Unlike most ads and sales events that stores hold, our family actually begins celebrating the 12 days of Christmas on Christmas day. Silly, huh? Not really. Christmastide or Twelvetide, whichever you want to call it, begins on Christmas day and ends on January 5th (Epiphany Eve). Ever heard of the "Twelfth Night?" That can either be celebrated on the night before Jan. 5th or the night of Jan. 5th. Now, we don't go all that deep here, but we do leave up our Christmas decorations clear through the 12 days of Christmas. We try to get them down each year on January 6th. I have to admit that both my husband and I get very annoyed when people think the 12th day of Christmas is on Christmas day. As I've stated before, I am anal. ;)
Last year, we wanted to do something special to keep the spirit of Christmas going through these 12 days. For our first year, we decided to write random acts of kindness, or good deeds, on slips of paper. We put them in a jar and drew one out each day for us to perform either individually or as a family. Here are the good deeds we had in our jar:
1. hold the door for someone
2. let someone go before you in a line
3. choose a toy to give to Goodwill or TAKE (The Ankeny Klothing Exchange)
4. take games to the Blank Children's Hospital
5. serve a meal at Trinity UMC in Des Moines (we were not able to do this as a family because they encourage volunteers to leave young children at home)
6. take treats to Youth & Shelter Services (we ended up delivering these on New Year's Eve right before their annual pizza party)
7. smile at EVERYONE you see today
8. clean something for a family member so they don't have to do it themselves
9. say a prayer for someone sick or unhappy
10. pay for the person/car behind us in a line or drive-thru
11. take cards to a nursing home
12. take our neighbors' garbage can up for them
It all seemed to go well, and a couple of the experiences were extra special for our children. We tried to keep our focus on thinking of others more than ourselves during this time.
I have a couple other ideas that I'd like to do in the future. One year I'd like to make small donations to 12 charities of our choice. I have a list of charities ready to go, but I would really like to have each child choose a couple of charities that mean something to them, so I think it will be best to wait until our youngest is a little older. But, if I had to choose them myself, we'd give some sort of donation to March of Dimes, St. Jude's, MADD, American Lung Association, TAKE, DMARC Food Pantry, Pennies for the Planet, Ronald McDonald House, On With Life, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Animal Rescue League, Blank Children's Hospital, and Kyle's Wish. I'm sure there are many other worthy causes out there.
I'd also love to just pick a local family that is going through a rough time and deliver small gifts to them each day. We may go with that option next year.
Because we'll be away from home for a good portion of this year's 12 days of Christmas, we are keeping it more simple. I found a fun book that was written in 2010 called The Twelve Days of Christmas in Iowa, by Sue Cornelison. It's about a little girl from Iowa whose cousin is coming to visit for Christmas. While visiting, her cousin writes letters to his parents about his adventures here in Iowa. There are some fun facts and history of our state in the book. We are going to read one letter/page of the book each day beginning on Christmas. E's 1st grade teacher read her class a few pages of it the last couple weeks, so she's excited to hear the rest of it. If you don't live in Iowa, just check out Amazon... chances are there is a similar book for your state.
We pray that your family has a wonderfully blessed Christmas and a healthy, happy new year!
*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*
*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*
