The 12 Days of Christmas and how we Celebrate

One of the traditions we have had for a long time is the giving of family gifts over the 12 Days of Christmas.
How did this come about?
Well as we learned more about our faith as our children were littler we were interested to learn that Christmas did not finish on Christmas Day but was actually a season in the life of the Church and so extended at least until Epiphany  and sometimes longer depending on which calender you follow.

So we decided to continue on with the celebrations and give a family gift that we would take turns opening each day up till Epiphany.

Some years I wrap all the presents and place them under the tree then the person for the day can choose which one to open each day.
Then some years I hide them away and bring out the present each day, place it under the tree and the chosen  person gets it and gathers every one around so we can see the opening together.

This year was the later as we have a little one who cannot resist opening the presents from the tree when he sees them.
I admit it is hard to find gifts that don't end up costing too much and it does take a bit of looking. As we don't buy gifts during the year except birthdays of course, we tend to try to find things that will suit us all and that we would not normally buy but that we really like.
To that end The Hobbit has been a huge thing over the Christmas period as we took the older children to see it as it was released. The tickets were part of our Christmas allowance and were a high priority for us, as we are big Hobbit fans in our family.
Also we have been gradually changing our old videos to DVDs and there a  lot of animated classics we need to get so they were on the list too.

During the years we have had many types of gifts including:
board games, sports equipment, DVDs, books, food items, stockings, chocolate nougat puddings ( huge favourite with everyone and certainly an indulgence) and sometimes outings and necessary items we may need .

This year contains a heavy helping of DVDs and books but here is what we have have-
1st Day of Christmas: Foam swords for playing together
2nd Day of Christmas: The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey Chronicles
3rd Day of Christmas: The Brady Bunch 1st Season Series
4th Day of Christmas: Christmas Romance and I'll Be Home for Christmas Christmas   DVDs (and I got Christmas Shoes for St Nicholas Day)
5th Day of Christmas: Complete Skippy Collection
6th Day of Christmas:  Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 and Tinkerbell and The Lost Treasure DVDs
7th Day of Christmas:  Queen Victoria's Christmas Book and Fox and the Hound DVD
8th Day of Christmas: Pocahontas and Lady and the Tramp DVDs
9th Day of Christmas:  Special Milkshakes with Ice cream and topping ( a rare indulgence for us) and we used all 4 liters of ice cream too :)
10th Day of Christmas: The Hobbit Movie Story Book
11th Day of Christmas: The Hobbit Visual Guide
12th Day of Christmas: School Supplies -AS it is a large cost and I saw some specials I cheated a little and bought some.

Blessings to you and your homes,