Christmas Ideas I Picked Up From Women of Wonder

I won this edible tree!!

Thursday I attended the Women of Wonder meeting at our church and WOW!  They really outdid themselves this time.  First off, I won a door prize!  I candy Christmas tree surrounded by Hershey kisses.  I already ate the top layer before I remembered to take this picture of it.

We had a full meal from Antonios including salad, rigatoni, chicken, pizza and three dessert choices!  What a great way to start a meeting!  Then, instead of sitting the whole time, we had three stations:  (1) ornament making; (2) hospitality tips, (3) Christmas traditions.

The Cinnamon Ornament

The dough was already made for us ahead (1 cup applesauce mixed with 1 cup of cinnamon). Roll it out 1/4" thick, use cookie cutters to make little ornaments, use a toothpick to make a hole for hanging with ribbon/string and then over a week, let it dry out remembering to flip it over every day. They smell good and also work for a package decoration.

Hospitality Hints

We were taking to a dark room lit with candles and Christmas lights. Soft Christmas music was playing in the background and a table was set beautifully to show us how to do it right. Immediately as we entered the room, I had a feeling of "wow, how nice!" Here is a list of some of the tips we were given:

1. Start with a linen tablecloth and use.
2. Use good dishes and cloth napkins folded in a creative way (See 6 Different Ways To Fold Napkins). For me, this means no paper plates like usual.
3. Find a centerpiece that has some height to it but that people can see over to talk to the person across from them.
4. Next to the center piece, use some lower things for decoration.
5. Have a separate buffet table for the serving dishes and use boxes under the table cloth to give them different heights for a fancier look. This way your table won't look cluttered.
6. to guide the conversation and avoid tense discussions, have a question at each place setting for a person to answer to get a nice conversation going. You can actually buy some ready made conversation cards! I guess party stores have them and even Marc's sometimes. You could make your own such as "What was your best present as a kid?" or "What is one of your favorite Christmas memories?"
7. Place a little gift at each place.

Traditions Ideas

1. Let each child decorate their own room for Christmas, including a little tree.
2. Set up a Nativity set but leave the baby Jesus out of it until Christmas day. Move the wisemen around the room on their journey. Then, Christmas day read the scripture about the birth of Jesus and use the Nativity pieces to act it out.
3. Have the whole family, relatives included, gather in one location to have a cooking baking day together.
4. Give extra cookies you made to neighbors and people you would like to say "thank you" too.
5. During December, wrap Christmas story books and read one a day or play a different game each day before Christmas.
6. Don't do your wrapping all at one time but instead, wrap just a couple presents each day.
7. Hang a Christmas sock for Jesus and on Christmas, have every member of the family think of something they could give Jesus and write it on a slip of paper to put in the stocking (such as something that would please Him--perhaps making a donation to help someone else, or a character trait that could be improved such as not complaining so much).
8. Go through your clothes and gather things you could donate to a thrift store or some charity to make room for your new things you will probably get at Christmas.
9. Be sure to attend a special Christmas service such as a candlelight service, or a play.
10. Christmas Eve, while the children are asleep, sneak into their room and place a package at the bottom of their bed. This way they at least can open one as soon as they wake without waiting until everyone is ready.
11. Take turns opening the packages so everyone can see everything and it is less chaotic and makes the fun last longer.
12. Bake a birthday cake for Jesus and eat it on Christmas day.

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