Favorite Family Christmas Traditions

One of the best ways to make Christmas meaningful this year and every year is to establish thought family Christmas traditions. There are so many things we can do together as families to celebrate the warmth and love of the holiday season.


Tell Stories

It might be difficult to recreate the holidays exactly as you experienced them at your grandmother's house when you were a small child. However, you can borrow from the inspiration of Christmases past to start new holiday traditions with your own family. One of our favorite ways to do this is to pass on cherished stories of Christmases past. While you make holiday treats, decorate the tree, or open gifts, share your memories of loved ones and friends with your own children.


Make it a DIY Christmas

Get the children involved in the holiday festivities and work on a handmade project together. It can be something as simple as making a new family ornament for the Christmas tree (we have some DIY pinwhirls in festive holiday colors to adorn your tree) or baking and decorating cookies together. (By the way, don't miss our previous post, Favorite Holiday Cookie Recipes!)

Help a Needy Family

If you're able, you might want to consider adopting a family this Christmas. Many local charities are willing to pair you with a family that needs helping this holiday season. Your family can buy groceries and select and wrap gifts for each member of the family. It's a great way to spread holiday cheer and be reminded of how blessed you are to have each other as well as your material blessings.

Read Together

Every night before bed leading up to Christmas, read a treasured holiday story. From The Night Before Christmas to the nativity story, everyone gets a chance to hear their favorite Christmas classic read aloud. If you're children are old enough, they can read to the family too. That way everyone gets a chance to participate.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions? 

Which traditions have been in your family the longest?

Photo Credit: MeiTeng

Top Holiday Cookie Recipes

Source: thepastryaffair.com via sugarpie project

It's that time of year again! Time for holiday baking and sweet treats. Not only are Christmas cookies the stuff Christmas is made of, they are great gifts for teachers, neighbors, coworkers, and sitters.

If you are tired of the same old sugar cookie and chocolate chip cookie recipes, we think you might enjoy baking these delicious recipes we've compiled from one of our favorite sites - Pinterest!

Honey Cookies: These cookies from the Pastry Affair look delicious and are made with honey, brown sugar, and a blend of holiday spices. If you're looking for a soft  Christmas cookie that's elegant in its simplicity, we think you'll want to click over and copy down the recipe.

Hot Cocoa Cookies: Pip & Ebby did their take on a recipe from EveryDay with Rachael Ray magazine. And these hot cocoa cookies look like the perfect sweet treat for chocolate lovers—so delicious! Who doesn't love a little cocoa and marshmallow?

Source: charlotteobserver.com via Emily

Refrigerator Cookies: We all know the holidays are busy. Wouldn't it be nice to have something on hand you could bake up as you needed them? These recipes from the Charlotte Observer include:

• chocolate chip refrigerator cookies
• pinwheel refrigerator cookies (our favorite!)
• refrigerator shortbread cookies

Mix things up with nuts, candies, sprinkles, frosting and more to bake the perfect holidays cookies for your family or as gifts for neighbors, teachers, and friends.

Creative Thanksgiving Recipes for Special Diets

It's okay. You can say it. Sometimes you get bored with the same old mashed potatoes and gravy every year at Thanksgiving. Although you might be a little scared to try something new for a holiday firmly rooted in tradition, we're pretty sure no one in your family is going to stage a coup if you change up the menu a little this year.

If you want to try something a more creative, inspired, healthy or sustainable this year, there are so many resources available online. We've collected a list of some of our favorite alternative recipes, with a little help from everyone's favorite pin board—Pinterest! (Click the images for links to these pins.)

Source: eatingwell.com via Tracey on Pinterest

Vegetarian Recipes 

In some homes it's pretty impossible for a vegetarian to eat find something to eat at Thanksgiving.

The green beans have bacon in them. The stuffing is made with chicken broth. The list goes on.

If Cousin Jen's a vegetarian, we're guessing she'll be very thankful to see one of these yummy dishes on the buffet.

Source: godairyfree.org 

via Miranda on Pinterest

Dairy-Free Recipes

As lovers of dairy in general, we don't know what a world without dairy is like. But for those who are lactose intolerant or suffer from dairy allergies, the Thanksgiving menu can be a challenge.

Go Dairy Free has tons of recipes to choose from including breads, main dishes, vegetables, sides, and everyone's favorite—dessert!

In fact, the Pumpkin Soufflé is gluten-free and soy-free. Sounds like a winner on all counts.

Source: motherearthnews.com via Kristin on Pinterest

Sustainable Thanksgiving Recipes

Many of us are concerned about doing what we can to ensure that we take care of the earth for future generations. One we can do that is to implement greener, more sustainable living habits.

One place to start is with your Thanksgiving meal. This site features tips for preparing better birds from organic, pasteurized and heritage breed turkeys. Of course, going meatless for Thanksgiving is also a way to have a sustainable Thanksgiving.

You will even find sustainable drink recipes on this site. They key is to buy local and use fruits and vegetables from your own garden this year.

Are you changing up the Thanksgiving menu this year? 
What are you going to try?

Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

Source: familyfun.go.com via Natalie on Pinterest

You can work on these Thanksgiving crafts for kids ahead of time to help decorate for the family feast, or you can set up a workstation for the kids while the adults work hard to prepare the meal.

Fun Crafts for Kids

Finger Stamp Place Cards: Your children's fingerprints make colorful turkey place cards for the dinner table. Get all the project details from the Disney Family Fun website.

Turkey Cupcakes: This treats will delight everyone at the kids' table this year--and probably some adults too! With cupcakes, frosting, candy corn and sandwich cookies, Linette Gerlach at Amazing Moms shows you how to make these scrumptious treats.

Paper Plate Pilgrims: The people of All Kids Network have come up with an adorable craft project—making girl and boy pilgrims from paper plates, paints, crayons, glue and construction paper. These would be perfect for the kitchen door or the fridge.

Toilet Paper Roll Turkeys: This is another great Thanksgiving craft from All Kids Network. Save those empty toilet paper rolls to make these happy turkeys. You'll also need some construction paper and googly eyes to complete this craft.

Thanksgiving Coloring Pages: Coloring is a long-time kids' favorite! At DLTK's site you will find several different Thanksgiving themed coloring pages. In fact, if the adults are feeling a little stressed, we recommend you sit down and take a few minutes to color a page too.

Thankful Tree: What is your family thankful for? With this handprint tree everyone in the family can work together to create a gorgeous fall-colored tree and share something you're thankful for.

Crafts are a great way to make this Thanksgiving a little more colorful and a lot more fun. What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving crafts for kids? Share your links in the comments.

Creating Thanksgiving Traditions

Fall Pinwhirls for the Thanksgiving Table

What makes Thanksgiving so special is its ability to bring extended families together year after year to celebrate and share our many blessings. Whether your Thanksgivings are formal or casual, they can always be extra special from the decorations right down to the tasty dinner.

If your family is young, you might want to brainstorm some new traditions that your children can look forward to and carry with them as they grow up. We've got some ideas to get you started.

Creating Thanksgiving Traditions for Your Family

1. Cook Together: No matter how young your children are, there are plenty of ways to get them involved with meal preparations. Ask them to help you wash veggies, peel potatoes, roll out pie dough or even help you plan the menu.
 
2. Share Stories About Your Childhood Thanksgivings: This is particularly memorable if you have some physical object to tie to the cherished memory. For example, do you use your grandmother's gravy boat every Thanksgiving? Tell your children why that item is so precious to you.
 
3. Keep a Journal of Thanks: You and your children can keep a journal of thanks all month long, filling it up with something you are thankful for every day leading up to Thanksgiving. Turn the journal into a scrapbook and fill it with family photos from Thanksgiving day.
 
4. Share Your Blessings: Volunteer as a family to serve a Thanksgiving meal at your local soup kitchen or place of worship. Taking time to serve others is a great way to spend time as a family, and it could become a family tradition that endures for many more generations.
 
5. Use Black Friday to Shop for a Needy Family: If shopping is your thing, spend Black Friday buying gifts for a needy family or a charity like Toys for Tots. You can still experience the thrill of the holiday shopping season while doing something good for someone else.
 
6. Make a Wish: Don't forget to break the wishbone! The person who gets the longest piece of the wishbone gets to make a wish. This Thanksgiving tradition actually dates back all the way to the Etruscans of 322 B.C.! Now that's a long-standing tradition.
 
7. Watch TV: Spending a little time together in front of the TV is okay too. You can cheer on your favorite football teams or pick your favorite balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

What family traditions have you started at Thanksgiving? 

5 Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner

If you are hosting your family's Thanksgiving dinner celebration, chances are you might be feeling a little overwhelmed. Lots of hostesses feel the pressure of making such an important holiday perfect in every way. We've got some great ideas to help you pull it off without losing your mind.

5 Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner

1. Ask for Help: There is nothing wrong with a Thanksgiving potluck! If everyone brings a dish, that gives you more time to focus on the little finishing touches like making sure the house is decorated just the way you want. If you're worried that you'll end up with 12 pumpkin pies, you can always assign courses first.
   
2. Shop Early: If you don't already have most of the ingredients, get to the store ASAP. The closer you get to the big day, the better your chances of finding empty shelves. Plus, fighting a mad rush in the baked goods aisle is a sure way to squash your Thanksgiving spirit.
   
3. Cook the Turkey Ahead of Time: If you cook and carve the turkey ahead of time, you can rest easy on Thursday and spend less time in the kitchen and more time visiting with your family. To make sure the turkey tastes its best, cook it according to the instructions the day before. Carve the turkey and place the pieces in a baking dish(es), then cover with the juice from the roasting pan. Simply reheat the baking dish(es) before meal time. You can separate white and dark meat easily, plus your turkey will soak up all those tasty juices.
   
4. Prep for Leftovers: If there is one thing you can count on, it's that there will be leftovers! Clean out your refrigerator ahead of time so you have plenty of room for storing what's left of the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie. Pick up some disposable plastic ware if you'll be sending leftovers home with your visitors.
   
5. Try Something New: Thanksgiving meals can sometimes become ho-hum. However, the trick to introducing new dishes at the holidays is to try adding one or two new items without changing up the whole menu. Leave those classic favorites on the table, and no one will feel like you've hijacked the holidays.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? What do you do to make hosting the family meal easier and more enjoyable?

Tips for Safe Trick-Or-Treating

As you and your children make your way through the neighborhood showing off costumes and pleading for treats, make sure you keep these tips in mind. Have a happy, safe, and fun Halloween from Pinwhirls! 


Tips for Safe Trick-Or-Treating

• If you can, get all of your trick-or-treating done before dark. This is especially important for the little ones out there.
• If you go out at night, carry a flashlight.
• Plan your trick-or-treating route in advance and stick to it.
• If you have older children and allow them to trick-or-treat as a group without an adult, make sure at least one child has a cell phone.
• Parents should wear something reflective, particularly if your children's costumes are dark or hard to see.
• If you can, choose a costume for your child that is reflective or made of bright colors that can easily be seen by any drivers in your neighborhood.
• Make sure any masks fit comfortably and don't prevent your child from seeing or breathing comfortably.
• Go only to houses you know.
• Consider going to a local mall or community event if you are worried about going door-to-door this year.
• Check your child's candy before you let them eat it.
• Only allow your child to have homemade treats if they were made by neighbors you know and trust.
• If it's particularly warm where you live, make sure that children don't become overheated in their costumes, and take plenty of water breaks.

 That's it! Remember to be safe and have lots of fun, and don't eat all of that candy all at once!

What are your children going to be for Halloween this year?