Stories

Christmas Traditions-Another 5 Great New Traditions to Consider for your Family

Well, it appears you are still perplexed, and my last 5 ideas to consider for starting a new Christmas tradition were not quite what you were looking for.  That is perfectly acceptable, so here are another 5 ideas for you to give some thought to.

If these ideas fail to enrich your Christmas spirit, we may resort to unlocking the ancient idea vault where century upon century of Christmas ideas lie recorded on fading scrolls as left to us by previous holiday revelers.  This can only be as a last resort, for the ancient vault is a revered and honored archive of holiday cheer with an uplifting power so great, it has been said the vault door should only be opened in the event our own creativity and will to celebrate has reached such a formidable roadblock that only the treasures of the ancient vault can help.      

What you may find while reading each of my articles on Christmas traditions, both current and those yet to come, is that with each new article the ideas get more imaginative and further from the ordinary than the more commonplace family traditions.   Now, before we resort to unlocking the ancient idea vault, let us take a look at 5 more ideas for a new Christmas tradition for your family. 

• Do you display a Christmas village during the holidays?  Begin a tradition of picking out a new ceramic or porcelain building to add and display with your collection.  Start by browsing the internet for the types of pieces that are available each year, and from years past.  Make it fun by first deciding what function that piece will serve in your village.  Will it be a doctor’s office?  Perhaps a seaside café to feed the hungry village sailors arriving back in port.    
• How about something as simple as letting your children flip on the lights to each year’s village display?  The simple things can mean so much to our little ones.
• Do you decorate the outside of your home with lights during the holidays?  Take a tour of your neighborhood or any neighborhood that goes all out with decorating to see other homes.  You can get great ideas, and your kids will absolutely love it.
• Have an early Christmas evening family dinner out.  Make it a tradition by returning to the same restaurant each year.  As your children grow and start their own families, sit back and reminisce about the day you began this new Christmas tradition that now involves yet another generation of your family.
• This last one can be a logistical and financial impossibility for a lot of people, but if it can fit in to your schedule and budget, try taking a yuletide mini vacation to a holiday resort or cabin.  You might be surprised at how many families do this every year.

There they are.  Another 5 Christmas traditions for you to consider and possibly give a try.

Stephen Baird is the founder and well renowned artisan of highly detailed custom Harvest and Christmas villages for commercial Christmas decoration displays.

 



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Christmas Traditions-Give your Family Something to Look Forward to with a New Tradition

Have you or your family fallen in to what can be described as a Christmas rut?  Turning to the same old and almost obligatory standard gift giving habits year in and year out?  It sounds like you may need to revive the festive spirit of the holidays with a new Christmas tradition that your family can call its own.  Here is how it works.

The sooner you introduce something new and uplifting to you and your family’s Christmas festivities, the happier and more fulfilled you and they will be.  It goes without saying, that for most Christmas revelers, the tendency to fall in to a predictable pattern of celebrating the same Christmas traditions each and every year is very commonplace.  Of course there is nothing wrong with that.  But what if you were able to bring a newer kind of smile to your family faces by being able to get them involved in something they can look forward to each Christmas holiday season? 

Here is just a small list of new Christmas traditions to consider:

• Choose a new Christmas time only recipe that the family will love.  Of course, the first year you try this is the test.  If you do not get consensus on the popularity of the dish, just try another one.  Now, you have to stick to the tradition by not making it any other time of the year other than Christmas.  You promise? 

• Have your kids pick out a very special ornament each year.  It will mean more to them when they look at the tree as each year passes to see ornaments from years past and what it meant to them.

•  If you have crafty kids, even better than picking out a store bought ornament would be to give them the tools to make hand crafted ornaments or hand painted ornaments.  This can be done quite inexpensively as well.

• Another possibility for an ornament theme is to start a tradition of handing down some of your ornaments each year to your grown children.  Perhaps they are out on their own for the first time and cannot afford to put a lot of money in to tree trimming.  So, why not help them out and bring back wonderful holiday memories for them at the same time?

• Get your children involved in outdoor home decorating and lighting.  Be careful when it comes to electricity, but letting one, both, or all of them flip the switch that turns on the Christmas lights can be quite a thrill.

See, when you give it a little thought, it is quite easy to come up with some great ideas for a new family Christmas tradition that you all can enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Stephen Baird is the founder and well renowned artisan of highly detailed custom Harvest and Christmas villages for commercial Christmas decoration displays.

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Christmas Villages-5 Visually Stunning Places to Display Your Village

So you have decided to take up the decades old tradition of displaying a Christmas village, but are not yet sure where the ideal location might be for your own display.  Take a seat and rest easy, for you are about to hear of some of the many ways and places in which to show off your collection so you will be able to focus your time entirely on how to display your village rather than worrying about where.

Believe it or not, there are still millions of people who have never displayed a miniature Christmas village during the holidays.  Hard to believe is it not?  In fact, it might not be a stretch to say that the vast majority of Christmas celebrants were they to display a collectible village would probably look no further than the fireplace mantle as a possible display setting.    

As someone who has planned, designed and displayed Harvest and Christmas villages in a wide variety of locations around the home in addition to businesses for over 40 years, I can reassure you that the home offers many, many wonderful locations to show off a collectible village.  Here are but a few of the several to consider, including the old reliable fireplace mantel.    

•       Mantel:  The fireplace mantel is a very prominent location for displaying your village, as long as your collection is not too extensive and would force the overcrowding of your favorite pieces in to what can be a narrow and overall restricted space.  Remember too that you do not have to display every single village piece you own just for the sake of bragging about the size of your collection.  Overcrowding your collection will make it look cluttered and not festive at all.  If you do want to use your mantel, try terracing part of the display by elevating the height where you place a building or two.  You can use a small book to raise the height of the pieces you have selected to highlight attention on.  You will be giving a terraced and landscape like visual effect to your display, and make it much more interesting to look at.  Tell yourself that anyone can line up their collectibles in a neat little row, but you refuse to settle for a dull and lifeless village display. 

•      Under the tree:  Your Christmas tree is a naturally scenic location to set up a display, as long as you do not have curious indoor pets that would end up trampling it in the way Godzilla often did to Japan, in the movies that is.  The draping greenery from the tree blends nicely with the village scenery, and you will also have much more room to experiment with the placement of your village pieces.  Envision the magical glow of lights coming from the tiny homes of your miniature hamlet and the fairytale appeal it will add to your tree setting.   One caveat to placing your village under the tree is that you will need to place any gifts off to the side, or in another location so as not to block the view of your display.   

•      Table top:  Using a table to display your Christmas village is definitely one of the easier options, and for some of us, the only choice.  There is usually ample room and it is elevated at a height that enables the smaller nuances of your display to be viewed much easier.  Like the fireplace mantel, try terracing sections of your display to give it the kind of character and visual effect that I guarantee you most displays fail to deliver.       

•      Garden window:  Although I have never displayed a village in this setting, I would agree that it is a perfect location to build your village in a way that not only shows it off for viewing from the inside, but enables you to proudly display your creativity to outside viewers.  It is very simple to place your village pieces in a way that show them off at varied angles.  Think of the times you have seen some of the more professionally designed store window displays take advantage of that feature by presenting items to both store patrons already within the store, and those peering from the outside that the store owners hope will step inside. 

•       Unused Fireplace: When I was growing up, I could not understand why my parents decided to not use our fireplace and instead paint it a shade of white to match the interior walls of our home.  So you think it strange as well.  Thank you, now I do not feel so bad.  I did discover early on however, that it is not uncommon to find owners of some older homes doing the same thing since they rarely use the fireplace, particularly in some of the warmer regions of the United States.  Whether or not you have painted over the interior of your fireplace, you can still use it as a wonderful location to display your village.  Just make sure to clean it well prior to setting up your display.  Of course, you will have to avoid lighting a fire for awhile.

I do hope I have been able to shed some light on the many location possibilities for displaying your Harvest or Christmas village.  Check out more of my articles for additional locations to display your collectible villages.

 Stephen Baird is the founder and well renowned artisan of highly detailed custom Harvest and Christmas villages for commercial Christmas decoration displays.

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Christmas Traditions-Why it is Vital to Keep the Child Inside All of us Alive

The innocence ends for all of us eventually, and for some that time comes at unfortunately a very young age.  Sometimes sickness, familial conflicts, or a multitude of other negative forces take hold of what should be a glorious time of our lives, our childhood.  However, no matter what our age, nor our background, it is never too late to turn our gaze towards the youth of our world, try to see the world through their young and innocent eyes, and either relive through them or live for the first time the joy that each year’s Christmas season should bring.

Our children do grow up fast, and because of that certainty of life, it is essential that we help them celebrate in this uncertain world, their whimsical fantasies of youth and enjoy their childhood the way God intended.  With the innocence and exuberance for life that only a child is capable of. 

Sometimes it takes having our own children to revive that same exuberance that we remember feeling at a young age.  When my father passed away just two days prior to Christmas day when I was but a mere 11 years of age, I became numb to the well wishers and helpful humanitarians that came to the aid of our spirit zapped family.  Yet to this day, I cannot and hope to never forget with each passing year, the long lasting importance of what they did for us.  Whether it was bringing a freshly prepared meal for us to eat, or a kindly wrapped present in the absence of any, their thoughtfulness will always be appreciated. 

It was many years before I was able to feel the same joy and exuberance from the Christmas traditions of my early youth, but eventually it did return, and with even greater intensity as I was able to welcome my own two beautiful children in to our world.  The importance of them being able to feel the same excitement that I was fortunate to experience was not only important, but essential.    

That is why I implore anyone who feels the same rush of excitement that a child feels during Christmas to consider volunteering your time where possible to a worthy children’s charity or organization for those less fortunate.  No child should ever be deprived of their right to celebrate the same Christmas traditions that are afforded the more fortunate.  You might be surprised at how just a few minutes out of a day can go a long way towards bringing happiness to a less fortunate child.  They may not thank you now, but it will have a long lasting impact on their lives, and they will most likely want to repeat the kindness for someone else less fortunate later in their own life.    

So, I beseech all of us to try and see the world through child-like eyes, and give back to those youth of the world who are maybe not in a position to celebrate the Christmas season the way it should be.  By keeping the child inside of us alive, we are in a great position to help out wherever possible.

Merry Christmas!

Stephen Baird is the founder and well renowned villagescape artisan of highly detailed custom Harvest and Christmas villages .  Stephen’s Village Fantasies business enables him to share his passion for Christmas traditions and display ideas with everyone.  This article may freely be reprinted, but must have author reference box intact including links.