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TryingMyBest
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| Posted: Dec 15 2012 at 8:39am | IP Logged
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How do you guys do celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas? I find it so hard to feel like it's still Christmas after Christmas Day. We'll leave up the tree and the Christmas decorations until Epiphany.
Jennifer
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3ringcircus
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When I was a kid, we celebrated it by extending the present opening for 12 days. My Mom got a little creative in order to make it work. On the 25th, we opened presents under the tree. The next day was stockings. After that, any presents that came in the mail. Many days it was simple things like chap stick, a toothbrush, or a pack of gum. Our stockings didn't have too much in them, so the 12 days presents were like stocking stuffers. I'm doing the same with my LOs. I'm also planning to read more Christmas books about Baby Jesus, the holy family, and the visit to the temple.
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Christine
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Dec 15 2012 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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You can wrap 12 books in special gold paper and read one each day.
Also, there are many feast days that time of year- St. Stephen, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John etc. You can do a little something special each day to celebrate the Christmas season with these saints.
On New Years Day it is fun to pick your patron saints for the coming year.
Bake a cake for King's Day, play a trivia game one day for the Wise Men, donate some baby food to a food pantry for the Feast of the Holy Innocents...
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 15 2012 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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Well we find that the biggest thing that helps is that we don't decorate for Christmas until Christmas Eve. Well we put up outside lights sooner and we bring in the trees a day or so earlier so that they can thaw out before we decorate  but most of the inside decor isn't up until Christmas Eve.
Both dh and I grew up with putting up deocration the day after Thanksgiving (or soon thereafter) and we played around with it.. delaying by a week and seeing if that made a difference.. waiting until the "pink Sunday" etc.. and finally I asked dh is we could just try it one year and see how it goes. WOW.
When you wait to put up the decorations it's all fresh and new (and relatively unplayed with by small people) on Christmas Day. You're happy to still have the decorations up through Epiphany (you're not just putting up with it.) you're not already tired of dealing with them because the littles are so excited and just have to touch and fiddle with all that "new" stuff. It really makes you house feel like Christmas during the Christmas season instead of during the Advent season. (we have pink and purple paper chains for counting down Advent festooning our living room and the Advent wreath.. you could do a Jesse Tree too so it's not like you don't have something out then)
And then Christmas is when all those goodies we make during Advent get set out each day and a time to enjoy our Christmas gifts. And then as Melinda pointed out all the feast days.. to add in special elements to each day. We shifted some of our childhood traditions to new days that would work better for us.. like for whatever reason dh grew up with his mom doing something (a tamale party often) on New Year's Day with Pozole (tradition similiar to black eyed peas in the south) and I found that it was just too much to add into our New Year's Day with everything else going on so we've shifted the Tamale party part to Epiphany making that day stand out.. but kept the pozole on New Year's Day.
I also have a Sister-in-law who loves to buy little things over the year for the kids.. candy and little toys and who knows what all  but I think this year instead of having the kids open that on Christmas we're going to save Auntie's gifts for Epiphany.. so that they have the same sort of "opening a stocking" gifts and such on Epiphany and it's not so overwhelming having them on Christmas.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Dec 15 2012 at 10:47am | IP Logged
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We put up our decorations gradually through Advent, and we don't actually trim the tree until Christmas Eve, as Jodie says, the delay makes you want more Christmas.
Also, we find that with gifts from grandparents and such, we can delay opening gifts as Christine says. Not everyone has something to open every day, and this works well since dh and I don't mind not opening on Christmas day and so with one a day, the gift we open might be for one of us, too. This not only helps with extending Christmas the years we've done it, but it also helps with the overwhelmed feelings that come with so much so fast and not enough time to absorb it all or begin to enjoy it all at one time. I haven't wrapped yet this year, but usually there is enough for several days worth if not the full twelve. We also try to save a little something special (or take advantage of an after Christmas clearance) to have them all open something special for Epiphany.
We've done this since my oldest was a baby, so I can see it taking a leap if your family is firmly rooted in other traditions, but while neither of us grew up with practice in extending Christmas, we have enjoyed adjusting to customs that help facilitate it.
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Lindsay
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SeaStar
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Another nice thing to do is give the gift of prayer to friends and family during the 12 days.
Gather up all your Christmas cards and divide by 12. Each day set aside a time to look at the cards in the days group and pray for those families by name. Saying a decade works well- or even offer up 12 Hail Marys for them.
You can take a white candle and mark it off into 12 sections. Light it each day while you pray and let it burn down to the next mark.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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3ringcircus
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| Posted: Dec 15 2012 at 11:28am | IP Logged
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I forgot that we also don't do much decorating before Christmas. The tree is up, but right now it only has some purple on it. Tomorrow we'll add pink. I think on Christmas Eve, we'll swap the colors out like you all have mentioned. Maybe we'll do the outdoor lights, too, but save the baby Jesus for Christmas Eve.
It's a little odd for us, because we have a b-day Jan 4 & Jan 7. So, as Christmas is winding down, we're transitioning to celebrating our birthday boys!
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Christine
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MaryM
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There are some fun ideas in past threads, too - might see lots of repeated ideas as they get mentioned more than once. We LOVE celebrating the whole 12 days of Christmas (and don't take down the tree until Candlemas  )
Easy 12 Days of Christmas?
The 12 days of Christmas
Gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas
12 days of Christmas gift ideas
12 days of Christmas
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Mary M. in Denver
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MaryM
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| Posted: Dec 26 2013 at 3:52pm | IP Logged
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How are you celebrating the 12 days of Christmas this year?
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Mary M. in Denver
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Dec 26 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged
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Instead of opening all our gifts on Christmas Day, we are spacing them out this year through the 12 days. Ds is having a hard time with this .
It's only day 2... but maybe he'll warm up to this idea.
Last year the O Antiphons were new for him and therefore suspect. This year he looked forward to them.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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Kristie 4
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We put up the tree right before Christmas and don't dive into the goodies until Christmas! It really helps extend the season. Although, as the kids grow older (the older teens), they tend to move on with their lives as well.
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Kristie in Canada
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JodieLyn
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We open all the gifts except ones we may save (put out of sight) for Epiphany.
But I guess one thing I wanted to point out.. the days of Christmas following December 25, don't have to be BIG celebrations. The days following Easter aren't BIG celebrations but there's many many more of them.
But doing something special on each day.. for instance St. John's wine (or apple cider) on December 27 will make that day stand out with something different.
Feast of the Holy Family is a good day to pull out family games.
Today is the feast of St. Stephen. Perhaps read the account of him in Acts. Sing Good King Wenceslaus. Many of the traditions of this day focus on giving to those in need. It might be a nice to leave the new gifts under the tree after Christmas day and spend part of today pulling out things to donate before you add the new things in.
Having treats like cookies and candy that can be pulled out for a snack or dessert (dessert every day!) can make it feel like a special day.
I sat in the middle of the floor today and helped the younger kids figure out how to play Mousetrap. We got to sleep in. We've been eating leftovers of the good food from yesterday. (I do need to plan a dinner soon though) I've sat and read.
Tomorrow will be soon enough to do the necessary work like laundry that I can't put off for 12 days without making it impossible to catch up.
And maybe tonight we'll do a quick clean up and a game afterward for the bigger kids and dh and I.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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SallyT
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We overbought stocking candy this year in a big way . . . which I was mad at myself about, until it struck me that we could parcel that out over the 12 days. I got some candy money/what my Jewish friends call "Hanukah Gelt," so that will be "gold" on Epiphany. Now we just need frankincense and myrrh.
I had a few extra gifties that I picked up -- our local thrift store does these amazing big goodie bags of little toys and things for a dollar, and I'd bought several because each one contained one or two things I wanted to put in stockings. This means that I have a box of more tiny things under my bed which can be brought out for gifts on Epiphany. I came home from the secondhand bookstore with more books than I could easily give on Christmas morning, too, when our basic rule for each child is something to read, something to wear, and something to play with (or use, in the case of the older children) -- one of each something. So I do have some more presents I could bring out, though we don't typically extend our presents over the 12 days.
We still have lots of decadent goodies left from Christmas Day -- dinner leftovers, desserts, candy, gift packages of cheeses and sausages and stuff . . . we'll be packing our faces for days!
We keep all our decor up until January 6, then our Nativity scenes stay out till Candlemas on Feb. 2.
So it's not all full-on Christmas for all those days, any more than the Easter season is full-on Easter Morning for those whole 50 days -- but it's still the season, and I try at least not to let the house forget it. Meanwhile, I like that it's not all high-intensity all the time. Today, for example, we all just hung around and read and did nothing, and it was WONDERFUL, a total gift, after the excitement of yesterday. I'm sure that after the glorious birth, Our Lady wanted to rest some, too . . . :)
It does help that in our house Dad does not have to go back to work until after Epiphany. Even so, just keeping the holiday/vacation/out of the ordinary feeling going for twelve days *is* observing the season, even if you don't do anything really elaborate.
Sally
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: 12 Days of Christmas
