Excited kids and adults who need to chill in what also can be a hectic season need to work on projects together. Making holiday cookies can be as easy as slicing and baking readymade sugar cookie dough from the grocery store or as complicated as mixing, rolling out dough, cutting shapes with cookie cutters, and frosting them.
Making a garland paper chain to trim a tree has become easier through the years. You still cut out red and green strips of construction paper, but connecting the loops of paper together has gone from using some kind of paste that slops all over to staples to a neat little 3M dispenser that rolls out glue on two sides.
One year my young daughter and I made scented pomanders by stuffing oranges full of whole cloves. We tried it unsuccessfully another year with limes that went bad and mushy before we finished, however.
Then, there are the potato prints you can use to make gift tags and wrapping paper. Cut a really large baking potato in half and use a star cookie cutter to press the shape into the smooth side of each potato half. Then, carefully cut away the part outside the star shape to make the star stand out. Pour poster paint: red, green, yellow, blue, or whatever colors you want to use, on two different saucers. Dip the potato star into the paint and stamp the design on heavy card stock to make gift tags (Cut the holiday cards you receive this year into usable pieces to use for gift tags next year.) or stamp the star shape all over plain tissue to make wrapping paper.
Germany is credited with originating the custom of having a live, decorated Christmas tree at home and in the public square. St. Francis of Assisi added the custom of including a Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Christ child. St. Francis, who is associated with his love of animals, would be happy to see how sheep, cows, oxen, camels, and other animals often complete the manger scene.
Singing carols is a tradition in homes, churches, schools, and even in concerts where the audience sings along. Entertainers make holiday records and CDs and host seasonal music specials on TV.
St. Nicholas and Father Christmas make sure there are gifts and gift drives that bring joy to the naughty and nice alike. Presents might be placed under trees, in shoes, in hanging stockings (thanks to a custom from Holland), and in bins for the less fortunate at community centers, churches, libraries, and stores.
Presents come earlier in some countries and later in others. St. Nicholas can arrive December 6. Sweden celebrates St. Lucy Day on December 13. When days are about to become lighter, young daughters, dressed in white, wear a wreath of greens and lighted candles on their heads and carry trays of coffee and buns to family members. Elsewhere, shoes are filled with gifts from the Three Kings (Magi) on January 6.
What is the holiday season's best gift? Good will toward each other, of course.
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