by Roseanna White | Dec 16, 2015 | Holiday History, Holidays, Remember When Wednesdays
I’ve blogged many times over the years about different Christmas traditions throughout history, and how we apply it to our lives.
There are probably more my search just isn’t finding, because I distinctly recall reflecting on the differences in New England versus mid-Atlantic or southern American traditions in Colonial days, and I’m sure that’s in any of those links. 😉
But today I wanted to talk a bit about our traditions. Here are a few that my kids love.
- Every year, their grandmother takes them out shopping for a new ornament, and they pick out our (real) tree.
- Making gingerbread cookies. We could make nothing else, and they’d be happy.
- Decorating. In my life, I think I’ve spent a total of about $20 on Christmas decorations–everything else has been given to us by family. And let me assure you I have PLENTY of decorations. Every year, I resist getting them out (because it’s work, man, LOL), but every year, when I have those evergreen garlands hanging from windows and doorways, I’m utterly charmed.
- The Christmas train under the tree. No, this isn’t an electric one that chuffs around. It’s just Rowyn’s wooden track, but he and Xoe build it around the tree every year as soon as it’s is up and decorated.
- Going to church. The Christmas Eve candlelight service is well loved, and Xoe has declared that “Christmas on church day would be the coolest thing ever.”
- Our countdown chain. We did it the first year as an art project for school, cutting and coloring strips of construction paper and taking one link from the chain each day. Now Xoe also counts down the days until December so she can make it. =)
- The music! While Rowyn will occasionally groan when I turn a Christmas station on, he also loves the ones we sing in church, especially one of the praise and worship songs called “Born Is the King (It’s Christmas)” (or as he refers to it, “The du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du song.”)
- The pickle. Even if it was a department store hoax (it’s kinda shocking how many traditions were started by stores!), my kiddos love trying to find the pickle ornament on the tree.
I know there are more, but I won’t bore you. Instead, I’d love to hear about a tradition your family makes sure never to miss!
Then brace yourself, because tomorrow I’m getting thoughtful about why Christmas is depressing for so many people…and how maybe we can adjust our mindset.
by Roseanna White | Dec 14, 2015 | Word of the Week
I am sometimes baffled by how things come into our cultural consciousness…and change over the centuries. Cue the elves.
Elf comes from Germanic folklore, with equivalents in Norse and Saxon mythology. The word itself hasn’t changed much since Old English in spelling, sound, etc.
The meaning, however…
Back then, an elf was considered to be a mean-spirited goblin-like creature with quite a bit of power. Descriptions range from creatures who are merely mischievous to “evil incubus.” Since the mid-1500s, it’s been used figuratively for a mischievous person. They were thought to create knots in hair (oooookay) and hiccups.
Over the centuries, they gradually took on new roles in people’s minds. They were occasionally referred to as “house gnomes,” and while they would act with traditional mischief if not treated properly, they were thought to scare off true evil spirits from your house if you treated them properly–people were known to leave out gifts of food and baubles to appease them.
It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that Scandinavian writers took this ancient tradition and decided it would be fun to apply it to Christmas. Popular writers of the day began crafting stories that assigned elves the new role of being Santa Claus‘s helpers. By this time traditional belief in elves had pretty much fallen away, so people seized this new thought that sort of revived an old belief, but in a nice, cute way. Visual artists joined this new movement and began painting pictures of what we now identify as elves–cute, small, sprite-like creatures who are all goodwill…at least unless a child in naughty, in which case some old mischief might sneak out and cause them to replace goodies in a stocking with switches or lumps of coal.
So there we have it. Elves. 😉
by Roseanna White | Dec 10, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
How do you inspire generosity in your kids?
This is a question I’m asking myself a lot lately. Because while one of my children would give up absolutely anything to help someone else, the other is hard pressed to ever think about giving. Or want to give, even when it’s not remotely sacrificial.
So this is my question to you, who may have already dealt with this. How do I inspire my children to generosity?
I certainly can’t force them. Pretty sure if I make my children act selflessly, it would backfire. I’m trying to take opportunities in daily life to talk about the importance of giving (a popular topic this time of year). Of service. Of thinking of others.
It’s not sinking in, thus far.
I thought we’d try something in the spirit of Christmas and asked the kids to pick out gifts for their friends and cousins. This sort of worked, until this particular child told me what fun it was…because they knew they’d get to play with them at the friends’ and cousins’ house. (Le sigh) (And yes, writer-me was deliberately using “they” to refer to a singular person, because I want to avoid gender here in referencing my kiddo, LOL.)
I’m stumped. And giving it a lot of prayer. Because while I’m fine with kids being kids and would love to be assured that this is a phase children grow out of, I’m not willing to be one of those parents that waves off behavioral or moral issues using that excuse. But I’m also not remotely a tiger-mom type that will be an iron fist enforcing exactly what I deem necessary. Trying to strike a balance here, and I could definitely use some thoughts from you guys.
Have you ever noticed a decidedly selfish bent to one of your kids? How did you address it? Did it worry you?
I’m not gnawing at my nails in anxiety here or anything, but I do believe it’s my responsibility as a parent to foster virtues in my kids. Some come to them naturally, a part of their personality. Others are more difficult. Have you noticed that?
So what do we, as parents seeking to raise God-honoring children who love Him from the depths of their hearts, not just by rote, do to foster those good traits that they’re lacking?
I’d love to hear what you’ve found that works, either with generosity or other lessons in virtue that a child may have struggled with!
by Roseanna White | Dec 7, 2015 | Word of the Week
Since it’s getting rather frosty outside here in the Appalachians, I thought today we’d take a look at ice…or rather, at when some of its idioms came into use. =)
Ice itself is from Old English, from Proto-Germanic is. There are cognates for it in quite a few other languages that also derive from that old-old-old German tongue. Our modern spelling began to appear in the 1400s.
Having been part of our language for so long, it’s no surprise that eventually it began to be used in idioms. The oldest of these is to break the ice. It has been meaning “to make the first attempt” since 1580! I had no idea it was so old. But it comes about as a metaphorical allusion to boats breaking up the ice in a river.
The 1800s brought us quite a few uses. The term ice age was coined in 1832. Ice fishing began to be spoken about in 1869 (which makes me wonder…was the activity itself first practiced then or did people use to call it something different?). Thin ice, in the figurative sense, first appeared in writing in 1884. On ice–as in, kept out of the way until needed–is from 1890.
And finally, the use you may have spotted in The Lost Heiress. Ice as a slang for diamonds is from 1906. (I totally would have thought it a product of the 1920s before I looked it up for use in my book. Shows what I know, LOL.)
Stay warm, everybody!
by Roseanna White | Dec 3, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays
It’s officially the advent season. The time of year when decorations are everywhere you turn, where cheerful lights proclaim Christmas around the corner, where you expect smiles from your fellow man and sales in the stores and happy greetings to be upon lips.
The season where, in recent years, everyone finds something to . . . complain about.
Yep. Let’s face it. This has become a season of glaring at one’s fellow man as often as smiling at him.
I honestly have no idea where the chain of offenses began. Were people who don’t celebrate Christmas offended at storekeepers wishing them a happy one? Is that why some of the big stores dispensed with “Merry Christmas” and opted for “Happy Holidays”? I don’t know.
But I do know this. My job as a Christian is to save my offense for matters of sin. Of ungodliness. Of things that endanger the soul. And a non-Christian not celebrating the day of Christ’s birth isn’t one of those. Honestly, it’s kind of right, isn’t it? We shouldn’t get offended at non-Christians not celebrating Christmas. If anything, we should get offended at how many do, and then twist the meaning. But I digress…
My job is not to get all up in arms over a greeting. Or, heaven forbid, a coffee cup. (I mean seriously?) I’m not going to get offended at schools calling it Winter Break. I’m not.
For me, this decision came easily when I was a sophomore in college, working at an insurance agency after school. We sent out a lot of mail and had a printing scale to apply the postage to it. We could choose our postmark, and around this time of year, we chose one that said, “Happy Holidays.” Why? Because we had Jewish clients, and we wanted to respect them.
I have no problem with that.
What’s more, we used that stamp for nearly two months–beginning in mid-November through January. Guess what–that covers more than just Christmas. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years…not to mention Hanukkah or Kwanzaa (which still baffles me, but let’s not go there…) were all included.
I’m 100% cool with that. I always thought that was part of the fun of this time of year–the multiple holidays we get to celebrate. So why do so many Christians get offended at “Happy Holidays”?
I don’t know, but the joke’s kinda on the users who think they’re stripping the time of year of religious meaning, isn’t it? Holiday literally means “holy day.” Holy. As in, hallowed, sacred, dedicated to God. (Didn’t know you’d get a bonus Word of the Week, did ya?) 😉 Tell me, why should that offend a Christian?
There is plenty in this world, and in this season, to be offended by. I’m offended by the mass commercialism that has taken it over. I’m offended that people think gifts are more important than Christ. I’m offended that
Santa Claus has been so distorted that he’s seen as a pagan elf rather than who he truly was–a saint dedicated to giving in Christ’s name.
But I will not be offended by:
* Happy Holidays (holy days are by definition days given to God. So yeah. Wish me happy holidays.)
* Santa Claus in principle (because I know his true story, and it’s inspiring. Read this blog I wrote last year if you’re not familiar with the amazing early church tradition of St. Nicholas)
* Red cups (I mean, really.)
* Snowflakes, penguins, etc. decorations (because, yo, folks–it’s winter. I’m not offended at fall leaf decorations either. Or flowers in the spring.)
* Schools calling it Winter Break (because it is, and while it’s Christmas break for many, it isn’t for all. I’m okay with that.)
Yep, there is plenty in the world to get upset about. But as Christians, we’re supposed to answer to a higher standard. Let’s not get riled at the world acting like the world, or even at the world not taking part in what is supposed to be our holiday.
Let’s save our offense for where it counts.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.