Blogmas 2014 - Day 1 Your Favorite Christmas Tradition

I decided to participate in Blogmas 2014 created by the wonderful Sandra at The Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom.  I often participate in her Happy Homemaker Monday but haven't been able to do that in awhile.  I will get back to HHM eventually but I am going to give this Blogmas a try.  I don't update my blog often because I never know what to write so this shall be fun.  Hopefully I can find the time every day this month to complete this. 

And wow, can you believe it's December already?  Where did the year go?  Unbelievable! 

Ok, here it is. 

Your Favorite Christmas Tradition

When it comes to Christmas my family has a lot of traditions.  We bake sugar cookies with my Christmas shape cookie cutters, we go to the mall and let the kids pick out a new ornament or two for our tree, we stay home on Christmas Eve to watch as Santa goes by on a firetruck and we take a trip to the nearby amusement park to see their lights display and see Santa.  But I think my most favorite tradition of all is setting up the tree and all the decorations.  Every year it's done the day after Thanksgiving.

I've never been great at dealing with crowds so Black Friday shopping is out of the question.  Plus, before having children when I worked I had the day after Thanksgiving off and my husband took the day off.  It was a perfect day to get the decorating done. 

We have a prelit artificial tree which seems to make things so much easier.  I don't have to worry about stringing lights but I do add a few pieces of garland and the glass balls while the children put the rest of the ornaments on.  They love doing it. 

Then I arrange other decorations around the house, including our ceramic nativity scene and the stockings.  The children also enjoy sticking the window clings to the living room window. 

My husband hangs the lights and decorates the outside of the house.  I didn't take a picture of that yet.