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pixilated_momma
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 1:26pm | IP Logged
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(I hope this isn't a repeat of another post ...  )
A few days ago, my daughter said, "I LOOOOOOVE Advent! It's so awesome. I love it more than Christmas. Christmas goes too fast and is one day."
Which is a cute thing to say.
EXCEPT that Christmas is a season. So, I was reminded to plan/think up/ask (hee hee) for ideas to make the Christmas season last longer than the 24th/25th.
So far I have:
1. Decorate the tree and house on the 23rd (OK, I couldn't postpone it any longer.)
2. Watch Christmas movies!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's about it. 
How do you folks make it last? And if there's a post about that already (and one that I blanked out on), please let me know.
Thanks!
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Veronica Maria
Paper Dali, my art blog
Sometimes Bailey, my creativity blog
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JodieLyn
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other celebrations within Christmas.. The next sunday is the feast of the Holy Family, and there's New Year's Eve and New Year's days and Epiphany. Spending extra time playing with the gifts.. rather than going back to "normal" schedule too quickly. some year's I've kept making the treats through the Christmas season which not only eases up the schedule prior to Christmas but can make it more relaxed and fun to do with the kids. I generally give out loaves of homemade bread as Christmas gifts to friends and neighbors and I do those after Christmas.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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CatholicMommy
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Only celebrate Christmas parties after Christmas day (hard to do, but getting easier for us).
Don't open all the presents on Christmas Day.
Spend the days after Christmas working on all the Christmas crafts and games we never have time to do any other year.
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Garden of Francis
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donnalynn
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Michaela
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CatholicMommy wrote:
| Spend the days after Christmas working on all the Christmas crafts and games we never have time to do |
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 Thank you for sharing this! I've been feeling the pressure of getting all the crafts and fun activities done before Christmas Day. Feeling like a failure this year..... You've helped greatly to remind me there is still soooooo much time left to create memories.
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Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
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SuzanneG
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::We try to go to Mass at the Cathedral to see the Nativity Scene, and also try to go to other churches as well to see the different nativity sets.
::Our dolls have a Christmas party.
::Game Day, munching on Appetizers all day long.
::We usually bake cookies sometime in there, cuz it usually doens't happen before Chrismtas.
::Eat some sort of "sugar cereal" for a couple breakfasts. Or other special yummy-breakfasts...breads, muffins, etc...that you normally wouldn't have.
::Scavenger Hunt
::Our neighborhood goes caroling a couple days after Christmas.
::Dinner by candlelight-only in front of the Chrismtas tree.
::Christmas Poetry Party
::I always buy the Gingerbread houses or those trees...AFTER Christmas, cuz they're practically FREE and every child gets to decorate one.
Dawn had a post about her Tags of Comfort and Joy that could be incorporated into the 12 days of Christmas.
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Suzanne in ID
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Mackfam
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We try to continue our "feasting" for the 12 days of Christmas...
** special picture books saved for the 12 days of Christmas
** special baking...and consumption of said baking.
** special movies all throughout Christmas
** special meals or treats that we wouldn't normally have.
** Absolutely, positively NO UNNECESSARY HOUSE CLEANING...AT ALL!!!!! We're all working very hard right now. We've been purging and organizing for the last month and all our hard work has culminated in a sense of order and lack of stuff spilling out of every corner. We're working hard right now (in fact...the kids are vacuuming and dusting whilst I type - so I better make this quick before I'm caught shirking! ) on deep cleaning...so mopping, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms SCRUBBED!!!
** special LIGHTS!!!! We decorate after Gaudette Sunday, but lights come on during the 12 days of Christmas. We have strung little lights in our Nativity scene, Christmas lights, mantle candles, and the crew is hanging house lights today and tomorrow. Lights are big for us!
** special music. We try to listen to Advent music during Advent and Christmas music during Christmas. Jenn has a great post on Advent and Christmas music.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Paula in MN
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We do the 12 Days of Christmas a la our own sweet Ruth!
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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pixilated_momma
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Thank you, gals, so very much for sharing these wonderful ideas!
It's so true! All that cookie-bakin' I meant to do and Christmassy crafts can still happen ... in church time. 
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Veronica Maria
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BeckyC
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For the past few years we have been trying to celebrate Advent and save Christmas for the Christmas season. We do most of the things that Jennifer mentioned. It was very hard at first to save the Christmas carols for Christmas Eve and not light our tree, but it is getting easier. By not pressuring myself that all baking must be done by Christmas is a huge relief. We have 12 days to celebrate!
Two years ago we started picking a "Christ Child" on Christmas morning. This is a favorite activity of our kids and is similar to a Kris Kringle normally done in Advent. All our names go into a basket and each person picks a name. This is their "Christ Child" to secretly take care of for the 12 days of Christmas. Special prayers could be said, a piece of candy at their spot at the table, a bed mysteriously made, etc. This helps to reinforce that "whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you did it to Me." Besides taking care of their "Christ Child" they are also someone else's "Christ Child" and having special surprises. On Epiphany, we reveal who we are. My kids love this and can't wait till Christmas to pick names.
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DominaCaeli
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Waiting to bring out the Christmas decorations,music, and cookies until the 24th really does help. Like Jennifer, we also save many of the picture books until then (especially the Twelve Days of Christmas ones and the Epiphany-related books). I save lots of my craft ideas and other fun outings until then as well.
It also helps when we approach Advent with a spirit of penance and preparation rather than celebration. After a long period of fasting, it's hard to get tired of feasting in just one day. 
I like so many of the ideas shared here, ladies!
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
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sunnyviewmom
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Thank you for this wonderful post and all of the great ideas! This topic is very near to my heart and we do many of the things mentioned here. Let's "take back" Christmas by celebrating it as the holy and joyous season that it is! The shopping malls can be finished with "Christmas" on Dec. 25 but that's when it really just begins!
I just want to mention that EWTN is selling a new little booklet entitled Christmas Joy: From Christ's Birth To His Baptism by Bishop Robert J. Baker (published by Our Sunday Visitor). It has prayers and reflections for each day of Christmas and suggests lighting a Christ Candle while praying. We enjoy our prayer time with the Advent wreath and candles and this is a way to do something similar for Christmas.. to really keep our focus where it should be.
Bishop Baker also has an EWTN DVD available with similar reflections called The twelve Days of Christmas. I saw him interviewed on Bookmark and he remarked that the Christmas season does go beyond the 12 days, as indicated in the booklet.
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Willa
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Our ways of extending Christmas (most of them probably repeats of what others have said):
Put up decorations very slowly during the last days of Advent and keep them up till Epiphany.
Bake cookies
Play or sing music.
Relax more -- keep the days unstructured as long as we can.
More family time -- fireplace, music, kitchen activity, games, outside time, whatever brings your family together joyously.
For a couple of years when I had littler kids, I tried to extend the gift-giving past Christmas Day but now we already have too much "stuff" around the house. Still, you can issue little Christmas coupons allowing the children to buy some little treat or toy during the Twelve Days.
All quite simple but it does help us -- I really find Advent rather painful so the Twelve Days of Christmas are my happiest part of the winter, usually.
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Willa
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melanie
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We do some Christmas-y activities too during the actual Christmas season. Some favorites are...
--going to a local amusement park that has a beautiful Christmas parade and lights and such all the way through December!
--picking up hot chocolate and driving around to see Christmas lights...do this right away after Christmas because so many come down right away! Especially this year, with Christmas being on a Friday, I'll be lights are down before the weekend is over!
--making gingerbread houses and any other Christmas goodies we didn't get around to before Christmas. Peppermint milk shakes are great, especially, and they use up all those dang candy canes. 
--celebrating Epiphany...that's another post in itself.
--Family New Year's Eve party...we throw down sleeping bags and we all stay up and watch movies and eat goodies until midnight.
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Melanie
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MaryM
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For many years we have done a secret gift giving for the 12 Days of Christmas - though we don't do it every year. We choose a family (or two) and leave anonymous gifts each day. One year when Mary G. still lived here we did her family and she posted about it on her blog when we finished and revealed ourselves, so it includes all the ideas we had for the various days. I can't get to my list right now - so figured I'd link. Our family has really fun memories of doing this through the years and it definitely keeps those 12 days festive.
If you do a search of 12 days of Christmas you can find several different threads of ideas for keeping the 12 days of the season.
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Our Domestic Church
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Chari
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Don't forget all of the feast/saint days after Christmas:
St Stephen...the 26th
St John the Evangelist...the 27th
We like to fill wine glasses with Sparkling cider and "drink to the love of Saint John"......not sure where we got that tradition..it is old...and we have been doing it forever.
Feast of the Holy Innocents....the 28th
When the kids were younger.....we would tell the story and they would open a present...either a new game or a family craft. we would celebrate their childhood-ness. And, mourn for the poor babies killed on this day via Herod.
Feast of the Holy Family...Sunday after Christmas
St, Thomas a Beckett...the 29th
St. Sylvester...the 31st
Feast of the circumcision & The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God...the 1st
Basil the Great....the 2nd
Elizabeth Annn Seton.....the 4th
St John Neumann.....the 5th
During the octave of Christmas....we have a Christmas Literature evening. It can be done with just your own family, or one other....not always a big group.
On New Year's...the 12yo and ups get to stay up till midnight, and at 11:30pm, we sip sparkling cider, eat Christmas treats and read poetry aloud.....till midnight...and sometimes longer. think we will have a "party" this year with three other families.
I cannot add more right now...just wanted to remind of the other feasts.
Blessed Season!
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Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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Marcia
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we always have two other families over during the 12 days of Christmas to sing Christmas carols. The kids and mommies all bring their instruments. This year we will have five violins, a cello, a clarinet and a piano being played!
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Waverley
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Celebrating through Epiphany is what helps us make Christmas last. I explain to the children that the birth of Jesus on Christmas is the beginning of the story - not the end. Our Wise Men begin their travel from upstairs to the stable on Christmas night. Each day a child has the responsibility of moving the Wise Men closer to the stable. They do not arrive until the Epiphany and then they do so with great celebration.
I have a document setting out ways to celebrate Epiphany at home if anyone is interested. If you are, just PM me with your email address and I will email the document to you.
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Waverley
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Topic: Making Christmas Last
