Favorite Christmas Traditions

Sharon Lathan

Sharon Lathan is the best-selling author of The Darcy Saga, a ten-volume sequel series to Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

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[…] Some of the comments left by my awesome visitors I posted a few days back, and they can be read on THIS December 5th post. Here are a bunch more, including a recipe you won’t want to miss! Thanks to everyone […]

Jennifer Zorko-Legan

Here is the Yule Log Recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do

Cake:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 375

Line a jelly roll pan (11×16) with parchment paper and grease generously with shortening.

Beat eggs in small bowl on high speed until very thick and lemon colored (about 5 minutes). Pour eggs into a large mixing bowl. Beat in granulated sugar gradually. Beat in water and vanilla on a low speed. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until batter is smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until wooden pick in center comes out clean (about 10 to 12 minute – watch carefully!) Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan and invert onto towel genereously sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove paper from cake. Trim off any stiff edges if necessary. While cake is hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end and place on cooling rack for at least 30 minutes.

Filling:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 Tbl siffed powered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whip filling ingredients together until light and frothy (about 5 to 7 minutes).

Unroll cake from towel and spread filling onto cake. Loosely re-roll cake starting at narrow end.

Frost with Dark Chocolate Ready to Frost Frosting in a can (Dark Fudge works best). Once frosted drag fork through the frosing to make it look like bark. Sprinkle lightly with powered sugar. Decorate with Silk\Plastic Holly.

(Tip: To prevent frosting from getting on the plate as you frost, cut strips of waxed paper and tuck around the cake, once frosted remove waxed paper strips)

Enjoy and Happy Holidays to all.

Jennifer Zorko-Legan

That is fine. I wanted to share it with everyone, but was not sure where to post it 🙂 I know that you had requested the recipe and it is not a family secert, so I wanted to share. Have a GREAT day!

Erin Krueger

My favorite tradition is church on Christmas Eve and then being allowed to open one gift before Christmas Day after begging my Grandpa for permission. He still gets a kick out of it. My husband’s is a big brunch, after opening the presents, that his mother used to make on Christmas Day for the whole family instead of lunch. I’m doing it this year…bacon and eggs and cinnamon rolls, French style!

Katrin W

I am the entrant with the tradition of lighting candle on my fathers and grandparent´s graves. I just wanted to add, that it´s not a really sad tradition for me. My dad died when I was a child, like one of my grandmas too, but visiting the graves has always been a positiv thing in my family. My mother took us with her visiting the graves and that´s why I can´t imagine a christmas without prior having been lighting a candle there.
And I love visiting the cemetary on an occation like christmas, because you can truely see that many people have been there too, remembering and lighting candles too.
🙂

Janet T

There are several things that have always been special to me at Christmas and are traditions, of sorts. Putting up the tree, of course, is the start of it all. Baking the special things that I bake only at Christmas is a big part of my traditions. The smell of the goodies baking in the kitchen, fixing some up to give away and tasting the finished breads are all such good times. I guess, as I have gotten older, some things have changed in their importance. I still love to wrap packages but it is not as much fun as it used to be and I’m not nearly so creative. Now I am just glad when they are all wrapped and under the tree. There is one thing that hasn’t changed for me . When the tree is up and the house is all decorated and festive, I love to turn all the lights out, light the lovely scented candles throughout the house, fix a nice cup of hot tea, spiced or regular, or maybe a cup of hot mulled cider, then sit in front of the tree with its myriad of lights and have Christmas music playing softly in the background. I can sit and look at the beautiful tree and feel the peace of the season. It is such a lovely time of reflection and remembrance. When my son was a little boy, he would always sleep on the floor by the tree for the first few nights after we put it up. Now he is grown with his own little children that like to sleep by the tree. I guess we all enjoy the ambiance of the lights glowing in the dark, the soft music in the background and the warmth that feels our hearts…all five senses being equally touched.

Stephanie L

For years, my Gram and I spent hours and hours making goodies, putting them in tins and tubs and giving them to everyone we know. She’s been gone several years now but it’s just not Christmas to me if I can’t continue that tradition. As I’m creating I just know she’s looking on from above and cheering me on.

Ella Quinn

We attend church on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, I make a dutch pancake that bakes while we’re opening presents. The rest of the day we spend together.

A New Jane Austen Book

I just like the fact that this year I get some time off work for the first time in 16 years and can spend it with my nearest and dearest. I hope that becomes a tradition! And I also will have some time to eat some nice food, drink some good wine and read a bit. I am such a simple creature!

Sara Morton

We always hang two ornaments on our tree Christmas eve. A Christmas Pickle and a Christmas Spider. You can google their meanings, as they are too long to post here. Mainly a German tradition.

CJ Fosdick

For several years it has been a tradition with family adults to go thru the words of C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S and select a gift starting with the letter of that word. (This year it is “S”.) Determine the amount spent ahead of time, wrap your gift with no tags and place on coffee table. The hostess then has adults pick a number from a hat or bowl. Whoever gets #1 chooses a gift from the table. Whoever gets #2 can choose a table gift or take the gift #1 has chosen. The last number chosen has the advantage of seeing all the gifts so far and “stealing” one he likes from someone else or taking the last wrapped gift from the table. Anyone who has a gift “stolen” can pick another gift from the table or go after someone else’s he covets. It becomes a game and everyone gets what he wants most! Gifts are usually androgynous unless someone marks the package for Men or Women only. Saves having to spend a lot on gifts for EVERY other adult. (Children still receive their gifts from everyone; Christmas giving IS mostly for children anyway!) Once you run out of C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, other words like Holiday, Yuletide, etc. can be substituted. (I always have a little extra gift for the most creative letter gift chosen by vote, but this is optional.)

Stephanie

Having an empty manger that our children fill with hay everyday from the good deeds that they performed. On Christmas morning the awake to find the Baby Jesus in the manger filled with nice soft hay from their good deeds.

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