Celebrating any Holiday!

merrymom · #1 (**permalink**) 10-03-2002, 04:16 PM

One thing I've done with the kids is to celebrate different Holidays. Like for Chinese New Years, we had chinese food (of course), made paper bag dragons with crayons, construction paper and party streamers, and searched on the web for our chinese horoscope sign. We celebrated passover with a sader like dinner - even though we are not Jewish. Even Cinco de Mayo! It teaches the kids about other cultures - and me too!

Sometimes we make up Holidays like March Maddness and Fall Frenzy. We make a craft, a special food and some type of learning whether story or web research.

Happy Holidays!

nagymom · #2 (**permalink**) 10-27-2002, 02:52 PM

Merrymom this sounds like such fun. Can I come to your house for the next holiday?

I'll have to talk to my daughters about starting something like this with their own kids. Or do it myself!

dawny75 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-02-2002, 11:56 AM

Have you ever heard of a book called Chase's Calender of Events. It's got something to celebrate for every day of the year, and it lists the special observances of each month. There is also a version for teachers. I saw on Amazon that they sell a page-a-day calendar too.

PnutsMama · #4 (**permalink**) 11-03-2002, 07:36 AM

We decided this year to do something different for Christmas. My son loves learning about new cultures so last weekend we took our globe and each person in the family had to close their eyes, spin the globe and randomly put their finger down to stop it spinning.

Whatever country your finger landed on was yours. We have decided to research Christmas celebrations for each of the countries that we picked and incorporate them into our own Christmas celebration. This year we ended up with Germany, France, Russia and Australia. It should make for an interesting celebration.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has any ideas on how to incorporate different traditions into their celebrations.

Thanks,
Jennifer

nagymom · #5 (**permalink**) 11-04-2002, 10:19 AM

Jennifer I think that this is just the greatest idea! Will you alos try to make foods from those areas? It sounds like a lot of fun and the kids will be learning int the process, a big PLUS. I hope you'll post updates and let us know how this goes and what kinds of things this leads to.

Thanks for sharing!
Jayne

PnutsMama · #6 (**permalink**) 11-04-2002, 05:46 PM

Thanks! My son actually came up with the concept - he wanted to learn about different traditions and we couldn't agree on one so I came up with the globe idea to stop the arguments.

Funny - I never thought about trying different foods.

Now I'm off the search the web for recipes. Thanks for the idea!!!

I promise to keep you posted on what we come up with.

Jennifer

nagymom · #7 (**permalink**) 11-05-2002, 01:16 PM

Hey Jennifer! Glad to help out and give you an extra idea. I lvoe food so it was only natural of me to think of it.

If you find some good recipes we'd love to see them!

Jayne

nagymom · #8 (**permalink**) 11-25-2002, 04:39 AM

Does anyone have any special plans for the Thanksgiving break?
We're staying home with several people coming. My youngest dd is coming home from college with a couple of her friends coming.
Our 2 oldest gradkids will be out of school starting Wednesday so I am planning a few activities for them. We'll make bird feeder ornaments with cardboard cut-outs, peanut butter, bird seed and popcorn. I also bought some plaster ornaments (cheap) and acrylic paint (also cheap) for them to work on. We always put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving so they can hang them then.
How about everyone else? Any special plans?

thezoo · #9 (**permalink**) 11-25-2002, 04:09 PM

This year since we don't have any money for Christmas We have decided that everything must be homemade. I've made a quilt each for my two kids made out of old jeans and scrap material. My hubby will get a carry-all to bring the wood in made out of old jeans. My kids are making me new oven mitts and even the dogs will get bandanas. For all our friends and relatives they get cookies, mixes, jams, homemade pumpkin and apple butter. It is a hit every year.

nagymom · #10 (**permalink**) 11-25-2002, 04:24 PM

I love the home made Christmas theme! I have a friend who does this every year. Her kids are home schooled and know no other way. For several years now I have gotten to be quite bah humbug about the whole thing and get depressed. I am a Christian who just can't seem to get back the real meaning. I am going more simple this year too. Happy holidays and enjoy it! It sounds as if your simple Christmas will be better than all the extravagant one's ever thought of being.

Jayne