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