🎄CHRISTMAS FAVORITES | Traditions, Movies, Recipes & Smells

Hey guys, welcome back to another video. I've been meaning to sit down and do this for so long now, and then I got sick, and you can probably still hear it in my voice a little bit, so I've been trying to wait until I had more of a voice to sit down and do this video. So sorry it's going up a little bit late in the month of December, but I wanted to sit down and do a video like I did in the fall where I shared some of my favorite traditions, recipes, smells, movies, just all the things that I love in the month of December. So that's what I'm going to be sharing today, starting with traditions. I want to share at least 10 traditions, but I probably have more. Starting with my very favorite thing that we've kind of recently started doing as of the last few years is the day we put our Christmas tree up, we kind of make it a little bit of an event, and we have a movie on, the kids help decorate, and I already shared this in one of my videos. So when I did our decorate with me Christmas tree video, I did show us doing that. So that's something that we've already done. But this has become more of a tradition because I've included the kids in decorating our main Christmas tree. So it's just made it a lot of fun. The next one is, I would say, our kickoff to Christmas. Once this happens, it officially feels like Christmas, and this year it was so magical. So we live in Ogden, Utah, and there's this big event that happens the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It's called the Ogden Christmas Village Lights. If you live local and you've never been, you're missing out. It is so much fun. So what they do is they have a big parade at night, and then once the parade's over, this is like at 5.30 p.m., once the parade's over, they have a huge lighting ceremony and a firework show. And it is so fun. And it really makes me feel like Christmas Story, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, when they're doing that nighttime Christmas parade, it literally feels like you're in the movie. It is so much fun. It's so magical. So I have some footage of that that we did this year that I wanted to include in this video. Don't forget our Tea Party, thank you very much. Merry Christmas. Another tradition is to drive around and look at Christmas lights. One of our favorite things to do as a family, I feel like every year there's less and less lights, so we kind of have to find good places to go and drive around with our kids. But we do have a neighbor that goes all out, and it's also one of my best friend's in-laws. So we know who they are, but they literally, you guys, their house looks like, it looks really close to our Ogden Village lights. Like every single tree is wrapped. It's like a whole block of lights. It's so much fun. So that's always a house that we drive by, and then we do have a few neighbors that go all out. Here I am, like, judging people for not putting lights up, and we honestly haven't either. So darn it, next year, next year we're going to have lights. We're going to have lights on the house, we're going to have lights on our driveway. I would love to wrap all the trees along our driveway, that would be so much fun. It's just a lot of work. So next year, mark my words. Guys, what color would you guess is my favorite tree? Dude, actually, for some reason, Christmas trees aren't my favorite than red, but that green one's my favorite. Ooh. I like green. As we know, you like green. The next one is something we started doing this year, and I got this idea from one of you guys. So I think it was on Instagram, I did a poll of what some of your favorite traditions are, and someone said that they love to wrap all of their Christmas movies. They have like at least 25 Christmas movies in DVDs, and they wrap them, and every night one of the kids will unwrap it, and that's the movie they watch that night. And I thought, that is so much fun, but we don't even own a single DVD. So I thought, how could I do something similar like this for our kids when we have everything digital? So what I decided to do was type up all of the names of our favorite Christmas movies, and then I cut them up, put them in a bowl, and then my kids will draw one every single night. And obviously this doesn't happen every night, but we do kind of watch more movies during the month of December as a family, so we do go through a lot of them. So that's something that I thought would be really fun to include as a new tradition this year. Holly hanging, cross the door Neighbors singing, tales of yore It's so close, hardly can wait Waking up on Christmas Children dreaming, without a care Tis the season, most everywhere Come home, there's no better place Waking up on Christmas Day On Christmas Eve, many years ago, I lay quietly, and I did not rustle the sheets. I breathed slowly and silently. I was listening for a sound I was afraid I'd never hear. The ringing bells of Santa's sleigh Presents tied up with a string for you and me So grab your stocking, above the fire Bells are rocking to the choir Another thing we love to do as a family is go to our local Christmas tree farm. It's so fun to walk through the Christmas trees and pick one for our house. So we always have a real tree in the basement. We wait until December to go and get one. However, this year, our basement's a little bit, it's not going to be ready for Christmas. So there's no reason to go get a real tree for down there. But you guys, I still not got a tree for my bedroom. So that's something on my to-do list. I know we only have like a couple weeks left. This is unlike me to not have a tree in my room, especially because we renovated our room in January. I've been so excited to decorate my room for Christmas. I'm just shocked that I haven't gotten to it yet. So we're going to need to go get a tree real quick this weekend sometime. And then officially my room will be decorated and we'll be able to cross that tradition off of our list. We live somewhere where we get a lot of snow. So sledding and building a snowman are a must. There's something we do every single year. We love to wait until there's sledding snow. There is different kinds of snow. And the snow we've gotten so far this year has not been the kind that you really could sled in. So we're waiting for that perfect snowfall. It does look like this weekend we're supposed to get four days of snow. So I'm hoping that we can go to our favorite hill and we can all go sledding. Literally my favorite night of the year is when we do baking night with all the girls in my family. So my mom has been putting this on for years and years. Honestly, I feel like since I've been married. So it's me, my sisters, or like I have one sister, we have sisters-in-laws. And we just bake all of our favorite treats, which I will be sharing that in a minute. But we spend the whole day baking, putting plates together, we take them to neighbors. It is just so much fun. We always have Christmas music playing. I don't know, I just love the whole vibe of it. It's just so much fun to spend time with just the girls. So if that's not something that you do, that is a tradition I would recommend every single person doing. It's getting together with girls. And even if it's just girlfriends, that would be a really fun tradition to start. We always try to do some kind of service project in the month of December. And this year we decided, as a family, that we would get gifts for kids at our foster... I don't know what to call it. It's like a safe place for foster kids, like before they go into a foster home. It's called the Christmas Box House. If you guys are familiar with the movie or the book, it started as a book, The Christmas Box. One of my favorite books of all times. I love reading it, especially this time of year. He's like a family friend, the author, Richard Paul Evans. He's written a ton of Christmas books. In fact, I just got one from Costco yesterday. His newest one that he wrote this year. And my mom got to be part of the initial reading. She got to read the first manuscript of this book. And she said she just bawled. It was such a good book and it's really close to Richard Paul Evans' story. Anyway, he created this foundation. It's called the Christmas Box House. And again, it's a safe place for kids once they've been taken from their home. And before they are placed into a home, they can stay here at the Christmas Box House. And so, I was just thinking of children that will be waking up on Christmas morning there. We actually went on Monday. We took the kids with us and we went to the store and we picked up everything for the Christmas Box House. We're going to go deliver those gifts. We're actually delivering them tonight. So, if I have this edited, I might include that clip of us just like dropping things off. Obviously, we don't see the kids. We just drop them off at a location. On Christmas morning, whoever is there, they will let the kids choose which gifts they want. So, I think that's pretty cool. So, that's a service project that we decided to do this year. And we had so much fun shopping for them. When I was a kid and my parents would have us do service projects, honestly, those are the things that I remember. I don't remember one single thing I got for Christmas. But I do remember doing things for other people. So, I think it's important to include your children when you're doing any kind of service project. Something else we love to do is on Christmas Eve. Obviously, we love to do the baking cookies, frosting cookies for Santa. But we love to go in the morning to Denny's. I don't know why it's Denny's. I think it's because they have reindeer pancakes and it's so much fun. But we love to go to Denny's on Christmas Eve morning. And we try to leave a big tip for whoever is waiting on us. That's another fun way to serve whoever is waiting on you, especially on Christmas Eve. They want to be home with their family. So, it's fun to just do a little extra something for whoever is serving you that day. The next category of things I want to talk about are my favorite movies. This was really hard for me to nail down 5. That's what I want to talk about are my top 5 favorite movies. And I'm going to share them in order. This might shock some of you. My very favorite Christmas movie of all time is the Santa Claus. And I'm talking the Santa Claus 1. I don't really even like Santa Claus 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Whatever number they're on now. They even have a whole series, which my kids love. So, obviously, we're going to sit down and watch them with them. I will watch all the other Santa Clauses. I just do not love that they've turned it into a lot of special effects and CGI. The way they've made Tim Allen look, I just don't like. I liked when it looked real. I liked when the reindeer looked like they were really flying in the sky. I don't know. I just like the original Santa Claus. I'm going to share a little synopsis of each of these because I guarantee there's some of you that have not seen them. In fact, I would love to hear in the comments if any of these that I list you haven't seen. The story of the Santa Claus is the main character is divorced from his wife. They have a son named Charlie, and he's coming to stay with his dad on Christmas Eve. Now, you can tell the dad isn't really involved in his life. And Charlie, the son, doesn't even want to spend the night there on Christmas Eve. So, he's crying with his mom to stay with her instead. You can tell Tim Allen the dad is a little bit sad about that. But that night, he hears that Charlie doesn't believe in Santa Claus, and he hears that it was his stepdad that told him that. And so, he kind of gets annoyed with the mom that they would have that conversation with their son without him. And so, he's convincing his son, no, Santa is real. And then that night, they hear something on the roof. And the dad runs out the door, and he looks up on the roof, and Santa's on the roof. And he slides off the roof, and he falls off. And Charlie and him see this happen. And he decides to put on Santa's suit. He gets in the sleigh. And without him even knowing, he accepted a clause, which is why it's called Santa Claus with an E. He accepted this contract that he would become the next Santa Claus because he put on the suit. So, the whole movie is him, Tim Allen, not believing that this happened. He thinks it was a dream where his son knows that it happened, and he knows he is Santa. And by the next Christmas, you see what happens. But it is just all the feels. I love how that movie makes you feel. So, that is by far my number one movie of all time. My second favorite movie of all time is The Christmas Story. And I just love, again, the way that this movie makes you feel. It feels like you stepped back in time. I love how nostalgic the entire movie is. The fact I have a leg lamp in my house probably shows you guys that I do love this movie. The synopsis of this movie is really just, they really capture what Christmas looks like through a child's eyes. From wanting and wishing for something, not thinking you're going to get it for Christmas. The whole movie is Ralphie wanting this Red Ryder BB gun. He doesn't think he's going to get it. He's trying to scheme all these ways that he can get this for Christmas. He asks his mom. His mom says no. He writes a theme for his teacher, and his teacher doesn't think it's a good idea that he gets this gift. So, his final request is, I'm going to go talk to Santa at the mall. I'll tell him that I want it for Christmas, and then that's my last hope that I will get my Red Ryder BB gun. So, he goes to the mall, and even the Santa at the mall basically says no. And then on Christmas morning, he gets the gift that he had been asking for. The thing he did not think he was going to get. And it's just like pure magic. I just love everything about the movie The Christmas Story. Number three would have to be Christmas Vacation. This one is just hilarious. Again, something I have watched since I was a kid. It reminds me so much... Ah, this one reminds me so much of my dad. I do not mean to get emotional. This is a funny movie. I did not expect myself to start to get emotional, but... Especially over Christmas Vacation, are you kidding me? This is one of the funniest movies ever. I mean, I just laugh through the whole thing. I feel like it's a family inside joke. Like, my dad would just spew lines from it all the time. So, it always just makes me think of him. And so, in fact, a lot of our ornaments on our tree are Christmas Vacation ornaments. I literally have every single word, word for word, in this movie memorized. So, the synopsis of this movie is this family has Christmas break. And they have their extended family come stay with them during the holidays. And anything that could go wrong goes wrong for this family during Christmas break. I mean, their tree catches on fire. This cat explodes underneath the chair. There's a kidnapping involved. The FBI breaks into the house. It's just a whole mess of things, but it's literally hilarious. So, again, this is one of my favorite movies. In fact, sometimes it is my number one favorite. But it's definitely always up there in my top five. My next one would have to be Miracle on 34th Street. I am obsessed with this movie. I just think it is so sweet. And this movie takes place in New York. There's a little girl who lives with her mom. And her mom has told her Santa's not real. So, she doesn't believe in Santa Claus. Her mom runs the Christmas parade. I know, for us, it's the Macy's Christmas parade. But in the movie, it's the Kohl's Christmas parade. And her mom is in charge of that. So, she's out there watching the parade. And this Santa, they have this new Santa this year. One of my favorite scenes is when he notices her up in the window looking down at her during the parade. I love that part of the movie. But the whole movie is about her not believing in Santa. But she wants to believe in Santa. And she doesn't think it's fair that her mom told her that he's not real when she thinks and she hopes that he is. Lots of things happen in the movie, especially to the Santa Claus character. But you do find out during this movie that he is the real Santa Claus. The ending is just precious. Some of the things that she wants for Christmas are things that a kid wouldn't typically ask for as far as toys go. And somehow, the Santa is able to get those things for her. So, it's a really feel-good movie. And my kids love watching it. So, this is always a movie in our top five. And then, my fifth one on my top five would have to be Christmas with the Kranks. And I'm sure there's more of you that probably haven't seen this movie because it is a little bit of a newer movie. This one's another Tim Allen. Tim Allen, I think, is just my favorite when it comes to Christmas. He does Christmas right. But him and his wife decide they want to skip Christmas this year because their only daughter is going to be away for the holidays. So, they think it's a good idea. Let's not do Christmas. Let's go on a cruise. Save our money. We'll spend our money on a cruise. And it kind of backfires for them. They try to not do anything Christmas-like. We're not putting up a tree. We're not doing any Christmas parties. We're not involving ourselves in Christmas in any way. And they kind of become Scrooges through the whole movie. Then at the end, there's a bit of a surprise where their daughter decides, actually, I'm going to come home for Christmas. And this family always hosts Christmas Eve parties. And all of the neighbors come. But this year, all of the neighbors know not to come because they've just kind of been Scrooges the whole year. And so, last minute, literally like the day up, they decide we're going to throw Christmas. But a miracle has to happen. They don't have a tree. They can't find a tree in any of their tree lots. Again, one of those everything that could go wrong goes wrong for them on Christmas Eve. And then the community comes together. And is able to pull it off. And I think the very end scene of Christmas with the Krinks might be my favorite scene of any movie there ever was. There's a scene of him standing in the snow looking at his house. And seeing the family in the window like dancing and singing. And the snow is falling. And every single house is decked. I mean, we're talking lights all over the roof, the trees. They all have Frosties on the roof. It's just the most magical scene of any Christmas movie there ever was. So, you need to put that on your list of movies to watch this year. Moving on to the next category. I wanted to share some of my favorite Christmas smells. Specifically candles or, you know, things that make the house just smell really good. So, my favorite, favorite, favorite candles are from Antique Candle Co. These ones, especially like at Christmas, you guys, their Christmas smells are amazing. But I just love the look of candles in jars. I think they're so much cuter than a normal three-wick candle. I think. In my opinion. I love them. So, my two favorite smells from Antique Candle Co. for Christmas is their tree farm and their Christmas Day. Oh my gosh. The best smells you will ever smell. It literally smells like you're walking through a tree farm. And this one, like they somehow were able to capture the smell of Christmas and put it into a jar. And you can light it and make your whole house smell like Christmas Day. It's just amazing. I love these smells. I will have these linked below for you guys. And I have every single one of their Christmas smells. And every single one I would burn. They're so amazing. But if I had to pick two, these two would be my favorite. And then, good old fashioned Bath and Body Works. I love their winter smell. I also love the look of this jar. You can tell I'm basic. I just like their basic white. Whatever I can get that's white. Their winter smells really good. However, I would definitely put the other two candles above this one. As far as smells go for Christmas. And then, I love the smell of sensicals. I think they'll smell really good. I like to stick them in my tree. And then, people really think our Christmas tree is real because it smells real. So, I love sensicals. And then, my favorite smell of all time is a potpourri. Those are my favorite things to do during Christmas time where you just slice up things. You put it in a pot and have it going on the stove. It just makes the whole house smell like Christmas morning. I will have this recipe linked below. And then, last but not least, I want to share some of my favorite Christmas recipes. So, these are things that we make every year without fail. It doesn't feel like Christmas in my house unless we are baking and eating these Christmas treats. So, number one would have to be our Christmas wreaths. They're basically Rice Krispies treats, but you make them with cornflakes instead of Rice Krispies. And then, the only other difference is you add vanilla extract. Oh, my gosh. These are so good. Oh, I could probably eat a hundred of these in one sitting. They're so good. So, you can also put Red Hots. We actually swap it out and put little red M&Ms, which just make it taste better. I don't think Red Hots taste good with that. I usually pluck them off, but they make a really cute holly wreath. So, whatever you got laying around the house that's red will work. If you haven't tried these, you have to. This is literally my number one recipe we have to make every year. Again, I will have this recipe listed below in the description box. And then, number two and number three would be pretty similar, but Caramel Popcorn. I have to make Caramel Popcorn. Oh, it just reminds me so much of Christmas. No matter when we make it, we usually only make it during the month of December, but if I eat it any other time of year, it makes me feel like Christmas. So, I love the traditional Caramel Popcorn. I love that, but then we also make one that's like more of Caramel Puffs. You use these puffy, I don't even know what they are, but you get them down the chip aisle. To me, they look like shrimp. They look like shrimp, but you drizzle them with caramel. So, I'll have both of those recipes linked below. So delicious. Oh, my goodness. I love both of them. And then, of course, sugar cookies. I don't feel like, again, it's Christmas unless you're making sugar cookies and frosting cookies. So, my Aunt Linda has her famous sugar cookie recipe that we love. Obviously, any sugar cookie recipe is great, but the way she does her frosting is super good. I think the only difference of her frosting versus someone else is she uses cream of tartar, which makes, oh, my gosh, you guys, it's a tiny amount. You use like one-fourth of a teaspoon in it. That changes the taste of the sugar cookie. So, that recipe is so delicious. I will have that icing recipe below. I feel like using that on top of any sugar cookie tastes amazing. And then, last but not least, is my mom's famous pumpkin rolls. And I know this is kind of like fall, too, but this is something we eat just during this time of year. So, yes, we have them for Thanksgiving, too, but we also have them on Christmas and Christmas morning, and they are just to die for. I love my mom's pumpkin rolls. So, that is everything for this video. I hope you guys got some ideas or some new inspiration, maybe some new traditions that maybe you want to start this year or maybe some new recipes that you want to try. I'd love to hear what some of your favorite traditions are, some of your favorite movies, some of your favorite recipes, because I love hearing from you guys. So, be sure to leave a comment down below. Thank you guys again for watching, and we'll see you guys in the next video. Holly hanging across the door Neighbors singing tales of yore