Giving Tuesday is for giving and we want to give something to YOU, our faithful followers! We are grateful you want to hear from us and fill your home with Truth. So this year on #GivingTuesday, we want to give you our Jesus Tree Sampler to help you be reminded throughout this season the True meaning of Christmas.
******Jesus Tree Sampler Giveaway******
We are excited to give away ONE Jesus Tree Sampler set to one of YOU! Sampler details are below.
Four ways to enter:
1. Comment below with a favorite Christmas memory or tradition
2. Follow us on Facebook or Instgram
3. Tag a friend on our Instagram post (found here)
4. Share this post on Facebook or Instagram. Make sure you tag us @EverThineHome and use #JesusTree #GivingTuesday
Advent and the Christmas Season are so fun to look forward to. The lighting of the Advent wreath candles is always so dear to my heart. We have 5 grandchildren and with the four candles and then the Chrstmas Day candle in the middle they can all enjoy this tradition that I hope to pass on to them. My other new tradition is to use our Christmas cards as our prayer chain. With our daily devotions we pray each day for a dear family member or friend. A Bible Study friend gave us this idea. String the cards on a metal floss ring. They are easily stored and ready to use during devotions.
Two family favorites in our household were 1) the anticipation of hearing me play “O Holy Night” on violin during the Christmas Eve service at church, and 2) making Norwegian Rommegrot, a family tradition my mother carried out from her Scandinavian heritage. Now in turn, I make this delicious Christmas dish with my children after I finish playing violin at the Christmas Eve Services at our church in western PA!
Since I was a child my grandparents have made Christmas breakfast…. a feast of breakfast egg casserole and sausage and Pappys famous fruit salad and homemade hot chocolate! Before the family eats pappy says a prayer and we as a family sing “come let us adore him.” Every year for my 32 years I have gone to their house for Christmas we continued this tradition with my children. It’s really a special time 😊
One of my favorite traditions is caroling people from our church. We fill a bus up with 50 kids & usually carol until about 2 or 3 in the morning. My favorite is when we visit the elderly couples. They are always the happiest to see us.
My favorite Christmas memory: one week before Christmas, each morning my father would give us each a gift, on Christmas morning we would pray to offer ourselves to Christ as our special gift to Him
Baking and bringing plates of cookies to all our neighbors! And our annual candlelight service followed by fondue at our home with friends/family!
Baking and bringing plates of cookies to all our neighbors! And our annual candlelight service followed by fondue at our home with friends/family!
One of my best Christmas memories is singing ” Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” with my Dad when neither one of us could carry a tune. Also, of stringing popcorn with cranberries every year with my parents and brothers. The strand had to be at least as long as we were tall. I will always cherish those memories.
We love Christmas carols — and start listening to them the day after Thanksgiving. They contain some of the most beautiful words ever written about our Savior.
Christmas morning, our three kids waking us up, bringing their stockings and all of us on our bed opening stockings…even into the teenage years! Such great memories!
One of my most treasured Christmas memories is my family, huddled around the tree, Dad reading the Christmas story before we unwrap gifts. {He cries every time.} A quiet reflection and reminder of WHY we do this.
My favorite Christmas memory is receiving my Blue Bird Campfire uniform from Santa. Total excitement, age 6 or 7, I guess. I loved everything about that uniform. Including the pretty blue bird pin! Still puts a smile on my face, that was a great Christmas 🎄 Merry Christmas
Decorating the tree to Christmas music with family.
I love doing advent with my kids… such a special time to pause reflect and come together.
One of my favorite memories was how fun my mother made Christmas Day. It usually started with a game that led us to our presents. (Like a scavenger hunt or puzzle) A large breakfast and then getting ready to make visits to our family!
Taking turns opening gifts. It slows down the morning and lets everyone see what each other received.
Following a trail of clues to a “My Little Pony” in the microwave is my most vivid childhood memory.
Doing Advent with our kids! We incorporate a “spreading Christmas cheer” aspect so at random times during December we do things to bring cheer to others-dropping doughnuts at a fire station, paying for someone’s food behind us in the drive thru, sending handmade cards to someone, etc. Our kids love this & look forward to it so much.
My favorite Christmas tradition is eating sausage balls on Christmas morning.
Placing the infant Jesus in the crèche on Christmas evening.
My favorite things about Christmas is pretty much everything but I love to see my children’s faces light up on Christmas morning.
My absolute favorite Christmas moment is when “Silent Night” is being sung by the church choir in a hushed and dimly lit sanctuary on Christmas Eve and the person next to me reaches over to light my candle from theirs while I, in turn, pivot to light the next.
I think my favorite tradition is the slowness of the morning, getting up, eating breakfast, getting dressed before reading the Bible as a family, then doing the sibling exchange among my children. After that, we open the rest of the gifts. By then it is mid-afternoon. I never liked a rush-to-the-tree kind of Christmas.
Love so many things about Christmas but it’s the coming together with friends family and neighbors to celebrate a holiday that is so worthy of celebrating and all the heartfelt giving that goes on this time of year.
We are a relatively young family but one of our traditions is to complete a magnetic nativity calendar during the month of December, each child takes turns putting the figure on that day.
When my husband and I got married, he wanted us to bake Jesus a birthday cake at Christmas. Now, every year, we bake and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday to Him before anyone opens any gifts. It’s one of the ways we try to remind our girls that Christmas is about Jesus!
Christmas Eve party (hubby’s Birthday) singing carols and eating yummy seafood
One of my favorite Christmas traditions (for 35 years) is sending Christmas cards with pictures to all of our family & friends. And we love receiving cards from so many that we rarely see anymore!
My favorite tradition is viewing Christmas lights!
My parents adopted 6 children, starting when they were in their 40’s. They made Christmas so special for all of us. From teaching us about Jesus’ birth to taking yearly family pictures with the mall Santa. They wanted us to realize the importance of giving to each other and spending time together. We always spent time in the Word before opening gifts. We have so many fond memories that we still talk of today. I’m thankful for my parents and the legacy they are leaving.
Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite traditions.
We have a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” party on Christmas Eve after church. We serve angel food cake.
One of our family traditions is that our children get a new ornament every year.
One of my favorite traditions is making the advent wreath with my daughter and enjoying it every evening as we light the candles, read scripture, sing a carol and pray before dinner every evening.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is talking about each ornament we put on the tree. its fun to remember past events and to see how God has been so faithful to our family over the years. I hope it continues as we focus in on different attributes of Jesus and celebrating him for all he has done for us.
One of our traditions is gathering all the family together before opening gifts and my dad reading the Christmas story from the Bible
We have a tradition with using the Names of Jesus ornaments and reading the little booklet you have on the site!
One of our Christmas Yraditions is doing the Advent with my in-laws and singing praises to the Lord!
Traditions
One of our favorite traditions is to eat our evening meal by candlelight as often as we can in December. It causes us to slow down and reflect on the Light who shines so brightly in the darkness.
We make a quiz/conversation around Christmas eve activities, asking the grandkids what they remember about the story of the night Jesus was born, and what it means to them. We get some creative add ons for sure. By bedtime we have the beautiful, wonderful story of our saviors birth.
We love to drive around our small town and look at the decorated houses. Christmas music on the radio and hot chocolate to drink.
Christmas Eve service at church – then home to the traditional soup supper. Then opening 1 gift.
On Christmas morning we gather around the table, read Luke 2, and eat breakfast casserole and monkey bread!
Favorite tradition is Christmas Eve candlelight service. Thanks for the chance!
I also follow you on Facebook :)
We do out Bible reading by the light of the Christmas tree.
One of my favorite memories was a Christmas Eve when we were waiting for my aunt and uncle to arrive for dinner and beautiful, gentle snowflakes began to fall. It was magical!
I love setting out all the Nativity sets I have throughout my home. They welcome my family, friends and guests and are a great reminder of the “Reason for the Season”!
One of my favorite traditions is singing Christian Christmas carols around the living room with our family. My husband gets out his guitar and we all sing. Now we have grandkids and continue to do so.
One of my favorite memories from growing up is the delicious breakfast my mom would make on Christmas morning–eggs, bacon, biscuits, chocolate gravy,…
Now I love carrying on that tradition with my children and starting new ones like a Bible reading each night of Advent.
Making homemade pizza every Christmas Eve with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!
Our children put on a play of the Christmas Story every year.
One of my favorite traditions from childhood is hanging our homemade stockings and having a real tree. Now I love shopping with our church ladies for Christmas gifts for less fortunate families in our community.
Doing the Jesse tree exchange each year and then going through Advent with you kids and putting one ornament on the tree each night
My favorite traditions are our family reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, and The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean.
One of my favorite Christmas memories when the children were little was to take them to a “Live City of Bethlehem”at the Church at Rocky Peak in CA. We got to interact with the shepherds, wiseman, townspeople and hear first hand about the birth of Jesus our Messiah from Joseph and Mary.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is baking a birthday cake for Jesus with my children!
We love being a part of our church’s living nativity each year.
Our family bakes a cake and sings Happy Birthday to Jesus.
My favorite Christmas tradition is attending Christmas Eve service. As a child with my grandmother, then with my husband, then with our children, and now with our grandchildren! <3
One of my favorite memories…going to my Granny’s at Christmas and seeing and tasting all of her homemade sweets; divinity, butterscotch haystack, and chocolate fudge. The best cook ever!
One of my favorite traditions is wrapping each of our children’s gifts in a different paper without name tags. When they reach the bottom of their stocking they will find a piece of wrapping paper that tells them which gifts are theirs!
My immediate family always spends Christmas Eve with our extended family for dinner, and sometimes before and after that party we will stop at friends’ homes to visit a little while and wish them Merry Christmas. It’s just something we’ve always done. Then Christmas morning is time for just our immediate family to enjoy being together and exchanging gifts.
One of my favorite Christmas memories is when my husband surprised me by putting up and decorating our tree in our first apartment. A second memory is when we went Christmas caroling and almost froze! Now my favorite Christmas tradition is watching old Christmas movies while all the lights are off except for the tree lights.
My grandfather always read the Christmas story from the book of Luke before we opened gifts. We’ve continued to do the same with our family on Christmas morning. Along with baking & decorating a birthday cake for Jesus
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the candlelight Christmas Eve service with my family!
We have a little wrapped “box” and a purple day’s before Christmas each family member writes something they appreciate about each family member on a small piece of paper. On Christmas Eve we read out loud what each person had written to us. We laugh and we cry and we celebrate bring family.
I.eant a Couple days not purple days. Oops!
We have a separate tree now for your ornaments hang them after reading the snippet on each one.
This year I’d like to start a new tradition with my girls & my one and only niece. To give them a piece of a #JesusTree every year at Christmas to begin their collection of #adornments. #givingtuesday
Singing happy birthday to Jesus Christmas morning over a stack of birthday pan”cake”s!
I just love all of your Christmas ornaments—so many gorgeous ways to keep the focus of the season in the right place! One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting together to make lefse with all the ladies in my family.
My favorite tradition is doing the Advent Jesse Tree book and ornaments every December. It prepares our hearts for Christmas and our tree gets decorated just in time for Christmas!
Growing up we always went caroling with friends from church! It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions!
Chinese food on Christmas Eve, a tradition dating back for 4 generations in my family
My favorite Christmas memory involves my mother’s side of the family gathering at my Grandparent’s house every Christmas eve. They lived in a very small 2 bedroom house but we all piled in the house and it was a wonderful time. As my Grandparent’s got older, my aunt would do their Christmas shopping, and it was always a big surprise to see what kind of treasure we had under the tabletop Christmas tree.
We love going to the candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve.
I became a follower of Jesus in college through a campus ministry. For the last 19 years I have gone to the house of the campus ministry staff that discipled me to make Christmas Cookies.
The past 7 years have been extra special as my children have been a part of this tradition and it’s a tradition and memory I’ll always cherish.
Christmas cookie making at the Prior household.
Making a birthday cake for Jesus! ❤️ And watching it’s a wonderful life !
Favorite tradition: crawling in the car in dizzy pjs & coffee and looking at all the Christmas lights in town!
We started observing Advent several years ago. The simple lighting of the candles, along with a family devotion has become one of our most cherished traditions. We also love our Jesse tree. It really helps us stay in the story of Christmas.
I now love using your ornaments to help the family focus on Jesus rather than other things. Its one of my favorite things. I have given them as gifts as well. Thanks for the opportunity!
My favorite memory as a child was to drive around town looking at the Christmas lights. Now with my own kids, we go down town on Christmas night and walk around enjoying the quiet and lights while no one is around.
We cut a tree every year and it is my favorite family tradition!
Favorite family tradition is going to our local Live Nativity. Now that our girls are old enough they can participate in it!
Mine is not a memory but a praise for what God did with your beautiful Family Life tree topper! I had purchased one last year and hadn’t used it yet. As we decorated our church w our nativity, we felt it needed a star. Later at home as I started to look through my own decorations I opened the box with this star in it..,and as we put it up at church above the nativity we just looked at each other and hugged in amazement…it was perfect!😀 Thank you Barbara for all you do to remind us of Him!
Our favorite family tradition is the Names of Jesus Christmas ornament countdown. We have 25 ornaments that each represent a name of Jesus (lion for the lion of Judah, etc) Each ornament has a tag with the scripture reference for that name. Starting on Dec. 1st we place one ornament on the tree each day leading up to Christmas Day.
My favorite tradition is: we hang the hand-made Christ-centered advent ornaments on the tree and pair each ornament with the book “Jesse in the tree” in December. The whole Christmas story is threaded in 25 ornaments and stories. The kids always look forward to doing that.
My favorite memory is to drive around to see the Christmas lights and then come home and sit on the big blanket in front of the fireplace with all our family members on Christmas Eve. We ate our favorite snacks and drank apple cider or hot chocolate, sang Christmas carols and chatted.
My favorite memory: As a child, maybe 4 or 5, we’d driven to the country to visit my Dad’s parents. It was Christmas Eve and we were afraid Santa was flying across the sky to our house in town. I hid in the floorboard of the car hoping he didn’t find me out of place, not asleep, like a good little child. After crawling into bed my sister would tell us stories of her early Christmas memories. We were three little girls, piled into one full size bed, waiting with anticipation for dawn to arrive.
Many memories fill my mind, but I still remembering spending Christmas in China, away from my family, but conmected to others in Christ! We were there to share what Christmas was all about and it was ripe with opportunities to do so – parties, caroling on a college campus, seeing a new believer be baptized. It was incredible!
Thank you for this giveaway. I was browsing ETH yesterday marveling at making a meaningful holiday.
We are building our traditions, and having a Jesus Tree is my current favorite. Christmas has been hard lately, and I don’t feel like getting “holly jolly.” But my all-white Jesus Tree reminds me what it’s all really about.
A new tradition my husband and I started with our girls is Advent. He and I grew up in Christian homes but we never had intentional daily devotions specifically for Advent. We gather every evening around or wreath and lighted candle or candles. As I read, the girls listen and color Christmas coloring sheets to give to our friends and neighbors or snuggle up to Daddy. Sometimes I lead our prayer time, sometimes my husband does, and sometimes one of our daughters will. I cherish this time and look forward to it every year.
Choosing a favorite tradition feels difficult, as there are so many wonderful options :) One my parents began that I have continued to use with my children is a countdown to Christmas. We use Saran Wrap, ribbon and chocolate kisses to make a chain of 25 kisses. Each day one gets cut off and enjoyed.
One of my favorite traditions is making and decorating cookies with family
One of my favorite traditions is as everyone opens gifts, we each share what we star thankful for and all that God has done for us over the past year. It’s a very sweet and precious time for our family.
Each year we do an ornament exchange with 23 other families with Jesse Tree ornaments. It’s so fun to collect different sets and enjoy each families creativity.
We also have a Birthday party for Jesus and An angel comes to tell the Christmas story.
My favorite Christmas tradition is having the whole family gather together to put up all the decorations! :)
Every year, we give each of our 2 boys a special ornament that signifies something from that year. We also take a plain ornament and write down significant events of that year. At Thanksgiving, we take out the tree and decorate it with these ornaments and as we hang them, we talk about the memories from the past. Around this time, we start advent and my also look forward to taking turns opening the door and finding the bible verse of the day. It is such a blessed time to look forward and prepare our hearts for baby Jesus.
My favorite memory/tradition is singing Happy Birthday to Jesus before any Christmas celebrations. This was started by my Nana and continued as a tradition down through the generations.
We started the tradition of reading the story of Jesus birth from the Bible. It puts us all in the true spirit of the season
When I was 4-5 our extended family gathered at my grandparents home. All of us little girls (my sister and cousins) sat near the tree and my Nana and Grampie told us we had a special gift from him. One by one, we each went to the tree and found our nametag -with our birthstone ring attached ! It was most special and almost the last year with him before he passed. Grateful and blessed as we celebrate our Savior!
My friend started a tradition for my daughter 11 years ago. She leaves a wrapped piece from a nativity set on our door step. Depending on the number of pieces in each set, they lead up to Christmas morning with baby Jesus being the last but most special piece to be opened. My daughter starts checking the door step about mid December. She has a beautiful collection of nativity scenes and she cant wait to display them each year. This will be the last year as my daughter is Senior and my friend plans to reveal that is was her all these years. It has truly been a wonderful tradition and one we have looked forward to each year.
My dear friend and old neighbor started a tradition for my daughter 11 years ago. She wraps a piece from a nativity scene and leaves it on the door step each morning. Depending on the sets and number of pieces in them, each piece leads up to Christmas morning with the final piece being Baby Jesus in the manger. My daughter has looked forward to this each year and I have too. She starts checking the door step mid December to see if a package is there. We have even moved twice since then and my friend has continued this tradition by giving me the wrapped pieces and I put them on our door step. To this day my daughter cannot figure out who is doing this. She is a Senior in high school this year and my friend is going to reveal that is was her all these years. My daughter has a beautiful collection of Nativity scenes to take with her someday to cherish in her own home. We can’t tell you how much this tradition means to us and we can’t wait to display the collection each year. Such a special tradition!
A favorite Christmas memory was when our oldest son surprised us by coming home on Christmas Eve. He was stationed at Ft. Bragg NC and didn’t plan to make the trip to New York for Christmas. However, unknown to me, his friend went to pick him up and bring him home for Christmas since he was being deployed very soon to Afghanistan and wouldn’t be home for Christmas the following year. The memory of him walking into the house and surprising us that Christmas Eve helped us the following Christmas without him in person.
I remember putting up yearly ornaments (my mom would buy one from Hallmark each year) on the tree with my Grandparents. We would have a special dinner and then we would place the yearly ornaments on the tree- and for each year, my mom would read what happened during that time (deaths, births, trips, etc!). Looking back- it was kind of boring (some years nothing happened but you had to sit and watch it get placed on the tree anyway)… but I love this idea! I use it now to reflect on our year as a family!
Wrapping up our daughters in Christmas wrap so they could BURST out of the wrap…absolutely the best gift we could give Jesus!
Gifting PJ’s and watching movies on Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace is a new tradition since I got married 2 yrs ago. We absolutely love staying in PJ’s and enjoying some good old classic Christmas movies!
Our fav is advent with daily memories leading to the birthday of Jesus. ( 0h- the snow village full of church figures around the world)
Christmas is full of memories. One special time was seeing my 84 year old Papaw be baptized on Christmas day. He was diagnosed with cancer 4 months later and died before the next Christmas. However, we have all of eternity to spend together now.