as I was deciding what to buy next at our local craft fair this year.
My favorite holiday tradition is at my synagogue when we all bring our menorah and light them together the last night of Hanukkah. It’s such a pretty sight to see a variety of menorah with the pretty colored candles.
I love decorating the tree each year and seeing ornaments that are like old friends–and of course going to church on Christmas eve.
Cooking on Christmas Eve, while Carols from Kings is playing on Radio 4 (BBC)…..
My favorite Christmas tradition is that each member of our family is allowed to open only one gift on Christmas Eve night. Then everything else is opened on Christmas morning. OH THE ANTICIPATION
Having my kids and grandkids together at home
One of my favorite holiday traditions is the design and creation of a new embroidered ornament for the tree! I make a new one every year with the year and our names or initials, and I work it in the same colors we used to decorate the tree that year.
Love decorating with all my handmade,decorations.
I have a fascination of scissors. I love these embroidery scissors. They are beautiful!
Making a Christmas ornament each year for my granddaughter.
My favorite Christmas tradition is making divinty for gifts. I love giving it away and seeing people enjoying it. Not an easy making candy.
Our Xmas tradition has been lacking in recent years due to us owning an accommodation business and always being at the beck and call of guests at Xmas. Now we have sold and can create a new tradition, starting this year with us travelling from Western Australia to South Australia to join family for Christmas. In the past the children and their families came to us each 3rd year when they could. Hopefully now when they can’t come to us, we can go to them. The joy of retirement to now be experienced – and giving me lots more time to stitch :-).
I love getting together with family to share a meal that has a favourite food for each person. We wear hats and tell jokes. This year I have some awesome joke books to share around. Some of the jokes are so lame they are fantastic.
My favorite Holiday Tradition: Family gathering pre-Christmas to make ravioli which is the first course of our Christmas dinner. We use the recipe that was used by my husband’s grandmother who came here from Italy as a young mother.
My favorite tradition is making tamales with my daughter! Now you must understand, we do not know how to make tamales. They come out sooo ugly! But not are they good! And the best part is having my daughter home.
Chipmunk2
Christmas is a magically time of the year. I believe it makes everyone feel like a kid. The decorations, music, gifts and church It is the most wonderful time of year. I love everything except the cold. My favorite tradition is watching my youngest grandchildren open their presents. But it is done via video ( 1400 miles away), it is almost like being there.
I love the holidays for all the wonderful smell memories of holidays gone by. I then make a little tote with embroidery for a pre-Christmas gift for a friend or family member. This year in my fabric stash I found 3 yards of this beautiful bright candy canes. I smell a peppermint memory coming.
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve appetizers and a good Christmas movie to watch with my sister.
Would love to win the Dovo scissors!
My favorite holiday pastime is watching the New Year’s Concert from Vienna to usher in the New Year.
Wow, I have a whole lot of favorite holiday traditions. But I guess my very favorite is the midnight mass we had every Christams Eve in the church I grew up in. It was such a beautiful service with everyone in church holding their own lit candle. It’s difficult to convey the feelings it brought as we all contemplated what Christmas was about while singing Silent Night.
Besides stitching, I love baking. The house fills with such wonderful warmth and smells. If I didn’t bake Challah every Christmas, I think I would be a very lonely mom and grandma, as I don’t think the kids would show up for the holidays without Challah. lol
Besides stitching, I love baking. The house fills with such wonderful warmth and smells. If I didn’t bake Challah every Christmas, I think I would be a very lonely mom and grandma, as I don’t think the kids would show up for the holidays without Challah. Happy Holidays Needle n’ Thread.
My favorite tradition is that we make all of our gifts to exchange on Christmas Eve. I help each kid make their gifts for giving and we talk about the good and funny qualities of the recipient as we make the gifts. The gifts are little bits of love we give each other and the true meaning of Christmas is so very present. Christmas Day is much different…
Sorry, I can’t pick just one, I love it all~! The decorations, making and giving gifts, the food, visiting family and friends, cards, the food, sappy Christmas movies, getting presents, the food, all of it!
I like the whole yuletide cheeriness and joy.
Ann Thompson, California
My grandmother village has fascinated me since I was a child.
My favorite tradition has to be the holiday baking. I’m still using recipes handed down to me from my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. And thank you for this wonderful opportunity!
It’s definitely all about the stockings! Our family tradition is that no asked for items can be in stockings — instead it is funny items, unasked for treasures, candy, etc. It’s the only true surprise the adults have and we all look forward to opening them Christmas morning.
I enjoy spending time with my family and friends over the holiday season! And all those pot luck party’s!
Teresa
I would love a new pair of scissors – they seem to collect around me and I love them all, but I can’t really say I have a favourite thing about Christmas or even this time of year. We are not Christians so have no religious affiliations, and it seems to me that most people over-spend, over-eat and over-indulge generally. But the one bright spot is that panettone is in the shops again and I just adore french toast made with panettone. So there you have it.
My best friend, the sister of my heart, has Christmas Eve dinner every year for our families. We eat a delicious dinner, watch our favorite old Christmas movies, and open the presents that we have for each other’s families. It has become our very own tradition and I look forward to it all year.
Making my own eggnog and letting it age at least a month before dipping into it on Hexmas eve! There is NO driving after a glass or two of that stuff.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve dinner with the family and traditional Polish food and of course midnight Mass.
My favorite holiday tradition is making Polish “angel wings” cookies to bring to friends and especially for our grandchildren. Grandpa is known as “Grandpa Angelwings” as he carries in the trays of cookies. It is a full day of production to make dough and roll it out so very thin, then cut it to make the wings, fry them and dust them with powdered sugar. This is a very special holiday treat for all.
This is one of the many traditions that we love to keep alive for our family.
I love Christmas because it is also my birthday so I have a double celebration. I love going to my daughter’s place for Christmas Day lunch with all my family. It means I do not have to cook and I am spoilt rotten! Just love this time of year!
Chris B
Carolers on the porch, family, and any type of “sewing” goodies under the tree.
We have a carol walk here. 5 churches participate. Hundreds of people walk to each church. Each choir sings two or three carols and the minister does a reading from the Bible about the Christmas Story. At the last church all the choirs sings several carols together and end with the Hallelujah Chorus. Then everyone gets hot chocolate and cookies.
My favourite Christmas tradition is going to the candlelight service on Christmas eve at my church. I’ve recently started to embroider as a form of stress relief to studying. your website is full of wonderful projects and I enjoy reading it.
Ooh! Scissors!
I don’t think I have one favorite holiday tradition, because I love them all! The tree, the food, the music, the lights, the time with family… all of it is my favorite!
I love all the family getting together and having fun, especially the grandchildren playing.
My favorite holiday tradition would have to be Sandy Claws. When you saw Sandy Claws’ name on the tag, you knew it would be something funny. Sandy Claws was my father’s chance to give a gag gift. We haven’t had a visit from Sandy Claws for several years now, due to my father’s declining health. But, it was always a fun part of Christmas morning and I miss opening those silly gifts to see what he thought up that year.
I really like decorating the tree. It’s always a pleasant experience digging out my favorite ornaments from years past.
Beautiful live religious Christmas music lifts our spirits and helps to elevate everything we do to celebrate this feast. So in churches and concerts we join to glorify The One.
Thank you, Hedgehog Handworks, Nordic Needle ,and Mary Corbet.
My favorite tradition is tatting Christmas ornaments for my grandchildren and special friends. I make icicles, snowflakes, angels, stars and special motifs to cover satin balls. They look forward to seeing the new ornaments to go on their tree and I love to see their smiles.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to my aunt’s house on Christmas night. We have a very
large Italian family and this is the one night we all get together for food, laughter and holiday
cheer. Merry Christmas Mary!
My favorite holiday tradition is having family for Christmas dinner at my house. We don’t all fit at one table but we are all together.
What a nice thing to have in your hand to work with, perfect
Flo
My favorite part is Christmas Eve, we open gifts and eat cheese, crackers, and drink wine! But the best part is the tiny crocheted mr and mrs claus that are on my tree, gifted to me from my mom, many , many years ago!
Oh this is a fun opportunity! Okay, to the point. My favorite tradition is a take on the white elephant party. All the girls take part in this year long tradition. We have a designated ceramic elephant and is passed from girl to girl on any holiday(birthdays, Mother’s Day, St Patrick’s … any opportunity to get rid of it) ex. I got the elephant in a Mothersday gift from my daughter and so I passed it to my Mom n law on her birthday. Just tuck it in with the regular gift. Whoever gets it on Christmas has to treat the giver to a lunch on New Years… great fun… thanks and good luck
Hi there! I do not have many holiday traditions but the girls of the family does get together to make all kinds of christmas cookies! Yum!
Thanks for the chance win! Sorry you lost your favorite scissors!
Sorry you lost your scissors, that is what happen to us when we get so involved in what we ourselves our doing.
I love to bake cookies at Christmas. The smell just fills the house with sweetness and joy. Everyone has their favorites and I try and bake them all. Yummy!
Getting Christmas pictures with Santa.
My favourite holiday tradition is having extended family for Christmas Eve dinner. The ham is cut and for super the Christmas cake is sliced. A tradition carried on within the family since our grandparents time. I guess I should explain the ham. In my part of the world Christmas is a summer celebration and it is too hot to spend hours in front of the stove.
We don’t have any Christmas Traditions. Mostly we just enjoy the long weekends, provided the weather is not too hot.
When we lived in Switzerland for a couple of years I loved going to the Christmas markets, the lights and the snow (if there was some). My husband joined me there on Christmas Eve (I’d moved a few months earlier) and we woke up to snow on the ground; that’s my most special memory of this time of year.
Christmas tradition in our hot climate has to be the beach – sand, sun, surf!!
My favorite tradition was always helping my mom decorate the christmas tree. There were special ornaments each of us loved best, and got to hang in a place of honor. The transformation from bare tree to fully decked was always a fun thing to be a part of.
We were married during my Christmas vacation from college, so our traditional celebration is our anniversary (this year will be number 57). We usually go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant. We had a small party with close friends for number 50. It’s a quiet but meaningful celebration for us.
The best part of any holiday is the chance to see all of our grandchildren together at the same time. Our older son and his family live in SC; our younger son and his crew live in CT. Pop Pop and I are “stuck in the middle” in VA. It’s always such a delight when the SC crew and the CT crew travel to VA to spend the holidays with us!
My favorite holiday tradition is a bit funny – as a child, Dec 24 was my mother’s Christmas, because my father’s parents always came in to town on Dec 25 and then the rest of the week (give or take) was spent with them. We’ve all moved around, now, and my father’s parents no longer fly across the country, but Dec 24 is still “real” Christmas, for me.
My favorite holiday tradition was adopted from my late husband’s family. His Mom was Italian so we have meatballs, Italian sausage and lasagna with our holiday meal. Several hours later, we have fresh fruit and nuts. Several hours after that we have cheesecake and Italian canollis with coffee. Yes it is a day of lots of eating. Please enter me in your scissor contest. Thanks. Kay H
Our Christmas Day tradition is to open presents and then go for a morning surf. This is followed by a barbeque brunch of leg ham. An afternoon snooze then finds us ready for a roast dinner in the evening. All followed on Boxing Day by a visit to our extended family with a traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey and pork with all the trimmings. Phew!
Christmas is hope! It renews our hope in the goodness of people.
Favorite activity is family raclette meal on xmas eve!
My son and I always make the Christmas dinner together. It’s a lovely time.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Mom’s Christmas Eve oyster stew and fried oysters, a real treat for those of us who live in the middle of the country far from the oceans, then the candlelight church service with the most beautiful organ music, then driving through the south end of town where people put out their luminaries, and back home to open one, and only one, present.
Oooooh, scissors! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this one!
The tradition that I like the best is that my husband and I do the Christmas decorating together. But the reason that he helps is probably because I have collected so many decorations over that years that I would probably be a couple of weeks working at it if I had to do it by myself!
I love good scissors, especially for my needle work. Also like Nordic Needle and have one kit from them to finish! It’s on canvas.
But, you are the greatest and so full of information!!
I like going to church on Christmas Eve, looking at the lights on the streets and the music.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree while drinking homemade eggnog.
Preparing the meal, it’s my favorite. I love baking, cooking, love it.
Our Traditions have changed as first children grew up and then grandchildren started to grow up. One remains though. Son in Law has taken over Grandpa’s job of cooking up a huge breakfast that certainly keeps us going until Grandma (me) and daughter make dinner. It’s all about being together. If we’re lucky, son and DIL fly over from England to join us
The weather is warming up, the days are lovely and long, and the pohutukawa trees are filling our world with red flowers. My young granddaughter, when she was 4, rang me to check we’d have pohutukawa on the lunch table. “It just isn’t Chrstimas without pohutukawa, Grandmarg.”
My tradition: Like a lot of older folks, I no longer decorate a huge tree and everything else in sight, and it is usually me who gets things out before and puts them away after. During the year they are mostly forgotten. Then comes December and I’m opening up the box with the beautiful angel and my Father Christmas collection and touching each one, and I realize these are my Christmas presents to myself. Each year I give myself these same things, and each year I smile and set them around again.
One of my favorite traditions is decorating our tree with our hand made ornaments and wrapping presents for my family while listening to beautiful Christmas carols.
OH I can’t believe this – I have such THING for scissors! My Mom’s little thread scissors are getting dull with age, but I can’t give them up entirely. Okay, Christmas traditions. Where to begin? I think after 28 years of marriage to a Sicilian, it would have to be the Feast of the 7 Fishes on Christmas Eve. We live in a coastal community, so we have fresh seafood and prosecco and it’s JUST the two of us. It’s decadent, it’s quiet, and we open presents afterward. Best part of Christmas! – JoannieC
Since my girls have grown up and moved away, we get together a couple of weeks before Christmas, just the three of us girls, to bake Spritz cookies. My Mom, who’s been gone for 40 years now, always baked these cookies when I was little. Now, it’s fun to have the girls over for dinner, and after we eat, we decorate dozens of cookies very intricately. It’s so much fun to listen to Christmas music, reminisce, and laugh together.
Going up north, in the Laurentians and having a great and good meal with my brothers family on New Year’s Eve.
My favorite tradition is Christmas Eve Service at church. It is a simple service consisting of the reading of Christ’s birth from the gospel of Luke. It is quiet and calming, and peaceful.
We have settled down in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, our favorite Christmas tradition is attending the Tuba Christmas Concert. We have the largest in the US, this year over 450 tubas and other euphoniums serenaded us with Christmas carols. It is surprisingly melodious.
My favorite time of the year is Christmas. I love seeing the lights and decorated Christmas Trees. At my house the tradition is making tamales. It is usually a 2-3 day affair as my sister and mom make enough for our Christmas Eve party. We invite the immediate world and friends for dinner which I get to cook. I spend all day the 24th cooking and then enjoy watching our guest eat. People start arriving around 6PM and the kids and grandkids get to open their gifts at midnight. They all go home (thankfully) after that leaving the house completely destroyed but my sister ( who has 15 grandkids ) cleans up the next day and I go to my room and sew. Works out great.
My favorite Christmas tradition is spending Christmas morning with my immediate family. We wake up and open gifts then have peach French toast! I can’t wait!!
My favorite holiday tradition is to watch my collection of Christmas movies while baking my family’s favorite cookies and wrapping Christmas gifts. It is a special time of the year.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Linda
I love spending time with my family. But my most favorite tradition, which we just started a few years ago, is getting together with my nieces and nephews (all in their 20’s) one day between Christmas and New Years. We pop a bunch of popcorn, grab all the left-over cookies and candies and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Don’t think we would even need the video anymore because a couple of the boys have their own coconut shells and can recite the whole thing. What a hoot!!! (There might be a LITTLE alcohol involved)
My favorite holiday traditions are eating (not baking) Christmas cookies and putting together. a Chritmas themed jugsaw puzzle. This is usually the only time of year our family works on puzzles. This was a tradition in my husband’s family when he was young.
My favorite tradition is baking my family’s favorite Christmas Cookies while listening to, and singing along with, Christmas Carols.
At Christmas, we make paintbrush cookies. We do these every year and have made them with our children and our grandchildren.
I am a quilter & my favourite quilts are the red & green quilts of the mid 19th century.
Christmas is the red & green season on a white background. You can not beat that combination of colours as far as I am concerned.
Here in Australia it is summer so it is the ‘traditional’ BBQ on the beach lunchtime with the kids =)
My favorite holiday tradition is singing Christmas carols with my family and friends. The music brings all the magic of the season alive for me, and the fond memories of past holiday seasons and good friends.
I like to start decorating the day after Thanksgiving.
I love going caroling and delivering goodies to people.
Firstly I’m not a Christmas kind of person, we have always made more fuss around birthdays as that is your own time. However there is one thing I really do like about this time of year, people generally smile at each other more and talk a little more.
My favorite time over the holidays is having my daughters at home and light our Hanukkah candles.
I love your blog and all that you do for stitchers all over the world!
Techiya in Woodstock ON
My favorite holiday tradition is that as many of our family that are able will come home. We are living in my husband’s family home. It was built in 1852 by his ancestors. There have been many Drouillard Christmases in this home and I hope there are many more to come. The spare bedrooms will be full and the leaves will all be in the table. I am so looking forward to a full, busy Christmas. The best tradition is family.
My favorite family Christmas tradition in my immediate family is that each of us get the other family members a special Christmas card to express our love and respect for each other.
Thank you for this great giveaway.
Have a super great sewing and stitching day! Merry Christmas!
My favorite Christmas tradition is to make something with my grandkids so they can give it to other family members. We have a great time. One year it was a pillow with their hand prints on it for their mom, one year it was “button tree” Christmas tree ornaments. I love finding something new for us to work on.
Wanda
I love so many things about the Christmas season but especially recognizing the real reason for the season. Also, the beautiful trees filled with lights and special ornaments from childhood times plus listening to the Christmas songs of the season. Good times spent with family and friends is especially special. Thank you for the opportunity to win a beautiful pair of scissors – love scissors; my favorite accessory.
Midnight Christmas eve church service, lots of music, and Betty Crocker White Christmas Pie….YUM !
I love setting up the Christmas tree, unwrapping my glass ornaments, some of which I’ve had since I was a child, and hanging them carefully in that perfect spot on the tree. When I’m done, I love to sit by the tree, looking at each little glass figure, remembering when I got it.
Our favorite holiday tradition, now that our grandkids are much older, is to not have the traditional fancy Christmas dinner. We go to our daughters home on Christmas Day, they are all still in pj’s, and we make home made pizza. Everyone makes their own. Then we play board games for the rest of the evening.
My favorite Christmas tradition is our family singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! Since Jesus is the reason for the season, we always have a birthday cake ( or pie) for Jesus and the youngest child gets to blow the candle after we sing the birthday song!! The little kids love to blow out the candle, so sometimes we sing the song 3 or 4 times!! One year, the youngest child was 35 and he loved being the one who got to blow the candle!!
Our big holiday tradition is to have a fondue and play board games on Christmas Eve.
My favorite holiday traditions have mostly fallen away. I no longer go to grandma’s house, I no longer travel to visit relatives, I’ve not prepared traditional meals in many years, and this is our 8th Christmas without any gifts under the tree. We prefer to celebrate by breaking bread around a fabulous meal, toasting with good wine, and enjoying each other’s company. Dropping the commercialization of Christmas was the best thing we ever did; it’s like Thanksgiving Plus now. 🙂
Well I have several that I love but for years I have outvoted my Christmas cards in a pretty container and after everything is ready for Christmas Day ( about 10:30pm) I fix a libation, put on my favorite Christmas songs and open my Christmas mail. Now once we missed a holiday party as it was in a card.
I love our family tradition of getting together to celebrate Christmas. Get to catch up with family members we do not see frequently.
My favorite part of Christmas is decorating the house with family, and everyone having a great time together.
I always like looking at the decorated houses while I’m driving. When I was little, my parents would pack us into the car and go driving through the neighborhoods to see how other people decorated their houses for the holidays.
My Favorite Christmas tradition is playing back yard cricket with all the family. Old and young alike after lunch and a rest we all gather in the back yard and play the silliest game of cricket but we all have so much fun. Merry Christmas to you all.
Christmas backyard cricket is the best game do you use a garbage bin for the stumps ? Makes a lovely noise and no arguments about whether you are out or not I will think of your family playing while we are playing Chris M
It might not be a tradition in the usual sense of traditions, but enjoying Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the family and grands, and watching their traditions grow is fine with me, because it means my traditions are still going strong!
After the gifts are all opened, and the food cleared away, we play games and laugh until we can’t talk. Being a member of a large, very close family, we enjoy each other’s company. The children can’t wait until they are “old enough” to join in the fun.
My favorite thing about this time of year is looking out in the morning to see our first good snowfall, the kind that’s deep enough to cover all the grass. It’s a beautiful sign of our change of seasons here.
Melinda in Wisconsin
Hello Mary,
Thank you for the wonderful give-aways this holiday season! I love making special “horsey” ornaments for my friends where I board my horse. They love receiving them and I love making them! I can always use another pair of scissors.
Happy Holidays to you and your family.
I love decorating our Christmas trees. We now have two and most of the ornaments are ones that I have embroidered over the years. A few were given to us by good friends and some we bought on vacation trips or in one of the many cities we have lived in.
Mary, I hope you have a wonderful holiday.
Putting up my Christmas tree made of yarn!
My favorite part of Christmas is listening to traditional Christmas carols as I’m decorating the house. Everything is so Merry and Bright.
We always tried to keep our boys busy on Christmas Eve so we started in the morning with breakfast out then we would go bowling then a Christmas movie at a theater. It took all day and evening and I’m not sure who enjoyed the day more, our sons or my husband. Sadly our youngest son is now 40 and those days are long gone, but they were the best days.
My favorite holiday tradition at our home is decorating the mantle with our Christmas stockings. When the children were born I embroiderered each of us a stocking and now have added one for our sweet daughter-in-law. Such fun!
My favorite tradition is opening a present the night before Christmas because I am a BIG baby.
What I like best about the holiday season is gathering with my friends and family and celebrating the true meeting of Christmas
My favorite holiday tradition began when I was 5 years old. That year on Christmas Eve we heard sleigh bells winding through the neighborhood. Of course being 5, I immediately had to go to bed because Santa was close and if I was still awake he would bypass our house! The next morning when we went outside there was a string of antique sleigh bells hanging in the tree in our front yard.
Several years passed and each year we heard the bells. Once I learned that Santa isn’t real, my mother and older sister told me that they had started ringing the bells the year after they had been found in our tree They invited me to help in ringing them each year for the smaller children. Each year since those bells were left in that tree our family has rung them for countless neighborhood children and new members of our family. Most of the fun has been ringing them without being seenmby curious children who invariably rush to the window or door to see if they can see Santa. This has continued for over 50 years now, and has brought as much joy to the ringers as it brought to the children who hear them!
Scissors! One of my favorite things. One of our favorite traditions was baking cookies with the children. Making gingerbread and sugar cookies and letting the kids decorate them.
I love the family time we have during Christmas.
We put our Christmas tree up after our Thanksgiving meal.
We watch “A Christmas Story” and have a traditional Italian dinner on Christmas Eve, followed the next day but a traditional English Christmas dinner on Christmas day. Family, faith, food and fun!
For many years my family has had a tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Day evening. There is a special theater here in our town that serves dinner as you watch the movie. Its an old renovated theater with a state of the art sound system. We have seen many excellent films and it is something that all of us look forward to attending.
I like holiday lights
Just love scissors, I collect them ha ha! Thank you for the chance to own another pair!
Hugs,
Yes, who doesn’t love a nice pair of scissors, I would love them. These would be fun to have. Thank you for the chance to win.
Linda Adams
We still try to carry on the traditional Italian Christmas Eve with family and friends. This year we will have a few empty seats but will remember them in our thoughts. On Christmas we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas at mass.
Favorite holiday tradition…I could list dozens that have evolved through the year, but the one that I keep going back to is making chocolate covered cherries for my mom each year. She will not share them and she makes them last the entire year. For almost forty years this has been something I don’t have to do; I get to do it. It bring her joy.
My family has Christmas boots instead of stockings. Supposedly it’s a Finnish tradition. I don’t know how true that is but I love the Christmas boots!
My favorite time during the holidays is Christmas Eve. All the grandchildren gather under the tree to open one present. That present is a pair of pajamas to wear that night. They dash off to change and meet back under the tree to have their picture made. I have a treasure of pictures as each year the number of grandchildren increased.
Fixing the special treats my family loves is my special memory tradition. Raisin Bars, Cherry Cheese Cake, Cookies, cookies and more cookies. Watching Christmas movies is another tradition.
Merry Christmas season should last the whole year. I find people more friendly and kind to each other and it just makes the world a better place to be. My tradition is to burn a bayberry candle on both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, which is supposed to bring good luck.
Tanis
My favorite holiday tradition is making my mother’s blackberry jam came. Ihad 9 uncles overseas in World War II and since this cake gets better with age, it was just right to eat when it arrived to our soldiers and sailors. It was a three week journey by mail in those days.
I love getting out the Christmas silver, a collection of holiday sterling spoons most of which date to the early 20th Century. The spoons have various holiday engravings or figures and many are dated in the first two decades of the Century. Think of the history and tradition!
My favorite traditions for Christmas are baking a gumdrop cake and making iced sugar cookies. Then it is time to get out the tree decorations and take a walk down memory lane as I unpack them. Love this time of year.
My favorite holiday tradition is singing Stille Nacht. As a young girl I learned the German words from my mother, and she would sing a harmony part while I sang melody. My mother has passed away, but I still sing Stille Nacht every Christmas and hear my mother harmonizing still.
Being with my family at Christmas is my favourite thing to do. Baking and decorating Christmas cookies with grandchildren is lovely. Seeing their faces Christmas morning is priceless. Being together is the best. Growing up we used to go to Church Christmas Eve and I used to love that.
My favorite holiday tradition: after Christmas dinner we start singing carols at the table. When it’s your turn each person must come up with a song or verse that hasn’t been covered. If you can’t think of one or repeat you have to go do dishes. Mom keeps track of what’s been done so she doesn’t have to do any dishes. By the time the last couple of people are left around the table the dishes are done and we are ready for dessert!
My children live overseas, so we have started the tradition of talking on Skype all dressed in our best Christmas clothes.
My favourite tradition is getting together with a group of friends and singing Christmas Carols. There are so many lovely songs, some funny, some heartfelt, some very old, and some very new. We even have local New Zealand Southern Hemisphere carols – with summer, hot days, and barbecues at the beach.
What a pity we sing them only at Christmastime – but by the day after Christmas we are ready to give them a rest for the next eleven months.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking lots of different kinds of cookies to share with friends and coworkers throughout December. A new recipe this year is sugar cookies with coffee in them. Coffee lovers really seem to like them.
What I love about this time of year is digging out old ornaments that I’ve had for fifty years and feeling like I’m seeing them again for the first time. Always such a treat!
It has to be putting up and decorating the tree. Many of the decorations have a story to tell, and it’s a chance to reminisce on lovely family times. Thanks Mary for this opportunity. Happy Christmas!
Other than baking cookies….it’s getting in the car with some of those cookies and riding around looking at all the pretty lights and decorations people have put up….so much fun!!!!
Oops, didn’t read all the instructions as my new phone jumps around a bit, so please, please let me have this response.
I enjoy this time of year because it is summer here, with the Jacarands flowering and the beautiful white, highly perfumed lilies are all over the place. It is also time for the white magnolias, the jasmine and honeysuckle are all out.
It is strawberry, cherry, raspberry and stone fruit time although all a little later because of our silly weather, they are tasting beautiful.
Cheers, Robbyn Hutton
South Australia
My favorite holiday tradition is opening a new game on Christmas Eve and playing it with my kids. Note–the kids are all in their 30s but we still love playing games.
Tammy
spending time with family.
I love baking cookies with my Mom as well as making & eating traditional foods like lefse & lutefisk. The leisurely Christmas morning stocking opening where we hang out eating chocolates & oranges, & scratch a few lotto tickets is a must when visiting my folks.
I love baking and giving cookies. With five generations of family members it is a gift everyone enjoys.
I hadn’t really thought about this until now, but hanging all of my cross stitched ornaments on the goose feather tree originally owned by my great grandmother is a treasured tradition.
My favorite tradition are our Christmas bells. Every year we have been married we have a silver bell (51 this Christmas). My husband spends an entire day polishing these bells and hanging them on an oak bookcase he built years ago. He also hangs our White Hose Christmas ornaments on this same bookcase…we have been collecting these since the first year they were issued. And we watch the movie Scrouge, his favorite
One of my favourite Christmas traditions was decorating Christmas cookies with my grandma. At home we had to be frugal with the icing but at grandma’s we could slather it on thick and eat while we decorated 😉
I also liked to rope my younger siblings into putting on a ‘program’ of poems, songs & skits before we opened presents. That particular tradition was encouraged by my grandfather, who remembered his childhood in Russia. Christmas morning they came down to a table with lumps & bumps mysteriously covered by a tablecloth that wasn’t lifted until each child recited at least one bible verse.
Spending Christmas at the beach with family. We usually have water gun fights. I always make a Christmas decoration for each of my nieces and nephews. It’s summer here so warm and hopefully Christmas will be sunny.
If our spirit of giving on December 25 would only encompass the remaining days of the year what a perfect world we would have.
I live in the sunny California but usually spend Christmas and New Year in the Midwest. Love the pretty snowy winter during my short visit.
I love driving around to see the Christmas lights because my Dad always did that when we were little but my favorite part is the candlelight Christmas eve service at church that is when it is really Christmas.
Winter is my favorite season. It invites us to take time to slow down, to contemplate, & to give thanks for all that we are given.
Blessings to you all.
My favorite part of Christmas is watching the 3 year old twin boys duscover the magic of Christmas-from helping to decorate the tree and marveling at its beauty and jockeying for the best spot for their favorite ornament, to baking cookies and rocking out to the jazzier Christmas songs. And Santas not even here yet. And yes I am a scissor junky and would love to win.
One of my favorite traditions is to get in the car one evening before Christmas and drive around looking at all the pretty light displays. I love all the colors and whimsy and wish the season of light lasted a little longer.
Oh how i love scissors as i always say you need the right tool for the job. I had a beautiful pair of gingher scissors only to take the to a guidance group and never see them again.
My favorite tradition is sitting curled up in a chair, with a fire in the fireplace and a cat on my lap, watching the traditional Christmas shows on TV. Sometimes I watch the “kids” shows, and sometimes I watch reruns from past shows. I have watched “Andy Williams Christmas Show” so many times, I almost know what the next song will be before even hearing a note.
My favourite tradition is my nieces and nephew (who live next door) have to sing the worst Christmas carol they can find on the net under my window or else I won’t get out of bed and join in.
My favourite Christmas tradition is baking gingerbread men (and women!) and helping the kids put milk and cookies + a carrot out for Santa and his reindeer!
Going to Midnight Mass.
Our favorite family tradition is celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ with family and friends.
Every New Year Eve we play board games and card games, eat a lot of food, have a few drinks and watch the ball drop in Time Square on TV. So much fun! Its even more special now that our two boys are grown up and it’s one of the few times each year they are home together at the same time.
My favourite holiday tradition is when the grandchildren & their parents (big kids) arrive at the farm and we all head off up the paddock to choose and cut down THE Christmas Tree. Invariably it is too big and has to be trimmed before it will fit in the house and then after much advice it has been installed and then the decoration of same tree . Usually a little lopsided and heavy on the decorations lower down – little people- and the more artistic ones getting a little frustrated at the enthusiastic mish mash But such fun and happiness as all the cousins do it together. I love it.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all of you Chris from Australia
I celebrate Christmas from St. Nicholas Day until the Epiphany, so it’s hard to have a favorite part. I love the Advent season and the Christmas carols and the 12 Days of Christmas. Such a rich season!
My favourite Christmas tradition is having Christmas dinner with my family. If all 25 can be present it is wonderful but is not often possible.
I live in Australia, so it’s summer now.
My favourite tradition is our Boxing Day (26 December) gettogether with my Mum’s brothers and sisters, their children (my cousins) and grandchildren. There’ll be almost 50 of us, ranging in age from 70s to just a few months old. We all bring food to share, we have a BBQ, we exchange presents, and we watch two classic sports events, the Boxing Day cricket, and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
This will be the first time my little girl has met most of her extended family, so I can’t wait.
I look forward to my grandchildren coming to decorate my Christmas Tree each year after they have decorated their own tree. I love their laughter and chatter as they put each decoration on the tree, sometimes asking about one that has been handmade. And, Yes, I do leave the decorations where little hands have put them -they would know if grandma moved any. Afterwards we have something to eat and drink.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the house…the lights, the tree, candles softly flickering on tabletops, etc. Close second is baking of holiday cookies but rare neurologic disorder has severely curtailed that.
Decorating the Christmas Tree with my daughters. Bringing out decorations that have been packed away all year – lots of memories from collecting them over the years, many handmade, stitched or bobbin lace or exchanged from dear friends and family.
Catherine in New Zealand
Thank you for all your wonderful give aways this season. You picked the best items…
I love this time of year as our family gets together and remembering the past. Being Thankful for all the blessings in our lives.
I love the Christmas holidays because it means I get to smock Christmas balls for family members for presents. My grandchildren especially like it because when they are grown up and have their own place they have some special ornaments made by grammy to put on their first tree and every year following! I love doing the balls as they are “One of a Kind” made especially for that one special grandchild.
I like the lights, cold weather and hot beverages! I’m actually in KS for the next few days. I wish it would snow!
My favorite holiday tradition is driving around and looking at light displays, even the really crowded and tacky ones. One year we drove to Wheeling, WV, where there is a huge drive-through light display at Ogilvie Park. Highly recommended!
Me encanta despertar a la familia con el delicioso aroma a chocolate calentito el día de Navidad, vivo en sudamérica y estaremos en verano, pero este aroma y sabor me recuerda mi infancia, todos felices y contentos!
I like to stare at the burning log CD on my TV
Best Christmas tradition- Midnight Mass – oooooo Sooooo beautiful!!! Close second – Cookie Day! We’ve been doing this with the same families for over 20 years- and the same cookie recipe! Good stuff!!
G’day there Mary. Christmas in summer! We hardly knew what it was as kids because it was full on Cherry time and we lived, and ate, cherries and that was all. Later in January a lot of us would have a big picnic at the local swimming pool and the cricket grounds for friendly rounders. Cherries are still Christmas to me.
Cheers, Kath
Our favorite family tradition is watching the movie Christmas Vacation.
I don’t really have any holiday traditions anymore as most of my family has passed away and my husband could give The Grinch a run for his money. But what I like about this season is participating in philanthropic ventures. I like shopping for others to make their holidays a little brighter. I love wrapping up the gifts and wondering how the recipient will feel getting a pretty package, and I wonder what they’re thinking when they’re unwrapping it. For me, this season is all about the giving and making someone (or someones) happy. It’s about showing that extra bit of caring for others.
Thank you for the opportunity to win a beautiful pair of scissors.
My favorite Christmas traditions are listening to Christmas music and the gathering of family members from near and far.
I LOVE my christmas stocking. I will never be too old for one. It always contains the best bits of Christmas, it’s nothing expensive, but always thoughtful. A juicy naval orange. A travel candle. A few bites of chocolate and marzipan. A magazine to read. And other little things that one needs or desires but doesn’t get themselves…like a gorgeous shiny new pair of scissors!
Every year we go with friends to see The Revels, a Yuletide celebration in song and dance. It’s held in a few cities around the nation, and ours is one of them. Thanks for the giveaway!
Ellen Bevan
My favorite tradition for christmas is the Christmas pudding. My uncle used to make christmas pud every year. He has now passed away and I have his recipe so I make it every year for family and friends
Christmas is best enjoyed by me with my grandchildren Their excitement and joy is intoxicating and very catching, especially leading up to christmas.
Enjoy the festive period Pippa xx
I love the ambience of this season from the time I was a child. It is so full of enthusiasm of people trying to bring merriment in the lives of those who really need help- the old, the homeless, the children who have never had toys and good clothes. It brings tears of joy to my eyes.
I also love the colors of the season and the lights: the contrast of red & white of Santa, green & red from the Holly and the berries, the beautifully lit Xmas trees with the well preserved ornaments from the past, and the cute brown reindeers pulling Santa’s carriage. The decorated tree is a solace to the eyes and mind.
The whole thing seems to assure us that though the darkness is approaching, there is hope and happiness in it too. This darkness will pass and the lovely spring is waiting at its end.
Mangala Kilpadi
The best moment of Christmasday is to have breakfast with the family. To light the candkles, when it stillis dark outside. Nice christmasmusic and a long day in front of you.
Wow! Many thanks to you, Mary, and to Hedgehog Handworks and Nordic Needle for this terrific Christmas give-away.
Our favorite Christmas tradition for 40+ years is one we were introduced to by our associate rector (at that time and place in our lives), Roger Kramer. He told us he and his wife didn’t make a big meal, no one spent all day cooking and cleaning up. They ate bread and cheese, fruit and nuts — things the holy family would have had available. To us, it brings the real “reason for the season” into our home. I do bake several types of bread (in the preceding days), and we get a few different cheeses, so it’s not as spartan as it would have been 2000+ years ago, but it’s now our Christmas tradition, and we love it.
Tamales! I grew up in Mexico and these tasty morsels of corn dough and different fillings are a Christmas tradition. Pork, chicken, pinto bean, raisin, pineapple. Unfortunateley I am the only one in the family who still takes the hours and hours to prepare these. It is a lot of fun to make tamales with lots of relatives and friends to pitch in. It is quite another thing to toil alone to make a batch that will disappear in a flash.
I wonder how many of our traditions revolve around food?
Thanks for everything, Mary. And thanks to Hedgehog Handworks and Nordic Needle for this great giveaway.
Gathering on Boxing Day with a dozen or six of my Foodie/Biker/Geek family and accumulating a ton or two (literally) of items to restock the food banks that have been wiped out by the holiday season. I will miss it this year because I’m traveling, but we seem to increase the amount of Important Things by a couple of hundred pounds every year.
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies & making candy with my Grandchildren. I love to bake but my husband and myself don’t need the calories. Christmas gives me an excuse to do what I love to do.
I live in a small town of about 4,500 people {if that}. On Christmas Day, Christmas dinner is served to everyone at our Community Center, it is a wonderful dinner and we get to be with our friends and neighbors. It was the brainchild of our community hospital and has continued with donations from our local businesses and others. The dinner is free to all. No one goes without.
I love decorating gingerbread cookies with my sons. We started doing this when they were toddlers and have continued for over 20 years. They don’t live near us but still come home for Christmas. I bake the cookies before they get home and we have an orgy of decorating after they get here.
My favorite tradition is baking cookies with my granddaughters. I make them a new apron every year and set aside a day (or two) to spend in the kitchen. I don’t know who has more fun, me or the girls.
I need a 12th step program for my love of scissors. My friend always jokes with me about wondering if I have a pair of scissors she might borrow. she thinks she is so funny trying to get one of my beauties away from me.
My favorite tradition at Christmas is when my 2 sisters and I exchange very ugly and tacky christmas pins. This is to remember our mom who dearly loved a good laugh and made christmas ball earrings one year just before she passed that spring. We have a trophy for the winner and to say I have had my share of winnings is only stating the facts. Of course being awarded for knowing how to pick out a ugly christmas pin may not do much for my ego, but I love winning me a trophy.. LoL
My favourite christmas tradition is eating!
Hi, my name is Elmarie and I live in South Africa.
We have a hot Christmas, so all the snowy Christmas trimmings are not really applicable to us, so I like to create my own summery kind…with bling.
I always have the same basic idea for Christmas, and that is to have the prettiest table, most delicious food and the most food anybody has ever seen. That is my first tradition. The second is that I never have a list of people to invite, the list comes to me as it gets closer to the time. As I meet people or talk to friends and colleagues, it will come to me to ask them to join us. And that is how I fill up my 10 seater table. This year I by accident invited a client of mine and his 82 year old mother and depressive brother. Seemed like he needed a break of the stress of his brother and frail mother. My colleague’s children will be with her ex husband, and she will be alone, so I invited her. And 2 other friend whose parents died a while ago and another whose mom is far away. This is my traditions, and I love them. My boyfriend loves my cooking and eats till he wants to cry, and it’s fantastic. Merry Christmas everyone. Love from Africa
My favourite tradition has to be opening the stockings. The kids get the stockings and bring them all to my bed, and we all snuggle in and open the stocking one by one. Now that they are all grown we have added coffee in bed along with the stockings!
My favorite tradition is decorating the tree with the handmade decorations which I made with my children when they were little. It brings back many lovely memories.
my favourite holiday tradition is making and serving the Ukrainian Christmas Eve meatless supper.
Joyce Sirski-Howell
My favorite Christmas tradition is making a wool felt ornament for an ornament exchange with friends.
My favourite thing about Christmas has changed over the years, seeing the kiddies getting excited as we put up decorations and cooked in preparation for the big day was a special time but now my children are all grown up so catching up with family now brings enjoyment.
Chris Marks
My favourite holiday tradition is going berry picking with my Mum and Dad on Christmas Eve. As Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere (Napier, New Zealand) is in the summer, it’s the right time for berries. We pick raspberries, boysenberries, tayberries and blueberries. It’s been a family tradition ever since I was little, with Mum and Dad taking my brother and I to pick the berries….I think we ate more than we picked when younger!! It truly puts me in the Christmas spirit.
Sharon Gordon, New Zealand
In winter time I love to stitch,-there’s not a lot to do, the garden is in it’s resting mode and my fingers start to itch.
So when it’s cold and frosty, and have nothing else to do
Its stitching for me and-I hope- for you and you and you.
I love the winter. xxxxx
My favourite tradition is every member of the family mucking in together to produce our Christmas midday feast. We all get in each other’s way, but that’s part of the festive joy!!
My favourite holiday tradition is to hear Christmas Carols sung outside in the open air. It doesn’t happen often ,here in North America but was common in England where I grew up. Magical.
My daughter and I used to read ‘the gift of Christmas’ by candlelight and by the fairy lights on the tree, on Christmas eve.
She’s 18 now so not so keen, but maybe one day I’ll read it to her children!
Christmas holidays traditions in Australia……. Luscious seafood, cold wine, sand, sun, but of course always time for a little needlework, hiding away in a quiet spot for some sneaky embroidery on the favourite project. Regardless of the time of year you cannot go past patterns, fabrics, gorgeous threads and your next plan of attack !
Hi Mary,
Thanks again for this wonderful chance to win pair of “yummy” scissors.
My favourite Christmas tradition is putting out my collection of Nativity sets, angels and santas I have collected over the 40 yrs we have been married. I started with a beautiful pastel coloured Nativity set my dear Husband gave to me, then I started collecting, very slowly in the early years but over the last decade or so I have tried to collect at least one a year and moved on to angels and santas.
My other tradition, which unfortunately is going the way of the dinosaur is going to midnight Mass, but most our our parishes and even one of our cathedrals have cut out Midnight Mass and I must admit, I don’t blame our poor aging, and extra busy clergy. But it was lovely while it lasted.
Anyway that’s me, nothing much to do with embroidery, except since the year before I have started making Christmas Decorations as I now take part in the CEA on line branch’s annual swap, which is so much fun. BY the way thank you Mary for pointing me to them.
Cheers Judy
SE Queensland, Australia
Family spends time and money on gifts. To appreciate this effort, my husband plays Santa Claus, and passes out one gift at a time, so all family members can watch the recipient ‘s joy.
Every year on Christmas Eve, my family gathers at my parent’s house. Its massive, people everywhere, good food, etc.
As with most people, my favorite tradition is having Christmas dinner with my family. But I also love the preparation involved in making gifts for people. I start in the summer when I have some downtime on hot days. Makes my heart sing. Merry Christmas to everyone. And I LOVE the red scissors. My color from the start…..
Spending time with family and watching the joy on childrens faces at this magical time of year.
Hello!
We leave in London, but have lived many places across Europe and the USA and have a mixed religious backgrounds so our holiday traditions are a bit of a melting pot! boxing day, stockings, gingerbread houses, model Christmas villages, advent calendars are all favourites. And anything to do with lights to brighten the long nights: the Kew Gardens Christmas lights display and walk here in London, and Luminarias is New Mexico are favourites.
Buy my favourite tradition of all is probably a personal one from childhood: spending Christmas eve baking cookies (biscuits) and hand carrying them to friends and neighbours houses, popping into the warm houses for festive cheer, a bite to eat, and lots of love.
My favorite tradition for Christmas is making “Auntie Mary’s Cookies” which are very time consuming to make but so good to eat! So I only make them at Christmas. My children don’t eat many sweets but they love having these cookies sent to them and the best thing is when we can make them together! Wonderful memories.
Merry Christmas everyone!
My favorite holiday tradition is getting the whole family over to my house on Christmas Eve and eating a whole pot of chili and/or Taco Soup. Then opening gifts.
On Christmas Eve our small family of 9 going to church. After the service we go to my son’s house, where we open our presents. On Christmas day we have lunch at my daughters house, and we spend the day together playing indoor games because it is usually to cold in Alberta to play outside.
Digging out my great grandmother’s recipe for cream wafers this weekend, as I do once a year. Butter cookies with butter frosting.
The beautifully decorated live Christmas tree!
I make several batches of dog treats to give to my dog loving friends and relatives at Christmas, and I love doing it. I found some dog biscuit shaped cookie cutters, and I lay out the whole kitchen in an assembly line production. While the baking is going on, my own dogs are nose up sniffing the air in the kitchen. They love peanut butter! This is dog treat weekend!
My favorite holiday tradition is the day after Thanksgiving, which I’ve named Decorating Day. That’s when all the festive decorations are hauled out of storage and displayed. Nothing is ever done before this day. To me it’s like renewing an acquaintanceship with old friends, stitched items, ornaments with special significance, villages. Lee C.
What lovely scissors. One of my traditions is Christmas cookie baking. I start in November with the springerle (traditional German cookie). Then fruitcake cookies, thumbprint, spritz, linzer , wedding cookies, and lemon cream cheese. Each family member has their favorite. Then I box them up to take with us when we visit Ky for Christmas.
I also knit something for my nieces and great niece.
Sounds odd but I always associated The Wizard of Oz with Christmas because, as a small girl, it was shown on TV in December and usually on the night that we decorated the tree.
Ahhh – so many wonderful traditions. I think my favorite is the annual trip to the local garden center with my now grown/married son. Since he was a little boy, we have both looked forward to it, and usually pair the trip with a wonderful lunch out. While at the garden center, we take our time looking at the many decorated Christmas trees, often select a couple of new ornaments, and before leaving, purchase a few beautiful poinsettias. Yes, that mother/son day is very special to me.
thx for having great contests. My fav holiday tradition is getting together for lots of food, fun and festivities, having a do drop in potluck party. Family and friends just drop by for a visit and enjoy the tree and some food. The kids get to open 1 gift. fun and lots of memories. Karen Powell kep@nbnet.nb.ca
A favorite Christmas tradition involves food at the Bruno house! We have the French Canadian meat pie and the Italian Panettone for all family get togethers ďuring the Holidays.
Good Morning Mary!
Congrats to the kit winners!
My favorite tradition for Christmas is giving special Christmas pajamas to the kids on Christmas Eve. I had to forego this tradition for many years now as my kids have grown up and are now adults. But I became a Nana this year, and I made special Christmas pajamas for my grandson. 🙂 I am blessed.
Thank you to you, HedgeHog and Nordic Needle for the wonderful gifts! It is the season for giving!
Terri Pittman/Albany NY
i love when we decorate the tree and we have ornaments that are thirty years old. it is so cool and fun to see the ornaments the kids made in school and most of them have their picture on them. each year we buy one or two new ones but most of them have been around for years. it brings back memories of people you used to work with, birth of a child, or a special event.
mary sue c
I love to decorate and getting ready for my Christmas breakfast which I serve anywhere from 20 to 25 family members.
A family tradition that we have is setting up a gum drop “Christmas tree”. Usually the youngest kids help to put gum drop candies on a specially made plastic tree form. My mother started it and my grand children continue it still. We also have other traditions like seeing the festive lights, going to the tree festival, and usually each year we try a new craft. I help to teach my daughter and grand daughters a new craft. Last year we made folded fabric ornaments. Another year we made ribbon ornaments. We have been learning cross stitch this year and plan on making simple cross stitch ornaments! WE also learned how to make corn husk dolls for our Thanksgiving get together! The girls love crafting almost as much as I do! It is always a fun time.!
~Gin K.~
Our special holiday tradition is Christmas Eve we have an early dinner, all put on our pajamas, drive around to tour holiday lights and then return home to open just one present.
My favorite holiday tradition is putting up the tree and getting out all the special ornaments. Also I love going to Church at Christmas and singing carols!
Hi Mary
My favourite holiday tradition is that every year when my daughter and I decorate the tree, we watch the animated version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. And she’s 18 now, lol.
Thanks for the chance to win 🙂
For me, it’s baking cookies. Mom always made the best ones when we were little but later when we had our own kids, my 3 sisters and I plus Mom and even our daughters would get together for a day of baking in early December. What a sight…we each made about 10 dozen cookies so do the math! And oh the smells!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! For me the season begins when the house is filled with the warmth of family, friends and the fireplace while outside the trees and greens are covered with a light dusting of twinkling white snow.
My favorite part of this time of year is the lights in the early dark of the evening, especially the candle-lit church.
I love family get togethers
Seven days of being alone. I can do anything thing I wish. Did I mention being alone?
One of our family traditions is getting a new ornament for the tree and writing on the box things that have happened during the year. We read these boxes every year as we trim the tree.
Love Christmas morning when the little ones get so excited to see what Santa brought.
Extra time spent with family is the best part of Christmas
I bake many cookies and give them to neighbors, friends and family. Mom was a great baker and she is my inspiration each Christmas.
One of my favorite traditions is stitching a Christmas ornament for each of my family. I enjoy picking out a theme usually in February and then working away at them during the year.
I must be a tad Grinchy – this year, I’m going to say the what I’ll like best is getting the decorations put away and the house back to normal. No – I take that back! I always enjoy the days off work without having to use vacation time.
Oddly enough, my favorite thing about this time of year is the cooler weather! I live in Florida, and it’s a nice break from the heat for a couple of months.
I’m not sure what a “good” pair of scissors feels like. It would be nice to have a pair that are highly recommended. I think a good pair of scissors is something to be treasured.
We have a tree decorating party every year.
I adore Christmas lights. The holidays have a sad component for me, and in my quest to keep positive I find that Christmas lights of all kinds help me find my smile and my giggles!
I fondly remember the old types from my childhood. I love the city streets that pitch in and go over the top decorating together. And today a trolley car driver here in Philly lit up his whole trolley for his rider’s pleasure.
I also love my Dovo scissors which I received as a gift at EAC’s 40th seminar in Winnipeg. I use them only for Hardanger.
My favourite Christmas tradition dates back to when I was a young child. The first person up in the morning puts on the Ray Coniff singer’s recording of “The Real Meaning of Christmas” and turns the volume up very loud. A beautiful piece of music reminding us to practice love and kindness year round.
My favorite thing is the Christmas tree. Putting it up, the wintery smell, the lights — all of it. What’s not so fun is taking it all down. Oh, well. You’ll get to do it all again next year.
I enjoy lighting the Advent wreath and singing O Come Emmanuel with my family!
Most of our family traditions revolve around music, from preschool concerts to the church cantat withmore than 100 participating musicians, to car singalomgs to the radio, to the candlelight carols on Christmas Eve. We all sing in the choir, and most of us also play an instrument or 2, so it’s pretty busy. A joy, though.
Our most recent tradition is to NOT cook a huge “traditional” Christmas dinner. My mother got tired of spending all day in the kitchen, and one year made a huge pot of her fabulous spaghetti, and everyone loved it! It has continued, and now I’m the cook. I”ve instituted the use of colorful disposable tableware for quick cleanup, and nobody complains about not washing dishes.
Thank you, Mary, for all you do. Have a blessed Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to Christmas Eve service at my home church. Even though I am very active in a different church now and my home church family has changed over the years, there’s nothing like going home for Christmas and worshiping my Lord in the church where I grew up.
Thank you for yet another great give-away! Have a Merry Christmas!!!
Hi!
Thank you for the opportunity to win these beautiful scissors 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating my house, just a little bit, but it makes a difference in the way it looks.
Thank you again 🙂
My favorite tradition is our family breakfast on Christmas morning after we open gifts. I prepare a breakfast casserole the night before – one where the recipe calls for refrigerating overnight – then in the morning I pop it into the oven, and we spend some quality time visiting and eating together before all of the relatives arrive for the day. Now that the kids are all grown, and have left home, my husband and I still do the Christmas breakfast to keep the tradition going, but I miss the old days, and all the little voices around the table. Thankfully we have grandchildren and even one great grandchild so the little voices can still be heard throughout the day.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree with my sister, son, and grandaugheters. Every ornament has a story. Some go back to the turn of the 20th century and my grandparent’s tree. I have a cardboard airplane that was on my folks first tree in 1942. All they could find were paper ornaments. Some I have made, a lot my mom made, but all have a story and telling those stories to my grandaughters brings back those folks once again to be with us in our hearts.
Here’s wishing you a joyous Christmas and wonderful New Year. Thank you for all you heve done and continue to do for us all.
Martha
Since moving to Montana, far away from family, our favorite thing is to invite friends, who are also away from family, to our house for a traditional Christmas dinner.
My birthday is Christmas Day & yes, I was born in the middle of a snowstorm. My favorite things about this time of the year is the smell of pine trees at the tree lot and making holiday quilts or wall hangings. I would definitely like a new scissors as this year’s birthday gift! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, Everyone!
Barb W, MO
It would appear that scissors are a popular item. I have been doing a lot of embroidery over the past year but have never invested in a proper pair of scissors. I just use my quilt scissors which are a bit, well more than a bit, too large. Good luck to all of us.
My favorite holiday tradition comes from the winter I spent in Sweden. Everyone puts candelabras in their windows and it makes the cold, dark month feel cozy instead of oppressive.
The Sunday before Christmas my children and grandchildren have dinner with my 97 year old mother at her house. I do all the work as she enjoys the company. After dinner we all exchange gifts. It’s such a joy to see how the great grands love Great Grandma so much.
My favorite holiday tradition is our friends’ Ugly (Sweater), (White) Elephant party. Always a good time!
STOCKINGS
With bells or embroidered names, sparkly, home made, or bought in bulk for our growing blended family. Mostly lovely some a bit worn and one downright ugly. The ritual of Christmas morning is you can open your stocking anytime on cristmas morning. There have been some very early openings and some who like to savour the moment. Many opened in a bed full of siblings or every child in our bed. An orange in the toe, a candy cane and many small tissue wrapped surprises.
My favourite Christmas tradition is midnight church, on Christmas Eve
Our tradition is to go to grannys house to open presents and have dinner with family.
I love this time of year because I can come home from work and have a hot cup of cocoa or tea and indulge my creative urges. I love embroidery, beading, knitting, drawing and just reading a good mystery. With the change in weather there is no guilt at not doing outdoor chores – the vegetable garden is long gone and the roses trimmed back and the houses around me are all decorated for the holiday. Best time of the year!
One favorite tradition is getting out the Christmas carol books and playing our favorites on the piano.
I love the music of Christmas, in church, the local symphony and friends caroling at neighbors homes.
Jo Ireland
During the day one of our neighbors has all his grand kids and our kids over to fill the luminaria bags (look like brown paper lunch bags) with sand and put the candles in. Then they are put in a row on the drive way, fence walls, roof walls. Then on Christmas eve we walk through our neighborhood and to admire their real luminarias, and visit our neighbor friends, whom are like grand parents to our kids. Our daughter plays Christmas songs on her viola for them.
Have a blessed Christmas,
Mia Goei-Crivits
New Mexico
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with one of my traditions – I make a tree decoration for each of my 3 best friends every year. I love doing it, I love that they seem to appreciate them, but I always seem to start late and end up having to stitch in the wee hours in the last days that I can post them! In fact, that’s my task for this weekend! Embroidery this year and my “temporary” scissors (which I bought a few years ago in anticipation of buying some nice ones) are blunt so these would be perfect.
I make my husband a new quilted/cross stitch ball with the year on one side and a message on the other. I have done this since we have been together. Our tree gets prettier every year!!
My favorite holiday tradition in my family is eating Chinese food on Christmas eve. Then we drive around looking at Christmas lights before we go to church for an 11 o’clock service. It’s a ritual. The only thing that changes is where we drive around; some neighborhoods are better some years for lights.
My Mother taught me to embroidery when I was little as I had asthma as a child. It kept me interested instead of running around. Our holiday tradition is to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve as my birthday is December 26. Christmas day was celebrating with friends.
My sentimental husband and I love watching the Hallmark Christmas movies together, every year, even those we’ve watched dozens of times…
I enjoy Thanksgiving holiday, a time when families can be together and enjoy the blessings of the year gone by.
My family would say my favorite Christmas tradition is complaining about the frenzied hyper-commercialized “Holiday Season” that begins in October and ends on December 26 that has replaced the old celebrations. No room at the inn, indeed.
I love bringing home the tree and decorating it, then looking at the lights and ornaments and remembering family who are no longer with us.
I Love scissors of all shapes and sizes. One favorite holiday tradition is going on the Holiday Tour of Homes with my best friend.
Christmas breakfast. It was always three of us and the dogs. After my mother passed away my husband and I continue the tradition of fresh squeezed orange juice, champagne, eggs Benedict, fresh fruit salad with a lemon yogurt sauce and Aquavit. The dogs open their stockings first then we open ours after breakfast. It is a lovely time with loved ones.
My favorite tradition at Christmas is decorating the tree. I’ve had a Christmas tree every year of my life, I can’t imagine a Christmas without one. Even though it’s just my husband and I at home now I still have a large tree front and center in my living get room. Love it and Christmas.
My favorite tradition is cutting down the Christmas tree. My family lovingly puts up with my crazy search for the perfect tree. Then we decorate it together talking about all the memories each ornament has linked to it. There is usually much laughing and teasing.
My favorite holiday tradition is putting everything away when it’s all over!
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t decorate at all. But while I still have children in the house, I let my husband get all the stuff out…and I feel claustrophobic and anxious until the 26th when I pull out the storage totes and chuck everything in.
Oh, I guess in the spirit of the season, I’ll also admit that I do like the cookies. Ahem.
Snowmen! not the really cold ones, but the cute collectable kind.
My favorite holiday tradition is watching Christmas movies all through December. My husband and I buy a movie every year so we have a good collection, and when we travel to visit relatives during the month we take movies with us. Ninety year old relatives enjoy the old movies and it helps get them in the Christmas spirit and gives us something we can all do together.
Hi Mary!
I love having my family all around and attending church together as a family-like we did when they were younger and at home.
Thanks for all the fabulous give aways!
We look forward to a hardy game of Monopoly with the family
There are so many traditions, but I love is baking Christmas cookies and other goodies, and, of course, being with family, whenever possible.
I have boxes of picks. ribbons and floral items for decorating. With garlands, ornaments and figurines in one hand and my glue gun (the female version of duct tape) in the other, I attack every mantle, tabletop and pillar. Decorating lasts weeks, making it feel festive all month, and making it my favorite holiday tradition.
My favorite Christmas tradition involves a blown glass German bell that belonged to my mother as a child-when I was married she gave the bell to me for my first Christmas as a married woman, and for the past 40 plus years that has been the first ornament that I put on our Christmas tree.
I love to gather with family and friends. It is a time to show our love to each other and enjoy each others company. Especially, I love to think about Jesus coming to be born to become the one who has redeemed us to God our Father by His sacrifice on the cross.
Merry Christmas to all.
I love Christmas as it is such a happy time with Carol singing and Christmas songs in the shops and all the happy smiling faces of parents and children alike. I also love to see all the beautiful decorations people have put in their gardens.
Our favorite tradition is the hanging of the Christmas socks. The socks are hand made and embellished with embroidery. I began making the family socks when I was a teenager and have continued to make them for my family and my siblings families, and now my Grand Children. Discovering what Santa left in the socks is always the first thing the children do on Christmas morning.
Christmas music is my favorite tradition. I love a cappella choir or chamber choir versions of the older, traditional carols. Frankly I’d like to hear them all year long but out of consideration for my family’s sanity I restrict them to December 1 through Jan. 6. Stitching in my window seat, looking at falling snow, a deer or two, and The Holly and the Ivy playing, that’s my perfect Christmas moment.
My favorite holiday tradition is that everyone in the family draws the name of a family member one month before Christmas. And then each person has a month to plan, prepare, and create a gift for the name they have chosen. It must be something made by hand – not purchased. There is a special joy that comes from a true gift of the heart!
A cup of hot tea and some yummy fruitcake with a stitching friend!
Favourite holiday traditions? Mine is our Xmas list. In my family we each buy for one person only. This means you can get one person a really special gift, instead of getting everyone a crappy gift that you bought in a last-minute panic
Lovely time of year. Its great seeing my grandchildren so excited, they are brilliant. Wow would love to have a pair of the scissors
I absolutely agree with you about the delight of using fine scissors! Thanks so much for the opportunity to win. And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you!
Our favorite tradition is a relatively new one–a couple years ago I crocheted an advent garland of alternating mini-mittens and mini-stockings. I fill the 12 mini-mittens with notes and treats for my husband, and he does the same for me with the 12 mini-stockings. We take turns “opening” our advent days 🙂
My favourite part of the Christmas season is dressing the Christmas tree – especially putting out the hand made lace ornaments and also the embroidered ones.
Blessings
Maxine
Without a doubt it’s Thanksgiving. We have a family reunion on my father’s side of the family. This was started by my grandmother 60 years ago. My cousins and I used Messaging this year to discuss who was bringing what. What a hoot! About 12- 14 of us shooting messages back and forth. It was a blast. Of course, Thanksgiving itself was a blessed day!
Drinking eggnog while trimming the tree.
Michelle Johnson
Thanks once again for the give away. I would love a new pair of Dovo scissors to replace the ones I ‘gave’ to my daughter! My favorite holiday tradition is spending a day baking Christmas cookies with my daughters. Can’t wait until they get home from college this year so we can spend the day baking, talking, giggling, and eating way too much cookie dough!
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the Christmas tree. Where I come from it is traditional for children to prepare hand made ornaments for the Christmas tree (like most places, I think). It’s one of the most unbreakable traditions. This may be done as early as the beginning of December or as late as the day before Christmas Eve. The tree it self was usually decorated on Christmas Eve morning through noon. Kids were especially encouraged to make long paper chains. You have no idea how many beautiful chains can be made from plain paper (and glue, in some cases LOTS of glue). There was an unofficial contest each for the longest chain. You had to have a picture to prove how long it was. I remember that one year I stared making a chain in November, because the previous year my cousin had the longest one. She cheated – most of it was made by adults. Adults could help, but not do the most of the work. So the next year I wanted to beat her chain. My Grandma helped me. I suspect she added links when I wasn’t looking 🙂 I was around 7 then and I did won that year 🙂 I still love to make the ornaments. Nowadays they are mostly thread and fabric and I start to make some of them in September just to have enough time to stitch and sew everything.
Than you Mary for this question. It really is a nice to read and write about it.
I love watching Christmas films under my Christmas quilt!
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas Eve Buffet! always a great pre-santa get together
My favorite holiday tradition is making cinnamon rolls with my mom!
My favorite holiday tradition is for HANUKKAH, which this year begins on the same day as Christmas. Because Hanukkah is a holiday that lasts for 8 days, we give the kids a special treat called Crembo, or winter ice cream (because at one time, ice cream was considered too cold to sell in the winter!). It’s a cookie with marshmallow cream on top, dipped in chocolate. the kids get one per candle that is lit each night – so on the 6th night they can have 6! and we really let them pig out! they start selling them as soon as the cold weather begins, but we don’t allow ourselves to eat any until hanukkah, when they taste super-delicious!!
Wellll, this is the year I stop all tradition and start anew! Not tree this year! No cooking of 2 elaborate dinners: one for the children and one for the friends that have come for years!
I cook one dinner for all the people we love! Please join us! We do no presents! The only thing that will be there and has been there for years and years are pears cooked in red wine with cinnamon.
When I was a kid my parents would place books on the foot of our beds after we fell asleep on christmas eve. We’d wake up to books, which would occupy us for a bit!
About the only thing I now enjoy at this time of year(too many rotten family matters to go into) are the christmas lights I see as I travel in the evenings. Some are spectacular, some over the top and some very simple and charming, but I am always glad I am not paying their electricity bill, but they do cheer me up after a bad day.With the summer school holidays now approaching in Australia it is time for a late night for the grandkids and a drive around our area to see the lights.
Beautiful scissors!! Thank you for chance to win your Give-a-way! 🙂
We go to Christmas Eve Service..always special time!! We also love to drive around & enjoy the Christmas lights afterwards..and sometimes again before New Year’s Day. 🙂
My favourite tradition is wrapping gifts. I do this on the afternoon of Christmas eve. I banish the family from my craft room, get out all the gifts, paper, tags, ribbons etc and set to work. I love the piles of wrapped gifts that start appearing and I love the inquisitive faces when I put the completed parcels out under the tree.
My favorite tradition is having the family over to decorate the tree and remember each of the decorations from Christmases past. After the tree we have eggnogg and cookies. No Christmas cookies or eggnogg are allowed until the decorating is done. It gets things done more quickly. Merry Christmas!!
My favorite family tradition is opening presents on Christmas morning. Even though my children are grown, it is still a lot of fun.
My favorite tradition our extended family Christmas Party. My Mom is one of 10 and as a child we would all gather the Saturday night before Christmas at my grandparents home and my Grandmother would give gifts she had made through out the year to EVERY grandchild and my grandfather gave each of us a bag of candy and fruit. She was a quilter and knitter/crocheter/crafter extraordinaire! Still have all the things she made for me. We outgrew their house pretty quickly and began having our gathering at a local firehall. Even tho they both passed away years ago we all still come together to enjoy each others company, share good food and conversation and just “feel the love”! Family is the best part of the holidays for me.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and joy of needlework Mary!
My favorite holiday tradition is all the extra lights that are put up this time of year. They are so needed up in the dark north.
What gorgeous scissors. Thanks for offering them in a giveaway. My favorite holiday tradition is to make the cookies my Mom made every year, from back in the 50’s . My sister and I one year tried using butter instead of Crisco. NO, NO, NO. they tasted altogether different. They are called Glazed Apple Spice Cookies.
Merry Christmas.
I think spending Christmas eve and Christmas Day with my family is the best tradition we have. Always fun to watch the grandchildren enjoy the time including Christmas eve candle light service at church.
I love baking lots of cookies and homemade caramel corn. Everyone who comes to the house gets an assorted cookie plate to take home.
Funny you should ask… when I was in 3rd grade my teacher asked each of us to write our favorite family tradition and I said we didn’t have any and we just eat moldy hotdogs. Which wasn’t at all true since my mother is the queen of Christmas! My teacher knew my mother and showed her the paper and they had a good laugh! When I was much older I got a hotdog (wrapped in plastic wrap) in my stocking!
Now a days my family and extended family get together every Christmas morning and have brunch and open presents! It’s super awesome!
Thanks for a great giveaway!
Heather in Chicago
Eight Days of fun and anticipation! Getting together with the children and telling stories, remembering days gone by and continuing to dedicate ourselves to religious freedom is terrific fun…and then there’s Latkes!!! Chocolate coins, naturally…lots of chocolate coins. Yep, its Chanukah- Hanukah-Hanukka – spell it however you like. I also enjoy looking at all the decorations my non-Jewish neighbors put up…but there is something so delicate and precious about our tiny menorah in the window, shining out into the darkness as the lights increase each night – reminding us to increase our own dedication and to be ourselves. So yeah, saying the blessings and lighting that little brass menorah is my favorite part of the holidays this time of year.
I love Christmas cookin, traditional things from my Mom such as peanut brittle to new things like peppermint bark.
We get up on Christmas morning, and my husband makes blueberry muffins. While they bake we explore what Santa has left in our stockings. Then after a muffin or two, we open our other presents under the tree. Then my husband makes scrambled eggs, sausage, and fried potatoes. We will celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary this week, and we have been doing this every year since we married. It’s a special way to celebrate Christmas.
What I love most about Christmas is the goodwill and glad tidings. Thanks for asking! Cheers! Jane in Victoria BC Canada
We go all out with Christmas cookies. We don’t do the decorated cut-out cookies now that we don’t have small children, but we do make a different assortment each year and try new recipes.
More than 25 years ago, I started making peanut brittle as a Christmas present for my dad. He was a huge fan of peanut brittle. I included my father-in-law on the peanut brittle list after I married. He love it, too. Sadly they are both gone now but the nieces and nephews love it as well so there is still someone to make it for.
On the day my children (7) and grandchildren (15) come to my home to celebrate Christmas, I always read them the Polar Express. I purchase some type of bell/bell ornament for each grandchild that they ring each time the story mentions the word “bell”. The bells then go home with the children to be hung on their Christmas tree. The older ones put them on their own tree and the younger ones put them on mom and dad’s tree to be saved each year until they too have their own.
My family is Italian and my favorite tradition was Christmas Eve my dad would roast chestnuts in the fireplace. I love that memory!
My favorite tradition is putting up the tree. I especially like the whoosh of cold, fir-scented air that rushes down the trunk as I help guide the tree into my family’s antique iron tree stand.
My favorite holiday tradition this year is the Advent Calendar, because I’m doing it with my first grandchild and it’s a wonderful way to bond and teach about dates and Christmas all at once. And it involves chocolate, so…yay!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to the Christmas tree farm with my kids and picking out our tree. When we get it home, we play Christmas music and decorate it together.
I love the red ones also 🙂 My favorite thing to do during this time of the year is going to all the craft shows with my mother. Just spending the day together and enjoying seeing other people’s special gift of art. Thanks Kim
My favorite holiday tradition is trying to get all of my hand sewn gifts finished before Christmas. I’m always sewing until the very last minute. Thanks for the chance….
Elaine Gregory
Christmas Day would not be the same without a visit to the beach first thing in the morning for a swim. We then come home, have a light breakfast (leaving plenty of room for lunch, and open pressies. Luckily we live in NSW, Australia – I don’t think a swim in the Northern Hemisphere would be much fun.
I used to enjoy the holidays much more when all my children could be home…but I do enjoy driving and seeing the lights at night and commenting on the decorations. Some lights are meticulously done and gorgeous. Others are just sort of strewn or tossed into a bush and then turned on! LOL. It is fun to try and figure out what excuse the husband gave for the odd light placement~
Playing Christmas music, on the piano or the computer or even the old stereo! I love the carols and always feel happy and nostalgic.
Our families favourite Christmas tradition is setting up the Christmas tree with all our decorations from the past years. My partner and our youngest (now 26) always do the tinsel and the lights to start us off.
I love the family time together, whatever we do more than any one thing. But I guess the best time is cooking and eating together. As always I enjoy you blog and thank you for your work.
Our family tradition is to gather all the extended family and enjoy a meal together.
Ida Norred
Our tradition is to decorate the tree and the youngest puts grandchild puts the star on the tree then we drink hot chocolate with only the Christmas lights on and Christmas music.
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking. The preparation is easy – no slepping from store to store standing in lines or deep cleaning to decorate (usually means moving some furniture)! But all of our Christmas activities have lovely results: yummy sweets, the joy of giving and a beautiful environment to look at for a few weeks.
One of our favorite holiday traditions is one we have been doing for over 50 years..Our first child was always so excited about opening gifts that we started having an ornament exchange the night before Christmas.. As our family
grew and then had children of their own we continued this tradition and draw names on Thanksgiving,keeping them a secret until Christmas eve. This year we number 23 with the addition of 3 great-grand children.
Best part of Christmas for me is baking cookies with my daughter and Grandsons. Flour, sugar and sprinkles everywhere, so much fun.
You can never have too many scissors and these look marvelous!!
One of my favorite times of Christmas is opening my boxes of tree ornaments. As I unwrap each bauble it is like seeing old friends, passed and present. I look at each one and am reminded of where and when they were acquired.Each holds a memory so dear.
A blessed holiday to all of you.
My favorite tradition by far is playing Santa, and filling the stockings (handmade, of course!) on Christmas Eve. I think it’s my family’s favorite, too. 🙂
We have a picnic on the living room floor with cheese, sausages, crackers and anything else that we like piled on crackers for Christmas eve diner. It’s magical next to the fireplace and Christmas tree.
I love seeing the large Nativity set up in our church
Getting together with the family , spending the day with the kids and their kids. Wishing the older generation was still with us but enjoying the hopefully hot weather and relaxing over a nice meal and a celebratory drink. Merry Christmas to you all.
Since we are blessed to be alive after a bad accident years ago, getting together for Christmas lunch as a family is especially significant. It’s a time to be thankful, in more ways than one.
I am a member of an embroidery group, (friends more than a group) and each year we join together to create beautiful Christmas decorations. This year we made wreaths from many different fabrics ranging from silk to hessian. We had dinner and brought together the results of our joys. My home is now decorated for family and friends to enjoy.
There is a tradition in my home to help a needy family during the Holidays. One year a fire burned down a family’s home in my town just a few days before Christmas. We all made donations to help the family cope with such a loss. That is how the tradition got started.
I do love the Christmas traditions, however what I truly especially enjoy is that on Christmas Day a certain peace comes over friends and family, and in general appears to do so world-wide. It is as if the madness of the year, the world and the season, stresses and fears are put aside and forgotten, and friendship, calm, relaxation and love takes over. I realise that this is my experience and a generalisation, and may not be the case for very many others who may be in difficult situations and have serious problems, but even watching tv world news, the focus of all changes just for the one day when peace, friendliness and generosity reigns. Praise God.
I do love snow this time of the year. January&february get so cold that even when it snows you can’t enjoy it. But nowadays I’m waiting for the snow with baited breath.
I love all the Christmas lights, and all the displays of lights. People are so creative with lights.
My favorite holiday tradition is when all my children and grandchildren gather at my house for Christmas Breakfast. It is far too hot to eat much at lunch time so we have a good breakfast early and then wait until the evening meal.
It’s not very original, but my favorite Christmas tradition has been and always will be going to Midnight Mass! The exciting anticipation, the sacred joy, the small feast of wine and antipasto and chocolate afterwards!
I love baking at Christmas. Nothing compares to the smell of gingerbread cookies or my rum cake in the oven while I catch sight of the sparking Christmas tree in my living room from my kitchen!
My favorite holiday tradition was the family gathering at Mom’s house on Christmas Eve with home made pizza. My Italian Mom would prepare all sorts of toppings including polish sausage for my husband, and we would build our pizzas. Now the tradition continues at the home of my son and daughter in law, with happy memories of Christmases past.
I write my mother a Christmas letter each year and put it in her Christmas stocking. I write about decades of memories to let her know that she made Christmas special for our family.
Happy Holidays Everyone! My husband of three years and I have discovered our local theatre groups and philharmonic. Last Sunday we went to see the Erie Philharmonic for the second year in a row, and last night we went to see a local live production of White Christmas, this was our first time seeing it, but the second year it had been put on. Both were extraordinary! So, I think from now on, we’ll go to the Academy Theater for some Christmas production or other!
Bonjour, J’aime les repas de Noël avec la famille et les amis . Voir les personnes qui nous sont cher au coeur.
Passé de belle fête, amusez vous.
Because some of my grown children work during Christmas and we get together with the extended family for Christmas eve and Christmas night my children and 6 grandchildren all get together at my house after Christmas to exchange gifts. It makes two Christmases for us. Watching the grandchildren open their gifts is the best thing ever.
Deb P
My favorite tradition is getting up on Christmas morning, turning on the tree’s lights, making a cup of coffee, and opening stockings to find what Santa placed in them overnight.
i love your website
Our favorite tradition is sitting up until midnight and waiting for the animals to talk.
When my Mom was a little girl she had to recite a story about little Will at the Church Christmas program. It was such a hit that she was asked to repeat it many many times each year. When I married and moved from home and my Mom was getting up there I asked if she would record it. My tradition each Year at Christmas, is when we sit down at the table I play that recording and it is as my if Mom is their with us. Me, her Grandchildren, and now her Great Grandchildren. I have been able to keep her alive for all of us. I pray that the tradition is kept alive for many years to come.
and I would love to have those scissors.
Favorite tradition is going to Christmas Eve mass with our children and grandchildren, followed by a beautiful sit down dinner. Our children live far away now, but we are thankful we can still travel to their houses and haven’t missed a Christmas Eve yet.
I don’t “do” Christmas, but I love the winter, especially the snow. We don’t get loads here any more, but the trees and shrubs look so beautiful dusted with an inch or two of snow. It makes my heart sing.
My favourite tradition is making all the Christmas cards and feeling that I am in
touch with all those folk who I may have neglected over the rest of the year.
My favorite holiday tradition was putting up the Christmas tree on my birthday (Dec 18). My mama began that tradition when I was little and held to it even after I was all grown up with a family of my own!
Love this giveaway because I agree, nothing like a nice pair of scissors.
My favorite holiday tradition? Going to Christmas concerts, particularly those presented by church music departments. Christmas music shared by “regular” people is, for me, a big part of what celebrating Christ’s birth is all about.
Gary
My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating the christmas tree
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Favorite holiday tradition…so many to consider. But I’m going with stockings on Christmas morning. Even though it’s just me and my husband, he won’t let me stop. So the last thing we do Christmas Eve is set out our stockings for each other
My favorite part of Christmas is the coming together of friends and family.
I love the festive Christmas decorations and sharing!
My favorite holiday tradition celebrates my Scandinavian (Swedish and Danish) heritage. We attend our local Sankta Lucia pageant (sung completely in Swedish) on the first Friday of December. They have been doing the performance there for more than 100 years. We also decorate our mantels with Tomtar (Swedish elves) and Lucias.
My favorite holiday tradition is that our Christmas tree doesn’t go up until Christmas Eve. That tree is like MAGIC on Christmas morning! Followed by – only stockings can be opened until after breakfast. You can’t fake anticipation…
I found this when I was searching for reviews before buying a new pair of scissors. I have my Mom’s (since she passed away almost 10 years ago), but they are getting dull and I need a new pair. Maybe I’ll win a pair! Either way, thanks for the review.
Christmas is always my favorite holiday!!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is mass with the family. It is rare that all of my 5 children and spouses and 10 grandchildren can get together, as we live in 4 different locations around the country. So when we can worship together, it is a warm and wonderful feeling!
Kathy from Wildwood, MO
Hi Mary — I definitely do love nice scissors, and I give mine a workout every day. It seems they are always in use, and I could definitely use a new pair. I think the red and white pair is super cute, but both pairs are so nice. My favorite holiday tradition is hard to pick, because I actually love everything about the holidays. However, this might sound weird, but I think my favorite holiday tradition actually occurs AFTER Christmas. I love the 2 or 3 days after Christmas. At that point, the family is still all around, there is no pressure to drive, travel, shop, cook, or decorate. The lovely decorations are all still up and there are always plenty of homemade cookies and leftovers from the holiday feast. So, my family tends to gather in the family room and watch fun movies, play board games, chat, eat leftovers, and just generally hang out at home together. It is so relaxed and festive, so I think that is probably my favorite holiday tradition. And… I tend to get lots of stitching done during those 2 or 3 days also! Thanks for your wonderful hints and tips through the year, and happy holidays to you and your family.
Favorite tradition – cut out cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning 🙂
I love having my granddaughter help me decorate the Christmas tree and decorating.
Connie Cindle
Our family’s favorite Holiday tradition is to attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah at Duke Chapel on the first Sunday of Advent. Our son who was two years old the first time he attended (and slept in my lap when he tired of conducting the orchestra and choir) invited his Dad and me this year. He is, um, an adult now, and his girlfriend joined us. With three sons, my finest scissors were used in many interesting ways. I truly appreciate fine, sharp scissors that cut all the way out to the point! Thank you, Mary, for the fun giveaways, and the opportunities to talk about this ‘n that.
Hi Mary- my favourite tradition at Christmas is having a side table full of sweet and savoury dishes ready to be sampled at any time of the day or night. Not very healthy but who cares during this period? Keep well.
My favorite holiday tradition was going to Christmas Eve service with candellighting and singing Silent Night. My children and husband would say presents and homemade cookies. My children are now grown and I wonder what they think; my husband would still say cookies.
I’d love either of those pairs of scissors. Right now I know where both my embroidery scissors and manicure scissors (sometimes essential for fine stitchery cutting) are. My ES are Wiss USA made and the MS made in Germany.
I would love to win the red scissors!
My favorite tradition is making candy houses out of chocolate and icing and candies.
My fave traditions are getting together with my family, and celebrating Litha with my partner. It’s too hot to do much else! 🙂
The music of Christmas is so inspiring and can take us to many places and time. Merry Christmas
Snowball fights!
My favorite holiday tradition is my mum’s Apple Pancake – it’s what’s usually known as a Dutch Baby pancake with sauteed apples baked into it.
I’m usually a late riser, but Christmas morning I always get up before the rest of my family. I love to plug in the tree and take a few minutes to appreciate all the beauty and work that went into the decorations and presents. My mother just found out a few days ago that it wasn’t my father who would have the tree all lit up for everybody Christmas morning. 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition (at least for a while) was the Kinderei advent calendar – filled with 24 chocolate eggs + toys. Sadly, Ferrero no longer makes this calendar 🙁
Just reminded me to start searching for a way to make our own advent calendar for next year 🙂
Thanks for offering such lovely giveaways!
As the kids have left home, and don’t often get back for the holidays, holiday traditions don’t come very often. But what I do love about this season is the music! Love hearing the Christmas carols and sounds when I am shopping, no matter what store it is. It just has such a wonderful, soothing sound.
Have a very Merry Christmas!!
Our family loves to gather on Christmas Eve. We have an informal dinner which is most of time just tacos! We play games and watch movies, then open presents. Less stress, more fun!
One of my favorites is reading The Birds Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggins. The scissors would be wonderful to have, inspirational for some projects waiting patiently.
My favorite holiday tradition is hosting my family: parents, brothers, nieces and nephews, children, grandchildren. There is nothing like being surrounded by our loved ones to make a day special! Merry Christmas!
Growing up, Mom, Dad and my little sister would usually gather in Sister’s and my room for evening prayers.
From the first Sunday in Advent until January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, though, we would get in our PJ’s and meet in the living room to sing Christmas carols and say our evening prayers.
Mom and Dad also told us stories about our and their growing up. Dad grew up with (the Roman Catholic) Mass still in Latin, and taught us the Latin version of “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” He also taught us a version of “Deck the Halls” which was originally sung by a turtle in a comic strip. The turtle’s version began with, “Deck us all with Boston Charlie! Walla Walla! Washington! Kalamazoo!”
Mom, who was from Germany, taught us the German version of “Silent Night,” (“Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht,”) and several carols I’ve never heard in English.
If the packages from Oma, Tante, Onkel, and other assorted friends and relatives had arrived, we would also share some Lebkuchen (German gingerbread), Pfeffernusse, or hazelnut cookies Oma had baked.
As a grown up, my sister bakes Oma’s hazelnut cookies every Christmas, but they don’t taste quite right. I was raised on them only after minimum of 6 weeks in transit in surface mail. For me, and only when it comes to these cookies, fresh isn’t best.
Hi,
My personal favourite holiday tradition is on Boxing Day, after the hurly burly of Christmas, to sit in peace and quiet in my lounge and work on what ever lace or embroidery I have on hand, with Christmas nibbles and perhaps a glass of wine, while the rest of the family is out and about doing their own thing.
Wow! I love scissors, and already have so many pairs, with heaps of room for more 🙂
There is so much I love about this time of year, but it is getting together with Family which is the best, and then getting away from it all with some time at a lake.
Summer time here, means nights of Strawberry daiquiri’s too.
At this time of the year, Advent, it’s a time of preparation for the Christmas Season, so I like the cooler weather, the outdoor trimming of bushes in preparation for the Christmas lights, the writing of Christmas cards.
My favourite, the traditions, going to midnight mass, coming home and unwrapping presents.
Sleep for an hour, then cooking all day, eat too much and afternoon snooze.
Go and see the best streets and Christmas lights until midnight. If not too far, go see the suburb and house that won the Christmas lights competition in Sydney.
Christmas is also a melancholy time for me.
The only one living abroad. I miss my family so much, the worst of it is not seeing my grandchild.
Thank you Mary, wish you love and good health!! Have a Blessed Christmas to you and yours.
Walking through the holiday lights display at the botanical gardens. It’s something I try to do with my family every Christmas season, and it really helps with getting me out of the grumps which seems to be harder each year.
Like you Mary, I have a thing for little scissors. This give-away also lured me to finally order the Inspirations Magazine. It is my Christmas present from my husband this year & I am so excited.
My favorite Christmas tradition is to mail Christmas cards that I have stitched throughout the year.
Favourite holiday tradition is going to church on Christmas Eve to sing carols and then driving around to see the local Christmas lights.
I love doing a big Christmas Eve Smorgasbord with the old family recipes (however in my house any type of meat in aspic has been banished to the history books). It reminds me of past Christmases when various relatives were still with us.
My favorite Christmas tradition is giving to others. I’ve even put a $50 dollar bill in a card and just gave it to someone as I was leaving the grocery store. Feels so good!
My favorite tradition is the candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve.
JoAnn Edwards
During my childhood my family didn’t hardly have any traditions much less any Christmas ones. When I got married and had 2 girls, I really wanted to have special traditions for us as a family to treasure. The one that love the most is who gets to put the angel on top of the tree each year. My girls take turns. And how they remember is really cute. There is this old piece of cardboard torn off a box in with the ornaments that has the girls’ signature and date they put it on the tree. It is so sweet and special to see how they have “grown” each year just by looking at their writing on an old piece of cardboard. I’ll probably have it framed some day.
My tradition is getting the Christmas tree my Aunt made me 1962 out, I enjoy it more each year!
I LOVE THE REASON FOR CHRISTMAS. THE MUSIC, DECORATIONS, AND THE CHRISTMAS PROGRAM PUT ON BY THE CHILDREN AT OUR CHURCH…AND FAMILY BEING TOGETHER. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!
December 25th is very important to me and my family, we all get together in our house, old and young. I started this tradition when our kids were young, both side of family came and my brother became the Santa. Now that we are grand parents the day has more value to us. Our immediate family 45 plus people, get together and our son in law is the Santa. We eat good food, sing carols and have fun. This is a great tradition and I hope it will continue with next generation.
I didn’t have holiday traditions growing up, so this year, I’m making my own!
My favourite part of this season is crafting personalized gifts for my loved ones.
Making a dozen kinds of Christmas cookies!
My favourite Christmas tradition is Christmas Pudding. My daughter-in-law has taken over the production but I supplied her with the Royal Canberra Mint’s Christmas Charms and my collection of sixpences and threepences before we changed over to decimal currency.
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve worship with candles and communion.
My favourite modern tradition is our Christmas Eve — we pour a mug of mulled wine, fire up Skype, and spend a couple of hours with my parents and siblings who live across the country from me. We chat, show off our Xmas decorations to each other, and then open presents together. Just about as good as being there!
I love baking cookies at this time of year and most years I make some kind of a gingerbread house. This year my 5 year old grandson will be staying with me for 2 weeks so I have plans for lots of cookie baking and some fun gingerbread construction. Can’t wait!
My favorite part is Celebrating that it is Jesus’ Birthday by going to Holy Mass (as we do every week)! Wheee! Thanks and God bless!
My favourite holiday tradition is probably midnight mass with my mum on Christmas Eve.
Ooh, scissors! Whoever is so fortunate to win these will be very, very happy. Okay, favorite holiday tradition? I am not sure I would call it a “tradition” but it is my happiest moment–Christmas Mass and the music in Latin and German, French and Flemish. My father died in 1997 but singing his favorite carol, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” brings him back. He was almost tone-deaf (probably from shelling during WWII) but this carol he would sing with heart and soul. “Adeste Fidelis” brings back my Grandmother and Great Grandmother and sitting with them at the earliest Mass. And the “First Noel” reminds me of my little sister being born in mid-December and named Jeanne Noel. When my husband and I married, Norwegian hymns joined, and, of course, both the jolly and the sublime English carols.
I wish you great peace this year, Mary Corbet. And sweet calm in this swirling. And a whole bunch of cookies, too!
I do love the scissors – both are wonderful brands. My favorite tradition is changing our everyday dishes to the Christmas dishes to use each day. It just sets the mood for all the other fun parts of decorating the tree and all other parts of our home.
My favorite tradition is changing our everyday dishes to the Christmas ones. It seems to set the mood for all the other decorating of the tree and the house.
My favorite tradition is making pull aparts for Christmas morning breakfast. I mix them up after we come home from Christmas eve service, let them raise overnight and put in the oven first thing in the morning. The house smells so good. It has been a tradition for almost 40 years.
I love playing Christmas music and baking cookies. Helps get me in the mood for the holidays. I love so many other things also, the lights, ornament exchanges, getting together with friends, etc. etc. etc……
My favorite Holiday tradition involves the office where I work. Because many of my clients aren’t able to celebrate the Holidays, I have hot mulled cider; cookies and other goodies for them. My office is decorated with a small tree and tiny battery powered lights and decorations that some of the children and adults make. It is wonderful.
Merry Christmas Mary and thank you for this lovely opportunity. We don’t really have any set traditions, in fact every year is slightly different, but one thing that I always love is that Christmas is really a celebration of Jesus and all He was, is, and will forever be. Blessings to you Mary, from Maria in NZ.
Oh! How I would love a pair of GOOD scissors! One could never have enough.
Spending holidays over the Christmas period entails staying at home. Far too busy and expensive to go somewhere else. My children will be visiting so its going to be fun!!
Wishing you and your family and staff a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Rhona
Some of my favorite, most treasured moments are brought on by the holiday season. As a child it was the excitement of visitng all my family on christmas day. To wake up early and celebrate with my mother and our tiny table top tree. We’d then head north to visit my aunts house and mothers family. To be stuck in the car, as a child felt like forever, for over an hr. Seeing mostly road and trees until we hit a hill and as you reached the top you could view a city full of colorful lights and decorations. It was magical. After lots of fun traditons, we’d gather our belongings and head back towards my home to visit at my father’s house. We’d get there later at night. My mother would take all my opened gifts home and I’d get to stay the night at his house. Was exciting to be up that late with such camotion. I was the “baby” of the family, so I’d get to go first. As the years passed and I was moving down the ladder in gift opening I got more and more excited about the decorations and ornaments. My siblings and I would exchange personal ornaments to each other and the big gifts were given to our children now. I share and try to have my daughter experience some of my magical memories while creating all our own. I’m very lucky she’s extremely artistic in so many ways and so creative. That we get to do a wide range of crafts for the holidays. Especially Christmas, when her sweetness beams through while she comes up with ideas for gifts for everyone she knows and appreciates. This year we have a huge list of to-do crafts, mostly clay, embroidery and drawing. Seems I’ve been dabbling with embroidery and cross stitching since I was younger than my daughter (11) I’m the one doing the brunt of those. Still trying to teach her the patience to truly enjoy it. Until then I will full heartily love making or trying to make lol her any ideas she comes up with. Thank you soo much for your time with this site. It has been heaven sent to learn and reference stitches and ideas. Your video demos are truly the first ones I’ve been able to actually learn a new stitch, you make it so simple to understand and clear on motions. So happy I can share them with my daughter and have her discover new exciting designs we can use on all the ornaments and gifts. Have 2 new family members this yr and excited to use all the new stitches to make them their first Christmas ornament. Happy holidays!
It would have to be slightly frying the leftover cold ham from Xmas day and having that on a piece of Vogel’s toast (yummy wholemeal bread) topped with a sun-ripened beefsteak tomato plus rock salt and a grind of black pepper! This is our Boxing Day breakfast usually out on the deck, enjoying the warm sun and looking forward to a lazy day of blissful relaxation.
Ahh scissors!! I have spent the past 30 odd years as an embroider (a beginner mind you) trying to find a decent pair of scissors. Now I am left-handed but being a left- hander imbues one with extra cerebral skills and over the years I have learned to adapt to using right handed scissors. In fact, my husband bought me a pair of left handed secateurs once and I can’t use them (I haven’t told him yet)!!
But finding scissors with nice holes to fit my fingers (not huge by any means but certainly a bit knobbly and require some gentle persuasion to enter the holes) is a challenge. Then there is most importantly a super fine point and sharp TO THE TIPS which so many are not.
I have several pairs of Ginghers and they are pretty good on the sharpness scale and I especially love the large ones for cutting fabrics for patchwork etc. They are excellent.
But I am looking for some smaller ones now with very sharp tips and nicely sized holes for my knobbly digits. I need them for cutwork. Are they out there? I have searched so many websites but still haven’t quite found them. Now my life’s work as an embroiderer is to find the PERFECT scissors. Perhaps Mary’s prize is it?? I truly hope so. But then there is the postage to Oz??
Thank you for your website you’ve taught me so much.
The best thing about Christmas for me is getting to spend time with my family. All my aunts, uncles and cusins at my Grandmas house it’s the best. As a kid I always looked forward to seeing everyone and even more so as an adult.
Midnight mass with all the beautiful decorations and music, then driving around to see Christmas lights on the way home.
Our favorite holiday tradition is to go get a Christmas tree from the tree farm and decorate with every single ornament we have from all the years before. Some are even older than me! Next would be cut out sugar cookies with piping. I suppose I could go on and on.:)
My favorite Christmas tradition was as a child we would open gifts on Christmas Eve as on Christmas day we would travel to see Oma. The gifts could not be opened until all the dishes were “done” and Mom and Dad would breath for a minute as 3 little girls were excitedly waiting. Now we have small grandchildren and are working on new traditions.
Lois from Central Texas
I love the Christmas tree. We always have a real tree with real candles, and the scent is amazing. I also enjoy the whole act of decorating the tree. AND in Germany we have all the different Christmas cookies – they are fun to bake and even more fun to eat 😉
Kay, so I’m a little late to the party. But I really, really want some quality scissors that I can’t afford. And I looked around. I cannot afford those scissors. Particularly the first pair. That company also makes nose-hair trimmers that I can’t afford. That frightens me. Like, how sharp are those?
I don’t want to answer the question you asked. But I will. My favorite tradition is giving away presents, especially to the fur-babies. Once my brother and I hit our teenage years, Christmas got super boring. But! I got a puppy for my sixteenth (best present EVER), who ended up being The Best Creature Who Has Ever Walked The Earth! (Yes, he is deceased, hence the hyperbole. And why I didn’t want to answer. I miss him.) Anyway, this dog LOVED Christmas. He loved it like a little kid. He even woke the whole family up early Christmas morning cause he couldn’t sleep. I’d wake up to my mom yelling, “Toasty says it’s time to open presents!” (His full name was Brave Little Toaster. Toasty, for short. To anyone who doesn’t know, “Brave Little Toaster” is a kid’s movie, sorta like Homeward Bound, except instead of pets being left behind, it’s a bunch of appliances. And these appliances have an existential crisis over it. I have no opinion on the movie, I just thought it made a good name for a dog.)
Now that Toasty is gone, I have a cat named Henry (and it took me a week to settle on a name… he started getting angry at me the day after I named him Henry, when I was going to change it… thus, he remains Henry… my Benevolent Overlord…) and a dog named Timmy (no story for him) and it is still so fun to give the furry little guys their presents. I bought Henry a ball of catnip a few years back. He rolled around on the floor with it for hours until he passed out in the kitchen with the ball under his paw. Adorable.
I would like to point out that there isn’t a Wednesday, December 13th this year. Even in Kansas. Seriously, I googled it and everything. I… kinda don’t trust my calendar… it went wonky after a leap year and can’t keep dates right. So… are the giveaway winners announced on the 13th, or on Wednesday? Or, possibly, in another year entirely? (hehe…) Maybe you already fixed that. I can’t be the only one who noticed. It took me a couple minutes just to scroll to the bottom of entries. Goodness, my long comments must really get your goat. I can’t help it. I just like to answer questions. I think I mentioned before… no one ever asks me any. So… sorry.
Have a lovely morning.
One of my favourite things about Christmas is seeing all of the decorations and lights. It gets dark quite early here in the UK at this time of year, so I really love it when people start putting up their Christmas lights, it cheers everything up 🙂
My favorite tradition is putting up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with my family, having dinner and then opening presents.
My favorite holiday tradition is opening one present on Christmas Eve. And it’s ALWAYS pj’s to wear that night!
My favourite tradition is embroidering something on our cross stitch tree skirt.
We’ve had it since we first married and it is a great memory of all the passing years.
Happy holidays to everyone.
Attending the midnight Christmas Eve service was a favorite of mine growing up. My husband an I have had a different holiday schedule almost every year we’ve been married so we’re really struggling to grow some traditions that are uniquely ours. Several years we haven’t even had a tree!
Now that we have a 14-month-old, I really want to travel less during the season and start settling into a yearly pattern. This year, we had a family outing to pick out a tree, and we’ve been slowly decorating it during the evenings. (I’ve even managed to prevent my son from chewing on any of the ornaments!)
Those red scissors are adorable! (I’m a lover of red, too).
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making butter cookies (the pressed kind). My mother always made them at Christmas and I’ve carried on that tradition.
My favorite part of the holiday is the hanging of lights. We have many, both inside and outside, and once those boxes are pulled from the shelf, the season has begun.
For me, the best part of Christmas is the spirit of the season; the excitement and anticipation, the smells and sights, and the warmth and goodwill.
What I love about this time of year is the cold weather. I love to snuggle with my husband, cat or son.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating my home with some of the special items from my childhood–a creche that I bought the figures for a few each year for ten cents each at the dime store, an almost life-size cardboard standing cut-out of Santa that looks like my dad, who played Santa many years at his family IBM office party. There are also items when my children were small, a cross-stitch Santa that my now 50-year-old son stitched (with no pattern) when he was about 10-11. These things/memories make Christmas special for me!
Everyone gives a handmade gift…it can be baked, sewn, stitched, cobbled or hand-crafted. Some turn out to be funny-some extremely precious.
Merry Christmas!
My holiday tradition is creating artwork during the year for gift giving. I embroider, quilt, and sew small things. There is great joy in the creating and gifting.
Oh, I love the baking during the winter holiday! I allow myself to bake all of those things that seem too decadent the rest of the year. Lovely rich stollen, fruitcake and pumpkin bread. Cookies! Then, my family gets to follow the grand old tradition of eating all the wonderful stuff!
My favorite holiday tradition would have to be attending church on Christmas Eve with my family. After all it is the saviors birth we are celebrating. God bless.
My favorite tradition is when my husbands entire family gets together for Christmas day dinner. We eat, exchange gifts, and enjoy each other’s company. My father-in-law about 25 years ago started hot glueing coins to toy cars and random Christmas themed item he picked up at the local donation store. He would then tuck some dollar bills inside, wrap them in newspaper and use duck tape to seal them. He would use a lot of tape. He loved making it difficult to get into. It has been a fun Christmas day activity. Mostly, I enjoyed getting together as a family.
Ultimate stocking gift for a special friend or me. Can’t decide yet. Ho Ho Ho
Favorite family tradition:
Before the kids get to open their Christmas gifts they would have to stand in front of the Christmas Tree and sing a few Christmas Songs. This tradition came from when I was little and lived in Germany and kept it up when I had kids.
Thanks for the chance at these Mary!
My favourite holiday tradition in the past few years is to not turn on the computer for the days surrounding Christmas and to spend time stitching or with friends and family. It makes for a mountain of messages to answer afterward but it’s worth it!
All the best to you!
I think my favorite tradition is getting together with friends and just sharing time with them. Of course there’s food and wine involved, but good friends always make the time more special.
I really like making gingerbread cookies with my kids and letting them go crazy with the icing decorating. We drink a lot of hot chocolate in the evenings, too, when the weather cooperates and is cool enough.
I would love the Dovo scissors. I’ve been coveting a pair since your post about them!
Baking cookies and candy.
My favourite tradition, amongst many, is the decorating of the tree. I love to reminisce about all of the decorations that I have collected over the years from different places, and ones that were gifted to us. I love it when it is done, and have it lit up to enjoy for the season!
My favorite holiday tradition is making cookies!
As a child, my favorite holiday tradition was helping my mother with the baking.
She made wonderful prune or cinnamon filled Christmas Tree Breads drizzled with frosting and candies cherries! Then there was the Stollen! And cookies? Oh, my, so many different kinds! Frosted sugar cookies in Christmas shapes, Candy Cane cookies, Mexican Wedding cookies, Spritz cookies (I’ve never gotten the hang of the cookie press!). I loved making the Sandbakelser (one of my all time favorites!) Fatigman and Rosettes.
Cookies and breads were given as gifts, offered to guests and carefully doled out to the family. What a bounty of delight!
My maternal step-grandmother would always present us with stollen on Xmas eve at their home so we’d have it for Christmas morning breakfast. My Mom made the spritz cookies and rosettes. I have adapted the traditional sweet recipe batter with savory as well, sprinkling parmesan cheese instead of the powdered sugar. Years ago I went to the Texas state fair and discovered a booth selling more rosette irons so I’ve got a weighty number more for thematic treats (Easter eggs, Frog, Bear, etc.) I serve at home here in San Francisco.
I love the lights and especially a couple of neighborhoods who really decorate up the street. It is such a gift.
Like many newlywed couples we were poor as churchmice. Our first Christmas tree was pretty sparsely decorated and we had no tree topper so I decided tomake one. I cut a star out of cardboard, taped it to a toilet roll so it would slip onto the top of the tree and covered it with aluminum foil. Over the years the foil has been replaced and last year I covered it in gold glitter. For 46 Christmasses it has been the tradition for my husband to place that slightly wonky star atop the tree as the final ornament on our tree no matter where we lived or how many themes we came up with. That star carries 46 years of joyous Christmas memories.
My favorite holiday tradition is the decorating of the Christmas Tree. I make a big deal of it and try to get all my family to participate, but after they have all gone to bed, I finish up by myself and then just sit and enjoy the lights and the decorations. I have decorations from my kids’ childhoods and from recent years. They are all precious and have wonderful memories to them.
Spending time with family, baking and stitching!
I love this time of the year because the “Spirit” of Christmas is in the air. Everyone is so happy and friendly. I wish people could be that way every day of the year. Life is too short.
Favorite Christmas Tradition
This tradition started when my two boys were toddlers (now 23 and 25) and friends and family wanted to see them open their stockings and presents. Because everyone arrived really early (6 am in those days, but a much more respectable time now!) it seemed only right that I should provide breakfast. This has continued as an annual event, we open gifts friends and family and lots of coffee and then sit down to a huge cooked breakfast. After breakfast everyone else can move on to celebrate Christmas and eat with their friends and family while we have a quiet Christmas Day.
We read John 1 from the Bible – not your typical Christmas passage, but it is the story of Christ.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Carrie Plane Nut
My favorite tradition is to try to leave my ornamented fresh Christmas tree up almost to the Super Bowl. I love having more time to admire all the hand-stitched ornaments I’ve made as well as received from annual ornament exchanges in my EGA group. Since I’m almost always still stitching Christmas gifts up until Christmas itself, I need the post-Christmas less stressful time to enjoy my decorations. Those scissors will help! California Christine
Thank you so much, Mary for all of these give-aways. You have a very generous heart!
I love so many things about the Christmas season, but I think the one thing that makes my heart warm the most is singing Christmas Carols and Christmas songs, both sacred and secular. I love singing with family and with friends, and just enjoying the sound of raised voices.
My favorite holiday tradition hands down occurs on Christmas Eve. The family gathers at my mom’s house. We feast on dips and other snack type goodies. We exchange gifts and then we go to a candlelight service at our church at 11:00 pm. This year we are adding an ugly Christmas sweater or shirt contest!!!! Wonderful and precious family Christmas!!!!
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
My favorite holiday tradition is what we call Christmas Nachofest. My mom makes up a meat and cheese mixture and has the tortilla chips and just about every topping you could imagine cut up and sitting out in dishes so we can create our own favorite nachos. My brother and his wife and their kids, myself and my husband, my mom and stepdad, and my best friend and her little girl get together for the day and have nachos,cookies, and watch the kids open their gifts and play. The adults open gifts as well, but we mostly watch the kids faces as they open theirs. This year will be a bit bigger as my mother-in-law and brother-in-law have moved back to our state and we invited them to join the festivities.
I don’t think I have a favorite tradition. I love them all – the baking, the decorating, the family visits, the music, and Candlelight service on Christmas Eve. I think I enjoy the run-up to Christmas more than the actual day. And I am always disappointed after Christmas when people stop turning on their outdoor lights.
Would love to have the scissors. Was out of town so am probably too late with comment. Thank you
I’m NOT trying to pull at heartstrings for sympathy here but, I’ve always loved Christmas, and now I have been widowed twice. Both my beloved husbands loved Christmas as well. My favorite tradition is going crazy decorating the house. Now I’m continuing the decorating but I’m doing it to honor them and please myself. To take a deep breath and face the storm.
Merry Christmas to you Mary and all your devoted followers.
Best wishes,
Doreen
All the children and grandchildren come to our house (grand mom and pop pops) xmas morn to open and PLAY with their new toys……many are hand made. Then eat cinnamon rolls…..adults would prefer to eat first but no way would the kids let us. We then watch how happy and excited we are to be together.
Love to all.
My favorite holiday tradition is actually a more recent one! We live in Baja Sur Mexico and there are some expats who do not have families nearby. On Christmas day we host a dinner that rounds them all up and shares the joy together with new and some ‘old’ friends! We’re never sure how many there will be until the last minute, but since everyone contributes, it never matters anyway. One year we had more than a handful whom I had never met before. and then the next year everyone is asked back~
I love to hang the garland between my kitchen and dining room! It is wrapped with colored lights and trimmed with the Historic White House and Baltimore ornaments that were yearly gifts to my husband from a very kind employee. Too heavy for the tree, these dangle and sparkle under the counter lights. Each one is unique and celebrates a different president and time period. There are also gold bells engraved with my children’s names from their Grandma, a doorway with our family name, Santa’s sleigh, an angel with a jingle bell, a silver bi-plane with crystals in the wings, a crystal Christmas tree, Cross and pendant, a partridge in a pear tree that says Joyeux Noël, souvenirs from places we love, the word DREAM spelled out in rhinestones and right over the kitchen doorway hangs a ball of mistletoe! xoxox!
Each Christmas we all decorate the tree, the Christmas carols play and we eat fruit mince pies and ice-cream! Afterwards the tinsel monster turns up and spreads tinsel everywhere!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the gift exchange with my mom and three sisters. Instead of purchasing gifts, each of us makes a holiday decoration (I have talented sisters). We draw numbers, and open our choice of gifts, or take someone else’s opened gift when our number is up. We used to do strictly Christmas decorations, but after several years and lots of Christmas decorations, decided our home made decorations could be any holiday.
Dear Mary,
I spend my holidays with my Mum who lives over 2000 km away. The last two visits we have been on a very relaxing week-long, river paddle-boat cruise together. I would love to stitch on the cruise but there are too many wonderful things to do and see to spend time stitching.
Mary – thanks so much for the opportunity, I love scissors, too! My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies, especially when my children were small. Now that I have some new grandchildren, I hope to bake Christmas cookies with them!
Have a blessed Christmas, Mary!
In our family we love to celebrate Christmas Day together and then on Boxing Day watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart Boat race from Dobroyd Point overlooking the heads to Sydney Harbour.
My favorite holiday tradition I just did last night! The Neighborhood church in Palos Verdes, California puts on a Christmas pageant every year. The church itself is a beautiful Mediterranean style villa circa the 1920’s that was at one point a family’s summer home, it sits right on the ocean over looking the city of Redondo Beach. They start the evening with a bell concert in the chapel then you are led out to wander a path thru the grounds where they depict different tableaus from the Nativity, with children portraying angels and Wiseman. I love the fact that this church has been putting on this pageant since 1953 and still has some of the original sets…… and its off for hot chocolates after.
_Stacy Z.
O ,this time of year,the smells,oranges,the tree, time with my family and stitching……I love making small gifts,pin cushions,needle books..love giving them at random . my younger sisters love them even my nieces I love making them make them all year and store in a lovely hat box.been doing this for over 16 years so I guess it’s a tradition
I love that Christmas brings so many opportunities to get together with family and friends, reminiscing about people and times past and looking forward with anticipation to the future. My very favorite traditions are the the children’s programs at school and church. I fondly remember many of their parents when they were the same ages in the same situations as well. I hope that you will have a joyous and meaningful Christmas and that the new year will bring you great happiness, good health, and lots of inspiration and stitiching time!
I love this season because of the reason for the season. Christ came so we could learn to love one another and take care of one another. Somehow people open their hearts and pocket books at this season to help the less fortunate.
Marta G
Love cute scissors.
Hmmm – favorite holiday tradition. While decorated Christmas trees and cookies are high on my list, it’s probably the wonderful Christmas carols. My parents had a stack of records for the hi-fi, and the stack would be played and then turned over and over. My sister and I didn’t know Latin, so to us “Panis Angelicus” sounded like “jelly-goose”. Over the years songs like “O Holy Night”, “Joy to the World”, “Go Tell it on the Mountain” bring forth the joy of the season for me.
I would love a new pair of scissors! My favorite holiday tradition is our New Year’s Eve family get-together where we complete a 1000 piece puzzle with many hands helping. My oldest daughter is the one who started the tradition and continues to bring an interesting puzzle each year. Sadly, we will not be together this year, but we will be fondly remembering past New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Listening to Christmas music, watching Hallmark Christmas movies, decorating the Christmas tree, spending time with family and friends.
My favorite holiday tradition is dinner with my family. Everybody brings a dish or two. We spend the whole day together and long into the night just enjoying the rare moments when everyone is together
My favourite holiday tradition is decorating the tree while making sweets. Getting the whole family around and the noise and anticipation of seeing the tree lit up. Its a lovely warm feeling.
My favorite tradition is decorating cookies!
My favorite holiday tradition is setting up my multiple nativity sets. I only see them for about a month once a year, and I like to get them out and marvel at how different they all are.
Cooking our Holiday meal with all of the family. My sister and I have slowly learned how our mom cooked each dish and now we are teaching our nieces and nephews their favorites. Each of them gets their own time if they want it allowing them to chatter about their life with the aunties. Something about cooking relaxes them so much we are considering expanding our together cooking times to at least once a month, with (if asked) life questions answered on the side. Who knew!
Not sure if my comment showed up. The wifi went out , so if this is a second post, my apologies.
I love baking, and cooking. All the smells, all the flavours, and then seeing it all come together and everyone eating. That’s my favourite.
A number of years ago we started a tradition of inviting friends who would be alone to share Christmas Eve dinner with us. We enjoy sharing good food and companionship in a relaxed setting.
My favorite Christmas tradition is having my family all together on Christmas morning, to open gifts, share breakfast and spend the day together just enjoying each other’s company. No clock to watch, nowhere to be any special time…very laid back and comfortable! Merry Christmas to all!
Hi Mary,
Without a doubt my favorite holiday tradition is to decorate the home for each particular holiday – – from Halloween pumpkins/autumn leaves/little owl lights to Thanksgiving huge table centerpiece to Christmas – tree/lights/candles to Easter – egg tree/ceramic bunnies, etc! Decorating just seems to set the mood for the holiday!
My favorite holiday tradition is just being with my family on Christmas day. We “do” Christmas big – lots of gifts, because we just like being generous with each other. And there’s almost always something hand-made in there… Then we have a big Christmas meal and of course lots of snacking and sugarplums dancing.
Baking Baba (my grandmother) cookies and bread for my parents and grandchildren. They were (and are) my favorite goodies and always remind me of joyful times
I love going to see the train displays at Christmas.
I love attending Christmas Eve candlelight service with my best friend and her family every year!
Thanksgiving through Christmas is my favorite time of the year. The best part is gathering with family, some of whom you see often, and others not so often. This is a tender, nostalgic time of year that gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling
Those are really nice looking scissors and would make a great addition to any ones sewing room.
My favorite tradition is going to the movies Christmas morning.
I spent 4 Christmases in the hospital but we used to go to our sons house at 6 am on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their presents. have brunch and go home.
Ooooo I live the red ones! I just started embroidering this year and I love it!!! One of my favourite traditions is listening to Kenny and dolly Christmas while opening stockings with my family. This is the first year my husband will be at my traditional family Christmas and I can’t wait for him to experience it with me.
Christmas Eve dinner, going to the Mass after it, being with family… I simply like Christmas 🙂
well I don’t have a Christmas tradition, as the last few years have found me without family to have one with, but don’t be sad, the people I find around me are just as wonderful as any family, so the thing I find so wonderful about this time of the year is how people try to be a bit kinder to each albeit for a short time…merry Christmas everyone
Hi, this is Judy Ullmann. My favorite tradition is the eating of delicious cookies and pies! Baking them, not so much! LOL Big demand from a little kitchen. I hope I have win!
We always go to a Christmas service on Christmas Eve and enjoy the carols and readings and the have a very relaxed family day on Christmas day generally around the pool as we are now in our summer in Australia
Resting! It is summer here and pretty warm (hot) so a shady spot near the pool is a good place to relax and just do nothing for a while.
My favorite holiday tradition is having my family together for a Christmas dinner. Can’t beat it!
My favorite tradition is watching the kids open their Christmas stockings on Christmas morning. I loved it with my children and now with my grandchildren.
We always have Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house and then have Christmas at my in-laws on Christmas day
My favorite holiday tradition is our family year in review scrapbook page exchange. It so much fun to have a record of each of my parents and siblings year in photos.
I like this time of year because I’m able to finish projects with my stitching friends. And send the finished gifts off to the ones I love.