For Families Eyes Only

Check out these great ideas for starting or adding to your own holiday traditions at Christmas... for a lifetime of family holidays memories!

Creating Lasting Family Holiday Memories

By: Blair Stephens

As every holiday rolls around, families repeat and make new traditions. These evoke memories of years past and celebrate the years to come. The Christmas holidays are a wonderful time to make memories together, decorating the house, baking delicious cookies and seeing family and friends. If you are looking for ideas of how to make your holiday this year special and new - or to come up with some wonderful new holiday traditions, we have a couple of ideas for you to use this year!

Start a Collection, and Share It!

Decorating the Christmas tree is fun every year and as your holiday ornament collection grows, so do your memories of Christmas past. The best thing about many ornament collections is the variety of styles especially as preschoolers and young children bring home their own homemade creations to grace the tree. What really sets a Christmas tree apart isn't its “style” or theme consistency; it is the memories and the personal touch of every family that goes into this holiday symbol.

I learned a lot about how special Hannukah is to Jewish families, and why it is such a cherished Jewish family holidays celebration.

Hannukah is a Joyous Jewish Holiday Celebrated Close to Christmas

By: Lynn Jebbia

Hannukah is a Jewish holiday celebrated in December normally a week or so before the Christian holiday of Christmas. It is not one of the important religious holidays in the Jewish faith but it is a joyous holiday. It is often referred to as the “Festival of Lights”. It commemorates the physical and spiritual victory of the Jews over the Greeks more than 2150 years ago.

Jerusalem was conquered by Alexander the Great. When he died his empire was divided among the Greek rulers who then gained control of the Jewish land. They forced the Jews to adopt Greek dress and customs to establish conformity in religious and political practices. They even changed the Temple in Jerusalem which was the national house of worship to a temple to the Greek god, Zeus.

Mattathias was a Jewish priest who began a revolution when he refused to worship the Greek gods. His sons joined him and later his son Judah Macabee led a small group of soldiers and conquered the temple. They were able to eventually drive the Greeks right out of Jerusalem.

After the temple was conquered it was rededicated and it is said that a miracle occurred at this ceremony. Hannukah means rededication in Hebrew.

Oh my! These sure brought back some wonderful Christmas memories! Start your own family holiday traditions this year!

Family Christmas Celebration Ideas

By: Connie LimonIn this article read about some of the ways families across America celebrate Christmas. Christmas tradition #1:

• Purchase music from the great English cathedrals. Gather stories about the Salisbury and Worchester Cathedral of England. As you play your music during the holidays tell your family the stories of how the great organs played in these Cathedrals and the choirs sang during the Christmas holiday celebrations

Create An Egg-Citing Easter Celebration

By: Jolanda Garcia

While many families have their own traditions to celebrate Easter, often eggs, bunnies, chicks, and egg hunts are part of the festivities. Here are a few fun ideas for Easter decorations, crafts, and games to help you celebrate this springtime holiday with your family.

Eggstravaganza - Children of all ages love to color and decorate Easter eggs! Coloring eggs has been a part of spring festivities for centuries. In both Passover and Easter traditions, the egg symbolizes new life. This year consider involving the whole family in an evening of Easter egg decorating. Younger children kids have fun using Q-tips to dip into egg colorings to decorate their eggs.

Fun in Family Thanksgiving Party

By: Mitch Johnson

Everybody wants their party to be the best and fully enjoy by their guest. Especially if you are throwing Thanksgiving party with a big crowd including children, parents and adults, you may be very confused on what game is to be select. Do not worry a bit, this article will help you to solve your problems by providing some top and hit family games.

Not too soon after dinner but before that sluggish feeling gets too strong a foothold, why not ask cousin Jim, who usually monopolizes the conversation anyway, to make a Thanksgiving Day speech including in it the names of all barnyard animals. Ask each guest to keep an animal in mind. When Jim raises his right hand everyone immediately imitates the animal he has chosen. When Jim raises his left hand...