NY2TM4PTF7WD This contest is open to everyone - we will choose a name from our followers who leave a comment about their own family traditions or favorite memory. Everyone is eligible to become a follower. If you would like to do that, but are having technical difficulties, please contact us at inthecompanyoffriends@gmail.com, and we will gladly post your comment for you and enter you into the drawing!
The prize for this contest is one of our special boxed sets! Blueberry Hill is a lovely set in gorgeous colors, and filled with many needlework toys! (scissors not included)
Blueberry Hill is hand-grain-painted, and all the little toys and treasures inside are hand-crafted by Becky and Julie. They are a joy to make, and we hope you will find it a pleasure to own!
Good luck!
My Dad was a sailor in the war and sailed the North Atlantic convoys. He was away from home without leave for the best part of five years which must have been hard on him and my mother having just been married in 1938 and having a baby daughter. He always told me about the warmth and hospitality he was given in the US whenever they docked. He was famous for his whistle (Pedro the Fisherman?) and my mother says she was doing the washing when she heard his whistle far down the street when he was coming home again. As children we had the best Christmas stockings in the world - his seaboot socks, which were absolutely huge. Always there was an orange (very exotic to us in those post-war years) and a walnut in the toe. The best present of those years was a set of coloured pencils in their own box. Please don't put me in the draw - I just wanted to share this with you.
ReplyDeleteMy fondest Christmas memories always include my grandparents, but not a set of them, for my grandparents were my mothers mother and my fathers father. They were the best of friends and each had only one grandchild-me!! I think my favorite memory is the year when they didn't exactly communicate with each other and I got two tricycles from Santa. As I write this the thoughts of them is bringing a huge smile to my face. Thanks for offering this contest-I do love the set, but the memories it has brought up are priceless. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Becki
ReplyDeleteWhen our children were young the only rule in our house was the presents were always in our bedroom in three piles and the children had to wait until it was light outside and then they could come in, wake us up and open their presents, but they had to open them in front of us so we could see the look on their little faces. It was a tradition I really loved and kept it up for quite a while. Now I have never been known to stint on presents and one year I bought so much throughout the year for the children that I found the following August that I had forgetten to give them 2 presents each so down they came and we had Christmas in August as well as the Christmas before.
ReplyDeleteI hope you both have a really lovely Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year.
Lots of Love
Patti xxx
One of my favorite memories of Christmas time is getting in the car on Christmas eve and riding and looking at all the decorations...Everyone's house and all the churches looks so beautiful. Even the streets downtown with the shop windows dressed for holidays would make pause in awe...these are some, among others, of my favorite things to do at Christmas!! Thanks for chance at the giveaway!!Faye
ReplyDeletecarolinastitcher.blogspot.com
My favorite tradition when I was little and making cookies. My mom made sure that each of the three of us helped her with making all the cookies. We put on Christmas music (a lot of times it was Alvin and the Chipmunks which my brother wanted to listen to over and over again) and she'd each give us a job to do. We'd turn out so many batches of cookies and the kitchen always looked like a disaster when it was over, but we had so much fun. Now with my children, even though they are older, we pick a day and put out a lot of cookies. Even my 17 year old son wouldn't miss it for the world (perhaps so he can eat dough behind my back). More than anything else, just having them in the kitchen with me and spending a day with them is treasured because it happens so little as they get older.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas tradition was the family going to Christmas Eve church service and looking at Christmas lights on the way home. At home we'd gather round the fireplace and drink hot spiced cider. Each family member got to pick one present from under the tree to open on Christmas Eve. Then it was off to bed to wait for Santa Claus.
ReplyDeleteThanks for offering this giveaway. Hope you have a very joy filled holiday season!
My memory of Christams is much sad one… my parents did not have possibility for all 4 sons... My mother waited for the night in order to put in our stockings more candies and chocolate for giving joy in the day of Christmas… now that we 4 are adults and work we are we that we fill up of gifts she to Christmas… because the Love that she has given to us is the beatiful gift…
ReplyDeletesorry fon my english ;)
Maria - Italia
I am now a follower. I love coming across new blogs. Christmas is the best time of year. A chill in the air, rain or snow, the smell of evergreen. Twinkling lights and people smiling. My favorite tradition is new to our family, telling my 11mo old grandson stories and singing christmas carols. I can't wait until he is old enough to join in the fun.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReveillion and 12th Night are traditions I carry on by recreating 18thC French treize (13) desserts as eaten at le «gros souper» and seen on my blog at: http://18thccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/11/preparing-for-treize-desserts.html
ReplyDeleteI also do needlework at http://the-scarlet-thread.blogspot.com/
Getting back to one's roots is such fun and old fashioned ways are a treat to relearn and share.
Have a lovely holiday season!
my favourite tradition is still reading The Night Before Christmas with my dad. The two of us are now joined by my children age 5 and 8 and my niece age 30, and occasionly my elderly aunt. This has been an unbroken tradition for my dad for the past 51 years every Christmas Eve!
ReplyDeletebogfairy@yahoo.com
My favorite Christmas Tradition is getting together as a family and watching the faces of my grandchildren as they open their presents. Also, as I decorate the Christmas tree and see the ornaments that have been collected over the years and think about the memories attached to each one.
ReplyDeletePat in Texas
http://Quiltsandotherhobbies.blogspot.com
Our favorite Christmas traditions when our 3 girls were little were the advent wreath and advent calendars. Lighting the candles helped to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas and the chocolate candy pieces each day delighted the girls!
ReplyDeletePlease include me in your giveaway-what a beautiful set! Merry Christmas!
Every year we paint walnuts an antique gold color and split them open. After cleaning out the nuts (we save those to eat), we each get a small piece of paper on which we write something about the year that we wish to remember. Then, we put the note in the empty nutshell, glue it together with a ribbon for a hanger and hang them with our ornaments on our tree. The goal is when our children are grown, we will start opening the nuts every year and relive those special memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a beautiful give away!
I love that we have the tradition of having one of our granddaughters spend Christmas with us. We haven't missed one yet. Her mother usually has to work that day, so we love giving her a place to enjoy family on this special day.
ReplyDeleteKathie L from Allentown
Barbara....Now that both of my parents are gone, it's very hard to celebrate Christmas but what keeps me going are the memories. One year stands out for me. My brothers received a train set and I received my prized china tea set. We had such fun playing with the train set and my mother and I loved our tea parties. I am a grandmother now and I still have the tea set. I've had tea parties with both our daughter and our grand daughter with it and everytime a do a toast to my parents. I want to thank you for having this contest, but what is most important is keeping the memories and traditions going so that the next generation knows from where they came. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is to look through the boxes of ornaments and see if I can remember where each one came from. Some are old and worn out, some are handmade by one of the children, and some were bought on special occasions. Some of my favorites hung on my parent's tree when I was young. These will be passed on to my own daughters someday, and I hope they can remember their history.
ReplyDeleteHi Ladies - My favorite tradition is getting a few friends & family together on Christmas Eve to enjoy their company in a small group. I have also started a friendship stitching group at my home (only about 5 of us) each week and we spent an evening at my home last week taking a small break from the hustle & bustle of preparation for the Holidays. It was such a welcome time for us to get together, visit & enjoy. This get together will be continued next year and hopefully for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a blog but I will be following along on google reader. I would love to be included and would cherish receiving your wonderful Blueberry Hill Set.
ColoradoLass
My favorite Christmas memory was the year I was very pregnant with my first son, David. Hearing the Christmas story was so real ..... "and Mary kept all of these things and pondered them in her heart." That child is now 27 years old and has a child of his own, but I still can feel that same feeling every Christmas.
ReplyDeleteEdiePA
I make an ornament for each of my children and for my granddaughter. I make a lot of other ornaments too, but only for those I love.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up...my favorite tradition was going to my grandparents & great-grandmothers for Christmas. Christmas Eve, we all went out to my Great-grandmother's choice of restaurants and then back to her house for presents (Adults only) - my sisters and I would pass the presents out to all the adults. Christmas would be for the kids; we all would wake up to full stockings and a Christmas tree that was hard to find because of all the gifts. Then there was the tasty meal my grandma and grandpa would make for all.
ReplyDeleteNow, my own kids write letters to Santa on Christmas Eve after a wonderful family dinner - and then wake up to filled stockings and presents under the tree...cinamon rolls in the oven and a fun family breakfast.
I would love to enter your contest and will become a follower of your blog.
Happy Holidays,
Lisa in California
www.cadurst.blogspot.com
The Christmas tradition as far as I can remember is "opening the oysters" after Chrisrmas office & before the diner! You know that sea products are most popular in France for Christmas Eve & I can smell, when I shut my eyes ,the odor of salted water! We were not allowed to open our gifts on that night & the great surprises were for the morning after.God bless you!HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!! Couson
ReplyDeleteWe have a family tradition of spending ALL of christmas week doing things with the children that will introduce them to the spirit of christmas. The children get to chose what they want to do and when. We make gifts, bake cookies, decorate the cakes and watch the Muppet Christmas Carol whilst making mince pies and sausage rolls. (This film is essential to our tradition and it is not a proper christmas unless we have watched it at least 5 times lol)
ReplyDeleteThen, because we live very rurally, we wrap up warmly on christmas eve and walk around our community dropping off cards and gifts.
And magically, while we are gone, Santa always leaves a gift for the children under their pillows to open when they go to bed. We think it is a little thank you for the children being so good to others.
Hi! Love your products and your blog! My favorite Christmas tradition is my son bring his stocking (and ours) to our bed and taking turns opening little gifts. We have been doing this since he was a small boy. Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays!
ReplyDeleteLori (house1795@tds.net)
Hi Becky and Julie - one of my best memories growing up was working on a paper chain to put around the tree using gum wrappers - I kept adding to it each year and it was quite a project! I also loved helping my mother make Christmas cookies as a child - I miss my parents more than ever now that they are both gone - it's been hard the last couple of years, but good friends always include me in their holidays!Please enter me in your drawing for your beautiful box and smalls! I just love your products!
ReplyDeleteTedra - Phoenix, AZ
trsamcat@cox.net
Living in the Netherlands I grew up celebrating Saint Nicolaus birthday on the 6th of december. Here it is called Sinterklaas.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite memories is this:
My parents told us we could come as the streetlights were burning. (usually around 6 in the morning) One morning: the lights were lit!! a run to the livingroom but....we were quickly sent back. The lights weren't dimmed yet. It was still before midnight. Later on when we got to know "the secret of saint Nic" we could laugh with our parents about that evening. My mother had hardly time to hide the sweater she was finishing.
With Christmas we come together as family and cherish being together.
Becky...your name...of Dutch origin I suppose? A childhood friend of mine was called de Vries.
Best wishes for you all
Ine Munsters
I was reading older posts as I came upon our one and only Sinterklaas played extraordinally by Bram van der Vlugt (the 4th picture). It was fun to read about the old traditions and true Sinterklaas is still a real children's happening.
ReplyDeleteIne Munsters
Since my children have grown into adults with families of there own my favorite things about Christmas have changed.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of Christmas now is sitting back and watching how my children have incorporated our family customs with their husband or wife's family customs.
In our family we always put our Christmas stocking on the stair post and that was opened the day after Christmas.......as we always seemed a bit overwhelmed with what to do the day after.
My daughter now leaves the stocking on the bedpost and the girls bring the stocking to their parents rooms on Christmas morning and open those little gifts in the middle of the bed with Mommie and Daddy.
My son, on the other hand, hangs the stocking from the mandle and they are opened after breakfast on Christmas morning.........even the packages from Santa are wrapped and they don't open those until there grandparents from their mother's side have arrived late afternoon and they have all had there dinner.
So..........watching the blending of the generations and seeing new customs come about brings me great pleasure.
our christmas tradition is putting up the tree and decorating it - our almost six year old helps out now and it is our pleasure telling her stories of each ornament, where we got it from or who gave it, etc. and letting her choose and hang them on the tree! and of course baking a wonderful, rich carrot cake with walnuts and ginger!
ReplyDeletethank you for the gorgeous giveaway!
happy holidays at all!
I've begun making ornaments for the Children in my family. We have a small contingent of children right now, so it's pretty easy to accomplish
ReplyDeleteIn my family, we love jigsaw puzzles. For more than 30 years, I've purchased a new Christmas theme jigsaw puzzle, which we begin assembling on Christmas Eve (if we're all together) or Christmas Day. It is ALWAYS finished by evening on Christmas Day. Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of working with my Dad and (occasionally) Mom on these puzzles. They are both gone, so we now remember them and talk about them as we do our puzzling.
ReplyDeleteKatherine
One of my favorite traditions is our family hanging our Christmas stockings. I made each stocking with special needlework--so each is unique and personalized. A few years ago, my oldest daughter was dating a gentleman that we adored...for years and years. Trying to figure out how to let him know that we thought he was special, well...I made him a Christmas stocking too. He proposed within weeks (course it was the stocking!!!) and now he and my daughter have this special tradition for their own home!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun contest!
ReplyDeleteStockings were always a big deal when I was growing up. It was my parents way of getting some extra sleep. My mom and dad would stuff the stockings full of all kinds of fun things and it was the one thing we could play with before they got up. My sister would come to my room and wake me up before the sun came up :-). Even when we were teenagers I can remember her coming to my room so we could go get our stockings, LOL.
My favorite Christmas memory happens again year after year. When I was little I always had a Christmas stocking which Santa left by my bed so that when we (my sisters and I) awakened we would all sit together on the bed and open our stockings. I carried this tradition forward with my two daughters and to this day we all sit on Mom and Dad's bed and they open the gifts in their stockings before we go downstairs to see what Santa has left. My daughters are 23 and 28 now. The oldest one has been married for 3 years and she still comes home for Christmas with her husband and now her daughter. This year there will be another little person on the bed opening her stocking.
ReplyDeleteTo me Christmas is all about family. Please put me in your drawing - thank you for offering this contest.
My favorite memories always seem to center around Christmas eve...it was a strictly 'no travel' day in our family, with all of us at home, together. There was such an air of anticipation of the big day, blended with a quietness and peace...everything was ready, the tree sparkled, and we were all together. This year, I am being married on Christmas eve, and so will add another treasured memory.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone has a peaceful safe holiday...Merry Christmas!
My happyest Christmas is 35 years old. I spent it in a very old hospital, without any comfort, but on the 23th, Dorothée, my first daughter was born, and nothing else had any importance. Since then, all my Christmas have been full of light!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow again is the Day, and you can't imagine how proud I am of her!
Thanks to both of you for reminding us all how happy we are!
Paule
We make ice luminaria to edge the front walk. For this year, we have our first pair out. We fill 5 gallon pails with water and let it freeze overnight. Generally, it is not cold enough to freeze solid; this is very important because the luminaria would not form properly if it did. In the morning, we dump the water out of the pail leaving an ice shell. The shell becomes the luminaria. On Christmas Eve, we put candles in the bottom of the luminaria and light them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=10729203&AlbumKey=A4Z2M
This is the URL to a gallery with luminaria pictures
Julie and I tried to edit the original comment to include the URL but were unable to do so. I deleted it and re-entered it with the URL so that you can see. I will be updating the gallery as the luminaria progress.
We love decorating our house at Christmas and my favorite thing is putting the star on top of the tree. It has been in my husband's family since he was a boy and it represents so many memories...for him and his dad (who is no longer with us) and for us and our girls. And now we will have the pleasure of new traditions and memories with our grandson.
ReplyDeleteI hope you both have a wonderful Christmas and a new year filled with many blessings.
Please add my name to your drawing. Thanks so much!
Thank you for the opportunity. One of my favorite Christmas memories is going to my grandparents home as a young girl for Christmas. It was the family tradition to spend Thanksgiving with Dad's side and Christmas with Mother's side of the family. I loved sleeping in their big livingroom near the tree in sleeping bags and falling asleep with the tree lights on. The next morning my two brothers and 3 cousins would wake up and look for the presents with our names on them. My Aunt always waking up to the noise and telling us to go back to sleep because it was to early to get up and we had to wait until after breakfast to open gifts anyway. It is great now being able to stay up late and play Santa and watch the activities at night after my nephews go to sleep. I don't know how they did all of those great stockings over the big fireplace at my grandparents without waking us all up.
ReplyDeleteI would love to find out Santa put the Friendship box of goodies in my stocking this year. Please include me in the festivities.
Rebecca in Iowa, mrebec4@q.com
Just learned of you beautiful blog and very generous giveaway! Wow - great things to look at AND lessons on how to do stuff - what could be better?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas tradition has to do with the tree. I've been doing it since I was a little girl and now my (grown) kids still share it with me!
After the hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas Day we take a moment after Christmas to lie down on our backs under the tree and look up through the branches (at night - all lit up and glowing). It's beautiful and peaceful. We talk about the fun family time we've just shared, about plans for the new year and just take some peaceful time to connect.
So glad to have found you blog (isn't the internet wonderful?). Thank you for the beautiful gift offer and, most of all, a Merry and Blessed Christmas to you!
Mary in MN
As a fairly large family of four children(and numerous pets)and being a very traditional one, we developed many traditions that our children, now married, have continued on their own. There is one tradition that is mine alone that has been occuring for nearly forty years. When my husband and I first moved to the town we have lived in all these years, we met another couple our age and with a small child our boy's age. We got together after the Christmas Eve children's service for a birthday dessert for my friend. We are now grandparents and our two families together creates quite a bunch! BUT through all the ups and downs and tragedies and joys life brings our way, we have never missed getting together for a short while Christmas Eve. This year, the gathering will once again be just the four of us adults - the children will be around their own family's tree Christmas Day and joining us for dinner, but the tradition of four dear friends coming together continues and has never been missed in thirty nine years. It is a wonderful testimony to the power and love of friendship.
ReplyDeleteMeryy Christmas to you all,
Cathy
I've enjoyed reading others' favorite memories and traditions & find it hard to pick just one, so I'll pick 2. The first was when I was 10. I'd begged my parents for a dog forever, and on Christmas eve my Dad came home looking a little chubbier than normal. He sat on the floor with me, I noticed his tummy was moving - wasn't his tummy at all, but a little white puppy tucked inside his coat. It was the best Christmas ever. Fast forward 25 years when I had my 2 daughters, it became tradition to pick up my mom each Christmas eve to spend the nite with us (my dad had passed away in 1975). My daughters would get so antsy, since I'd make them wait until Grandma was up & had her coffee, and the other set of grandparents were here before they could even go see what Santa left for them. Sadly she passed away 6 years ago, but I'm grateful my girls got to spend that time with her.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the Christmas tutorial ladies! Please enter me into your drawing & have a wonderful Christmas! Dianne
Hello! A tradition I started the year our son was born, was a stitched ornament reflecting something that he liked or did that year. He now has 16 ornaments...when he leaves home and has his own tree...I will give them to him. A favorite thing we do each Christmas is either bake or purchase a Birthday Cake that says..."Happy Birthday Jesus"...we have that on Christmas Day!
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting us share and a chance to win this give-a-way!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Jan
JanUsee@aol.com
Christmas at home when I was a child was not happy. So, as an adult with my own children I was determined that we would have fun and make our own traditions. Amongst them - my eldest couldn't wait for Christmas to come. To ease the anticipation, he was allowed to open one present from under the tree on Christmas Eve. He lives in Puyallup now, with his own family. His daughter is two; not quite old enough to really have the excitement of Christmas, but they're doing the Christmas Eve opening as well. It just feels so wonderful to see something like that carried on by the next generation.
ReplyDeletesorry,but my english is so bad
ReplyDeleteen français,"my favorite christmas memory"est la preparation de decorations de la maison que nous faisions en papier,la semaine avant noel avec mes 4 soeurs,il y a vraiment très longtemps
happy new year to you
Martine's post is about the Christmas decorations for the house that she and her four sisters used to make from paper. She notes that it has been a long time...
ReplyDelete