Traditions

So what makes me want to crawl around in my attic at 6am?

  

My love of tradition(and the fact that I have been too busy this week to get prepared any earlier).

Today is the first of December.  In my family, we have the tradition of hanging a row of 25 mittens.  Each morning my children come downstairs and find a little treat inside the mitten corresponding to the day counting down to Christmas.

The other tradition I seem to have is not putting that string of mittens in a spot where I can easily find it before the rest of the Christmas decorations are out-hence my attic crawl this morning.  But I digress....

My children are older, but they look for this treat each day with the same exuburance as a 4 year old.  Young children love tradition.

In my school, we do not make a big deal of the holidays. What we do focus on is tradition.  If a family has a tradition that is special to them and the child would like to share it, we welcome it.  Today, I have a mom coming in to make latkes as it is the first day of Hanukkah.  Next week another parent is coming in to decorate special cookies that her child loves.  Following that, we have a family coming in to decorate pine cones to welcome in the Winter Solstice.  I collect Gingerbread stories and share this with my class.  Honoring the family connection and the traditions that make this time special is our focus.

Share your traditions with me and have wonderful beginning to this special season.