Today Sandra is hosting a Holiday Traditions meme asking us to share our special family holiday traditions with each other. I absolutely love traditions especially at Christmas time. I grew up with many holiday traditions and I hope to pass many of these along to my own children. Two holiday traditions that stand out for me are having a Christmas Eve fondue and playing the game of Spoons.
Fondues are so much fun and such a great idea for when you have company over….the entire meal can last for quite awhile and so you have lots of time to really enjoy each other’s company, eating and chatting and don’t forget singing! Drop a piece of food off your fork into the fondue pot and you have to sing a song! We will usually have a few fondue pots going….two for oil, one big one for cheese and don’t forget chocolate fondue for dessert. Yum!
After dinner clear the table and get ready to play a game of Spoons! Spoons is similar to musical chairs expect with spoons of course. You all sit around the table and you put enough spoons for everyone minus one in the center of the table. Then you take a regular deck of cards and take out enough sets of four as there are people playing. Shuffle these cards and deal them all out. Each person then passes one card at a time around the table until someone gets a set of four. This person then ever so quietly reaches for a spoon and watches as everyone else scrambles to get a spoon as well. Of course because there aren’t enough spoons someone is going to come up short. That person gets a D (as in Donkey) on the scoreboard and the play continues. When someone has “lost” enough times to spell the word Donkey they are then out of the game and from that point on nobody is allowed to talk to that person. If you do you too are out of the game. Be careful though because the person out is allowed to do whatever it takes to make you talk. This game is so silly and hilarious however I don’t recommend you sit beside anyone with long fingernails as you may go home bloody and bruised!
This year I’m also hoping to incorporate even more family traditions into the holiday season specifically trying to keep Christ in Christmas. I wanted to find a way to remind my kids daily the importance of the season….the birth of Jesus Christ. A couple of weeks ago Shannon from Rocks in My Dryer posted about the Jesse Tree as her Works for Me Wednesday post and I immediately knew this was something I wanted to do with my family. If you haven’t heard about it you can refer to Shannon’s post here or you can also find out more directly from the author of the Jesse Tree here.
Finally, I want to tell you about a beautiful Christmas blog that Lindsey from Enjoy the Journey has started specifically for the purpose of helping all of us find ways to keep Christ in Christmas this season. The site is called Advent for Evangelicals…..it officially opens today and I am so excited about it. Thanks Lindsey!
Don’t forget to head over to Sandra’s now and visit the other participant’s blogs…you may just find a new holiday tradition for your home!
Anonymous says
I love the idea of the Jesse tree as well! I certainly would like to do this with my boys.
Spoons sounds definately entertaining!!
Mrs Blythe says
I love the idea of ‘spoons’ lol. Thanks for sharing your traditions they were fun to read :o)
Sean Carter says
Your traditions are quite interesting and fun… thanks for sharing them… ‘Spoons’ sounds like lot of entertainment… Take a look into my Christmas Blog to check out some really cool stuffs and unique ideas
Anonymous says
Love the idea of Jesse Tree, and I can’t wait to see Lindsey’s new blog 🙂
Spoons is SUCH a fun game, we play it but not at Christmas, what a great idea 🙂
This was so much fun to read Laura, thank you for playing along 🙂
Hugs,
Sandra
Pamela says
Love your wonderful traditions! Spoons sounds like so much fun! We also love fondue, especially cheese! 🙂 Being together and laughing and celebrating, loved it! 🙂
Susanne says
That sounds like a riot! I love the fondue idea!
Morning Glory says
Your traditions sound wonderful. Last year our family decided to do the fondue for Christmas dinner and it was so much fun! We recently taught our grandchildren how to play spoons – it was a hit!
Katrina says
Wonderful traditions!
I haven’t played spoons in ages, but I had a college roommate who loved it, so at one point I played it all the time. Great game!
Anonymous says
Good Morning my friend. I’m under the weather today….a virus I suspect. I loved you traditions….and on the Advent….our local churchs…all different religions do this…get together on the first Sunday of December and have an Advent Walk..we go from church to church walking and listne to a preacher from that church preach about 5 mintes their choir sings a Christmas song and we leave and go to the next church….the last church has refreshments and its really nice…I always look forward to this….happy day
Angie says
Thanks for sharing your traditions with us. I spoons game sounds like a ton of fun and the fondue sounds like a great way to spend Christmas eve!
Beck says
SPOONS! Yay! That game is so much fun, so long as I don’t play it with my overly-boisterous brothers.
And fondue.. totally, that sounds like a perfect evening.
PastorMac's Ann says
Pastormac’s family always had fondue at Christmas time! We love fondue!
We played a lot of spoons in college.
You’ll have to blog about how your Jesse tree goes this year. I agree that it sounds like a great idea!
Anonymous says
We do the Jesse tree too! Just started that last year. I am thinking to possibly make one out of felt this year…hmmmmmmm.
Fondu sounds yummy! I’ve never had it before!
sherry
Anonymous says
Ohhhh… fondue… love it!! It sounds like you and the family have some wonderful family traditions and I thank you for sharing. Spoons around this house gets a little dangerous, someone either loses a finger or an eye. Not pretty…
Kathleen Marie says
I loved reading about your traditions! It is awesome to meet someone else who does fondue! We need to swap fondue ideas 🙂
The spoon game sounds fun! We may have to try that one.
Thanks for sharing!!
Holly says
How funny – Fondue and spoons are two family traditions for us as well although we never added the donkey/talking part. Thanks for sharing!
Hugs,
Holly
Holly’s Corner
Barb says
I love your traditions, Laura. The fondu dinner sounds like so much fun! I haven’t done fondu in years. My family would love this.
Morning Glory says
Glad you got to join in on this today. We did fondue for last Christmas and it was so much fun. I might have to add playing Spoons to it this year. My grandchildren love that game.
PEA says
I so enjoyed reading about your Christmas Traditions…we also often have a fondue on Christmas Eve and play a game which I’ve explained in my own post:-) Your spoon game sounds like a lot of fun and one I’ve never heard of before…I’ll write down the rules and will have to introduce that one to my family!! Take care:-)
Kathleen Marie says
Another fondue lover! That is such a special part of our holiday as well.
Thanks for sharing!!
gail says
Fondue sounds like a fun idea! And I never would have thought of spoons for Christmas eve but sounds like fun! Thanks for sharing your traditions.