Good morning from a cold and crisp and winterly Kansas. No snow – just grey. And cold! Rumor has it the sun will make a showing today, though. Ho ho ho. I can’t wait!
Speaking of ho ho ho, today we’re going to do another pre-Christmas give-away featuring new kits that I’m bringing in from Italy, to accompany the reticello books by Giuliana Buonpadre that we started offering this year.
I’m excited about these kits! I’ve brought in just a few at this point, to test the waters. My reasoning for bringing them into the US is that we don’t really have a wide array reticello kits on the market in the US (if any). And yet, I know there are many embroiderers who love reticello and traditional Italian needlework. There are many who want to learn it or to learn it better. The kits provide a structure for learning and all the supplies necessary for a project.
So today, I’ll show you some of the kits close-up and I’ll give away one of them, along with two of Giuliana Buonpadre’s beautiful reticello books, Il Reticello and Herbarium, so that you can learn the techniques and then take them further.
Right now, I have three different Reticello kits in stock, all designed by Giuliana Buonpadre.
The kits are an extension of her book Il Reticello, which is normally available here on Needle ‘n Thread. (It’s sold out right now, but more stock is coming.) I know many of you already have the book. The kits will give you the opportunity to test and learn different reticello skills, with the linen and thread that Giuliana recommends.
The first kit (category “easy”) Panels in Red, is available right now with a choice of fabric: a cream (deep ivory) colored linen, or a natural colored linen. Both come with red thread and three needles.
The kits include a pamphlet with a colored image on the cover, and a black and white image of the project inside.
There’s information on how to set up the fabric to start stitching the project, and then there’s a diagram to follow, that shows the layout of the design (on a grid).
You’ll also find diagrams for the decorative needle lace squares that are featured in the project.
Finally, there is information on how to construct a cushion out of the finished reticello panel.
The cream and red option for Kit #1 is shown in the first photo in this article. Above, you can see the natural linen with the red.
The Linen, Threads, & Needles
Each kit comes with a 60cm square piece of linen (almost 24″ square), so that you can finish the piece into about an 18″ cushion.
The linen is a beautiful Italian linen with a close, full weave, perfect for this type of work. The thread count is approximately 38 threads per inch.
The thread with the kits is Anchor Ritorto Florentino #12. (I wrote about this thread ages ago, here.) This is an Italian thread somewhat similar to perle cotton, but not exactly the same as perle cotton. It seems to me that it is a slightly firmer thread than perle cotton. It comes in a Huge Hank of 550 meters. You definitely will not run out of thread with any of these kits!
Each kit comes with three needles essential for this work: a sharp tip, a blunt tip, and “beaded” for withdrawing the threads.
The second kit (category “easy”) is Rhombi in Blue, with a lighter ivory fabric and blue thread.
This is what the design looks like.
Again, you’ll find the layout chart and the diagrams for the different elements in the accompanying booklet. You’ll find information on setting up the fabric and finishing the cushion.
Actual stitching instructions for this type of work are found in Il Reticello, or, if you have already done some reticello, you’ll be able to read the charts and diagrams and execute them in reticello techniques.
You’ll find black and white photos of the finished elements in the pamphlet as well.
The third kit (kit #5, in fact – I haven’t brought them all in!), Reticello Flower is categorized as “moderate.” The linen is natural colored and the thread is a lighter creamy color.
Like the pamphlets in the other kits, you’ll find a black and white photo of the finished piece.
You’ll find tips on setting up your fabric, and then the layout chart.
In this particular kit, you’ll find a little more in-depth instruction in the pamphlet, for the various needle lace elements. You’ll still benefit, though, from having a copy of the book, Il Reticello, for reference.
Available!
For those of you who have wanted to try out reticello, who have purchased the books but perhaps have not found the linen or thread you want to use, you’ll find these kits a great way to have the supplies at hand. They’re available right now in my shop. If they prove to be popular, I’ll bring in more.
Any kits purchased today and over the weekend will go out via Priority Mail by Monday, so there’s *some* chance you may still get it by Christmas. You can wrap it up and put it under the tree for yourself!
Give-Away!
This give-away has now ended. Thanks to all who participated!
I’m be giving away one kit – the Red Panels, in natural – along with a copy of Il Reticello and a copy of Herbarium to a lucky randomly-drawn winner. For the give-away winner, the kit and books will not arrive right away (and certainly not before Christmas!). We have to restock Il Reticello, and once I have the books back in stock, I’ll ship the give-away prize.
Update: I’ll be drawing two names for this give-away, thanks to Vito Maistrello, Giuliana Buonpadre’s husband, who continues her legacy. He has added a kit and the two books, for a second winner.
If you’d like to join the give-away, please read and follow the guidelines below:
1. To participate, leave a comment below. The comment must be left on this article on Needle ‘n Thread. Comments left on other articles or submitted by email are not eligible. Please do not use the “reply” feature to leave your comment. Replies to other comments are not eligible. You can follow this link directly to the comment box, to make sure you’re in the right place.
2. Please leave your name in the “name” line (no anonymous comments) and a valid email address in the “email” line on the form. Winners are contacted by email. If your email is incorrect or bounces back, I’ll draw another winner in your place. Leave the “website” line blank. Please do not leave personal contact information in the actual comment box, since anything written there is visible on the website.
3. In your comment, please answer the following question:
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
4. Leave your comment by Wednesday, December 21st, at 5:00 am Central Time. I will announce the randomly drawn winner that morning and contact the winner by email.
The give-away is open for anyone, anywhere. Keep in mind that you will be responsible for any customs fees, taxes, or so forth that might be levied in your country when the package arrives.
Coming Up!
Hard to believe next week is the week before Christmas!
On Monday, we’ll talk shop. I want to show you some equipment that has turned out to be a Really Good Idea.
We are trying to put together a fun Eye-Spy puzzle for you, since we missed last year. Gosh, some things are a lot harder than they should be!
Hope you have a jolly weekend!
I love making Christmas Pudding. I put pennies and buttons in the mixture and make sure everyone in the house has a stir of the mixture for good luck before it gets cooked.
My favorite holiday tradition is a family one. With family members who worked for the sewer district and in emergency medicine the family Christmas was scheduled each year based on when everyone could be off work to come. Even once we stopped exchanging gifts we still kept one thing going… Christmas stockings. We kids started doing stockings for our parents in high school.. mom and I made new stockings for each new spouse and baby. They got fled with favorite snacks and candies, little toys, kitchen gadgets and items based on people’s special interests. Mom and I filled them and hung them for the family gathering and people added their contributions as they came in. Once we were all there we opened. The pandemic year got us off kilter and a brother’s terminal illness. Perhaps we will get back to it and perhaps not. Another generation of weddings and children makes the gatherings more complex and less achievable.
Reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and the Night Before Christmas with my children on Christmas Eve.
My favorite holiday tradition is probably going to my Christmas Eve service. The simplicity, the candlelight time, the message–all favorites.
Christmas traditions for me is baking. Mostly cookies and nut rolls. And keeping my memories of past and present close to my heart. They are important to me!
My favorite Christmas tradition is attending church on Christmas eve and reading from the Gospel of Luke before opening any gifts. Jesus is the reason for the season.
Merry Christmas! And thank you for all you do for stitching community.
I love reading A Christmas Carol every year!
My favorite Christmas tradition is cooking home made chicken and dumplings for Christmas dinner. Many years we got away from the big traditional dinner and my whole family loves this meal. I am the so called Queen of chicken and dumplings. When I say I am cooking they all show up ready to eat.
Lots of love goes into making them and a lot of love around the dinner table celebrating the season!
My favorite holiday tradition is lighting the Christmas tree.
Waking up early on Christmas before anyone else turning on the tree making sure everything is ready for the children. It used to be my children now it’s grandkids which is double the fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is watching “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and drinking hot cocoa (complete with a candy cane stirrer) with my boys. They are now grown, but we continue this custom. 🙂
I’m from Germany so we put up the Christmas tree only on the 24th. Decorating it is favorite holiday tradition!
That being said, we’re expecting our first child on the 23rd, so we decided against a tree this year to avoid the work and save some space^^
What beautiful kits! A Christmas tradition for me is reading through Dickens’ A Christmas Carol each December….a wonderful story!
My family always opens presents on Christmas Eve. We have finger foods for dinner and then enjoy a box of our favorite Ester Price chocolates as we open gifts one at a time! Just a joyful time for family all together.
Prior to Christmas…baking Christmas cookies with my mother. We enjoyed the process of adding flour and cupsof sugar to make wonderful treats for our family. When Daddy passed and Mother was a resident of a care facility – the tradition of baking cookies together continued. So many elderly women participated, and my dear Mother liked to frost the cookies. With a smile and twinkle in her eye she was sure to get plenty of samples. Now the tradition continues with my Grandchildren. It is always a “Joyous” day.
Many aspects of the Christmas season are wonderful, collecting a tree with family, extra baking but mostly time with family and friends.
My favorite holiday tradition is lighting candles and enjoying the company of friends.
One of my favourite Christmas traditions is decorating the Christmas tree . Each ornament has a special meaning, whether it was a gift or a new handmade ornament. Each year I make a new ornament, usually it is from a new craft learned during the past year or one made to mark an important event from the year.
Our family has an ornament contest. Everyone makes a homemade ornament and we vote on the best one. A gift card given to the winner.
Favorite holiday tradition is baking and sharing the cookies I only bake at Christmas time!
My favorite holiday tradition is leaving cookies for Santa.
My favorite holiday tradition is to make our family’s recipe for gingerbread cookies with my son and daughter (now 29). This recipe was my German grandmother’s grandmother’s recipe. Dates back to at least the 1850’s is a major hit with everyone.
Watching old Christmas shows/movies-White Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc
My favorite holiday tradition: The child who has most recently learned to read has the privilege of reading the Christmas story from the Bible prior to opening the gifts. It is a right of passage for grandpa to ask you to read.
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love the food getting together with family and find it [almost] relaxing. The last few years I have made smoked gouda mashed potatoes and they are crazy-good!
Hi I would love to receive the free gift. A great way to learn a new technique!
I am Acadian and like to follow Acadian Christmas traditions by have Acadian meat pie usually made with rabbit if I can get some. This is the traditional meal on Christmas Eve eaten with family and friends.
Our favorite holiday tradition is the family reading aloud together “The Night Before Christmas “
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
Baking cookies with family at the beginning of December.
Good morning. Thank you for offering these kits. Ever since I ran across Italian needlework in Jeanine Robertson’s old blog years ago, I have been fascinated by it. Just bought two kits for me. What a great offering!
Merry Christmas!
My favorite holiday tradition is reading the Biblical Christmas Story with my family on Christmas Eve.
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas Candlelight Walk in my town. The main street is closed for an hour so everyone can walk from the hilltop through downtown to the bridge over the creek, carrying a candle and singing carols. Then the switch is thrown to light up the trees up and down the creek. It’s an amazing sight as these are large cottonwoods. I did this walk with my kids until they left home. My youngest and her husband do it now. It’s spectacular.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without making “frustingo”, a typical fruitcake made here in “Le Marche” where I have been living for the past 53 years. I have a recipe passed down to me from my Mom, Olga.
Buon Natale!
My favorite holiday tradition is going shopping on Christmas Eve with my immediate family. We typically don’t need to buy anything but we love to watch the frantic shoppers and all the hustle and bustle.
My favorite holiday tradition is sending and receiving Christmas cards. I love writing notes and hearing back from folks that I don’t see.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful project with someone and merry Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition is a bit of a different one: we cook a rack of lamb every Winter Solstice. Windham Hills music (their Winter Solstice cd’s) is playing in the background and candles are burning in this northern and dark part of the US. It is a lovely night and one that I look forward to every year.
I’d love this kit
I have never tried Reticello but I think this would be a new skill in 2023 – can you believe it. Thank you for bringing these in.
My favorite holiday tradition is each of my 5 children getting a new ornament each year. It is not only fun to shop for these, but it also gives me a chance to think about each of them and what interests them this year. Then as we decorate the tree we pull out the ornaments from years past to see how interests have changed or solidified. The idea is that they will some day take these ornaments with them…but we shall see.
I love all the holiday decorations
I just love the whole season. I love to get things from friends and family — some things they have on their list and some surprises. Even if I complain I’m really having fun. Cookie and peanut brittle recipes are there to be made. Everything always gets done and I enjoy it all.
What a nice introduction to Reticello. I have never done any of it, but this is quite intriguing. I look forward to seeing more of it and will certainly be shopping with you in my effort to learn more!
Those kits are stunning–I’m thinking I’d like to try learning this after the holidays are over.
My favorite holiday tradition is watching holiday movies…everything from “Miracle on 34th Street” to “Trains, Planes, and Automobiles.” There’s nothing like a feel-good holiday movie to bring comfort and joy to the soul.
I love watching my daughters trim the tree. They are 28 and 26 now, but they still come home to trim the tree. It makes me happy as familiar ornaments come out of the box one after another. There is Christmas music and food. It is a low stress, low price holiday moment.
What I really love about the Christmas season is having the tree up, a fire in the fireplace, and the children gathered around. They’re all grown now, but we might listen to music, or watch our favorite movies – Christmas Vacation or Love Actually among them – everything peaceful and bright. The best thing about Christmas is family.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies. One year – many years ago – when my 50-something son was about 4 years old, it was suddenly Christmas Eve and I hadn’t baked any cookies! I stayed up into the wee hours of Christmas morning and finished two batches. I think Santa got one right out of the oven.
Merry Christmas, Mary and thank you for all you do all year long.
Can’t wait to learn some Reticello!
We’re not big on traditions. We change things up every year as we adjust to new family members, new work schedules, etc.
My favorite Holiday tradition is: On Christmas Eve, staring at dusk, we turn off all household lights. The only lights allowed are the lights of the Christmas tree and candles (battery type). After midnight mass, we say a prayer as we place a light in the window for the holy family. The tree lights are left on all night so Santa can find his way. This is a tradition handed down from my Irish and Scottish grandparents. My children are continuing this tradition with their children.
Looks beautiful I would like a chance to win this gift
Not everybody celebrates the same, but the common denominator is family, food, and togetherness. I had 5 children and married a guy with three more. Together, we have a total of 14 grandchildren. Traditional meals for one group seem to be set with the national norm, and the other family is nothing if not explorers. New and traditional cheerfully intermixed. Fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is having my entire family together for a meal-over the years, it’s gotten to be rare, since people have scattered a bit. This year, though, we’ll all be together for dinner after New Year’s. I can’t wait!
I love driving around to look at all the beautiful Christmas light displays that people have at their homes. My Dad used to spend hours setting up a display at our house with wooden figures he had made, lit up with Christmas lights. Precious memories.
My favourite tradition is getting family together, sharing a meal and exchanging a few gifts. Everyone is so busy nowadays but we always have time to make a day to do this. Thanks
My favorite Christmas tradition is
After going to the early Christmas eve church Service , we visit different friends houses and bring and eat food.
At one house we would eat a salad and the next house we would eat the main dish. We would also go caroling to the shut in in the community.
Izeo l then the next house would be the entree.
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with my daughter, sisters, cousins and nieces and we decorate gingerbread houses. So much fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree with my husband and watching Scrooged (that old Bill Murray movie) during the decorating.
Beautiful
What is my favorite holiday tradition?
It would be getting together to do the baking and cookie making.
In our family we would get together to just bake, it became a tradition.
It seems I have more than one Christmas Tradition – baking cookies, putting out my Snowbabies and decorating the tree. I also love giving presents to anyone and everyone!
There are so many traditions, but I think the one I like right now is the swag I hang in an open doorway, between the kitchen and the backdoor area. I make ornaments throughout the year and then hang them on the swag. Christmas visitors are allowed to choose one as part of their Christmas gift.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating our tree. Our ornaments are a collection of blown glass, hand stitched pieces gifted by my friends and done by myself, and pieces purchased in our travels. Each one brings fond memories of people and places.
Making Christmas cookies is my favorite tradition.
Our favorite tradition is making Paintbrush cookies and Krugens. I made them since I was 9 yrs. Old now 73..
Beautiful projects. Looks like another new needlework avenue worth dipping my toe into.
My favorite Holiday tradition is making my Italian paternal grandmother’s version of antipasta. I have never seen the simple ingredients in any other recipe. Of course types of fish on Christmas eve but I don’t do the 7 fishes anymore , usually 3.
Baking cookies and breads for the holidays
When the kids were little we would pick a country and try to incorporate some of that country’s decorations and goods into our holidays. Today I look forward to making our favorite:Swedish pigs ears-style of Swedish Cinnamon bun, Danish ring filled with almond paste,French layers of buttery sheets of pastry with cherry or cheese fillings, German stollen with glacé fruit and of course our Scandinavian straw ornaments, fragile English blown glass and a few Christmas gnomes make an appearance!!
My favorite custom is gathering with friends and family and singing Christmas carols
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree. We have ornaments dating back more than 100 years – ornaments we’ve made – a different ornament that was given to me by my parents each year growing up – even a list of whose turn it was to put the star on the Christmas tree each year when my brother and I used to fight bitterly about it! I love the memories and beautiful tree it creates.
My favorite tradition is listening to the King’s College Choir performance of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast by many public radio stations live the day before Christmas. King’s College at Cambridge University in England has been carrying on this tradition for about one hundred years or more.
Favorite holiday tradition is inviting someone who lives alone to join us for Christmas dinner. In 20 years of Army life, we were usually far away from family. So we’d invite single soldiers. And now we live 500 miles from family and we’re still inviting singles to join us.
Without a doubt, decorating the Christmas tree is my favorite tradition. I have so many memories of putting the tree up with my kids and of each homemade ornament. The oldest was emboiderd by my grandmother.
Having all the family together for dinner! My family, my heart!
Hi Mary
My favorite holiday tradition is simple, our family attends Christmas Eve service, then we come home for a fish/seafood dinner and later relax watching the Nativity Movie. (the younger grandchildren are usually in bed by this time)
Mary,
My favorite Christmas tradition is getting off work early on Christmas Eve and gathering up all the nieces and nephews and Grandkids and taking them to the Children’s service at church. Then getting everyone home and having a boisterous Christmas Eve dinner and opening of presents. A fun night for everyone.
Thanks for holding the giveaway’s. Melinda
What a beautiful embroidery kit. Our favorite Christmas tradition is driving through the neighborhoods that have luminaries on Christmas Eve. We play Christmas music in the car and it is so peaceful and magical.
Favorite holiday traditions for me became a time after we had children. After Christmas Eve service the our children would get to open one present. They got very good at not picking out the clothes present
After dinner on Christmas Eve we go out into the garden to fill the bird feeders with special treats so that they also have a surprise on Christmas Morning.
My favourite holiday tradition is our family all getting together for a meal — usually Christmas dinner. It’s a chance to catch up on what everyone has been doing; let’s face it life can get hectic and we don’t always stay in touch as much as we would like. It’s a chance to see all the family: brothers and sisters, parents, nephews, niece and to hear all about what’s going on in their respective lives.
My favorite family tradition are the Posadas, A Celebration of the Birth of Jesus. December 16-24 Different Families in the community offer their homes for las posadas. A procession is formed and musicians gather to sing Christmas carols and reading passages from the bible. Luminarias are placed all over the yard and entrance of the home while people are offered food, tamales, red chile, posole, desserts etc. Beautiful Tradition.
Wow! What a generous giveaway. Thank you for the chance. Your work is so beautiful, it is always a treat to read your posts. Merry Christmas!
My favorite holiday tradition is watching holiday movies with my family.
Out favorite holiday tradition has been carried on in our family for at least five generations that I know of. We bake anise/molasses cookies with dough rolled out very thinly and cut out using the small center hole cutter from a doughnut cutter. It makes a gazillion cookies and they barely last until Christmas Day!
My favorite holiday tradition is enjoying all the beautiful music that goes along with the season, especially when it’s in jazz form! Oh, also, going to my daughters home to enjoy her big family! She has 5 sons so there is always lots going on!
Of course the favorite holiday tradition is being with family but right behind that is making candy. My mom was an excellent candy maker and passed that skill along to me. In fact, when I finish here I’m headed to the kitchen to make Almond Toffee!
Having family here for opening gifts and having Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings as well as steamed pudding.
Gosh, Mary! So many thoughts. My favorites are attending midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. And baking Christmas cookies to share with family and friends!
Merry Christmas!
Cookie day. Since my kids were small we have been having cookie day before Christmas. Now that they are grown they still come over with their kids and we make gingerbread cookies. They decorate then take them home , those left after sampling.
This year I had surgery and grandkids were very upset that I couldn’t make the cookies so we made them for Thanksgiving but they still wanted to do it again.
reading The Night Before Christmas to my children on Christmas Eve
The commercial aspects of the holiday make it harder to find the sense of peace and hope that I love about Christmas. I am not sure that sense qualifies as a tradition, but it is what I strive to find this time of year.
Favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve church and the carol singing before the service. We have enjoyed and shared this in many communities across the country!
Hi Mary,
Thank you for the excitement of another give away.
I think my favorite tradition is all the baking and then giving it away or swapping with friends and family.
Kathy
Oh my goodness! The coloured reticello!
I have never seen red or black before, but would be so very excited to try.
Thank you
My favorite tradition is cookies! We make some regulars every year, and add a couple new recipes.
My favorite holiday tradition is watching all the Christmas programming, I get to feel like a kid again.
An essential part of the Christmas season is listening to the 1951 recording of Amahl and the Night Visitors. When I was a child, attending a performance of this opera was an annual tradition for my mother, sister, and myself. Nothing invokes the spirit of the season better for me.
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family some of whom I have not seen all year. Sitting down to a wonderful dinner that everyone helped to prepare and telling our stories.
Hi Mary,
So many traditions to choose from!
I believe my favorite started many years ago when my four boys were young. We let them open two gifts on Christmas Eve; one, a new pair of Christmas pajamas for each of them and the other, a new Christmas book. They’d put on their new jammies and then I’d read them the book, cuddled on the couch near the tree. We have continued the tradition with their children, whoever can make it for Christmas Eve. In fact now we include even the ones that can’t make it in for Christmas with a video call. It’s been a lovely tradition that brings tears to my eyes just recounting it.
Thanks Mary! And a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!
My favorite holiday tradition is making fudge and cookies whilst listening to Christmas music.
Our Christmas tradition is to
Love the people we are with,
Give thanks and reflection time.
Thank you Thread & needle for all your hard work , inspirations and
Consistency.
Freba
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies with my daughter and granddaughter so we can gift fresh baked items to local shut-ins.
We don’t really have any formal holiday traditions, but my little family (husband, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nieces, 2 nephews-in-law, and 2 great-kids) draw names for Christmas gifts and share our wish lists at Thanksgiving. Then we get together for a (usually) raucous Christmas meal and gift exchange followed by a cut-throat game of Uno until well into the night. It is always a great day.
Last night has to be a takeaway pizza and a drink sat on the beach watching the sun go down over the sea.
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
I love to hang the stockings that were stitched by my mother and all the ornaments that have been made by family, friends, and myself. It brings back memories of people may no longer be there.
My favorite holiday tradition is my Christmas village. I absolutely love my village. I sit and enjoy it the whole month of Dec. and hate to have to put it away for another year in Jan. (I also love cookie baking, but have been trying to cut down on that. Too many cookies make one a bit to “Santa shaped”!). Heeheehee, opps, that should be HoHoHo! Merry Christmas! I was going to order the kit #5 but you must already be out! Only the blue one comes up. 🙁
My favorite holiday tradition would have to be baking the superfluous food and treats and making gifts to share with family and friends!
Mary, you never fail to disappoint me with all your inspired projects. I would love to win this Italian project…another talented needle artist! Merry Christmas!
I love making hot chocolate with my family this time of year
My favorite Christmas tradition is making sugar cookies with the kids, it’s an all day affair and it’s one day a year that we can eat as many cookies as we want at any time of day!
Each year I buy the latest Lego Christmas village set. The grandkids come for Thanksgiving and put the kit together. Then they bring the past kits that are stored, assembled, in from the garage and arrange the village. This year we set it up in the neighborhood clubhouse to share with neighbors. It was amazing how many people came to see it. We have around twenty kits now.
Oh my goodness! The coloured reticello!
I have never seen red or black before, but would be so very excited to try.
My favourite holiday tradition is the revellion after midnight mass that French Canadians have.
Thank you
Mu favorite holiday tradition is watching my children perform in our local Christmas play
What a great giveaway, I would love love love to try this type of embroidery. My favorite Christmas tradition right now (varies by day this time of year) is singing our Advent Service of Lessons and Carols at church!
My favorite holiday tradition has to be the gathering of my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all for one meal, catching up on everyone’s achievements over the past year and gift exchange. We always have so much fun reminiscing about the past with fond memories of those that are no longer with us. It’s always a happy and festive day together. Good food and wonderful family, you can’t beat that!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking my Grandmother’s butter cookies. After preparing the dough, I get out the cookie prss to make the shapes -trees, stars, wreaths, camels, etc. With each squeeze, I’m reminded of my grandmother and my Mom, who also made these cookies. Such great memories during the holidays
Our favorite holiday tradition is to gather Christmas Day, SLOWLY open our gifts, one at a time and graze on appetizers and cookies all day.
I would love to try one of the kits! My favorite holiday tradition is making Christmas cookies with my daughter. I don’t know how many more years it will work out to make them because she’s in college.
Merry Christmas Mary!
You are a very talented needle artist — very creative and sharing your work with the rest of us who aspire to make beautiful projects.
For me, it isn’t the Christmas get – togethers or Christmas socials, Christmas for me starts before Christmas when I watch ‘White Christmas’ and cross stitch on my latest project. My family sometimes joins me to watch this old favourite.
We don’t have any holiday traditions in our family.
Hello! The “tradition” that I like lately is to cook a nice split pea soup the 31st of December, have a nice bread and butter with it, a good wine, a dessert, an after dinner, and spend the evening with hubby, parents before they passed, now with in-laws. Calm, at peace and satisfied. No parties, not a lot of people, just us. There is nothing better than being at home, calm and at peace, specially this night!
Christmas Eve is my favorite tradition for my family. We prep some finger food earlier in the day, skip dinner, then go to a 7:00 Christmas Eve church service. We come home to crock pots of tasty meatballs, little wienies, dips, spreads, cheese. There are baked cookies and sweets, too. The one last minute thing is cheese fondue, which does not take long to make (it’s worth waiting for). We all fix a plate – some hover and graze – some go sit in the living room and enjoy the roaring fire and Christmas tree. The most important part is being with family!
Favorite holiday tradition… One that caps off the holiday week.
Every year we put up duck confit when we find ducks at a good price, and then use it along with any leftover ham or other bits in our New Years Day cassoulet, along with sausage. Our last toast on New Year’s Eve is “To the beans!” which we then put up to soak. Then we slow cook everything the following day while we are disassembling the tree. It’s only fancified beanie-weenies, but shared with family and friends it marks the end of the festive week, and a return to hopeful normalcy.
With 5 children involved, my parents devised an order for everything. Oldest got to choose which ornament to put on first, then down the line until everyone had a turn, then free for all commenced.
Same with Christmas Eve, oldest to youngest for opening one present. But youngest got to match in first on Christmas morning…after Daddy had checked to make sure Santa had come. It was really to turn the lights on. I have 5 children. We continued the tradition. So far, each of those grown up children follow it too.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking holiday cookies with my children and grandchildren.
I love shopping the local Christmas farmers markets and finding new things to share with the family on Christmas eve.
My favorite holiday tradition is making Christmas cookies with my grandchildren.
I look forward each Christmas to unpacking and then setting up the creche display. My father bought these carved and dressed figures in the 1950s in Germany.
My favorite holiday tradition — I’ll say all the music associated with Christmas; carols, cantatas, and the general holiday songs. I’m back in a choir again after the last two years, and we’re singing a Lessons and Carols service on Sunday.
And thank you for another inspiring giveaway.
–JoanneP
Our tradition is to use my mothers silver at Christmas dinner. My mother passed in 1976 and the silver and her sewing machine are all I have of hers. She used the silver everyday so many pieces had been lost. I spent many years getting it back to the original service of twelve by searching antique shops and Replacement outlets. I was on a mission.
Just a side comment, there was one butter knife I used to tighten the screw on my skates at about 8 years old. Wow, did I get in trouble for that, but I love that knife.
Thank you for sharing your inspiring encyclopedic knowledge…With-a-Needle.
Many of my family traditions have fallen victim to time and distance, but I think singing carols – better yet, going caroling, and better still, one particular Christmas when a group of choir friends when caroling and laughing through town – may be my favorite. I love old carols and harmonies.
My favorite holiday tradition is singing Handel’s Messiah, either in a church service or a performance or a singalong. I love to hear that beautiful ages-old music!
Hi, I set up my Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then I get up early every morning, and sit in the dark, enjoying the tree all lit up, with a cup of coffee in hand. Merry Christmas to all!!
My favorite tradition at Christmas is the gathering of friends and family. We take time after the holiday begins to enjoy being with family
My favorite tradition at Christmas is the gathering of friends and family. We take time after the holiday begins to enjoy being with family
My favourite tradition is booking time off work between Christmas and New Year and taking the time just for myself to do whatever I want. I stay home, work on embroidery projects, read, walk outside and do gentle yoga. It’s like a spa week with no travel or expense. I look forward to it every year. Thanks Mary, for being here all year!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the house with my spouse. He decorates the mantle over the fireplace, mostly with wooden ornaments made by my late Uncle Bob. I hang the tree ornaments on a pretty trellis that we use instead of a tree (my husband’s allergic). We have lots of cat ornaments and mice ornaments that are really cute. They’re mostly from our childhoods but we’ve bought some together too. There is also a nativity scene with cross stitched dolls. There’s a cross stitched cow and camel along with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the three wise men. There are another set of three wise men I cross stitched on perforated gold paper.
My favorite tradition at Christmas is decoration the outside of my house. I love to see all the beautiful decorations and lights!
Beautiful items!
Please pick me!
My favorite holiday tradition is setting up the nativity characters to share the birth of our Saviour with my Children and Grandchildren.
After an absolutely horrendous 2016 (the stuff of nightmares every single month), my daughter suggested we establish a new tradition. So every Christmas Eve, we meet at a rather fancy (read expensive) restaurant in downtown Cincinnati that is on the second floor overlooking Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. Fountain Square has a huge Christmas tree with lots of people ice skating around the Square. We’ve worked our way to where we practically have a window seat each year now. When we did this in 2016 for the first time, it provided a lovely ending to that terrible year, so we do this every year now. We are both looking forward to our dinner together (just the two of us–no one else allowed) coming up next weekend!
My favourite holiday tradition is to settle in my stitching corner on December 1st with, all the necessary supplies, to make a new ornament (preferably using a new to me technique) for the tree.
Family is the center of my favorite holiday traditions. Christmas Eve night we all gather in the family room. There is a fire burning in the fireplace, a lit up Christmas tree and several charcuterie boards set up for munching. We are wearing either ugly Christmas sweaters or Hallmark Movie Christmas hoodies. We open presents and laugh and then settle in to watch the Christmas movie – Die Hard
We don’t share many traditions in our family, however my favorite “ tradition” is going to my Son’s house on Christmas Day to enjoy spending the time with my family. I have done this each year since my Grandchildren were born. I so enjoy giving presents over receiving them.
I’m so excited about the reticello kits and books you are carrying in your shop. I have been wanting to learn the techniques for some time now. Thank you for offering them to us in the States.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Mass on Christmas Eve and eating toutière (Canadien meat pie) with my family.
Favorite tradition? Making gifts to give most of the year and planning for next year. I have been doing this since I was about 10.
One of my favorite traditions is making my strawberry sugar plums. It is a recipe that was given to me by my late sweet sister-in-law and as I make them I always think of her. Also I love decorating and I love love love spending time with my family.
Our favorite tradition for Christmas is Tamales for dinner while wearing paper crowns from our English Crackers:)
My favorite holiday tradition is making and baking food items that I only make at Christmas. I also look forward to bringing out and putting up certain decorations that I have had for 50 years!
My all time favorite holiday tradition is making cranberry orange biscotti. It’s wonderful to give as gifts to those who live close by me, friends and family.
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood outside Washington, DC, and my family adopted a Hanukkah tradition of potato latkes and applesauce for our Christmas Eve dinner. We still look forward to it! So yummy! And it’s a big family production to make the latkes together, and cook them at the table to serve them hot off the griddle!
One tradition we have is to watch white Christmas together and admire the shoes, clothes and dancing.
I really don’t have one other than talking to my son and hopefully grandkids. This time of year is tough for some of is. I just have to focus on the reason for the season and not all the other stuff.
My favorite holiday tradition is a simple one. We look forward to lighting the candles on the Advent wreath each Sunday before dinner. When lighting the 4th candle, it reminds us that it is just days until we celebrate the birth of Jesus (and that Santa is coming !).
My favorite holiday tradition is going to our son’s house and watching the kids open their presents. I love to see the joy on their faces!
Other than doing sewing and stitching for Christmas gifts, the tradition I like the best is the exchanging of Christmas cards. I love sending Christmas cards to friends and family. But the family tradition that I love the best is the exchanging of Christmas cards on Christmas Day among all my immediate family. On Christmas Day we give cards to our two sons and their wife/girlfriend and to each other. It has always been something very special to me.
Making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.
Putting up Christmas decorations all throughout the living areas of the house is my favorite tradition. Seeing all of our decorative items, many of which were gifts from loved ones, makes me happy. The fact that they are only out for a short time each year makes them more precious than the things around we see every day that fade in to the background.
My favorite holiday tradition is singing carols around the piano and playing a Christmas duet with my son.
My favorite holiday tradition is taking the grandkids (started with our own kids) to shop for Toys for Tots, and then deliver them to the Marines manning the drop off in our area.
I often think back about when I was younger and went to church on Christmas eve for the holiday service. Today, it is still my favorite tradition. There is something about attending a service at church in the evening instead of the morning that makes it a more solemn state of mind. Remember that the first gift was a child.
My favorite tradition, originated by my mother, 60 some years ago, & carried on by the next 2 generations, is an opening house Christmas Eve, so family, friends & acquaintances can stop by “whenever” during the evening, a large buffet is available throughout the evening. At midnight we attend midnight Mass & return home to assemble Christmas gifts
I have two favorite holiday traditions, well, actually more, but these are at the top of my list. The first one occurs in early December. My city has a holiday fireworks display. It starts at 7pm and lasts approximately 30 minutes. We go to the beach to watch this lovely display that is set off from the pier. I stitched a piece of needlework to commemorate this event.
The second one occurs at more times and in more places than I can possibly attend in one year. When I was in college, the glee club director held a sing-along-Messiah in the college chapel during the last week before winter break. The music department furnished each of us with a full score, students from the glee club sang the solos, and the chapel organist was our orchestra. After graduation, I was able to find other sing-alongs in my area. I now have a list of five that start just after Thanksgiving and end about a week before Christmas. Hallelujah!
My favorite holiday tradition would have to be the Christmas cookies we bake in Germany. Every family has their own recipes, more often than not passed on from one generation to the next and only ever baked for Christmas. In my family we do about 15 different types, but others bake a lot more, and they are all extremely yummy
And thank you Mary for yet another gorgeous giveaway (although I still have to win one of them…)
Merry Christmas to all!
My favorite tradition is giving my family a new mom-made ornament. This year is needlepoint mittens.
Decorating for the holiday, especially the Christmas tree.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music!
Our tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve was one of my favorite traditions. It took me years to realize it was always going to be a new nightgown or pajamas. We would have a great dinner prepared by my dad, who was a gourmet cook, and then go in to the living room and enjoy the lighted tree and all the presents stacked up underneath, drinking eggnog. Then after we kids, three of us, opened one present each, we changed into our new PJs so we would look nice for Christmas morning and photo ops. We were always so excited when we did this because we knew Christmas Day would be here in a mere few hours. We had an intercom system and my parents would have a station playing Christmas carols on it so we could go to sleep dreaming of sugar plums dancing in our heads . Then we would wake up early Christmas morning and have waffles or French toast for breakfast and empty our stockings my mom knit for us to find special gifts, in my case nice jewelry, and of course, the requisite orange and walnuts and chestnuts. Great memories of good times with family.
My favorite tradition is a late night Christmas Eve call from family in Maine. We live in Arkansas and open our gifts Christmas morning. Our family in Maine open their gifts after dinner Christmas Eve. This is so everyone can go their own ways to in law’s houses on Christmas day.
This phone call has been going on for years as we have never lived close to home. Before Facetime, Zoom, etc it was the call where everyone passed the phone around so we could talk to everyone. Now we get to see faces! It is so fun and loving to see everyone in one place having wonderful family time! We look forward to these Christmas Eve phone calls. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Going to Christmas Eve “Midnight” Mass, & then coming home to drink hot chocolate & eat either strudel or Panettone!
My favorite holiday tradition is to make a cookie that my grandmother made for all her grandchildren. They are called kolaches and I fill mine with apricot jam just like she did. I can remember all the cousins eating these. She made huge platters for us to enjoy.
My absolute favourite Christmas tradition is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England.
This is a most beautiful service, telling the story of the Nativity in nine readings from the New Testament, with appropriate carols sung between, which takes place in the gorgeous gothic setting of Henry VI’s chapel. I don’t know why it is not broadcast here, maybe on PBS, as I am certain that Americans would love it as much as we Brits. It is one thing that, even after so many years as a citizen here,c I do miss.
My favorite holiday tradition is spending Christmas day with my younger brother & his family, sharing good food & playing games & reminiscing about Christmases past. Unfortunately our parents aren’t still with us to verify some of the stories, but it’s always such a wonderful time!
I have done a small amount of reticella work & would love to explore the technique more. This giveaway would be the perfect opportunity to do so!
Hi, Mary!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to Christmas Eve services. It helps set the stage for the next day, and it reminds me of the reason for the season.
Merry Christmas!
Christmas dinner is my favourite. The family gathers, plus friends who are alone join us. Delicious food, special desserts, and love and laughter throughout the day. A special treasured time.
Wow – what a great prize!
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas dinner with all the fixings – with music playing and all the family crowded around the table – it’s magical.
My favorite holiday tradition is to decorate the Christmas tree with my children. We put on some Christmas music and slowly decorate. It can be tiring for some reason so we fortify ourselves with some food and drink. As my children are now all grown up, we like to sip mulled wine.
Dang! A mere 90 minutes after I got the email about the new kits and they are all sold out already. I think they are popular…hope you will be bringing in more.
Seeing as I can’t buy one, might as well throw my name into the hat for the giveaway…
My favorite holiday tradition is keeping my and my husband’s birthdays completely separate from Christmas. We celebrate birthdays on 12/13 and 12/14, so I have made a custom of not doing ANY Christmas activities until after our birthdays are over. No cards, shopping, decorating, nothing. I think it keeps our birthdays special, and since the Christmas season technically goes through Epiphany on January 6 (despite what the retailers say), I have no guilt or shame about it.
Thanks for the giveaway, Mary. I have no hope of winning a kit, so looking forward to the restocking of the kits in the shop.
Carol
Oh, this is an easy one! Stockings have always been a HUGE tradition in my family, starting with my own 4 children, who are all grown, and adding my son and daughter in laws along with 9 grandchildren to the mix. I know that seems like a lot to do, but we start “discovering” stocking stuffers all year long and collect items we feel would be enjoyed by each person as the year progresses. When Christmas is finally here, we have a collection of small curated gifts chosen for each person to enjoy opening in their stockings. The littles still think it’s all from Santa, and that’s just fine. While the older grands along with all the adults truly have some fun with this too. It’s a very personal way to gift and not spend a fortune on items that have been made or purchased with thought and love for the intended recipient.
My favorite holiday tradition is opening Christmas Crackers right as we all sit down for Christmas dinner. The little ones think it’s such fun.
Christmas Eve church with the family and then home for Swedish meatballs.
Getting together with my family, opening presents, and enjoying a turkey dinner!
Singing Christmas Carols is my favorite holiday tradition, and listening to medieval carols. I see you are already sold out of the reticello kits; will you be starting a wait list? (hint, hint)
My favorite time during this holiday season is family getting together and thewonderful fragrance of cookies baking.
Embroidery has been a lifetime hobby and I love learning new stitches.
My favorite Holiday tradition is baking cookies to share with family and friends
My favorite holiday tradition is our household re-watching the same movies every Christmas (“Cover Up,” 1949 – takes place at Christmas) and New Year’s Eve (“The Night Club Lady,” 1932 – a New Year’s Eve murder mystery.) This isn’t a tradition in the traditional sense!
I actually have 2. It would be getting together for Christmas dinner and then the visiting and game playing with everyone while everyone catches up. Getting up early on Christmas day and having a quiet cup of coffee with my daughter and enjoy the Christmas tree and all the decorations.
My favorite holiday tradition? How can I have only one? Decorating the house is so special and full of memories – tree ornaments the children made or I smocked and so many more. The Christmas cookies everyone asks for – ribbon cookies, anise cookies – oh my. And just seeing the glee on so many faces as they find the perfect gift for a loved one or are finally finished shopping and can sit down. Oh yes, there are many holiday traditions to cherish.
My favourite holiday activity is sitting with my family, after all presents are wrapped, everything is done, and I can relax any just stitch.
Years ago, when my nieces and nephew where younger (2 to 7 years old), my mum found Christmas gift metal containers that were shaped like small, colourful paint cans. She then asked me to print a photo of each child and tape it to the top of each can. She then put a small gift and a pair of thick winter socks in each can. The children were told they could keep the the paint can while they were at grandma’s, but they had to give it back before they left. From that year on, every Christmas mum gives each of her grandchildren (now 20 to 25 years old) a pair of warm thick socks in the Christmas paint can. The old pictures are still taped to the can. ❤️
Ah my heritage needs more practice! My favorite Holiday tradition is setting up my Anri Natvity scene a wedding gift from my parents and added to by several of our children. I think I will put the kits on my wish list.
My favorite holiday tradition is the O Antiphons, starting December 17th and running up to Christmas Eve. We gather the children together each night by candlelight and sing a different verse of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and read scripture depicting the prophecies of the coming Christ. It builds a glorious anticipation for Christmas. And to hear their little voices singing is pure joy.
My very favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas eve. Our family loves candlelight services. We come home after church, light the luminarias (old school paper bags weighted with sand and votif candles), and eat dinner. Our dinner is simple posole, beans and tamales. It’s a time for just sitting and visiting with one another and maybe playing a game or two. It’s very chill compared to the chaotic pre-holiday prep and the post-holiday floundering that tends to happen as plans change!
My favourite Christmas tradition is seeing family members we don’t see much the rest of the year and spending quality time together – either cooking together, watching festive films together or just spending time together reminiscing, perfect!
My favourite tradition is getting together with my girlfriends over the Christmas holidays for a pot luck and stitching. We haven’t done that for 2 years now but this year we will again 🙂
Grandchildren at my home Christmas Eve reading out loud “The Night Before Christmas”
Have never tried these elegant techniques from Italy and am pleased they will now be available to us. #5 speaks to my heart but my head says, maybe not first!
One Christmas when I was about ten, my younger brothers and I were squabbling over whose storybook about the Nativity was the “real” one. My Dad heard us fighting, and stepped in, saying he had the only real story.
He got down our King James Bible and read it to us as we sat around him.
It became a Christmas tradition that we would light the brass angel chimes, and listen to him read the story, and then we would all sing Christmas Carols.
As we grew up, it became a sort of cocktail party with all of us in our best clothes and bringing delightful hors d’ oeuvres and Christmas treats.
But it always started with the Story and the songs.
Getting together with Family & Friends.
My favorite Christmas tradition is playing Christmas Bingo with my kids (who are now 32, 29, and 22) We started playing when they were young (probably before the last one was born!). And they all still ask to play on Christmas Eve. Now my oldest lives 9 hours away and has a one year old. So we are all gathering at his home this Christmas and I brought the Bingo game with us!
Merry Christmas to you!
When I was young, I remember going to my Grandparents Christmas mid-morning and having chicken and dumplings before opening our presents, which was something we always looked forward to. Now, with my kids having their own kids, I look forward to Christmas evening when we get together and play games!
What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Oh my, there are so many. From baking Christmas cookies and other wonderful things to Christmas Parties and riding around looking at the wonderful decorated houses. My favorite has to be giving gifts. The look of happiness on someone’s face when they receive something is wonderful.
Reticello is something that I have wanted to try for so long, as I have long admired its absolute beauty. It is a technique that would involve total concentration, and might be just what I need. Having been a hobby embroiderer if many years, I have lately lost my inspiration, with my husband and dear cousin having been diagnosed with dementia and needing more than normal care. But when they doze off, my perfect opportunity for embroidery, I just can’t get myself going. This beautiful craft might just do the trick. Congratulations on your new shop – if not half a world away, I’d be there regularly! Thank you
Every year (excluding the past 2), we have had a gathering of family and friends on Christmas Eve. We have provided food and drink and have a wonderful time talking and laughing with all. I look forward to returning to this annual practice this year.
Favorite holiday tradition: Since my daughter was three years old, we have taken an entire day for just the two of us. We start with breakfast out, make our list of what to get for whom, and head out shopping. It takes all day so somewhere in the mix we include lunch and sometimes dinner. By the end of the day we have, if we are lucky, found one item for everyone on our list, and yes, several things for ourselves! It makes for a fun day spent with one of my most favorite people – my Kassandra. By the way, she is 33 now!
Thank you Mary – Merry Christmas.
My favorite traditions before Christmas are the Advent wreath and Advent calendar. My favorite Christmas tradition is singing Christmas carols with family.
Hello, I like reticello very very much but did not have the courage yet to get started. My favorite tradition is that my sister and I make something for eachother every year. It is always a surprise! It can be from a napkin over a little wall-hanging, a cusion or little teddybear, and so on. We also do this for our aunt, who is a very lovely lady, and who is always over the moon with our selfmade objects. I enjoy working on these gifts of course but also love the surch before I can start. And of course the joy and laugh on their face when they open their package
Thank you for this opportunity and happy holidays! Ann
Love these kits! Would be great to learn a new technique. Our favorite holiday tradition is doing Christmas Eve dinner together! Leaves yummy leftovers for the next day too 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition is eating chili and sandwiches on Christmas Eve,we also used to have oyster stew,but no one likes it.so we don’t make it anymore
Every holiday is my favorite. I’ve learned to celebrate absolutely everything and love the life I’ve been given. The joy is sharing each of them with people I love and reflecting on that holiday’s special purpose on its special day. .
last minute gathering and stuffing stockings to be hung by the fire!
Favorite tradition: Advent candle lightings
Singing! Family and friends gather by my parent’s piano and it starts out with all of tye carols and ends up with favourites- in some ways its the best part of the holiday! All the best to you and yours!
Favorite Christmas tradition: We have two. One is a family breakfast after the flurry of unwrapping. It’s a time to sit, relax and enjoy the fullness of the season.
The other that is so dear to our hearts is that our little dog, who never bothers the wrapped gifts under the tree, must be the FIRST to open her wrapped gift. Once she unwraps hers the rest are free to carry on with the opening. She is quite insistent on her role and lets us know with a few well placed barks if anyone forgets and tries to go first.
Today’s my birthday! My favorite holiday tradition is making wood slice ornaments and giving them away!
My family’s favourite tradition is the early morning opening of the stockings – stockings made by great aunt, grandmother and by me. Contents range from practical to ridiculous and always provide delight.
HI Mary,
There are so many traditions I love, where do I start? Certainly going to Christmas Eve Mass is one, then setting up the Christmas tree full of hand embroidered ornaments, but most of all having time to visit with family, enjoying all the foods they loved since they were small.
Thanks.
My favorite holiday tradition is to attend midnight mass with my family
It’s not exactly what you think of as a tradition, but one of my favorite times during the holiday is the very early morning (4:40-5:00 am) of Christmas Day, before all the activities of opening gifts, preparing dinner etc begins. I sit in the living room with my coffee and only the Christmas tree lights for illumination. I love looking at all the ornaments glowing in the low light, remembering the trip during which they were purchased or the friend/family member who made them. It’s a happy, somewhat bittersweet moment that helps me keep those ties to the past firmly in place. A moment of sweet peace before the holiday hubbub begins.
Best wishes for your own peaceful, relaxing holiday!
My favorite holiday tradition is selecting gifts – and then trying to restrain from giving them til Christmas!
Gosh, that is hard question! But, if I had to narrow it down to just one tradition that stands out in my memory it is the annual singing of “Happy Birthday” to Jesus before we eat our breakfast of “birthday” danish or stollen. I hope to continue the tradition in the future with my own children.
My favorite Christmas thing is ornaments. Our family Christmas trees had so many ornaments you could nearly see the tree. My Grandmother would tell us every year where each of her ornaments came from. When she died they were added to my parent’s collection and then to me. I’ve collected my own memory ornaments for 50 years. I would have a tree in every room. Now days I don’t get a tree but hang ornaments around the house.
I make an ornament every year and send them to friends and my brother as a Christmas Card. This year I made 21.
My favorite tradition is when everyone is all together and the kids are opening gifts.
My husband’s family, all 18 of them, gather together for our annual lasagne fest. All kinds of food, all kinds of conversation, a very lively time! I make ornaments for my sisters in law, which they enjoy and honors them for hosting this wonderful event.
Hello! My favorite holiday tradition is decorating cut-out sugar cookies with my kids. My mom always did that with us growing up, and I’m so happy to continue her legacy with my children. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Favorite Christmas tradition is cheese fondue with the family in front of the fireplace on Christmas eve.
Every year at Christmastime a friend and I would get together and bake cookies. It was a tradition for many years. She has passed on now but at Christmas time I continue that tradition with her in my heart.
Thank you, Mary, for the giveaway.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to Midnight Mass.
My favorite is Christmas Eve. We would have home made manicotti and then all go to Christmas Eve service. We would come back and dad would make a batch of Manhattans and we would toast the year past, those who could not be with us and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Needless to say we were not up at dawn to open presents!!!!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking treats for my family. Toffee, and sugared pecans, and of course Cookies of every kind! Now there are grandkids to bake for it has become so much more fun❤️
At Christmas, it’s putting out all the Christmas cards on Christmas Eve – the room comes alive and I know Santa’s on his way!
My favorite holiday tradition is singing Christmas carols.
My mom was a big fan of Christmas (she collected Santas) and since she died 4 years ago on December 6, Christmas has been harder for me and my siblings. Then, during the plague years, my brother and I weren’t able to get together with our sister and brother-in-law. This year, we are getting together and having Christmas Chicken Pie, a recipe I found years ago in a book of Christmas crafts and recipes. The pie is my favorite holiday tradition, because it connects me to my family, present and past.
The kit would be a great new experience for anyone! Would love to try it!
Our favorite tradition is having a Christmas morning brunch, usually eggs Benedict, with our son and his family then opening gifts. Christmas music and hot cocoa or tea seems to add a warmth to the experience.
My favorite holiday tradition has changed over the years. Now that I am retired, I love to find and dress 18″ dolls to give, through our church, to a little girl whose family is financially strapped. However, I still make my Swedish Rosettes with the antique rosette iron my Great Grandmother brought from Sweden when she emigrated.
What a lovely set of items for a giveaway. I’m not that familiar with reticello but now want to try it – so beautiful.
It’s hard to choose just one Christmas tradition, but the one that it wouldn’t be Christmas without is the Christmas Eve video call I have every year with my widespread family — we all get comfy with our beverages of choice, log in, and open our presents together. It can go on for a few hours! It’s a great way to reconnect with my family members who live in many different places.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating my house with a framed photo of my grandchildren with Santa each year since they were born. This is year 14 (as my oldest is 13), and there are now seven grands! It is so much fun to look at each picture, and see them as they grow. The kids get the biggest thrill that they are part of the decorations, nestled in between the ceramic Santas and gingerbread village!
I love Christmass: the twinkling lights, the beautiful Christmas trees, the music, the philosophy of giving. My favorite tradition is gathering around the dinner table with friends, relatives and good food.
My favorite holiday tradition is enjoying Christmas Morning with my family. I make the same breakfast casserole every Christmas. We open presents while the casserole is cooking. After opening presents, we make a few more breakfast goodies and sit down to enjoy a special meal together as a family.
What beautiful kits…and luscious threads!!!!
Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas I bake dozens of gingerbread houses using a mold that I have had for approx. 30 years (and then make lots of royal icing and buy lots of candy) It is our family’s social scene. Each child (4) has a few friends over and they “glue” their houses together with the royal icing and decorate their houses. The friends take their houses home, and our own collection of houses becomes part of the Christmas decor creating a “village”. There is always some level of jockeying among the friends as to who will get the invitations to make the gingerbread houses from year to year. Some years I have baked over 35 houses.
The house smells amazing with all of the baking, and then becomes very festive through the rest of the holidays with the extra decorations.
One of my family’s favorite holiday traditions is putting up our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. We have the whole family at our house, and the grandkids love hearing the stories about the ornaments – especially the ornaments that are their that have some meaning about their parent. After the tree is done we all finish the time with pies and ice cream
Love these kits!
My favorite holiday tradition is The Nutcracker!
The panel is a lovely design and the book sounds intriguing. As for Christmas traditions, although we have cut back this year, we always enjoyed our multiple Christmas trees, each themed: a cardinal tree that we originally initiated for my mother, hand-stitched ornaments, another for hand-beaded ornaments, a Snowbaby ornament collection, a tiny tree for miniature ornaments and the largest with the traditional ornaments collected over the years (my hubby’s favorite).
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree. My husband does the lights and leaves the ornaments to me. 90% of the ornaments are Old World Christmas and each ornament has a meaning ie, my girls favorite things when they were little, ornaments for our long ago pets, etc. The balance are from special family members and friends. So decorating the tree brings back memories of my life’s journey. I’ve been blessed.
My favorite Christmas tradition is not a “universal” tradition, but definitely a family tradition. Date and Nut bread ! It “is only made” for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love our family recipe. A piece of that with some eggnog – enough to bring back memories of a cold Pennsylvania Christmas without the shivers !
My favorite Holiday tradition is the advent calendar! Growing up with my siblings we all had to take turns moving the Christmas mouse from the calendar style numbered pocket to pocket! But now, I have multiple advent calendars of all styles! The whole family has fun and gets a turn every day–whether it is chocolate, wooden animals gathering around a Christmas tree scene, a tree with ornaments to add each day, or Pokemon!
Love drinking warm eggnog for the holidays!
My favorite holiday tradition is putting the baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve. It’s just so meaningful to me. I shared the joy and let my kids each have turns and grandchildren but each year no matter what has changed or what trial or tribulation we are going through this centers me. 45 yrs it’s a keeper!
My favorite holiday tradition, is to spend time baking cookies and family favorites. Then bringing everything to our family gatherings for all to enjoy. Each year I try and find one new recipe to share, either from family or friends. I added in recent years making my own centerpiece for our dining room table and use items either from our walks or prior vacations.
Cookies! My favorite holiday tradition is making cookies!
I just started this process and I’m having a grand time. A few days from now, I will be getting tired of it – another Christmas tradition. But after that, when I finish baking and frosting, I will get to eat some of them – the best Christmas tradition!
Giveaway Entry Response- My favorite holiday tradition is a toss-up between gift-giving and decorating. I love buying things during the year to give to people I know and love. I also love starting the holiday decorating right after Thanksgiving. Both activities give me joy! : )
I just saw this post and, of course, the Reticello Kits are out of stock already. Is there a way to be put on a notification list for when they are available again or do we just need to watch your posts?
My favorite holiday tradition is spending quality time with my family and friends, making holiday gifts and enjoying hot cup of tea on cold Christmas nights.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking special Christmas cookies that are made only at this time of year. As these cookies are baking, the whole house has a very festive aroma. When they are finished, and there are usually at least 12 varieties, I prepare plates that are distributed to friends and family, and enjoy the happy faces when they receive them.
Our favourite holiday tradition is a walk on the beach on Boxing Day, coming home to a lovely mug of hot chocolate with cream on top and then playing a board game together as a family! Obviously, not so much fun in the rain, or a howling gale, but on a crisp sunny day it can’t be beaten!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating while listening to Christmas carols. Thanks for offering this great giveaway!
My favorite holiday tradition is to make handmade gifts for my family. It is anything
from knit hats, mittens or socks to small leather items or home made cookies This year it is knit sweaters for my grandkids and a hand embroidered ornament for my daughters. This tradition goes back to when I was young and with a family of 8, the only way I could gift something nice to my brothers and sisters was to make them something. When I was first married, I would send tins of home made cookies and candies to all of my family. My daughters carry on this tradition as well and use the same fudge, caramel and cookie recipes that I use!
For about the past 45 years, I’ve made ornaments for family and friends (usually about 35). Many different methods have been used- crochet, plastic canvas, cross stitch, hard age, pulled work, candle wicking, needlepoint and even painted glass balls.I still love learning new stitching techniques and adding to my repertoire. It’s so great to visit family and friends and see so many of my ornaments on their trees!
Bonjour
J’adorerais gagner un des kits que vous proposez si gentiment.
J’ai eu la chance de travailler avec elle près de Marseille en France et d’admirer son herbarium brodé en soie. C’était bien plus beau que sur les photos.
Merci de faire connaître au monde entier son art le reticello.
My favorite holiday tradition is going out to see the light displays with my family. One night during the holidays, we pack into the car with mugs of hot chocolate, a tin of holiday cookies and Christmas music playing on the radio. Sometimes local businesses will set up displays that we go to see in a nearby park or we may just drive around a few local neighborhoods to see how the houses have been decorated. Either way, it is always fun and gets us in the holiday mood!
Have a wonderful (and restful) Christmas, Mary!
My favorite tradition has been traveling to my daughter’s and her family, we go to the local winter fest and get pictures on an ice sleigh drawn by ice reindeer and check out the small villages and eat ginger snaps then home for homemade eggnog and family pic by the
My favorite holiday tradition is trimming the tree on Christmas eve.
So hard to choose just one but I think my favorite is hanging the garland over my bar and decorating it with my collection of clear blown glass ornaments. The way the lights sparkle and reflect off the glass makes me so happy!
My personal tradition is to sew a gift for my loved ones. Usually a quilt, pillow, table runner, etc.
In addition to making Christmas cookies and candies.
This kit looks lovely! I would SO love one. ❤️
What a wonderful kit! ❤️
So many , hard to chose the favorite. Baking shortbread and the caramel chocolate squares, driving down different neighborhoods to see the lights. If the weather is pleasant walking Candy Cane Lane to view the decorated homes. It’s a street in my city where every home has lights and decorations. Being together with family.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making sugar cookies with my mom and two younger sisters.
My favorite holiday tradition is our lefse baking days! Tomorrow is one of them and I must finish this so I can go to the kitchen and rice the spuds!
What is my favorite holiday tradition? It would have to be Christmas Eve when we gather with family and friends (after all the shopping and wrapping is supposedly done!) and sit around the fire sipping egg-nog (or other festive drink) enjoying a variety of treats that we only get at this time of year. It so nice to look at the tree with its lovely ornaments and the stockings hanging and waiting for Santa’s arrival.
Wishing you and your staff a lovely Christmas with friends and family.
Nona
One of my favorite traditions is our gingerbread building contest. My sisters, daughter, niece, cousins. Get together and try to make a gingerbread house stick together. We have a hilarious time! Lots of good natured teasing and loving. And except for maybe a small boy it is all of us “girls”.
My most favorite is the smell of a fresh cut tree in the house and Christmas carols in the background.
I’m so excited about these kits! Yay! Except they’re already sold out. Noo! But you’ll hopefully get more in! Yay!
My favorite holiday tradition is my mom’s chess pie. It’s a custard pie that’s super rich, so you can have only a sliver, but it’s excellent!
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
Family reunions! I love getting to go home and sit around with all my old great Aunts and Uncles, and see all my cousins and their kids, and have my kids get to know their extended family. ITs a blast, we have a lot of practical jokers in our family, so there is always some hilarity going on!
I love making Christmas cookies and giving them away to various individuals, like doctors, mechanics and friends, as a way to let them know just how much I appreciate them.
My favorite holiday tradition is actually one my father started when we were kids. Because my parents were tired Christmas morning (after getting everything ready the night before after Christmas Eve meeting for worship), my father set up our stockings so that we would find some special breakfast items in our stockings. (We were allowed to open our stockings, but not any gifts under the tree.) Included in the stocking, was a package from the Bad Santa. Because no one is good all year long, the Bad Santa would leave you a “gift” that you didn’t like. Many times it was in the form of a food we didn’t like. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized by doing this, my dad gave us a gentle nudge to not only do better, but to also try the food again.
We do a white elephant gift exchange each year which usually entails funny or useless gifts.it makes for lots of laughter and appreciation of each other’s senses of humor and creativity. I am wrapping and bringing an adult sized unicorn onesie this year!
My family and I go out to breakfast Christmas Eve morning before everyone goes off in their different directions. The restaurant is usually pretty busy but everyone is in a good mood and we charge our batteries for the next day or so. And our grandsons love the pancakes they get!
Thank you for this give away Mary! I hope you have a beautiful, blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to midnight mass. I love the hymns that are sung, the incense, seeing the infant being added to the cretch, and knowing that it is Christmas Day when we leave. It feels like we are there waiting to welcome Him again.
My favorite holiday tradition is one I made up so we’d have a family holiday tradition. We made something out of gingerbread – gingerbread houses, gingerbread trees, one year we made sugar cube houses. I think it’s fun to decorate, my mom thinks it’s fun to come up with different things to decorate, and my dad likes to eat what we didn’t use to decorate.
The candle light Christmas Eve service is my favorite holiday tradition.
Favorite tradition is stirring hot chocolate with a candy cane all throughout the season.
It’s hard to narrow down which tradition I like best because there are so many! I would say, though, that buying my granddaughters an Advent calendar every year has become a newer favorite. They are now 8 and 4. This year the calendar I chose came with a small ornament to craft each day. We giggle and have great fun video chatting when they show me what they’ve been creating.
We don’t have many holiday traditions but making sure we are all together at some point during the holiday is paramount. Family is first.
Thank you for offering these glorious give-aways! My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the house to Christmas music. I live in the desert, so sometimes I need that music to make me forget it’s 85 degrees and sunny outside! Taking down the Thanksgiving stitched pieces and putting up Christmas stitched pieces and decorating the tree with stitched ornaments and putting candles around the house and draping those shiny ropes of red or gold beads around things–just love it.
We normally would spend time with family, share a meal then exchange gifts. Far away family video chats with everyone at the gathering. We are now part of the far away family. Have wonderful holidays, everyone!
My favorite holiday tradition is midnight mass then coffee to stay up & open presents
What’s not to like about Christmas. It is really hard to say what is the favorite part but I would guess being with family is right up toward the top.
My favorite tradition is giving handmade items to loved ones. Before I retired, I barely had time to shop for gifts but sometimes managed some baked goods. After 20+ years of retirement, I have allowed myself to spend time (and money) on stash enhancement which can be transformed into special gifts.
My favourite Christmas tradition – the one that makes it Christmas – would have to be the music. Carols have some of the most beautiful words and music, celebrating hope. Christmas songs (like Jingle bells and Rudolph) celebrate place and season and unite people in common experience. The only people I feel sorry for are those who work in shops and have to put up with the 6 most popular songs on repeat for 2 months.
Baking and decorating cookies. We would all be in the kitchen working on many batches of cookies for days.
Attending Christmas Eve service. When I was a child it meant dressing up for the Christmas program to recite the verse assigned to me. Since and now it is a beautiful and meaningful candlelit service in celebration of our saviors birth. Merry Christmas!
My favorite holiday tradition was “Open brunch.” A table with juice, coffee, fruits, cold cuts, cheeses, and wonderful breads and condiments eaabled every one to sleep as long as desired, get up, and eat whatever they loved for breakfast, lunch, or lunch while looking forward to the big Christmas Day meal.
My favourite tradition is Christmas dinner with all the family 🙂
Wow! Those are some amazing pieces of stitching! But that red really is stunning. Someone is going to be very happy!! Our holiday season is steeped in traditional events, but my favorite is our Christmas Eve tradition. We (my daughter and her family, my folks, and my husband and I) meet for an early Christmas Eve service at my daughter’s church, then head out for a special dinner at a nice restaurant, then head back to my daughter’s home. There we have desserts (I make a Bûche de Noël) and when it’s time, head outside to see Santa come by on the fire truck! When that’s done, the children change into their Christmas pjs, we read the Christmas story, and the kiddos open their presents from my husband and I (so we get to see the fun, and our gifts don’t get lost in the chaos of Christmas morning unwrapping). It’s such a sweet, precious gathering with almost all of my favorite people. It makes me a little teary-eyed just recounting it! Merry Christmas!! 🙂
Hi Mary,
My favourite Christmas tradition… I’m sorry I couldn’t keep it to just one!
1. Decorating the house and turning on the Christmas lights on the Feast of the Immaculate conception to indicate the beginning of Christmas!
2. Celebrating each Sunday of Advent with the lighting of the candles and having Christmas/Advent Calendars to open each day. Yes, we are spoiled we have more than one
3. Christmas baking of traditional Calabrese cookies with my mum, aunt and uncle. We would make Turdilli, Scalille and Chinulilli. Unfortunately, none of us are healthy enough to bake anymore. I truly miss those days. My aunt and uncle would come over and we would play traditional Italian folk Christmas songs…La Strina is one of my favourites! What fond memories to look back on ❤️
4. Listening to Christmas carols/songs English, Italian, Celtic…any really! See above for more details
5. Celebrating each Sunday of Advent, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Santa Lucia, the Winter Solstice, Christmas Eve and day, Santo Stefano, New Year’s Eve and day and the Epiphany which also happens to be my mothers birthday! Each day/feast has its own traditional food, cookies, beverages that are served and shared with family and friends to make that day extra special!
What a wonderful time of the year! I wish you all the same joy, peace and love throughout this Holiday Season and into the New Year!
Rose
Such an exciting giveaway! I took a class on reticello recently through EGA, and loved it!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to view the Fabulous Forties section of town. It is a beautiful neighborhood, and for blocks it is done up in lights, and people are out enjoying the holiday spirit. It feels like the heart of Sacramento.
Hacer Tamales con la Abuela, se que en EE.UU. no es tradición ya que es Guatemalteca, pero es una tarea larga, desde limpiar las hojas de Plátano y Sal, en donde se envolverán, poner a coser la masa una parte de masa de Maíz y otra de Arroz, tarea que me tocaba, ya que conforme se va cociendo se compacta y se hace pesada cuesta moverla, Ella, mientras, preparaba los otros ingredientes, una salsa espesa de tomate, aceitunas, Chiles Morrón encurtidos cortados en tiras, Almendra, Ciruelas Pasas, todo para el adorno, una vez cocidos, iniciaba el proceso de regalar, jajaja, tanto trabajo para regalar, pero eso era el gusto de la Abuela, regalar, para los que no tenían, par los que no podían comprar, para la familia. La extraño mucho. Felices Fiestas Mary, que la pasa estupendamente bien con su familia y siga cosechando Bendiciones y éxitos, gracias por su paciencia y los servicios que me ha dado. Abrazos.
My favorite holiday tradition is the lights that come out each year to brighten a very dark season of the year in the northern hemisphere.
My oldest brother made a cassette recording of Christmas music when he worked for a radio station in 1988. I listen to you it every year while I decorate the tree. A few years ago, he upgraded it to a DVD recording with visual, but as long as the cassette player works, it will be my go to way to listen to the music. Thank you brother!
I love to get together with family and relive childhood memories and mischief.
Christmas music from Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, etc and watching The Bells of St. Mary’s and The Bishop’s Wife original movies. Also praying for snow! In recent years there’s been no snow .
Merry Christmas to you and yours Mary.
My favorite holiday tradition is putting a felt Santa tree topper on our Christmas tree. My husband and I bought it our first Christmas together when we were dating at a local drug store – it was very inexpensive and I could needlepoint a far more beautiful one, but Santa goes on top of the tree every year. He’s been there for 44 years.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is one my dad started when we were young. We decorated the tree on Christmas Eve and then attended meeting for worship. After getting us to bed, my parents still had to get the gifts ready. Needless to day, they were tired Christmas morning. My dad set us our stockings with special breakfast treats either in them or with notes as to where the treats were. We were allowed to open our stockings, but no other gifts. (While we were busy with our stockings, our parents got to sleep.) Included in the stockings, was a “gift” from Bad Santa. Because no one is good all year long, Bad Santa would leave you something that you disliked. This was often in the form of some food (which I often tried again), but could also be in the form of a gentle nudge to improve in some area of my life. It wasn’t until years later, I realized how these gentle nudges from my dad had a much greater effect on me than whatever items I received under the tree.
Every Christmas I make tons of cookies and sweet breads and make big platters for the neighbors. They get so excited, especially the children. Sometimes they even bring me ingredients like chocolate chips and coconut flakes to make sure I bake.
My favorite tradition is going to look at Christmas lights.
I think my favorite holiday tradition is exchanging stockings. Our family puts lots of little cheap things in stockings but going through everything and seeing what made my loved ones think of me when they were in a store is even better than opening presents.
Hanging a pickle ornament on the tree. Whoever finds it first gets to open a present first.
PS I have not done reticello and this looks interesting. Hmmm…
Hi Mary, in our tradition, we open gifts on Christmas morning. When I was a child, gifts were labeled as coming not just from Santa, but from a huge roster of names, both real and imagined. For example, a tea towel might come the Mad Hatter, a pair of socks might come from Dumbledore. Always amusing and tied to the nature of the gift. I did this with our kids when they were small, and now as adults, they continue the tradition. It’s hilarious to see who leaves presents under the tree, and we spend our Christmas morning laughing, and learning, since we all don’t always know the connection. Great fun! Thank you, Lynn
My favorite tradition is listening to Dylan Thomas read “a childs christmas in Wales”. Its just perfect.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! My favorite tradition is wrapping the gifts in special paper. Rudolph always gives everyone a calendar, and Santa brings a gift for everyone and they get wrapped in their own, special (usually fancier) paper. Even though my kids are adults and my grandkids are teens, they know and look for the special packages that don’t show up under the tree until Christmas morning!
Decorating the tree and then sitting and quietly enjoying its beauty. It always brings back memories of family.
Favourite tradition hands-down is the stocking. I can live without regular presents, cookies, trifle, even the fancy dinner but not the fun of opening my stocking first thing in the morning. (Mimosas optional.)
My favorite holiday tradition is food! I love ever from making Christmas cookies with grandkids to planning a big family meal.
I especially enjoy making and decorating holiday cookies to give to friends, neighbors, the 12Step groups at our church, and Compass Housing for people in their shelters. But Christmas caroling is a close second!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to sound a bit unusual to many of your readers! My family and I are Jewish and so “celebrate” Christmas rather differently :). We adhere to a time-honored American Jewish custom of eating Chinese food and watching movies. Pre-COVID, this was at a restaurant and movie theatre, now it’s take-out and streaming video. Best of all, we snuggle up with the kids and it’s a great laidback family day!
Our grandkids live next door. We take family gifts over in the morning in a red wagon pulled by my husband who wears a red hat with a ball sticking up out of the center. We take eggnog lattes for the adults in an extra large pumper pot
My favorite holiday tradition for myself is on Christmas Eve late in the evening, when the house is quite, I take a moment for myself. I softly play Christmas music, curl up on the couch, with only the Christmas tree lights on and just relax and think about my family, friends and reflect on the past year. I enjoy a moment of quite and solitude and enjoy the beauty of the season, before the last of the festivities unfold. It replenishes me and fills me with gratitude.
We always have the kids over on Christmas Eve for a dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes and green bean salad and wine. After dinner we open gifts and have fun together. Love it!
My favourite Christmas tradition was starting the feasting….which began on Christmas Eve. After the evening mass, we would traipse home and all 9 of us (my parents + us 7 kids) would cram around the table to dive into the baking – ooh all that wonderful baking, that we’d been working on for weeks beforehand!! – and enjoy the scrumptious meat pies, sausage rolls, butter tarts, shortbread, and so on!! So yummy!!! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a your own lovely treats!
My favourite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas Tree. The lights, the tree-top star, and many of the decorations are the originals we bought for our first Christmas together in 1973! Isn’t it amazing that the lights have been still working for 49 years? Over the years, many other ornaments were hand-made by our children and our friends and family. They grace our tree each year and bring back many happy memories of our family history, of shared times together, and of friends and family no longer with us.
What a lovely kit and books in the giveaway! I’d love to win them. Thanks, Mary, and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
My favourite holiday tradition is putting up the tree with my family while listening to old Bing Crosby Christmas tunes. Nostalgic fun!
I think one of my favorite Christmas traditions is having homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning after we open our stockings but before opening the rest of our gifts.
My favorite tradition for Christmas is to make a special ornament in embroidery for each family member. Sometimes the ornaments are based on their interests and sometimes I try and create an ornament based on an antique one I’ve seen.
Last year I made one that looked like the felt Santas with the netting for the bodies and candy inside the bag. They were so much fun to create and I was so pleased to give them to each family member.
My husband bakes many dozens of kolachki’s, light as feathers and melty as snow, for friends an family who are forlorn if they don’t get them. I love them, I love him and I love that HE makes the treat so I don’t have to!
I love decorating gingerbread houses with the grandchildren. And now that they are older and still say Christmas isn’t complete without doing them it is even more special! And not quite as messy as those days with 3 and 4 year olds!
My favorite holiday tradition is oyster stew on Christmas Eve.
I definitely would love the Reticello kit in red. Never done this type of needlework so I wouldn’t buy a project without having some knowledge of the work. Can’t think of a better way to learn than with a giveaway. Thank you for the opportunity.
Taking a walk at the park on Christmas day especially if there is snow cover.
This would be a new technique for me and I’d love to learn it!
My favourite tradition is eating together as a family. Something I am going to be missing terribly this year. Internet will help but it’s not the same .
My favorite tradition is celebrating on the 24th and staying up until midnight to open presents.
My favorite holiday tradition is remembering the origins of the various ornaments that we put on our tree, some as much as about 50 years old, some handmade, some were gifts. I love them all, and I love remembering the making, and receiving of them.
I have a maraschino cherry bar recipe that I make only during Christmas.
We love to get all the family that can come from all over the world and country together. We fill the house and garden with decorations. We enjoy hearing from them, their latest news, additions to their families, and most of all the games, activities, walks, that we can all share. This year will be special after the pandemic and various illnesses, a new baby, and two new dogs. WOW, a busy fun time ahead.
Sylvia
UK
Best Christmas tradition is having the children wait at the top of the stairs to all come down together to see the tree and Santa’s work on Christmas morning.
We take time before Christmas dinner to share a piece of a Polish Wafer with each other and we recognize any differences we may have had and then ask for forgiveness. We apologize for anything we need to apologize for with each person individually. Also, a place setting is always set to represent the Holy family and those family members who are no longer able to share in our Christmas dinner. We acknowledge the gifts of their influence on our lives. It’s such a blessed way to begin our dinner — with a clean slate and plate!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve candlelight service at my church. We light our candles and sing Silent Night as we exit the sanctuary. It’s beautiful !
Eggnog…ever year we make REAL eggnog on Christmas Eve. It is from a recipe in a 1925 cocktail book. As kids we had to collect the 36 “strictly” fresh eggs for the nog and as we grew older got the job of separating each one. They were beaten separately. Whites into a Meringue while the yolks were mixed with milk, cream sugar and rum. Then the meringue was whipped in. We all got a tiny sip to make sure it was good, even as children.
Trimming the tree! The ornaments bring back fond memories of people & places.
Hi Mary! Happy Holiday to you and yours. I just love the look of that red on either fabric… Im a red anything junkie! Of course already sold out so it would be nice to win one! Ty for a chance.
Favorite tradition… Well I think this one is easy…Midnite Mass. Im in my 60’s and don’t recall not going… so it is longstanding in our family. Been to a few Churches over the years but its a very very special nite for our family.
My favourite Christmas tradition is to give my children a Christmas stocking each with little handmade gifts inside. They are all grown up now but I made the stockings years ago when they were little and they still love to receive them!
Christmas is a time to remember the birth of the Christ Child and what this means to mankind. A tradition I have is to remember family members and loved ones by writing down a little story about them in my journal. The stories range from times the person made me laugh, or cry or made me angry. How I felt or changed as a result of this particular memory is the important thing. Memories are so important and to write them down so I can reflect on them time and time again. My Journal may have only one record or several entries for Christmas day. The amount of the entries doesn’t matter, remembering is the important thing. People will never fade when their connection to my life is written down.
My favourite holiday tradition is the choir concert that our church puts on on Christmas Eve. The turn down the lights and the choir walk carrying lit candles. Wonderful music and so many extended family who are home for Christmas accompany those of us who worship there year round. It is great to be able to connect with old friends who have moved away but are ‘home’ for Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition is making soups and baking cookies and holiday breads, and then sharing them with friends and family. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!
Unpacking the Christmas ornaments – so many memories come along for the ride. Thank you, Mary, and Merry Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition is going to the Candlelight Service with my family. The lights and music are a lovely part of the holidays. They bring me peace.
Trying to figure out my favorite tradition is hard. But I think my favorite one for me is having our Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve and then go to midnight mass. It leaves Christmas Day to lounge around sipping Tea or hot chocolate and eating cinnamon rolls (home made) and playing with the kids.
My favorite Christmas tradition? I live with my daughter and her two children. We have so much fun doing the elf on the shelf!! The girls are 6 and in grade one. I love to hear the laughter each time they find the elves !!
Hi Mary,
My favorite holiday tradition is the decorations. Thanks for the giveaway.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree. Even though our son is grown, it is something we still do as a family.
Christmas morning, the family gathers and we begin the day with expresso drinks for everyone BEFORE gifts are exchanged.
My family gets together on Christmas morning for breakfast. Everyone comes in their jammies.
What a very generous gift, thank you for the chance. My favorite holiday tradition is making lefse. Guess what, I’m of Norwegian decent. Seems to be a smaller group now as we all live many miles apart, but……. We all would get together before Christmas to make enough for the whole family, all of us bringing our griddles and rolling pins. Wonderful memories even if fewer of us getting together in one place. As the grouping has changed over the years, so has the recipe altered slightly but still being passed on.
My favorite tradition involves two different activities with my daughter. When she was a child, we always baked cookies together, particularly one recipe that creates a ginger cookie that we both love. And, on Christmas evening, we stitch together. We started celebrating this way when she was about 10; over two decades later, we’re still doing it.
My favorite tradition is my husband playing Santa for the neighborhood kids as well as our grand kids. He has a terrific costume and it has been such fun when the kids “catch” Santa leaving a package. My husband’s dad started the tradition for our kids and we’ve carried it forward.
My favourite holiday tradition is that as many family members as possible of all ages gather together in one member’s home for a wonderful meal with each element of the meal produced by a different family member.
Our favourite tradition is Santa Sacks! The rule is ‘No Photo with Santa, no Santa Sack!” So our ‘children’ and their partners (all aged in their mid twenties) go off and get a photo every year.
I was so disappointed that by the time I read the newsletter, the kits were sold out. Hopefully you will get more in. My favorite was the red but I also like the blue.
My favorite Christmas tradition was attending Christmas Eve church service.
My favorite holiday tradition is always driving around neighborhoods looking at people’s light displays. We’ve been doing it since I was a kid (these days it’s my husband, son, and me going out) and it just gives me a sense of peace and joy, especially playing John Denver’s Muppets Christmas album or classical Christmas music at the same time.
My favorite tradition is holiday baking with my daughter and now my grandsons (4 and 1.5). As a matter of fact, the 4-year-old said we have to make green trees for Santa (Spritz) like we did last year. I couldn’t have been that specific for Santa’s choice!
I am just amazed how lovely the Reticello stitching is . This would be a challenge for me but I love the stitching! On of my favorite holiday traditions is celebrating St. Lucia’s day with my family – keeping on our Swedish tradition of ancestors is important and so fun for us! Thank you and Happy Holidays!
My favorite Holiday tradition is baking cookies using old family cookie recipes. My sister-in-law was the best
cookie baker, she has since passed, but her recipes live on, our favorite is the Kolache cookie, yum.
Thanks Mary,
Teri Sanfilippo
I Love learning new types of needle work!! I am so excited to see and do the next project!!
My favourite Christmas tradition is the associated church service with the retelling of the birth of Christ, the carols and the special ambience that only Christmas brings.
Thank you for such a beautiful giveaway – I love all forms of lace, and have made crochet lace since I was in my teens, bobbin lace and a wee bit if needle lace.. this would be a real kick start into Reticello should I win.
Blessings
Maxine
It’s certainly hard to decide on what tradition is my favorite. I do love decorating the tree and house with many hand made items created by family members. Each item brings a memory of the making and the gifting by someone special.
My husband’s family is Italian! I have learned to make all their favorites – lasagna, biscotti, and many other foods or specialties – so we eat our way through the holidays; We have a wonderful time doing this!!!!!!
Making tamales with family and friends is a fairly new, but loved, Christmas tradition!
One of my favorite traditions is building gingerbread houses from scratch. I tried it the first time when the kids were very small (it was an article in Family Circle!). The following year I made a “blank” house for each of the kids, and THEY decorated! (mostly they ate candy and royal icing!!) It is an annual tradition. The houses aren’t beautiful, but they are spectacular in their creativity!! And now my kids do it for their kids – every year! It is an “event.” Once, when MY kids were young, they wanted to share the experience with their friends, so one year I had to make 20 full-sized “blanks.” THAT was a chore! But SO MUCH FUN!
There are so many traditions, it’s so difficult choosing just one! Gathering together with family is hands down the best. When that isn’t possible, I would choose baking cookies with my children (and eating them!).
These projects are so elegant. They remind me of my grandmother’s work. She was born in Italy, and studied needlework at a local convent. I’m lucky to have inherited many of her pieces and treasure them.
Thank-you for making these kits available.
My favorite holiday tradition is setting up the manger, and adding the baby Jesus on Christmas morning.
Holiday traditions – so many of them. Christmas music, decorating the house, the smell of turkey cooking in the oven, and hoping for snow. It looks like my hopes were granted – beautiful snow for the past few days, and it will stay below freezing until Christmas day. Thank goodness I work from home.
My favorite holiday tradition is making Scandinavian cookies with my family and a new needlework ornament each year.
Other than family, my favorite thing would have to be Christmas music…. I remember caroling with my friends. When I was in elementary school, our district did a schoolwide Christmas program. We practiced everyday in the gym, sitting on the cold floor waiting for our turn to sing our songs. Then on the day of the performance, all of the schools went to the high school to perform on the stage. And, yes, we wore the bedsheet robes with the big bow, and some lucky kids were blessed with the angel wings and tinsel. Kids today miss out on some of the greatest memories……
Thank you for the giveaway!
We like to give our kids a different perspective on Christmas Day and take them to go caroling at a local nursing home. It brightens the day for those who may have no one to come visit them and reminds our kids that Christmas isn’t about the presents but the birth of our Savior and His sacrifice for us.
Merry Christmas!
The gathering. The gathering in from all corners of the state, to all be together for at least a little time. This is the best tradition of all.
My favorite Christmas tradition is being together with my family, no matter what actual day we get to celebrate! And remembering the happy parts of Christmases past
My Tradition would be always getting a hand stitched ornament from my mom on Christmas Eve while dining at my parents house. Now carrying on the tradition with my family.
I love Christmas morning when the entire family is there and we open gifts one at a time and enjoy the time together.
Your kits are beautiful and I am a sucker for red!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the candlelight church service. Although if I might add an additional one, it would be gathering with our family and friends. Celebrating Christ’s birth with loved ones is what Christmas is all about in our home.
Merry Christmas everyone!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating my house and Christmas tree with various ornaments and other items collected from the past four generations of my family. Some are stitched by me, my mother or grandmother, some are souvenirs of trips taken, but all have a story to tell.
I love putting up my nativity which includes angels, shepherds, lots of animals, and the holy family.
I’m so glad you asked! We started a new tradition a few years ago to play silly games after dinner, and before dessert! It has really become a wonderful time for our family! Just silly fun! Sometimes great prizes and sometimes silly prizes. One never knows!
Another lovely giveaway! My favorite holiday tradition is building the current holiday themed Lego set with my younger son. We started doing this many years ago and now he is an adult he still begins asking in October if I have bought the new set . Thanks, Mary
My favorite holiday tradition has always been the family get together and getting as much of the family together as possible for food and games and watching Christmas specials. Actually watching the grandchildren as they watch specials is the most fun. This has become more and more difficult as “kids” grow up, move away and let’s face it, avoid holiday time flights, etc. We still work on it and have some success, or have a few get togethers spread out geographically. The best tradition has been related to children and continuing these with grandchildren is a wonderful experience.
Lovely kits- I’d never heard of Italian stitching. I love trying new techniques and may need to pick myself up a little Christmas gift. I think that should definitely be a tradition, but, unfortunately, it is not. We don’t have any special traditions – we are quite the basic family. We open gifts, eat too much, and watch football. Good stuff.
The reticella kits are just so detailed and beautiful, each color has its own appeal. My favorite holiday tradition is baking lots of favorite cookies for all to enjoy and give as gifts. Happy Holidays to you and your family!!
Without a doubt, decorating the Christmas tree! It’s magical, getting reconnected with so many beautiful decorations I’ve gather over the years, but always adding something special. Most fun when done with a child helper, just the look on their eyes, grabbing some wonderful sparkly ornament, and letting them choose where to put it. I also have my group of angels each one representing a friend no longer with us, it’s my way of keeping their presence in all my Christmases. Merry Xmas to all, and a very special one to you Mary for keeping this yearly gift witch I open on a daily basis, to find in your wonderful articles, hugely inspiring and always learning something new, in this magical world of needle arts. Thank you, Laura
Everything about Christmas is wonderful! But I love the lights!
My favorite holiday tradition is, opening Christmas presents that were sent by mail from out-of -town relatives on Christmas Eve. Then, presents from each other, we open on Christmas.
This Reticella embroidery really speaks to me, as my husband’s family is from Italy. Would love to win!
I’m so sad the kits are sold out!
(Hoping, hoping, hoping for more.)
Laura
Favorite holiday traditions are so numerous!
From handmade ornaments to cookie making to Xmas Eve candlelight services and songs! They all simply ring joy at time spent with family or friends and cherishing each moment- very similar to stopping to enjoy each stitch in our life tapestry.
Merry Christmas!
Opening our Christmas stockings and watching the Polar Express
Shoot. I posted a comment without reading all the directions!
My favorite holiday tradition is making English plum pudding. It’s something my mother always did. When I make it, it brings her back to me for a little while.
Opening our Christmas stockings and watching the Polar Express Christmas eve
I loved Christmas caroling on a snowy winter evening. Such a tangible way to share the joy of the season.
The kits are beautiful! I don’t know which is my favorite, but seeing as I am a complete novice, maybe no. 2, although no. 5 really catches my eye. Maybe someday!
My favorite Christmas tradition? Our Community Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve night. Everyone comes together at 7 pm to have songs, poems and songs by the little ones (Jingle Bells is the definite go to) then Santa Claus comes and gives out presents to the kids, and last of all everyone there gets a big bag of fruit, nuts, and candy! We deliver bags to shut-ins in the community the day after Christmas. This has been going on for well over 100 years. My Grandma was born in 1901 and said it was happening before she was born.
Hi Mary
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies to share with friends. The cookies I bake at Christmas time are special treats that I don’t bake at any other time of the year.
Thank you for introducing us to different forms of embroidery and providing us the means to learn them. I would love to win this giveaway and try something new.
Joan
Pouring brandy on the Christmas pudding, lighting it and watching the flames dance around the pudding. The best part is having a slice with hot custard and cream and seeing who finds the sixpences that have been hidden inside. We’ve been using the same sixpences since I can remember, they get swapped out with another coin. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
Thank you for your article and for bringin Reticellog to our country. They are beautiful. I hope to win.
Merry Christmas
My favourite holiday tradition is listening to the Carol Service broadcast from King’s College Cambridge (in the UK) on Christmas Eve afternoon, while baking a batch of mince pies. The singing is always so beautiful.
I would love to win this panel. I always been going to try Reticello but thought it too difficult. Now I am retired I have the time to try.
My favourite holiday tradition is going to Carols in the Park with my friends. It doesnt matter that I’m off tune, we all have a grand night by candlelight.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies and making candy for gifts. What is most special to me is filling up at least a dozen tins and giving them out to all the neighbors on my street, many I don’t know well except at year-end holiday time. I have connected with a few who wave when they drive by. The whole experience warms my heart.
My current “favorite tradition” is doing much of the decorating at our church. We have no children and a very active and inquisitive cat, so decorating at home must be done with “cat-proofing” in mind. 😉 In addition to the Advent wreath, large Christmas tree, wreaths,seasonal paraments, banners and creche, our church has 8, large, stained-glass windows with wide and low sills. Various members of the congregation volunteer to decorate a window sill. I have several small artificial trees that I decorate with my hand-stitched ornaments and sometimes with other Christmas themed needlework designs go in the window. This year I’m doing two windows and the second is going to be filled with rolling pins, baking sheets, bowls, scoops, cookie cutters and some of the supplies for cookie making. (The theme is “Christmas Traditions” – and we are looking to represent the family Christmas traditions that bring folks together).
Christmas eve church service for the joy and peace.
My favorite holiday tradition is sorting the Chanukah candles into groups for each day to make pretty color combinations.
My favourite holiday tradition is the decorations, especially the outdoor ones. Even in the south of Canada the days are short and the dark comes early. It’s makes the dark so much cheerier to see the lights up.
This is from my childhood…at least 70 years ago. My brother and I opened and used one gift on Christmas Eve, a craft of some sort. One comes to mind as a kit to make leather moccasins.
My favorite holiday tradition is making a big breakfast (usually overnight french toast) and spending the rest of the day in my pajamas working on whatever needlework project I have treated myself to for Christmas. Past years it has been technique classes like Brioche knitting and needle turn applique. This year is an embroidery sampler on some luscious Italian linen with silk threads. Exploring Reticello would be a fun way to start the new year.
How do you pick one favorite tradition. I realize now how tradition changes through one’s life. It use to be my father making the Swedish mulled wine, glogg. Now, it is gathering with family. When we lived closer to my husband’s family in Indiana, we would have a pot luck on Christmas day. One aunt would bring pies, (4 chocolate and 4 others) in two homemade pie carriers. Now, 25 years later, living in Washington state, we will be gathering with my daughter-in-laws family, sharing Mongolian favorites and I have been requested to bring the pies!
On Christmas Eve, me and my bo sitting side by side and working on a puzzle!
Joyeuses Fêtes
I’d love to learn proper reticello technique. It appears to be a lovely drawn thread form of embroidery.
Our favorite holiday tradition are advent calendars. We start in early November hunting for the perfect one. There are so many options. This year my daughter and husband opted for fun character figurines from their favorite shows, Harry Potter and Star Wars, respectively. I took a more creative bend and found an embroidery advent to tackle. I’m enjoying it so much that I’m already debating next years advent calendar!
I just enjoy having a quiet Christmas lately – good food, needlework and good company.
My favorite holiday tradition involves opening presents. In my family, opening presents is not a free-for-all. We take turns and open one present at a time. When we were children, my sister and I opened ours first, then our parents. I did the same with my children as they were growing up. Now, everyone takes turns, one at a time. This way, we can see what everyone receives; we can see the look on the face of the recipient when the present is opened; and it extends the joy of giving and receiving. Christmas isn’t just about getting presents, it is about giving, too. And what better way to enjoy giving than seeing the face of the opener when he or she sees what is in the present. Pure joy!
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas carolling around the neighborhood and at our friends’ houses.
My favorite Christmas tradition is, I think the elf on the shelf. My grandbabies get so exc
I love doing an advent calendar with my granddaughters. It’s so sweet to see Christmas through their eyes!
My favorite holiday tradition is sending Christmas cards. It’s the one time of year I am certain to write to all the people I love, who are scattered throughout nearly all fifty states & several other countries. I try to limit the list to 150 or so. I have sometimes handmade cards, but usually I buy them on sale on Boxing Day. The greeting & address is always handwritten because I love the thrill of recognizing my friends’ & family’s hanrdwriting on the cards I receive. A letter recounts highlights of my family’s year, & often a photo is included. Envelopes always have a sticker! I address & stuff the envelopes over a few days while watching Christmas movies & sipping tea, so it’s two traditions in one!
My favorite Christmas tradition is, I think the elf on the shelf. My grandbabies get so excited to find what he has done every morning.
Happy Holidays
Over the past 15 years my family members have discontinued giving “presents” but rather make the effort to get together for a family potluck with everyone bringing a new and interesting dish. I always try bringing a ‘healthy’ version to see if anyone notices the difference, so far I have resounding success each year. We spend the evening visiting, making a puzzle and generally enjoying ourselves making new memories.
My favorite holiday tradition is visiting with family and friends on Christmas day. And, of course, enjoying Christmas dinner together.
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Brunch with my son. We have hot monkey bread straight of the oven with coffee and blinis as we listen to music and open our stockings. Its a slow easy morning that doesn’t usually start until 10:00am as we laze around in pj’s for a couple hours. Our Christmas brunch is now it’s 25th year but its always a wonderful time to connect with my son!
My favorite holiday tradition, although only intermittently observed, is without doubt, the Mummers’ Play. Some years, we have had mysterious visitors, suspiciously like some family members, who show up and present a silly show, in rhyme, of death and resurrection. So wonderful, and totally inspired by performances gone by by Nowell Sing we Clear. https://www.google.com/search?q=nowell+sing+we+clear+youtube&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS901US903&oq=nowell+sing+we+clear&aqs=chrome.3.0i355i512j46i512j0i512l2j0i390l4.9846j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 They were the best!
Thank you for offering such a generous give-away. What a great opportunity to learn a new technique…but then…there is never a wrong time to learn something new.
My favorite tradition since the mid 1970s is to wrap all the gifts we get ourselves over Thanksgiving (yes, we shop early) so we pretty much forget which gift is which so it’s still a surprise Christmas morning. Maybe a bit weird but we love doing it.
My favorite holiday tradition is my mother’s habit of welcoming people into our home. She’s a professor, and she’s pretty much always got one or two foreign students who can’t go home for the holidays, and who end up at our table (often bringing their own traditional dishes to share!). Some of the students who ended up staying in our area have become regulars, but there’s pretty much always at least one new face, and knowing that we’ve been able to make sure that someone didn’t have to celebrate alone is always really wonderful.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating. The house , tree, and back porch.
My favorite tradition is the way my family has always opened stocking gifts after Christmas dinner, going around the table one person at a time opening one (tiny) present at a time.
The detailed and elegant project is so beautiful.
I’d love to do that project.❤️
My favourite family tradition at Christmas is going to the movies on Christmas Eve. As a child it made the night go quicker and made it easier to go to sleep when we got home on a night that was very exciting.
My favorite holiday tradition is making springerle cookies using the stamp my mother made over 70 years ago and the rolling pin a friend brought me from Germany over 5 years ago.
It’s summer here in New Zealand, so we head up to my parent’s place an hour up the Coast. After lunch, we all go for a walk along the beach, and have a paddle in the sea (or a swim if I’m feeling brave!)
Getting Kellogs Variety Pack cereals: Christmas morning treat!
Latkes and jelly donuts and lighting Hanukkah candles!
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family and friends. It is a time to reconnect with people I don’t see all the time. In my family when I was growing up there was always good food and good music. People would bring instruments and we would sing carols and Hawaiian music.
A good time was had by all!
Happy holidays.
Roberta
My favorite holiday tradition is stargazing with warm hot chocolate & sugar cookies to follow. It’s a relatively new tradition for us, but one the entire family has come to gravitate to and enjoy. No props, no trappings, no excess, just people coming together to commune, share stories & spend time together marveling at the heavens. It’s my favorite part of the holiday festivities.
I love all of our family’s Christmas traditions so it’s hard to pick a favorite. One that I really loved, but can no longer do, was taking the kids to the town’s Christmas tree lighting with the townspeople all around the tree singing Christmas carols. Then right afterwards, going to the nearby restaurant and getting us all a cup of hot cocoa before walking home in the snow.
I think my favorite holiday tradition is watching “Scrooge” with my mom. We like the 1951 film version with Alistair Sim the best, and we have the colorized version on dvd. I think just being with my mom is the best. I have seen it so many times, that I have learned to see the errors in filming — at one point, after the evening with the spirits, Scrooge is looking into a mirror, and one of the film crew is actually visible. I am not a fan of Charles Dickens, however. And I wonder why he is so celebrated: researchers have uncovered that he treated his own wife and family very badly. I think we should closely examine the people society admires: would we really admire them if we knew how they really behaved? I think lewis carroll, tchaikovsky, teddy roosevelt, and benjamin franklin would fall from their pedestals. I like sobering gifts for the holidays: I find them more meaningful.
I am Armenian and Armenian Christmas Eve is January 5th (the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany of Jesus Christ) and Christmas Day is January 6th is the our Lord’s Baptism in the River Jordan, therefore it is called Blessing of water and water is being blessed in the church.
January 5th we have a special dinner which is fish, vegetables and rice (no meat or chicken). I love to celebrate January 5th special dinner gathered with our family and extended family, old and young we all sit around dinner table .
Tradition developed in childhood & still practiced at age 75 is to still be stitching something for Christmas on Christmas Eve. My mom crafted things to the very last minute, so I am not even embarrassed. Occasionally I have drawn a picture, e.g. Folkwear coat, of the project still in progress with a swatch of the fabric being used, as a gift card with later delivery to be expected. Trained, and believe, that the thought counts with the love intended…I have been taught by Californian Diane Clements reticello techniques, so particularly know I can accomplish Elizabetta inspired reference if I am your winner!
My favorite holiday tradition goes back to when all our children (5 plus strays) lived at home. I would make sugar cookie dough, then lay out a plastic table cloth on my kitchen table (9 feet long), roll out the dough. I then would get out my cookie cutter collection (over 100 pieces! )then everyone would proceed to cut out cookies. I would spend my time shuttling cookie trays in and out of the oven and re-rolling the dough until the end of the dough. Then mix all the frosting, color it in ALL the colors and let them decorate with frosting and every kind of sprinkle, glitter etc I could find. The best fun was in seeing their creativity with cookies like Christmas aliens, holiday bunnies and whatever their creativity could come up with. I think my favorite are the elf and reindeer aliens…lolol…such a lot of fun…
We have had to regroup as a family and create new “traditions” after the death of my husband and my son within the span of a few months, my youngest son moving 12 hours away and new granddaughters. The new tradition is family breakfast on Christmas morning. I’m very much looking forward to a new beginning. No sadness. We are at peace knowing they are with the Lord and one day we will be together again.
Baking cookies: date pinwheel, shortbread, chocolate chips, butter balls, kulacke and popcorn balls!
I love the baking and even the cleanup!
Since our first grand child was born, 33 years ago, we started the tradition of driving around our city to look at Christmas decorated homes. With the youngest being 7 now, he just loves it, with his older sisters pointing the various homes to him from a very young age. When we get back to our place, we have Christmas treats under our decorated tree in our back garden. This year it is happening next week Wednesday. It is a bit exhausting, but well worth the effort to keep on making memories.
My favorite holiday tradition as a little kid was the opening of presents Christmas morning. It wasn’t about the presents themselves, but more of the wonder of Christmas. Mom would make hot cocoa and take our picture opening packages. Those photos of us are fun to look back on… in pj’s, with bed head hair, dog in the big middle of everything. Sometimes we’d find the tree knocked over because the dog tried to get to the package of chocolate covered cherries wrapped up and placed high up in the tree. It was good times indeed.
Getting together with family.
Love your ideas!
There are many traditions that remain in my memory, but as the years pass and children grow up and have families of their own, traditions change. Some are discarded and new ones are put in their place. I remember getting a small brown paper sack every year when we attended church as a young girl in the early 1950’s. It contained mostly peanuts, some ribbon candy and an orange! The orange was outstanding! Then we went to my grandparents for dinner (ham and oyster stew), and opened presents. All my uncles were there with their families and it was a special occasion when you were old enough to sit at ‘the grownups table.’ Sadly, after my grandparents passed, we no longer got together with my uncles but continued with new traditions of out own.
My favorite is Christmas eve candlelight service.
My favourite tradition has to be the dressing of the Christmas tree whilst listening to carols. It always puts me in the Christmas spirit.
My favorite holiday tradiiton is baking cookies and candy to give to friends, neighbors and family, preferably while listening to Christmas carols.
After going to the midnight service at church we come home and have homemade eggnog in the light of the Christmas tree.
My favorite is when all the guests go home. My husband rolls up the ribbons and lights and we carefully box up the ornaments and bundle the wooden garland. I make us some tea and whatever is left of the cookies we sit in front of the fire and the naked tree and enjoy a few minutes of well deserved peace.
I tried your reticula windows and loved them.
Mary, your work is always outstanding. You will never know how much I have learned from you. I appreciate all you do for us.
Our favorite holiday tradition is making jam thumbprint cookies and chocolate mousse pie for dinner.
For the last 25 years or so, Santa visits our small village right on the coast distributing gifts and sweets. Being summer here, there is no snow for his sleigh, so he and his helper-elf are carried on the back of our local fire-truck! Christmas Eve is spent decorating the truck with tinsel, baubles and the like ready for Christmas morning, and it is such a delight to hear the short siren bursts as it travels through the village. Kids come from everywhere… the homes, the beach, the adjacent camping grounds and it’s great to see their happy faces. Santa (pssst… my husband) comes home hot, tired and happy himself after such a lovely community tradition completed for another year.
And a happy Christmas to you and yours Mary
I love many Christmas traditions. But probably my favorite is making cut out cookies with my children. They are adults now but we still bake and decorate cookies every year.
I love nearly everything about Christmas; the music, the lights, the food, giving and receiving gifts. The thing I like best is being able to spend time with family. Our traditions are changing a little as we have elderly parents including one who is in long term care so we can’t gather as we used to but we’re trying to make sur we get to spend sometime together.
Thanks for all the give-always, Mary. The gifts are all so wonderful! Merry Christmas!
I have been wanting to learn Reticello for some time now. This would be an excellent starting place.
I’ve been wanting to learn Reticello for some time. This would be an excellent starting point.
I have loved handwork and textiles my entire life but yours are something special.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree with ornaments given to me by my MawMaw.
My favorite holiday tradition is Crackers – English crackers that you pull with a tissue paper hat, joke and charade and small prize inside! I have fond memories of these and the fun of trying to guess the charge from family gatherings when I was a child.
When my sister and were young, my mom purchased two small (think small jewelry box size) handmade bags that were designed to look like girls. The blond girl bag was my sister’s and the brunette girl bag was mine. Several decades later, my mom still puts a present in the bags (“the girls”) to open up on Christmas eve.
My favorite Christmas tradition – is to take a tour with my Great grandchildren to see all the Christmas lights.
Our downtown area now have lights all over the town and every tree is wound with colored Christmas lights. Even our neighborhood lights up and one even has a fantastic light program that you stop by and watch while you tune in your car radio station to listen to the accompanying music. PLUS they have a barn where they serve hot cocoa and candy canes. The little and the adults love it.
So hard to pick a favorite tradition! at this point in my life, the gathering of family and the excitement of the children are the highlights. A favorite tradition has always been decorating the tree.
Best wishes to you and your family!
This is such beautiful needlework! Wonderful way to introduce us to a new way of expressing our passion for slow and careful stitching. I love the samples!
Sausage balls for light lunch Christmas Eve
My favorite holiday tradition is baking Christmas cookies. I started the tradition when my daughter was 7. She invited several of her classmates to join us. Today, the same girls gather at my house for this tradition. They are scattered throughout the state. They are 33 years old now!
Oh, no! You asked for my favorite thing! (I can hear Julie Andrews singing.) How can I narrow down my favorites to only one?
Pick one:
*Eggnog
*Baking cookies with my children
*Choosing presents that I KNOW the recipient will like
*Christmas lights in the city
My favourite tradition is spreading the Christmas festive lunch over the entire day, sitting around the table and being together with my friends and family.
Hot chocolate and cookies by candlelight on Christmas Eve!
Ma mère et moi ont fait des beignes aux sirop et des biscuits sablés. On fait des paquets et on donne des gâteries que nous avons préparés.
Joyeux Noël et n’oubliez pas de vous sucré le bec.
I love the reticello and would really like to learn it!
And my favourite holiday tradition is putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with the many old and new decorations I’ve collected, some over 70 years old that were my parents’, some made by friends and some made by me – and love the sparkly tinsel and coloured lights!!!❤
My favourite Christmas Tradition is having a big family Christmas turkey dinner where EVERYONE behaves! Lol
Favorite holiday tradition — that is hard to narrow it down but they do all involve family so… now that my children are young men we don’t do a lot of the ‘traditions’ we did when they were younger but we still have an advent wreath, nativity scene, still make it to Christmas service, and still occasionally make gifts for each other instead of buying pre-made; as I am entering today I’ll go with homemade gifts as my favorite tradition since I just got back from the store with my youngest, who not only drove but went specifically to buy a huge amount of paracord to make his older brother a gift, having searched the web he is teaching himself ‘net making’ to make a bag for a ‘robot’ for his older brother’s cosplay.
Thank you for your give-away! My favorite Christmas tradition is going to church with family on Christmas Eve. We have always opened gifts after church, but this year that will be delayed since our children are older and involved with other families and their schedules. We will still enjoy our time together, whenever it is. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Ma mère et moi on prepare des beignes aux sirop et des biscuits sablés, on fait des paquets pour offrir
Joyeux noël et n’oubliez pas de vous sucrer le bec
My favourite Christmas tradition is having advent calendars. The opening of a door each day really helps to build the excitement of what is to come. My favourite kind are the traditional ones with pictures behind the doors. This year I even found one featuring a house filled with cute squirrels which are my favourite animals! As I child I often had to ‘share’ the calendar so would always let my younger brother ‘go first’ by opening door number one – which he unwittingly did – thereby securing the special double door of number 24 for me! Such a sneaky manoeuvre but the source of so many laughs since over the intervening years. Everyone is now clued up to it and it’s a case of “you can go first!” …. “Oh no! By all means … you go first!”
I love anything to do with Christmas – my main tradition is to visit our daughter on Christmas Day for Christmas lunch – her husband is a chef and he does the cooking and will not let anyone in the kitchen to help!! Usually I get up later than normal which is a real treat. When we get home after lunch I get to sit in my favourite chair and spend half an hour with my ‘needlenthread’. Sheer delight!! Being with family is my Christmas present.
Decorating the Christmas tree with grand children, going to mass on Christmas eve thank you for the chance merry Christmas!! Blessings for good health, enjoy your blog!!
My favorite holiday tradition – the colored lights of Christmas. How dark and dull the world would be in December without Christmas lights!
I’m an enthusiastic fan of Secret Santa exchanges! I love regular family and friend gifting as well, but there’s something delightful about thinking up present ideas on the sly for a randomly assigned person, sometimes a total stranger, and putting together a charmingly wrapped selection of unexpected things. A bit of childhood Christmas morning in the experience of opening up a present from you-don’t-know-who and finding stuff that you didn’t already know you were going to get!
Have done reticello once but would love to try it again. Kits are beautiful
Hi Mary, My favorite Christmas tradition is playing Christmas carols on my CD player.
My favorite holiday traditions are to visit the Christmas markets as well as to spend time with my family (as we live in different countries.)
Having lived in a small village of 48 houses for 40 years the holiday tradition I enjoy most is Christmas morning when Father Christmas rides through the village on a different form of transport every year (ranging from horse and trap to a huge lorry). He gives gifts to all children of 11 and under. All the residents turn out to see him and to wish everyone Happy Christmas.
My favourite Christmas tradition is adding the angel as the finishing touch to decorating the tree. I’ll decorate the tree during December and then we wait until everyone is together on Christmas Eve. We have the ‘drawing of the short straw’ ceremony, and the person who wins gets to put the angel on top of the tree 🙂 after that, it’s present time!
My fave tradition playing Christmas music, especially “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” by Vince Guaraldi.
The best Christmas tradition that I remember from my childhood days in India is decorating the house and preparing sweets with family and neighbors .It was such a wonderful time of togetherness, laughter and happiness. I miss it very much .
My favorite holiday tradition is everything. Making the cookies, putting up the tree. Getting together with friends and loved ones. And, the sparkling lights. Can’t forget those. All comes together for a special time.
My favourite tradition is on Boxing Day. I never have to cook ( except for making fresh rolls). We watch the Boxing Day test match ( cricket) and then during the lunch break watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race
Making and decorating cookies
My favorite tradition about Christmas is family gatherings. Wonderful, wonderful. Also, the music! Can’t get enough of beautiful Christmas music, choirs and Caroling! Also, I love making gifts for family and friends! Too many wondrous things about Christmas to only list one. : )
Thank you for all the newsletters that you put out.
I enjoy them immensely.
Christmas is all about family and food. Getting together, eating, laughing and enjoying good company.
Merry Christmas to you.
My favorite tradition is baking and candy making with my children. Today’s plans are spiced nuts, and sequilhos.
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with my daughters and grandkids. My favorite role in life is being “Gamma” to my gransdkids!
Please, please, please order more kits!!!!! I didn’t get to the site while they were still available!
I like a lit tree in the dark, with ornaments catching the light and throwing reflections.
FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITION is unpacking all of my Christmas tree decorations and remembering when and where each one.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating my Christmas tree. My collection of ornaments is simple, many are homemade by me and others. Some are now 45 years old. I made my tree skirt several years ago from a 1950’s era Wilendur Christmas tablecloth. By the way, these Reticello kits are beautiful! Thank you for this giveaway. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
My favorite holiday tradition has been going to Mass with my husband and son here in Colorado. We have a small family — my mother and my seven siblings and their families all live in Texas — so my family looks forward every year to a beautiful time together at Mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day at the Vail or Beaver Creek chapels. Then days of skiing together and enjoying the winter wonderland of the Colorado mountains.
My favourite holiday tradition is making traditional Estonian foods for the Christmas eve celebration. Spending time with family and opening our presents Christmas Eve. When my children were small they had to sing a song recite a poem play the piano do a dance before they received their gift. My dad used to dress up as Santa when I was little and I never knew; I worked so hard learning songs and practicing pieces on the piano for this special event. Lovely memories. It is all about Christmas Eve!
My favorite holiday is lighting the Hanukkah candles.
Hard to choose a favorite tradition…but I think it would have to be the pickle ornament on the tree! Teaching that to my grandchildren once they are old enough to be allowed near the tree should be great fun! Merry Christmas to all!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to The Christmas Revels in Washington DC. The Revels have a different traditional music related theme every year. This year the theme is “Celtic Crossroads.” It will be the first time we’ve been able to go in a few years, and the first time we will be taking our new daughter-in-law.
My favorite holiday tradition is driving around town after Christmas Eve church services and viewing all the holiday lights and decorations while listening to Christmas carols on the radio.
Our favorite holiday tradition is watching holiday movies each night for the 10 days leading up to Christmas Eve. They can be funny, serious, or a mix. Each year we add new ones to our list to pick from.
Tammy
My favorite holiday tradition is baking Christmas cookies. My mother used to bake all kinds of cookies at Christmas time, mostly German–things like lebkuchen, springerle, pfeffernusse, etc. I used to bake them, too, but now that it’s just my husband and me at home, the last thing we need is large numbers of cookies tempting us. I do know a store where I can buy lebkuchen and a few others imported from Germany, so I get my fix from those, in small doses.
My favorite holiday tradition is cookie baking. When I was younger, I would make a dozen or more different cookie types, now just 6-7 plus fudge and sometimes buckeyes. They are recipes that I make only at Christmas and gift to neighbors, family, and friends. Merry Christmas!
Years ago, my parents started taking the whole family for a weekend away instead buying gifts. We choose a hotel with lots of public room and available food, and we spend the weekend playing games. We usually go on one outing over the weekend to a holiday happening or a group fun event. I love it so much, we started doing it for our kids and grandkids. My dad passed away 4 years ago and we took a break that year and for COVID, but we all look forward to it every year.
I love learning new techniques! This is so beautiful!
Gathering around the piano, playing and singing Christmas carols.
My favourite tradition is the build up to Christmas Day itself. Mum used to bake (fruit) mince pies with ‘melt in the mouth’ flaky pastry, Christmas cakes laced with rum, and rum balls aplenty. The same Christmas carol record played in the days leading up to Christmas and a general feeling of goodwill permeated everything. It’s at this time of year that I look back at Christmases past with great fondness.
Thank you for this wonderful giveaway!
My favorite holiday tradition is going to Christmas Eve services with my family at St. John’s, a little chapel in the county. I’ve been going to St. John’s since I was a child. We haven’t always had a Christmas Eve service there, but we did have a Christmas pageant sometime during the season. For a while we children were each given a gift the day of the pageant. Then one year someone suggested that we each give a gift to a child at St. Michael’s, a home for boys, instead of getting a gift. This new idea was presented in such a way that we delighted in “doing good,” and we began to learn the joy of giving.
You must be a really happy lady, Mary! Thank you for all you give to us!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
My favorite holiday tradition is making Christmas cookies. Mom, my sister, and I went on a marathon baking binge, for 1 day, and managed to whip up about 20 dozen cookies. The smells, the sounds, and the advanced organization skill to pull this off were memorable. One day, every year, Christmas cookies baking day. It makes me smile every time I think of it.
Thank you, Mary, for making these treats available to us! I hope to partake more in the future…
My favorite Christmas tradition is playing music – Messiah, Nutcracker, and Albinoni Adagio with orchestra, carols and hymns at church, the hours spent in preparation immersed in gorgeous music with words that are such blessing! But, best of all is my ‘cello as part of a group playing for midnight Mass on Christmas Eve! I haven’t been able to play my ‘cello for about 3 years, since a flare affected my hands – but still can play piano and sing (badly! but quietly). God seems very near to earth during these times!
Blessings to all, believers and not, hopeful or sad, tired, awaiting rest of Christmas afternoon so well deserved of parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles everywhere
laura
Love, love, love the red pattern. Love, love the black pattern. I’ve never heard of this embroidery but the thread looks luscious and the designs are beautiful. I’d be thrilled to give one a try. Thanks for new adventures.
My favorite holiday tradition is gathering with my family and the candlelight service at church Christmas Eve.
I can easily say getting out the stockings all I made in crewel embroidery and through the years the kids always know theirs place on the fireplace. I always fill them with treats and little gifts and one special gift probably in the very end of the toe. They are always so proud of their stocking! It is always so wonderful for us all
I love the look of reticello and have wanted to learn how to stitch it. One of these kits would be perfect to start with!
My current favorite holiday tradition is going over to my friends house on Christmas day. They are always out of town for Christmas but still decorate their house beautifully. I, however, have not decorated for a holiday in years. So we go over to their house on Christmas to “keep the decorations company and make them feel appreciated.”
Thanks for give away
Favorite tradition is listening to carols and singing them
Also candle light service at church
I have so many, LOL. I think my favorite is the one I was planning for this morning – Walking along the beach on the morning of New Year’s Day. It’s such a lovely way to start the year.
Amazing…thanks for sharing…love everything
My favorite Christmas tradition is having my family around the table for dinner using my pretty Christmas dishes & toasting ” Nick the Bum!” But that’s another story!!
My favorite holiday tradition is making hand made ornaments for the trees of all my family members. I make a different ornament ea year for all.
If holiday is = christmas, then my favourite tradition is having all the goodies (cakes, desserts, chocolates, etc) laid out on a side table for those few days. The tears come afterwards when the scale tells me the price I paid for that pleasure…
My favorite tradition is the ornament exchange with my EGA chapter members. I have received so many precious and beautiful ornaments over the 25 + years I have been a member. Many of my ornaments were stitched by members who are now deceased. Each time I hang their ornament on my tree I remember them and the skills they shared and the encouragement they gave. It is also fun to see the personalities of the giver in each ornament.
My favourite Christmas tradition is walking around after dark on Christmas Eve to look at the lights on all the houses. There is something very exciting and magical about it!
I favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas tradition is the Christmas Eve Candle light service at church.
Favorite Holiday tradition is having plenty of time with the family and extended family – in Australia we generally have a backyard game of cricket (it’s summer time here) after our enormous Christmas lunch together.
Gail
G’day there Mary,
Haha! Water fights! Us oldies can get a good a hit as the young ones without having to exhaust ourselves and stay dryer too. We know the best ambush spots.
The very best of the Season’s wishes and love to you and yours. Kath x
This Italian thread looks luxurious! I would love to try it. I also love how the pamphlet is set up with extra features to explore.
My favorite holiday tradition is cooking for my family. All of it, from soup to nuts! I adore baking, the holidays make everything special. It gives me a chance to spend time with my kids.
Happiest of holidays, and thank you for the generosity!
I love making the cookies and candies that my mother always made. It just feels like part of her is still here with me.
My favorite tradition is attending Dream City Church’s Christmas Celebration show with my friend Cathy and this year Linda as well.
The children are given a signal to approach the Christmas tree and be the first to find the pickle hanging someplace on the tree in an inconspicuous spot. The winner gets to open the first of their presents while all watch.
My favorite holiday tradition is brunch on Christmas morning with family.
My favorite holiday tradition is when my daughter on Christmas morning makes us the “Spanish tortilla” for breakfast.
I think my favorite Christmas tradition is play8ng various table games with my family. It is only when I visit at this time of year that we do this. We always have so much relaxed fun
My favorite holiday tradition is making a true English dinner for my family.
My favourite holiday tradition is going to the beach straight after breakfast on Christmas Day. It is warm and usually sunny on Christmas Day in Australia so it’s a great way to start the day before a cold festive seafood lunch or prawns, oysters and salads, then mango passionfruit dessert like trifle or pavlova. Washed down of course with sparkling wine, rosè or a cocktail!
Absolutely beautiful, and I love that thread.
We are fortunate to own a Williamsburg, VA design home. Every year I decorate as in the tradition of Williamsburg with outside apple, pinecone and berry wreaths on the doors, an apple cone on the dining room table and fruit and greens shaped in a pyramid on the mantel. I also have candle lights on the Christmas tree and in the windows. The simplicity of the decorations is what I love.
My children, grandchildren and I get together for a Games Night on Christmas Eve. This is also when we swap gifts.
My favourite holiday tradition is opening presents on Christmas Eve whilst listening to Christmas music and drinking mulled wine. Frohe Weihnachten!
Making Christmas Brunch with my family
Favourite Holiday Tradition: handmade advent calendars and whisky
Nothing extraordinary, just getting to see and spend time with family. I live in a different part of the country from them so it is truly special to see them and spend time with them in a part of the country that is much more likely to have a white Christmas!
Santa and the flying reindeer!
My favourite holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve a family dinner with turkey and Christmas pudding. Then all the family hanging crucifix’s and miraculous medals on the tree with family prayers.
As a child my favourite tradition was singing in the school choir at Midnight mass. Then sitting around the tree opening one present before bed.
Thank you Mary, for the lovely giveaway. I’d love to learn how to do reticello! (and even if I don’t win I’ll probably still buy a kit :-D)
My favorite holiday tradition is one that we are going to do in a few minutes! My husband is roasting some chestnuts and I am going downstairs to get the big box of Christmas movies. We will enjoy them while we watch the first movie of the season! The big question is which one will it be? My favorite of all the time, “The Bishop’s Wife” or his favorite “A Christmas Carol” Maybe it will have to be a double feature 😀
My favorite tradition is our holiday movie night. It takes place on either Christmas Eve or Day, depending on which evening we are home. We watch our favorite version of “A Christmas Carol” as well as the Grinch and Charlie Brown Christmas. The movies are accompanied by our favorite beverages, Chex party mix and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.
My favorite tradition is our Advent wreath and the Christmas Eve party that just my husband, children and I would have after Mass. Our children would draw names of each other at Thanksgiving for Advent Angels. They could do nice things all through Advent for the sibling they drew and then on Christmas Eve at our party they would say who they had and give hem a small gift. It was a nice relaxing time before all the guests arrived the next day.
My favorite holiday tradition is gathering with family and friends to celebrate Christ’s birth by sharing a meal.
My favourite tradition is sharing our gift of hot ham, bread rolls, nibbles and drinks and a sing song around the piano, with our neighbours, friends any waifes and strays on Chrustmas Eve.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating a tree with ornaments that belonged to my parents and grandparents and setting up the Nativity that belonged to my grandparents under that tree.
My favorite Christmas tradition is the food. We always had soup on Christmas Eve so we could gather around the tree to open presents after dinner. Christmas morning we got up and explored the treasures Santa brought. Once we settled in to play, brunch was prepared. Simple food, simple time spent together.
These kits are so PRETTY! Thank you for giving one away.
My favorite holiday tradition comes from my adopted country
Of Bermuda. IT is traditional to make cassava pie, made from
Cassava, or farine mixed with milk eggs, sugar, seasonings,
And cut up cooked chicken. It is part of the Christmas dinner.
On Christmas morning we slice and fry it and have it for breakfast.
Merry christmas to all.
I make lots of cookies and take them to people who have been a help to me. I try to do it mid month so it’s not too close to Christmas.
My favorite family tradition is making Christmas cookies. My mom made them and so did my Grandma. I still use all their recipes so someday my kids will do the same.
My favorite tradition for Christmas is attending midnight Mass with family.
Time spent with family! It is so great to be together!
I love the peaceful reflexion of Christmas Eve service.
Oh my goodness, these all look fabulous, I’ll have to take a closer look.
My favorite holiday tradition is a teeny one, I think.. my family always has monkey bread and biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning, and it’s just lovely.
My favorite holiday tradition is the baking and sharing with family and friends! Whether it’s decorating my mom’s recipe for Spritz cookies, my aunt’s version of Chex Mix, or making cinnamon pecans or other treats, there are just some flavors – and recipes – that just come out for the holidays and bring back so many memories!
What beautiful kits!
My favorite holiday tradition is stringing popcorn, cranberries, and sometimes seed cakes to put out for the birds, then watch through the window to see who comes by.
My favorite holiday tradition is our annual ravioli dinner on Christmas Eve for family and friends.
When our son was little he always had a Christmas stocking of little toys and things which he would drag into our bedroom in the early hours and open, he would always be so excited and say it was the “best Christmas ever”; then promptly fall asleep. This was great as it meant we had a couple more hours sleep before going downstairs for the main presents under the tree where he would always be so excited that “Santa” had left more presents. I still fill that same homemade stocking with little bits and bobs and he’s 34!
Sigh…. It’s always about the food! Christmas cookie exchanges… let’s be specific … rum balls!!
My most favorite tradition is the late Christmas Eve service with Candle lights and singing Silent Night! It fills me with such peace and joy!!
Linda in NC
My favorite holiday tradition used to be baking and giving holiday cookies with my grandmother, my mom and my aunt(s). Sometimes it was just a few of us, sometimes it was a lot of us. Now we are spread out across the country so Christmas boxes of cookies may cross in the mail. It’s not quite the same, even if we do still attempt to keep the tradition. We all have our copies of the family recipes so we can all ‘share’ our treats. We have a new tradition, helped along by social media. The groups of us who are in the same city, we go out on Christmas Eve and Christmas night to see the lights, then we all post our photos. It is a lot of fun, seeing just how similar our lights can be even when we are on separate coasts.
My brother and I handing out all the Christmas presents from under the Christmas tree. It is something we’ve done since we were children, Mum and Dad finally relaxing along with any other adults that were round for Christmas Day, and the two of us diving back and forth with presents, extremely excited of course. Neither of us had children to pass on the tradition so, even though we are both over 50 now, we still do it together. Things have changed over the years, different houses, we have partners now and sadly Mum isn’t with us anymore but when my brother, Philip, and I are together on Christmas Day handing out presents is our job.
My favorite is a memory: putting a Christmas breakfast on the table and putting on all the Christmas lights and then see the faces of the children when they come in.
Now We are all grown up, but I really love this memory!
Thank you so much for your wonderful work! Someone asked me for a curated list of internet resources to learn embroidery, and you were at the top of my list.
My favorite Christmas tradition is to be with my family on Christmas, and to laugh and have a wonderful time. My second favorite is hosting my annual tree-trimming party. I make homemade egg nog, and other delicious food. It’s so wonderful to see everyone!
Dear Mary,
A bit of cold would be very nice! Here the sun is gearing-up for the summer blitz – just hope it doesn’t start on Christmas Day.
What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
To stop work early on Christmas Eve so that we can enjoy carols in the park in the cool of the evening. Just love singing all the traditional Christmas songs.
Giuliana Buonpadre’s kits look sumptuous!
Thank you for the fun of the Christmas give-away.
Stay warm!
Louisa
My favourite Christmas tradition is watching the Christmas Carols on TV each year. It reminds me of my late mother as she loved everything about Christmas and would try to make it special for us kids growing up even though we had nothing. I have watched them for the last 27 years since she passed and think of her with fond memories memories.
These look really good kits
I’ve always wanted to have a go at this sort of embroidery, had a look at a few books but I was never brave enough to have a go. So after Christmas I will send for one of your kits
Thanks so much for doing these kits
Take care x
Setting up the nativity, usually doing it a little differently every year.
I recently bought a large needlepoint canvas of Bethlehem and the nativity and hope to get started stitching on it soon! It will be nice to have that to pass along to family… maybe it will become part of their tradition some day.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating with family pieces that have been handmade by family members over the years. As I display each piece it is heart warming to remember the family member who made it.
Getting together with family and friends
My most favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family to enjoy being together again.
My favorite holiday tradition is making Christmas cookies with my family.
My favorite tradition doesn’t yet exist. It is a dream. To have my loved ones around and simply praise Jesus. Spend a day or evening enjoying him & each others company.
I don’t celebrate the holidays but I love baking and eating Christmas cookies! This year somebody also asked me to embroider Xmas ornaments for them so this may be a new tradition as well!
My favorite Christmas tradition is making suet pudding. It is from an old family recipe and is a wonderfully warm, steamed pudding which is not too sweet — perfect for ending the major meal, and great for storing leftovers and warming up.
Thanks for the fascinating comments and helps for doing needle art.
My favorite tradition is Advent calendars. Last year we had 5 going here — for 2 people! This year we “only” have 3. We’re perpetually behind, so some days we open more than one “window,” but that makes it even more festive and usually extends the fun into the 12 days of Christmas. I’ve never even seen a stitch-related one, but I have seen knitting ones. One year he had a fly fishing one, and this year I have a scrapbooking one!
Axial tilt is the reason for the season! How I love to enjoy the sunrises on both sides of the solstice. I love to experience my solstice sunrises in unusual ways- the most memorable was helping a friend take his new boat through the Ballard Locks in Seattle! My hands were so cold, but the sun coming through the fog that morning was unforgettable.
Everyone takes turns and opens gifts one at a time. Each gift is tried on or played with before proceeding to the next person. It takes forever and is so much fun!
Thank you for this giveaway, Mary.
Each year my husband and I go to the Bronx Botanical Garden to see the model train show. The buildings in the display are all made out of natural materials. It’s amazing, and it’s fun to see the famous (and not so famous) NYC landmarks built out of bark, twigs and other plant materials.
We continue the tradition my husband’s family started when he was a child. Gifts are opened 1st by the youngest then next youngest until oldest is last. I also make pull-a-parts every Christmas gathering since 1979 when I discovered the recipe in The Kansas Farm Journal. We use to gather at 9 AM when our kids were young. Now it is noonish so they can have their family time. Merry Christmas!
My favourite holiday tradition is preparing the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper. This comprises of 12 lenten dishes, which means no meat or dairy products are served. However, a lot of preparation can be done ahead of the 24th.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies with my children.
My most favorite holiday thing is baking for others – cookies, muffins, quick breads, – all sorts of things.
Merry Christmas & thank you for all you have given us this year – your enthusiasm, the new location ‘fun’, different ideas, and the caring that is all you.
Christmas Eve dinner with my family is my favorite tradition. We always have red lamb stew which my nephew makes.
It’s a joy to be with them.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking lots and lots and lots of cookies! Quite a bit of work but they make so many people happy!
A favorite holiday tradition is the advent spiral that a friend does in her horse barn in the first weekend of advent. It is calm and lovely and meaningful.
I love all the Church activities that take place during this Joyful Season. We have so far had a Pancake Breakfast for the entire Church Community. Upcoming will be a Christmas Concert by our wonderful Choir. Later in the day will be a play put on by the Children called “Welcome the Child”. Additionally I love driving around and taking in all the Holiday Lights around the area where I live. Then of course there is Christmas day itself with much fun with relatives where we eat well and share lots of laughs. Wishing you a Merry and Blessed Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating with lights and ornaments. I collect glass blown ornaments and display them through my home on various metal tree stands. I’m not sure which addiction is worse, my collection of blown glass or needlepoint projects.
Happy Holidays! My favourite Christmas tradition has to be the Family Dinner! When I have all of my children and their partners together, to see how close they all are, and enjoy the laughter and love that permeates our space! That is the absolute best ever.
Favorite holiday tradition is baking ginger bread cookies for Christmas
Favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas morning with children and now with grandkids and great grands! Fun to watch them.
My favorite holiday tradition is singing Christmas carols – wherever and whenever! I have been singing all my life and music has been a large part of church and secular life.
There is so much to do and enjoy over the Christmas Season. The one thing I really look forward to and has the most meaning to me is my church’s Christmas Eve service. It really brings “The Reason for the Season” to fill my heart. Thank you for Jesus!
I grew up near the coast of NC. At one point during the summer we would go to the Outer Banks with a big ice chest and meet the shrimp boats coming in with their catch. We’d get a cooler full of shrimp! At home we’d sort the shrimp by size and freeze them in meal-sized containers in brine (salty water) to preserve the fresh flavor. Our Christmas tradition is that we would have a big shrimp boil on Christmas Eve. The kitchen table would be covered with newspaper and we’d each get a small bowl of butter and cocktail sauce would be available. We’d sit around the table peeling shrimp and having a great time!
My favorite holiday tradition takes place Christmas eve. As many of the family as we can gather are all setting around by the Christmas tree, and before any gifts are opened, the Christmas story of the greatest gift every known, God’s son, is read. Celebrating the birth of Jesus is the true meaning of Christmas!
Thank you for this “give away”.
Merry Christmas
What lovely intricate, delicate pieces! Love the blue and linen colors!
Thank you for the offering of such dramatic offerings!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree and all the memories that come flooding back with all the ornaments collected over a lifetime. Some made by children in our family, some bought on family vacations, some handed down over the generations. The ornaments bring smiles, laughter or tears but the memories are all treasured. Thank you for asking ❤️ and for all the great instructions throughout the year!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree and all the memories that come flooding back with all the ornaments collected over a lifetime. Some made by children in our family, some bought on family vacations, some handed down over the generations. The ornaments bring smiles, laughter or tears but the memories are all treasured. Thank you for asking ❤️ and for all the great instructions throughout the year!
My favorite holiday tradition? Good question, but after thinking about the choices, I think it has to be baking Christmas cookies, decorating them and giving them to family and friends.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking Christmas cookies with my children.
My favorite Christmas tradition is gathering with friends to sing carols and eat delicious food!
I love our family ornament exchange. So much fun.
The most important tradition that we have at Christmas is gathering the family together. When the children were smaller,Christmas was always celebrated on Christmas Day. But as the family grew with other members joining in, Christmas Day was beginning to become difficult to arrange. With the introduction of new family traditions we have learned to accept and adapt to those new traditions. So to me whether I celebrate on Christmas Day or Boxing Day or Christmas Eve as long as I can have my family with me at this special time of the year is the most important tradition of all.
Those are lovely kits and I will have to come back and get one. I am a beginner and I am wondering how hard you think they are to do?
I like to see all of the different outside holiday decorations that people put up.
My favorite Christmas tradition is drinking home made eggnog!
My favorite tradition is just the family getting together, that is the most important thing. Enjoying each other, having a good meal and laughing.
My favourite tradition is Christmas dinner with our standard set of menu items. If I could only continue one element of the Christmas celebration, that would be the one I’d try hardest to maintain. Some of the menu carries over from my husband’s family, some from mine, and some has been added for our children’s tastes.
I suppose the tree would be a close second, though.
When I was young, we used to go to Sun Valley, Idaho to ski. On Christmas Eve night, many skiers would carry a flare and ski down a run close to the hotel. They skied in a long snake-like line. It was Santa Clause coming to see all the children. A long few minutes later, and here comes Santa on sled pulled by 6-8 Samoyed dogs. He ho-ho-hoed and passed out treat filled stocking to each of us.
My favorite holiday tradition is making an ornament for my Embroiderer’s Guild chapter’s holiday ornament exchange. I have been a member for thirty years and have always participated in the ornament exchange. Every year, I search for a different ornament design then make at least two, one for the exchange and one for myself and, if time allows, a few for friends and/or family. I have a special, white tree that is filled with hand embroidered ornaments, half that I have made and half that I have received from the random exchange. I look forward to this every year and have a lovely holiday tree to display them on!!
Oh! cette broderie italienne m’interesse au plus haut point.
Gros merci pour la possibilite de gagner le tirage.
M.G.
The best holiday tradition for me is going to a Christmas concert at the cathedral in Santa Fe, New Mexico
I am an immigrant from Mexico, so Surprise! Making tamales at Christmas is my favorite holiday tradition. You may have heard it is a long process and lots of work. Yes! And the more family and friends that help the merrier it will be. You have to start out with gathering your ingredients: Masa (the corn meal that covers the filling), the meats you will cook, the sauces, and the corn husks to wrap each tamal. You can make your own masa with various dried corn flours available, but it is more fun to go to a great Latin American deli, and queue up with the other dozens of people waiting their turn. You trade tips and traditions with people standing in line and it is a small party outside the deli.
Simmering the fillings is an all day affair, so while those are cooking, you make the chile sauces. Then friends and family come over to help put the tamales together. We have a small family so we only need about 130 or so. But several friends make a minimum of 500 and if I special guests are coming, 1000! Everyone expects at least a dozen to take home after the party, so you can see that the number grow quickly.
And the best part is the eating. A non-Hispanic friend once told me that he thought he knew a good tamal—but had no idea what the real thing tasted like until he tasted a home-made one. YAY!
My favorite tradition on the Christmas holidays is on boxing day I get to have a day to myself as after all the hurley burley of family celebrations and get togethers on and before Christmas, on boxing day all the rest of the family goes off in their own different directions and leaves me on my own with my stitching or lace and perfect peace!
My favorite Christmas tradition is opening presents on Christmas eve. The first year we were together, my fiance (husband now) was so excited about the presents he had got me, he couldn’t wait until Christmas morning. In the 47 years since then, we have always opened presents on Christmas eve. I just feel so loved.
Jane
My favorite holiday tradition has, for many years, been making homemade marzipan candy with my sister. It is a two day process. I make base candy and then we color various batches of it. The second day is making wonderful shapes. We started out making the traditional fruit shapes and as my kids grew old enough to “help” we explored shapes like hot dogs and slices of pizza and snow men. A wonderful two days and it never failed to delight the recipient. Happy days.
My favorite holiday tradition is to look at my two sons (20 and 17 years old now) opening together their Christmas socks on Christmas morning… They laugh and they seem to be really happy and appreciate each other.
Thank you for bringing kits from Italy.
Merry Christmas!
My Christmas celebration traditions have become simpler over the years – less shopping and partying, more baking, and hanging out with friends watching the Grinch! Happy Holidays!
Those kits look so lovely and have me so curious! My favorite holiday tradition is waking up on christmas morning and spending time with the family, taking turns opening presents together. I love seeing their reactions to the things I gave them, it’s like getting an extra present myself.
So many memories – but the most is my father making the Swedish mulled wine drink – glogg. At one point in the blending, he had to ignite it! And, it had a distinctive aroma.
My personal favorite holiday tradition is making my 2 children each an ornament of the year. Sometimes these are embroidered, sometimes woven and sometimes cast and soldered metals.
My family is from Germany and we always open our gifts on Christmas Eve. When my siblings and I became adults we would have dinner and then my unmarried brother would have coffee and cookies. Needless to say it became known as “the coffee of death” to the kids. Now that they have kids, the “coffee of death” has been passed down to my grandkids. We decided this year that we would go to my daughter’s house and the topic was all about whether they had to have the “coffee of death”. We shall see!
My favorite holiday tradition is to decorate our home with items made by my friends and family. Each item I take out reminds me of them and the love they put into these items.
My favorite tradition is the Christmas novena, which starts on December 16, and finishes on Christmas eve; each day we pray the novena and sing Christmas carols, after that, we will have some Christmas cookies with hot chocolate, or some type of dessert. If your relatives live in the same town, we usually pray the novena in a different relative’s house each day.
My favorite trandition is to cook my family’s favorite sweet.
Pecan danties for 1 neiece…milk chocolate fudge for a nephew..etc.
I just saw this article and the needlework is equistive..much learn more.
attending Christmas carols in an olde-worlde Anglican church, followed by a mince pie and a small glass of muscat
Christmas eve with family
Our favourite family tradition is sharing and caring on Christmas Day together.
My favorite holiday times are Swedish traditions going back for generations. I remember as a young girl celebrating with family gathered around the table for a smorgasbord feast. My Mom carried on after my Grandmother and I carried on after my Mom. My daughters are now learning about gathering and enjoying each other’s company.
I used to teach Sunday School and rotate years between my three children. The year I taught each was during middle school. Every year we asked the children to tell us what their family Christmas tradition. Other children said things like- The Nutcracker, Lessons and Carols, a special dinner, singing carols, etc.
Each of my three children said theirs was watching “Christmas Vacation” with the family on Christmas Eve.
At the time, I was embarrassed. Now, the memory makes me smile.
My favorite tradition is celebrating on Christmas Eve – a simple, but delicious dinner, going to church, and then coming home to open presents and nosh on cookies and eggnog! Pure bliss!
My favorite holiday (meaning Christmas) tradition is gift opening on Christmas Eve, followed by morning Christmas Mass, followed by dinner as a family at my DS’s house with everyone that can come.
Thank you for putting these kinds of posts up. Merry Christmas!
Each family member could choose ONE gift to open on Christmas Eve night. The small suspense of seeing which size package they chose & their reaction to it was a joy to see as the gifts were opened one at a time. It was unlike when everyone was busy opening all of them.
Thank you for another give-away. Someone will be lucky or blessed.
A favorite tradition is when family and friends gather to share a favorite craft project he or she has worked on this year. Each one who comes brings a homemade treat to share as well.
A favourite holiday tradition is to enjoy beginning to read the annual haul of books often found under the Christmas tree and planning the next embroidery project.
Favourite Holiday tradition?
Brunch with the kids on Christmas day followed by a relaxing day playing with Legos or stitching a new kit while they all go to their partners’ family Christmas do’s. Drinking crisp white wine outside (if it isn’t too hot), followed by several days of not very much at all. It is the only time of year we allow ourselves to be completely indolent. Lovely
My favourite holiday tradition is going to midnight mass…
I would love to do this project. I do a lot of Hardanger, but this is different enough that it would be a fun learning experience
My favourite Christmas tradition is having little fruit mince pies.
Some years the family makes the pies from scratch and others years life gets too lifey so we purchase from the shop.
Thank you Mary, for this lovely opportunity
My favourite holiday tradition is doing the dinner and presents on Christmas Eve.
It is a tradition that my family carried along, when we emigrated to Canada.
Even though my parents passed decades ago, I still carry on the tradition.
It works for us, and the grandkids love it! They get 2 Christmases.
Merry Christmas!
Piroska
Wow ! Super kit. Christmas for me is family, food (we try all sorts of new recipes in the days near Christmas) and having some time for sewing and jigsaws!
My favorite holiday tradition is pulling out “Ho-ho”, a soft, raggedy Santa pillow from my husband’s childhood. When I bring it out, my husband (in his 60s) cries out “Ho-ho” like a child. <3 <3 <3
Wonderful! My favourite holiday tradition is the Icelandic one of giving books at Christmas, the idea being that you spend the long winter nights indoors reading.
Beautiful technique. I would love to give it a try.
Six years ago I started a new tradition. I give a handmade ornament to my niece and nephews. We are not close and I see them rarely, so I like the idea of making these ornaments for them to have for the rest of their lives.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is going to the Christmas Eve service at our church singing Silent Night by candlelight. We follow the service by going to our favorite Italian restaurant for a Christmas Eve meal.
Thank you for the chance to win the beautiful Reticello Kit. They are gorgeous!!
My favorite holiday tradition is homemade applesauce. My dad always made it for Thanksgiving and Chanukah, and now I do too. Perfect as part of both dinner and dessert!!!
When I was little in the 1950’s we would always make a trip to the nearest (small) city to see the department store windows decorated for Christmas. Of course this was Thanksgiving weekend since in the “old days” the Christmas season didn’t start until then. I can’t say it’s a tradition any more since the season seems to start somewhere around Halloween and there really aren’t department stores with windows anymore. But it sure had a way of ramping up the Christmas anticipation for us kids.
My favorite family Christmas tradition is watching the children search for the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree after all gifts have been opened. It’s really hard to find! The lucky finder gets a small gift.
Unpacking the decorations and thinking of new and different ways to display them. Maybe even adding one or two!
My favorite holiday tradition is stitching the Prairie Schooler Santa each fall. It’s an extra-long advent season for me. I haven’t done all of them, but I have done most. I’ve gifted most of them and inherited the ones I made for my mother, who died in 2017. I’ll put them around my apartment today and enjoy them until 12th Night when they’ll get packed away again until next year.
My fav is making and eating lefse during the holidays.
My favorite tradition is watching “A Christmas Carol “ and drinking eggnog on Christmas
Eve.
When “the holidays” get to be too, too much, just follow this recipe:
– gather the family, young and old
– ply them with liquor-laced egg nog (kids needn’t add to their good spirits)
– sing all the Christmas carols chosen by each family member
– laugh until you can’t stand it anymore
– be grateful for family
My family background is Polish and we celebrate Wigilia on Christmas Eve. There are many traditions attached to this but basically it centers on family – breaking a Christmas wafer with each person as you wish them good health and prosperity, eating a meatless meal as this is the vigil to Christmas, singing kolendy (carols), exchanging gifts and finally attending midnight mass. Some things have changed over the years and generations but the fond memories of past celebrations with parents and grandparents, siblings and cousins remain.
My favourite family tradition is a big high tea on Christmas Eve. It always includes a chocolate log, sausage rolls and cheese straws, and the extended family now look forward to it too. The children are excited because Santa is coming, the preparations are all done and we can all sit down and enjoy being together.
My favourite family holiday tradition would be our family coming together to enjoy each other’s company. My children, partners and grandchildren playing, cooking, eating and making merry together for 3 or 4 days every year.
While I like the tradition of Holiday Decoration, my favorite tradition is the gathering of the family/families.
Since today families move to ‘other places’ due to work and other reason. But in my family, we still try to gather several times a year especially at Christmas. This year I have family coming from Montana and Oregon to our ‘home’ in Washington.
My favourite holiday tradition is the Christmas baking. I have some recipes that “must” be included in the list every year and a few new ones to try out and some that cycle around depending on my mood.
Love your new book! Favorite holiday tradition is celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas. And, of course our Great Grandchildren.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
I would love to be included in the reticello give away. I have wanted to try this for years!!
My favourite holiday tradition is trimming the tree. I have 3 trees and my daughters all come round to help. we play loud Christmas carols, eat mince pies and ice cream and share lots of love and joy!
My families favourite Christmas holiday tradition is the “feast” we have on Christmas Eve after attending the Christmas Vigil Mass. The feast is really more of a glorified breakfast with different kinds of breads and spreads particularly the Dutch goodies, but it is special because the whole family is there. We put out the good crockery and cutlery and and make the table look festive. One of my grown up daughters described it as the best meal of the year.
There are so many Christmas traditions that I enjoy, but since I was a senior in high school, I have participated most years in a charitable drive like Sub for Santa or a donation to a charitable organization like Heifer International. I am now 69 & I still find that this tradition is the most meaningful to me since it embodies the spirit of Christmas. I also enjoy going to the midnight candlelight service at church, waking up late, & small gatherings with family & friends all through the month of December.
My favorite holiday tradition is a pie party with my siblings! There is lots of tea and goodies and chatting!
You know how much I love needlelace!
My favorite holiday tradition is spending time with family: baking, Christmas dinner, going out to look at Christmas lights, etc. I missed them so much last Christmas during my year-long deployment (the song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, still makes me tear up).
My family’s most popular Christmas tradition is making a new tree decoration each year. Some of us attend a regular event with their knitting or embroidery group, some get ideas or designs off the internet for paper or wood crafting and some make efforts to produce things in a humorous but un-crafty way as possible. e.g. a bent beer can “angel”.
I love going to midnight mass and then gathering the following morning for a big family breakfast/brunch.
My favorite holiday tradition is choosing an angel from the Salvation Army Angel tree and then having fun shopping for the wishes written on the angel for a girl or boy who wouldn’t ordinarily get their Christmas wishes. This is absolutely the best thing and I think I enjoy it more than the children getting the presents!
My favorite tradition is the Christmas Eve service at our church with family.
My favorite holiday tradition is creating a themed Xmas tree either with color or types of ornaments ie animals, vintage, etc. It creates something different and unexpected to look forward to seeing each year
My favorite tradition of the holiday season is giving a special or unexpected gift to someone. This year I made a Minnie Mouse doll outfit for a little girl that I don’t even know. Her mother cares for my mom 3 nights a week and she talks about her daughters so lovingly. When she mentioned that the youngest was really into Minnie Mouse, it inspired me to create a doll outfit for her. I gave it to her mother tonight and she was so thrilled! It brought the magic of the season back into my heart.
Thank you, Mary Corbett. Your work is stunning. I may not always have a chance to try your stitches, but I sure love looking at them. You are an inspiration in the embroidery world.
My favourite holiday tradition is hiding a (real) silver coin in the Christmas Pudding. Whoever gets it in their serving gets good luck for the coming year.
My 3 grown up daughters and myself have started a Christmas tradition which has been running for a few years now. In the week before Christmas they leave the children with their husbands and we shop for our last Christmas gifts plus some little gifts for the men and children when they get home. Then we go for a Christmas afternoon tea. It is so relaxing and lovely to spend time just for us in all the hustle and bustle of the season. We love our afternoon tea in England, I am not sure if other countries love it as much as we do, I hope so. You can have coffee instead of tea – I do!!
I love your newsletter Mary. I live alone and it is like a conversation with a friend each time I receive one. I am not creeping I know this is random, I just wanted you to know.
My favourite holiday tradition was giving my mom her stocking on Christmas day and seeing the joy in her face as she unwrapped each little gift. Most of the gifts were little things she could use throughout the year, like pens, note pads, chocolates. It was fun shopping for these smalls in the months leading up to Christmas and then wrapping each in pretty paper. But the most wonderful part was just watching the fun and excitement my mom had in opening her gifts, and knowing she’d enjoy them throughout the year – except the chocolates – she took care of those pretty quickly 😉
I am intrigued by the Reticello technique. I would enjoy the challenge of learning something new.
My favourite tradition is following a family tradition putting up the Christmas tree with my grandchildren and then decorating the gingerbread house which we made together beforehand.
Then we sing carols around the tree with rest of family followed by cup of something nice eating the gingerbread.
My favorite holiday tradition is the fruit cake, I Begin with tue preparations during the first week of november and take me almost two months to get it ready an delicius
I’ve wanted to try reticella for a long time, Mary, so I really appreciate this give-away. The kits are beautiful! I love the red and oatmeal fabric together.
My favorite holiday tradition? I would like to say that it is gathering around the piano after a hearty Christmas dinner and singing Christmas carols while the snow drifts down outside, like some Dickensian-esque Christmas portrait. But as dreamy as that sounds, it isn’t reality. My favorite tradition is going to midnight Mass with my family, coming home and having cocoa while we open one present, going to bed way too late, and getting up way too early for a slow and leisurely Christmas day filled with toys and games and lots of noise and good food with family and friends. If it’s cold enough for snow or a fire in the fireplace, even better!
I love decorating my Christmas tree. Pulling out all the ornaments that all have a “story”.
My children are probably tired of hearing all about them, but I love it!
Merry Christmas!!
So many to choose from! I think my favorite, aside from Midnight Mass and Christmas Day itself, is the family “Day of Decorating and Decoration.” Our family brings out our boxes of Christmas decorations between the day after Thanksgiving and November 30th to prepare for… December 1st: Our entire day dedicated to decorating the house for the Christmas Season. We have hot punch, cold champagne, many hors d’oeuvres for all tastes young and old- – and not to mention, every variety of Christmas cookie. A fun frenzy that lasts into evening!
Thank you for such a fun and beautiful give-away and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours. Sunnie K
My favorite holiday tradition is having the kids and grandkids over for Christmas dinner (or on alternate years it’s brunch) and discovering what’s in our stockings. Each person is supposed to add 1 item to each stocking, making for a wide variety of little gifties.
Merry Christmas, Mary!
My favourite Christmas tradition is opening my stocking — I have remained faithful to this favourite tradition since I was a young child. I love lingering over each gift no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Each was chosen especially for me. It is a tradition where we all open our stockings together, and ooh and ahh over the perfect small gifts. It’s the start of the Christmas Day.
I hope your day is special too.
My favorite holiday tradition now is relatively new. It’s getting up on Christmas then after a nice breakfast going to my daughter’s house to watch my little grandson’s ( 2 yrs and 8 months) open their gifts and spending the day with them.
My very favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve candlelight service. After all the crazy, busy, rush, traffic, too much sweets, party, work task deadlines, etc… The grounding back to the truth of Christmas in the beautiful candlelight service is where my heart finds the gift of the savior at Christmas.
Crackers on the table at dinner time.
My favourite holiday tradition is picking out our Christmas tree and waiting while it is cut down. Then bringing it home and decorating it. We have always loved to do this as a family.
My favorite holiday tradition is to walk Old Town in Albuquerque. The streets and shops are lined with luminarias and it creates a very peaceful atmosphere. Many shops have treats to hand out as you pass by. There are choirs that perform in the gazebo in the square. Then we go to a lovely restaurant for dinner.
Our favorite is the Holiday Hike…dogs a plus…in snow even better.
I love that we go to candlelight service every Christmas Eve with as many family members as will come. I love singing the songs together and by candlelight.
Because I was born and grew up in Brazil, a favorite Christmas tradition is eating Panettone (an Italian sweet bread – some call it a “cake”- made with dried fruits, but nothing like the American fruit cake). When I moved to the US in the late 80’s, Panettones were hard to find. In recent years, however, they have become quite popular and available at local grocery stores. Opening that first Panettone, right after setting up Christmas decorations remains, to this day, my favorite tradition!
Merry Christmas! Looking forward to a wonderful New Year following Needle ‘n Thread!
Food! We remember the specialty foods of our mothers, aunts, grandma’s and great grandmother. Also special decorations, linens, special serving dishes — some over 150 years old. Many from the ‘old’ country stored away in china cabinets of grandmothers past. ♥️
Midnight Mass everything just sparkles in the candlelight. And when you go out into the cold night the snow on the ground sparkles in the moonlight..
My family has been doing a cookie decorating party 2 weeks before Christmas for the past 40 years. We use my grandmother’s biscuit cookie recipe and cookie cutters. It was special doing it with my children while they were growing up and even better today with my 3 little grandchildren!
Christmas Eve services are my favorite tradition. There’s nothing like the peace this brings to the season.
The whole family agrees (forcefully!!) that Christmas morning brunch is our favourite Christmas tradition. Gifts are opened -never too many books- thanks are given and then brunch. It has always included “Daddy Eggs” even though SIL is now responsible for those. Darling daughter has an array of breads, buns, veggies, dip, fruit, bacon, sausages etc. Pure decadence.
We recognize how fortunate we all are so part of our brunch includes a donation to our local food bank. Not everyone will have the Christmas we will have
The prize kits look fun and the books are always a treat! I’d be thrilled to win.
Family Christmas Eve is my favorite holiday tradition. For more than 35 years, everyone within easy driving distance (2-ish hours [this is Texas!], unless you’re overnighting) has gathered at the family home (first my parents’ house, now my sister’s). There’s Christmas music and the menu is always Mexican food. Originally, this was my Mom’s enchiladas, with queso and our favorite purchased tamales as sides. Now, it’s my sister’s homemade chili, Mexican rice (her grandkid’s favorite!), and queso, with tamales. After supper, we always start the Christmas jigsaw puzzle (my contribution to this event – my Dad loved jigsaw puzzles). If there are young children (first grandkids, now great-grandkids) with large Santa gifts, they return home overnight. Some or all of the adults attend candlelight Christmas Eve services, then continue with the puzzle. NO FINISHING THE PUZZLE OVERNIGHT! We always finish the puzzle Christmas Day in the afternoon to evening depending on the size. Never until after everyone has returned for Family Christmas Day.
My tradition is, My Aunt made me a Christmas tree for Christmas in 1962. I put it out every year. Believe it or not I have moved 6 times and it looks like new!
My favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve drive around the community. We admire all the neighbors lights and displays and think deep thoughts about the beauty and joy of this time of year while listening to Christmas music on the car radio. It started years ago as a way to quiet excited kids after church and before time for bed and Santa. Now that the kids have kids of their own we find that the ride around gives us a needed quiet break too.
What an inspiring book!
Gathering together friends and family is the most cherished tradition for me.
My favorite Xmas tradition is decorating our family room—tree, garlands, table and shelf items—each item a special 40+ year memory. And the door wreaths and lights in the front bushes! Such happy fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is waking up in the morning after and having leftover pie for breakfast! Sometimes even straight from the pie plate!
Since my husband and his (adult) children are Jewish and I am Catholic, we try to have two holiday celebrations. We have a dinner with the kids as a somewhat combine holiday celebration and then the hublet and I have a fancy-ish dinner just us two. So, I would have to say, my favorite holiday tradition is the FOOD!
Thank you for this chance to win a kit. My favorite holiday tradition is going for a hike in western NC to enjoy the beauty of nature in winter….taking photos of family along the way. Then we grab a hot chocolate to warm up on the ride home !
My favorite holiday tradition is baking and decorating Christmas Sugar Cookies with my family. The recipe is one from my childhood and my sons and husband all participate in decorating the cookies which are cut out using cookie cutters I have collected over the years. Their creativity is amazing and of course there must be some taste testing to make sure they pass inspection. We love sharing them with our friends and neighbors, too.
Some how, you make amazing work seem somewhat less confusing for us.
All of the kits are beautiful, and I would be honored to win any of them. My favorite is with the ‘panel in red’. Maybe because it is so close to Christmas, or due to the fact that I love the color combination!
My favorite holiday tradition while growing up was my mom’s homemade cornbread dressing. It was cooked and served in a blue speckled ,oval dish. That was only used twice a year, so I always looked forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Unfortunately, when I moved to California, that dish didn’t come with me. Maybe that is a good thing, because my husband and children doesn’t like the homemade cornbread dressing.
My mother in law, who passed away December 10, last year, gave me the recipe for a cornbread dish that she made for my husband, when he was growing up.
I really should had snuck the blue dish in my suitcase when I left Alabama 34 years ago. I’m sure the new cornbread recipe would have been perfect for it!
I love singing Silent Night by candle in church on Christmas Eve, it is so moving. A close second is the ridiculous dessert spread our family produces, after the big Christmas dinner.
Have a lovely Holiday and a nice break from work.
My very favorite Holiday tradition is my boys and I attend church each Christmas Eve to set things in the proper order for worshipping the One who was born a babe in a manager on Christmas.
My favorite tradition was our Christmas Eve dinner. The whole family, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings all gathered around a huge Christmas tree, a tree with treasured ornaments and tables ladened with with favorite foods. We would open presents, eat ourselves silly, and enjoy one another as we never had time the rest of the year.
I am French Canadian and so my favourite Christmas song is Minuit Chrétien.
It is a superb catholic song that needs someone with a strong voice to be song properly. It brings me back to when I was little and going to midnight mass with my mom. I would really love to win this giveaway since the last time I won something was when I was 6 yrs old and won a crystal rosary. And of course, I never saw the light of it, my mom kept it for herself, judging I was too young for such a ”fancy” object….
My favorite holiday tradition is attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve.
We cannot all get together on Christmas Day so we have an early one. We always have a fondue and play board games.
Our tradition is just having family around the table to enjoy a good meal and have conversations and laugh. We love getting together for the holidays, gives you a chance to catch up with the loved ones you don’t see very often
I love going to the midnight service on Christmas Eve, then coming home to mince pies and mulled wine.
My favorite traditions are to bring out the items connected to my now deceased parents. My Mother and I stitched a holiday table cloth together. She did all the cross stitches and I added beads to finish it. My dad was a collector of Christmas items. I treasure sitting out the Hummel angels and silver collectors bells.
And then there is the candy dish that was filled with the seasonal candies.
Riding through light displays. Adore the lights. I hope someday to have year round lights.
My favorite holiday tradition is when my family all travels to get together at my sister’s house. We exchange token, joke gifts that poke fun at something silly we did as kids. Brings back lots of memories and lots of laughter!
Hi Mary.
I just love Christmas! I love getting together with my mom, age 91, and my kids and grandchildren. We sing and eat and laugh. I just love celebrating with them! But we always remember the reason for our joy. Jesus Christ Our Savior was born into the world for us!! What a loving God!
Thanks for this giveaway. I hope I win. It looks like a fun one .
My favorite holiday tradition is to dress up in all our cold weather gear. Then hop on our snow machines.
We are far enough out of town to see the Northern lights.
We’ll go a ways up on the hill then stop pull out our thermos and enjoy the hot chocolate, amazing views, and laughter.
My favorite holiday tradition is my New Orleans Grandmother’s Christmas Eve family celebration which we traveled from Houston to attend.
A week before Before Christmas Eve, my Grandmother would lock her parlor door so she and her helpers could secretly decorate the parlor and a huge tree. In the parlor a gift for each child & adult in her big family (8 sons & 1 daughter) could be wrapped & placed under the tree.
On Christmas Eve, before Midnight Mass all of my aunts, uncles and cousins gathered to listen for Christmas jingle bells in the parlor. The parlor door was unlocked and we all rushed inside a glorious room with only the Christmas tree lights on and Santa sitting, waiting for all of the “youngest”grandchildren to stand in front of him & prove we could say the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary. Then each would sit on his lap and tell him what good boys & girls we were during the year since we last saw him while the entire family listened (and commented ).
Each child & every adult received one gift from Santa. All of the gifts were small & personal (adults usually received monogramed hankies) — the gifts given was not Grandmother’s focus — family and the religious spirit of Christmas was her gift to us.
After gifts were distributed & Christmas carols sung (with Santa as conductor!), Santa assured all the children that he had their home addresses for his over night visits. Then Santa left (with a big performance by a neighbor ringing sleigh bells outside) and the children were tucked in blankets on the parlor carpet to sleep until their parents returned from Midnight Mass to take them home.
My memories from babe to young adult of attending Grandmother’s traditional Christmas Eve are of all the smiling, loving faces of family members, the hugs & the Christmas carols sung, the awestruck children saying their prayers, the adults leaving for Mass & returning to take their children home or to go to parties all over the city. My family!
I wish I had a favorite tradition, or a tradition of any kind. But I don’t. Some I remember from my childhood, but they ,and the people involved no longer exist.
Even though Christmas is hard for many people, I still welcome the Birth of my Lord and Savior.
Making caramel corn and gingerbread with my family
My favourite Christmas tradition is really two fold. The first thing I set out when decorating is my lovely Nativity set. The best part of Christmas though is going to church with my son. It is a tradition he loves to do with me as we both love the Christmas carols and love to sing. After Mass we visit the Crèche in our church before we go home. Mother Nature usually shows her splendour by providing a gentle snow fall for our drive home after Mass. Our tradition is completed with a drive through the neighbourhood to look at the Christmas lights sparkling in the light snowfall.
Mary I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2023
The last three years, since moving to Charleston, we have gone to the Festival of Lights. Going with the grandchildren makes it really special. They each remember their favorites from the year before.
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies. Merry Christmas to all!
Singing, singing Christmas carols – in a huge performance space, around the house and everything in between. Traditional, newly created, it doesn’t matter, although formal with harmonies are preferable. My very favourite Christmas tradition, apart from family of course.
Probably my most favorite holiday tradition is making my Grandmothers homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Eve celebrations. All of my 5 children, their spouses and my grandchildren love these rolls! My Grandmothers recipe has a unique ‘twist’ to them that, in my opinion, make them extra special!!
Decorating the Christmas tree by the fire with my family!
My favourite holiday tradition is setting up the Christmas tree and having my family and friends admire it and place a few.
I have been collecting decorations since I first left home (40 years ago) and delight in placing those dear old decorations up.
I love the decorations given to me over the years, recalling those friends and our times spent together, annually.
Over the past few years I have started embroidering decorations – coincidentally, this year I stitched a white reticello one (Buon natale, designed by Di Kirchner, featured in Inspirations magazine).
Christmas blessings to you and thanks for the opportunity to comment.
My favourite tradition is to bring Kurobuta ham, and several cookie doughs, along with appetiser mixture to our daughter’s house. Also another favourite tradition is spending several days with family as well as all of our grandchildren!! Our grandchildren use the cookie dough to make cut outs etc! So much fun to watch their excitement in play!
Happy holidays to you all!! ~Heidi
Spending time with family !
Although we have had many Christmas traditions over the years, the most enduring and consistent tradition for my husband and me has been our blended Christmas Eve ethnic meal we host for friends and family. This year will be our 51st.
I am Polish, so I’ve just gotta have pierogi (my grandmother’s recipe), Polish mushroom soup, and bulka, a Polish sweet bread. My husband is Norwegian/German, so the order of the day are rosettes, krumkaka, and lefsa, a Norwegian flatbread. As you can tell, the foods are very different from one another. For the most part, we make them together with me picking up the slack.
The actual menu for Christmas Eve begins, after appetizers, with the mushroom soup followed by fish, browned parsley potatoes, pierogi, and a fresh, green vegetable. Usually one of my sisters-in-law provides dessert. We started that first Christmas by agreeing on the fish – salmon. No-one had a problem with that. We do periodically change the preparation and presentation. The soup took some getting used to for the Scandihoovians; the flavor is very earthy and nothing like anything I’ve ever had that’s Norwegian. Now everyone is pretty used to it and enjoy it. For me, it’s a gotta have even with the difficulty sometimes of getting the mushrooms. I’ve been eating it since I was a little kid. It’s just soooooo good!
We were joined on our first few Christmas Eves by my brother; we soon added close neighbors who one year asked if they could bring a daughter and her significant other, both professional musicians. They usually arrived after Christmas since they were always performing through Christmas Day. That year three of our guests went home to get their instruments; mom brought her double bass, and daughter and significant other were both brass players so brought their trombone and tuba. I am also a musician who once upon a time taught and played piano. So there we were, our impromptu quartet having a gay old time playing and improvising. The party ended at 4:00 am!
Family has been steady throughout the years. We’ve grown quieter as we age, but as our friends join the party, the nature of it changes. We never know if we’ll have another impromptu concert, but even during COVID, the two of us had our Christmas Eve.
My favourite holiday tradition is reading the same Christmas mystery every year on Christmas Eve. I read “Rest You Merry” by Charlotte MacLeod. The plot involves a professor who prefers restrained Christmas decorations but is goaded by the faculty wives to hire a professional decorating company to come in and do an over the top job of decorating his house. Then he leaves with them to take sail on a streamer so he can get some peace and quiet. When the ship breaks down he goes home to find his decorations all turned off and his chief tormentor dead behind his living room sofa. I enjoy this book every year as it reminds that all the glitz etc is not the purpose of the season.
What a wonderful prize! Love all forms of needlelace.
My favourite Christmas tradition – I love going to the midnight church service on Christmas Eve. It is so peaceful and joyful. Everyone is quiet – tired after a hectic few days, and preparing for the big feast to come, and they share their happiness with everyone else there. Then going home, and going to bed for a last sleep before the big day – such a beautiful time to be alive.
My favorite Christmas tradition is putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. That and putting out my manger display. Once those things are done Christmas seems real.
My favorite holiday tradition is attending midnight Mass with my family. It is the event that most puts me in a festive spirit and I always want to arrive very early so we can all have seats and spend the time listening to the choir sing traditional Christmas hymns.
The “Nativity Play” at church – 1st-grade Sunday School are the sheep, 3rd-grade the ‘chorus of angels,’ 4th-grade the shepherds, etc., so the older kids have speaking parts and the younger ones have songs or just get used to being on stage in costume. Kid-acting is priceless. They use the same costumes and the same script, right out of Luke and Matthew, every year.
Then homemade pizza for Christmas dinner – with only a few of us, and getting older, we like to keep the feast light!
Enjoying a large family lunch together on Christmas day. It is usually the only day during the year that all the Grand Parents, Aunties, Uncles, Cousins etc. spend the afternoon together having fun and games!
One of our favorite holiday traditions is going to the las posadas. the Las Posadas is a non denominational event where we follow Mary and Joseph trying to find a place to stay before the birth of Jesus. Lots of singing and a mariachi band plays music as we follow behind as they visit various “inns” around the historic down town. I lead the procession dressed as the angel escorting Mary and Joseph in their search for an inn.
My favorite holiday tradition is attending midnight Mass. It just seems like the right time to celebrate Christ’s birth.
My favorite holiday tradition is Advent – all of getting ready for Christmas. One example: growing up we would put up a bare branch “Jesse Tree.” We would hang “ornaments” or symbols of the stories which foretold the coming of the Savior, Jesus, and talk about them. Now my children are grown, and I treasure the drawings and colorings they made.
My favorite holiday tradition was when the family would all get together at my parent’s house on Christmas Eve and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” followed by carol singing and midnight mass at our church.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is reading “The Gift of the Magi” by O.Henry with my daughter.
At Christmas my family gathers to celebrate the arrival of baby Jesus. We sing Christmas music in a “Parranda” with panderos, guiro, guitars and wood sticks . In Puerto Rico we prepare the Christmas menu that consists of rice with pigeon peas, Lechón asado, Arroz con leche de coco and coquito . We celebrate until Three Kings Day when the childrens received they gifts . And some families have a Promesa de Reyes (Kings Promise) . Were the music a prayer to give thanks to the Kings for well-being.
My favorite tradition is just getting together with family to eat, snack, open gifts, talk and laugh, and maybe play some games. I’ve been introduced to some fun new (for me) games, such as Telestration.
I would love to learn reticello from the kits and books!
It’s a family tradition for us to attend Christmas morning Mass. We then come home to a hot brunch which includes a homemade bread wreath, baked ‘wife-saver’ egg dish, fruit and coffee, tea and mimosas. Brunch is informal, with everyone serving themselves, and coincides with opening gifts. It’s a nice, relaxed way to enjoy Christmas morning before the business of getting Christmas dinner begins.
0Hmmmm… I don’t know if I have just one favorite tradion. I suppose the best answer is gathering tovether as a family. It’s harder now with Mom and Dad (94 and 95) in Assisted Living, but we will manage and make new traditions!
Going to Granny’s for Christmas was awesome as a kid … and as a married woman. The smell of coal smoke still takes me back!
I hope you have a Merry Christmas, Mary!
My parents , son and ourselves gather Christmas morning for croissants and coffee then open the presents. The day is spent together and ends with Christmas dinner. My parents have died but my son and partner are carrying this on with us.
Sitting by the fire on Christmas Eve with a cup of tea is my favorite holiday tradition.
As a Christmas tradition, we love to think about the past year and the year to come.
We talk about what our intentions might be. This way, it does seem to avoid the “New Year’s Resolution” tension!
Of course, we bake traditional Lithuanian cookies…
Christmas Eve paella and new pajamas!
Hi Mary,
These projects are so beautiful. I would love to try to make one.
Thank you for the opportunity.
: ) Cheryl
I love the opening of gifts after our Christmas meal. We enjoy the meal and the clearing up afterwards so we can get to the good stuff. We take turns opening a gift so everyone can see what the gift is.
A favourite tradition is Christmas morning when we look though our stockings….everyone gets one, not just kids. It’s a nice time of hanging out at the table, relaxing, eating the Christmas orange, nuts & chocolates as a kind of brunch; & just being together laughing, relaxing, & enjoying ourselves. (We open regular Christmas presents on the Eve).
My favourite Christmas tradition is making some recipes that we enjoy every year. Tourtiere, a French Canadian meat pie is served for Christmas Eve. Butter tarts and Scottish shortbread cookies satisfy our sweet tooth. Some like turkey and others prefer ham, so we have both and enjoy leftovers for days. A homemade cranberry chutney is also a must.
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas Eve service at my church. My whole family sings in the choir. At the end of the service everyone processes outside with lit candles singing Silent Night, taking the light out into the world.
My favorite holiday tradition is baking and making candy using the recipes my parents used when I was growing up. I remember all the huge family gatherings to eat everything. I still cherish the family gatherings but we are a smaller group now so I don’t bake for weeks.
Seeing the tree all lite up with presents under the tree. I put the presents there the night before, but I still think Santa has been there. It all looks like magic in the morning.
Hello! My favorite holiday tradition is to use a special mug for the twelve days before and after Christmas. It was a gift from many years ago, and is quite festive (stockings in different patterns of red, green, blue, and gold, with a small harp on the inner rim).
My favorite tradition is baking the 8 different types of Christmas cookies that my mother-in-law always baked for her children and grand children. This year I decided to add in the Belgian lukken waffle cookies that my mother and grandmother always made for us growing up. The whole experience brought back very happy memories of those two wonderful women in my life…. and the cookies! Wow! That was a delicious childhood Christmas memory.
My favorite tradition is baking cookies with the kids and now grandkids and just spending time with family.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating gingerbread boys and girls. So much fun to add the faces and clothes. The girls all have earrings and bracelets too.
The entire month of December is spent celebrating Christmas. Decorating our family tree at a local park, spending time with multiple generations of family, lighting the Advent wreath, setting out the Nativity a piece a day leaving the last to be displayed on Christmas day – the baby Jesus in his manger, Christmas Eve fish and spaghetti dinner with the cousins. Christmas morning Mass and a quiet dinner home. Each is so important. I can’t choose one. The lights , love and family all centered around celebrating Jesus.
My favorite holiday traditions are all in the baking. I start just after Thanksgiving, with Chex party mix, original recipe from when I was a kid. Then I like to bake cookies, Anise and Almond and iced, just like my grandmother made. For dessert on Christmas (after a prime rib dinner) I serve both persimmon pudding and grand mariner souffle.
My favorite holiday item is after going to Mass (I am Catholic) I visit the manger and ask a favor of the good Lord. I also take a piece of hay because an old custom says if you take a blessed piece of hay from the manger you will always have enough money to live on and I always have.
My favourite Christmas tradition? For years my favourite tradition is something I would often start right after Christmas. I would choose a family member and sew, stitch, search out and buy or bake something that I think is perfect for them. Something unique, something that might be prohibitive to buy for oneself or something that might just tickle their fancy! Then there is the other tradition……undertaking an orgy of baking treats and tasty things from around the world; mostly French or from the land of my family. These things definitely fall into the category of being too difficult, time consuming or exotic for most of the family. Then I get the pleasure of sharing this bounty with those I love. The non food related things, well I also try to gift them to loved ones who wouldn’t expect the gift. It homey and loving and (hopefully) complete in tune with the celebration of the birth of our Lord.
Merry Christmas Mary and Anna! Enjoy your holidays!
My favorite holiday tradition was singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve at my grandmothers. All my family would gather together and go door to door singing Christmas carols. Neighbors were always so excited and would ask us in for hot cocoa and Christmas goodies they had made. Some would even join in and go sing at the next house.
As everyone has gotten older and some passed on we don’t go door to door anymore but we do still sing Christmas carols each year on Christmas Eve. They were such sweet childhood memories! Merry Christmas!
I love your articles so much ! They are really inspiring to me.
I would love to discover this Italian technique.
I am from France, and my favorite Holliday tradition takes place next to the Christmas tree on the morning of the 25th : the presents are on the floor, all around the Christmas tree, and starting from the youngest member of the family, he or she picks one randomly, reading the name on the tag, and giving it to the right person, who opens his or her present. Following the order from the youngest picker to the oldest, once everyone has picked one present, we start again with the youngest…
When making the pudding I ring my scattered brothers and children to make a wish while I am stirring the pudding . This goes back to my mother and grandmother who always got any children around to stir wishes into the pudding then she stirred in the sixpence and threepences . Good memories Happy Christmas to all the Needle n Thread familyChris from sunny Australia
Helping to decorate the Chapel on Christmas Eve; you know within a few hours it will be Christmas and there is a beautiful excitement about this time.
My favorite holiday tradition usually starts late at night on December 23rd. After the house is quiet, I take out raisins, mixed fruits and brandy, mix up 3 separate bowls of these and let them set over night. In the morning my kitchen turns into a bakery as I set to work making 9 loaves of Stollen for my family. Stuffed with the fruit, toasted almonds and almond paste, the baking bread smells amazing, filling our house with the scent of Christmas. Thinking of each family enjoying this delicious bread on Christmas morning as I knead and shape the loaves warms my heart. This bread is currently enjoyed by 4 generations: my parents, brothers, son and grandson. I have been making these for 30+ years now so that must be a tradition, right?!
My favorite holiday tradition is to buy a real fir tree and to decorate it while listening to Christmas carols.
Merry Christmas to you Mary.
Louise
The Reticello is beautiful! I have done one piece and enjoyed it. It would be fun to have another piece to embroider.
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve church service. It puts the holiday in perspective. Depending on the time of the service, we have a dinner with the same menu each year. The family is upset if I try to vary the menu.
Happy Holidays!
My favorite holiday tradition is going out Christmas eve night looking at the Christmas lights. We drive all around and at the end we stop at my Moms house and have a cup of tea. My mother’s town has luminaries all around the lake and the streets it surprises me every year how beautiful they are. Merry Christmas to everyone and a peaceful New
Year.
Gathering with friends and family.
Favourite Holiday Tradition!
Making a special meal where everyone in the family makes a dish or two! Christmas movie playing in the background during the prepping and cooking done by family members claiming a spot at the stove or on the island to make their dishes. A chaotic mix of bowls of all sizes, pots, pans, measuring cups and spoons all being used and washed up for another dish! Lots of happy chatter sharing family news, enjoying Christmas drinks and appys – some as soon as they come out of the oven. All the while everyone is trying to get their dishes made in time for the big meal.
What beautiful kits. You are very generous to be giving away such lovely items.
My favorite holiday tradition is lighting candles on the winter solstice. That’s my ‘official’ start of the holiday season. Not only is that the day that marks the end of the dark, more important it heralds the coming of the Light.
ps. it’s the best ever if I can gather all my kids on that day. Bonus!
Best Wishes.
Well, I have several, but my favorite would have to be the Christmas eve reading. The first Christmas Eve after we adopted our daughter, she and I sat on the couch in front of the lit tree and read the scriptures from Luke and Isaiah. From the first time we read, she was entranced, so it became our special ritual. Just us, in the room with just the lights from the tree, and the two of us, reading about the birth of Jesus.
Our favorite tradition is our Christmas supper with all of our children and grandchildren. The date varies each year to accommodate everyone’s schedule, but getting all 22 of us together is so heartwarming.
Getting together with family!
Thank you so much for adding a second winner. It is exciting and appreciated.
My favourite Christmas tradition is having traditional Estonian holiday foods that I prepare – beet salad, pickled herring, shrimp, smoked salmon and a Jul log – chocolate jelly roll covered in mocha whip cream and sprinkled with chocolate! Ahhh!
My favorite holiday tradition is the White Elephant Exchange. Nothing makes me laugh harder at the wacky items people open or steal. This year, my contribution was an adult size unicorn onesie, tie dyed, of course! It was the first gift chosen, and was stolen in round two!
My favorite holiday tradition is still opening our stocking gifts on Christmas morning. Even though our sons are married now, they and their wives still come over to our home early to do stockings before we head out in various directions to celebrate with the rest of our families. The family stockings are based off the ones my mother made for my brothers and me decades ago. Each one is unique, but still follow the same theme of appliqué, embroidery and bead work. No grandkids yet, but they will have handmade stockings too, someday.
Hi, Mary,
My favorite tradition is trimming the Christmas tree.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Beth
My favorite tradition is wrapping and stuffing small presents for my three now adult sons into the pieced and appliqued Christmas stockings that were made by my mother over 25 years ago. It is always fun to keep track throughout the year of small things that they would find useful or fun. I decided to just hang the stockings for decoration one year after they all had left home and Christmas morning they were so disappointed that there was nothing to dump out and unwrap. So I reinstated the trdition and it is one of the highlights of the holiday season. Even though my husband thinks I am nuts….
Also, I do hope you restock the reticello kits, the materials look lovely and so high quality.
My favorite holiday tradition is the music, both for Advent and Christmas. I probably won’t put up any decorations this year, because it’s time and effort I don’t really want to spend to put something up and take it right down again. But I’ve been basking in the music since Advent started. One of my favorites is the ‘O antiphons’ that are sung starting on December 17. The Rorate Coeli chant is also gorgeous and evocative; but the richness of Christmas hymns and songs is wonderful.
My favorite holiday tradition is eating xmas dinner and singing on xmas eve!
My favorite Christmas tradition is shopping with my family. At first, it was just my mother and I shopping on Christmas Eve. We usually had everything bought by that time, but it was an occasion to spend time together and just enjoy each others company, as well as a giggle or two. Later, my daughter joined in the tradition and sometimes it became more like a marathon and we would literally “shop until we dropped!” But we still enjoyed each other and usually had lunch together. Mom is a bit older (aren’t we all?) and my daughter has moved away, so we do not shop as long, nor always on Christmas Eve now. We still, however, make sure to have at least one day to go out together over the holiday season. The amount of time spent shopping might be shorter, but our enjoyment of each other remains.
My favourite tradition is filling the stocking with fun little gifts and sweet treats and the kids excited to open them at the crack of dawn!
Beside decorating the tree with my family, I also very much enjoy baking the Yule log that will be served at the Reveillon, the traditional French dinner on December 24th and listening at the guests’ excitement when I bring it to the table.
Our favourite tradition is the lighting of the candles in the window. It makes it look so inviting inside.
Merry Christmas.
Celebrating little Christmas with family has always been a favorite of mine
I love the Christmas tree, right now I’m looking at the decorated, lit up tree and it makes me so happy just to look at this sparkly thing in my home. Every ornament is a memory.
My favourite christmas tradition …. it’s hard to choose, either the family drives to see all the christmas lights and decorations, or everyone in the family getting their chocolate letter (so glad my initial is an M not an I LOL) and a mandarin orange in the christmas stocking.
My favorite holiday tradition has become decorating gingerbread houses with my grandniece Mallory at her church after a Christmas pageant is performed by the children.
Setting up and trimming the Christmas tree is a top tradition. hanging our Christmas stockings and also riding around the neighborhood looking at Christmas trees in windows or outside decorations in yards.
My favourite Christmas tradition is that each gift is given one at a time, so everyone gets to participate in the enjoyment of each person giving or receiving their gift.
Thank you for all of the amazing giveaways that you hosted this year Mary!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
As I’ve gotten older and my husband is in poor health I’ve had to cut down on what I do for the holidays. So this year I picked out favorite recipes of both our families and decided this is a way of including these members who have since passed away with us in a special way.