Podcast & Blog: Making Christmas FUN, Bonding, Meaningful, and Tasty too!

CLICK HERE to listen to Making Christmas Memories, episode 66

Val Harrison, The Practically Speaking MOM, is joined by her two youngest daughters, Abby and Emma, as they share lots of laughter and family traditions to bring you closer to each other and to Christ. Some of the ideas are silly and some are serious, AND they also share their favorite SIMPLE Christmas party recipes. All of this is in episode 66, Making CHRISTMAS Memories with Abby, Emma, and Val.

Don't miss Val's Favorite SIMPLE & QUICK Christmas Party Recipes at the end of this blog post!

Since Val is taking a break from the podcast for a few weeks to enjoy Christmas with her family, be sure to subscribe to her Monday emails as she has a special Christmas email she'll be sending that includes some extras you won't want to miss. Watch for a Christmas gift from Val - a gift certificate to use at the shop at her website, PracticallySpeakingMOM.com. She'll also include some links to some of her former Christmas episodes and some of her favorite episodes..

Merry Christmas, my intentional mom friends! Abby, Emma, and I are so excited to spend time with you this week on the podcast!

We laugh A LOT in this episode. You know, sometimes I think the listeners enjoy Abby & Emma so much when they're on the show that they'd rather the show be THE PRACTICALLY SPEAKING DAUGHTERS podcast.. LOL. We do have a good time together.

In episode 66, we've got a list of FUN CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS that our children have loved through the years. I hope you find them to be as bonding and memorable as our family. On this episode, you'll hear:

🎄 "The Christmas Break Song" - a silly song about school break written by Abby and sung by Abby & Emma

🎄 How your family can try our funny tradition of a MIXED-UP VERSION of the 12 Days of Christmas -our version includes "seven buckets of sticky notes" and "two maids a cleaning." What will YOUR family's mixed-up version include???

🎄 Some ways we've done SIBLING GIFT EXCHANGE through the years

🎄 Our Silly STOCKING TRADTION

🎄 The GIFT NUMBERING MYSTERY that I use each year so that kids can't guess their gifts!

🎄 Our favorite SIMPLE Christmas Party Recipes (SEE THE RECIPES BELOW)

And we share some ways we keep CHRIST in Christmas:

🎄Christmas Advent Here's a link to some FREE advent resources

🎄 Some of our favorite CHRISTMAS MOVIES The Nativity Story (a $2.99 rental on Amazon) and the following are FREE on Amazon Prime: Veggie Tales The Star of Christmas, Veggie Tales St. Nicolas, Veggie Tales the Little Drummer Boy

🎄 When our kids were little they would dress up and re-enact the Christmas story for their grandparents

🎄 And we love performing in Christmas programs with our church or homeschool co-op

🎄 We have lots of children's books about the true meaning of Christmas – this year we are reading them to my grandsons throughout December over FaceTime. I sent them snacks and crafts to do while we listen to Christmas Stories with Grandma.

🎄 On Christmas Day we read the Christmas story from one of the gospel books of the Bible and We light the candles of the ADVENT WREATH while we sing Christmas carols

🎄We also Christmas carol at nursing home each year with our homeschool co-op – this year we still got to do this, thanks to one of the podcast listeners who read my post about our need for a karaoke machine so we could continue to sing at the nursing home during the pandemic – we needed a mic & amplifier so we could be outside big windows with the microphone and the residents could be inside with the amplifier. "Thank you!" listener Christi R, for purchasing a karaoke machine for us to continue this ministry. We and another family sing every month at the nursing home but in December our entire homeschool coop joins us to Christmas carol to the residents. We were so thankful that we were able to continue this tradition this year thanks to this generous gift from one of the podcast listeners.