Christmas - Childhood memories

I have many childhood memories associated with Christmas. Did you study in any Christian missionary school? I did. Whoever has studied in a missionary school can relate well to this post. Christmas reminds me of the following:

1. Christmas Carols:
The word Carol means 'dance to something'. Our music teacher used to teach these songs from November itself. We have a tradition to sing a song after our daily morning prayer in the school. We used to sing these carols during morning prayer and even in the church behind our school.

2. Christmas tree and star:
As per the tradition, Christians bring decorated Spruce/pine/fir tree to home to celebrate Christmas. They decorate it with edibles like apples, nuts or candy canes and with specific ornaments like balls and illuminate it with candles. 
As per the history, Christmas star is placed outside households to commemorate star of Bethlehem which revealed the birth of Jesus.

On the way from our home to school, we used to count number of stars decorated outside the houses and used to discuss which one is good. There used to be a Christmas tree decorated in school too. We have an arts and crafts class which targets on preparing crafts from waste. Our arts and crafts teacher used to teach on preparing simple crafts to decorate Christmas tree.

3. Santa Claus:
Saint Nicholas, a 4th century Bishop has a habit to gift to children. In US, People called him Santa clause. So, this tradition of gifting started from there.

Now, comes the favourite part of Christmas :) Our head mistress or any other senior teacher used to come as Santa Clause before Christmas with 'jingle bells' playing in the background and used to distribute chocolates in the morning prayer. 

4. Chrisma Chrischild game: 
It's also known as Secret Santa. It shows children the importance of kindness or giving. Teacher used to distribute one chit to each student on which some other student's name would be written. We will become Secret Santa / Chrismom for the student on our chit and he/she will become our Chris child. There used to be a Christmas tree or gift stand kept outside the corridor of the school, where Secret Santa should can place their gift to Chris child without revealing their identity. It's a fun experience to play this game altogether :) Sometimes, our Secret Santa can also assign some simple tasks to chris child in return to the gift like singing a multi lingual song in each class, reading weather reports, coming to school dressed in ethnic wear etc., So, December month used to be funny throughout :)

I had fun time with this game both in school days and also after I joined office. 

So, these were few things that i remember from my childhood days about Christmas. 
There is a blog hop #ChristmasBonanza happening in this month with around 20+ blogger publishing a blog post per day throughout the month. So, enjoy the posts :)

Until next time,

Image courtesy: www.freeimages.com

Come join a set of fabulous bloggers sharing their Christmas moments - Easy Holiday Crafts, DIY ideas, Recipes , Decor ideas and book recommendations with you .

Starting from today till Christmas and beyond, each one of us will be writing a post related to Christmas.

Participating blogs

ArtsyCraftsyMom - munniofalltrades - hfareensspace - roohiscollections - hellomommyhood - attachedmoms - totschooltotallyawesome - Themomviews - bumpsnbaby.com -

rugsoflife - oneandahalfminutes - shishuworld - ruskandtea - aspoonfullofideas - orangekitchens - obsessivemom - rachnaparmar - parentingmantras -

onboardthemommyship - kwikdekoblog - thekeybunch - momzspace - whatscookingmom - coloursdekor - happypeopleevents





So sit back, relax and check out all the fabulous Christmas Bonanza posts from our participating blogs in the linky. Support us by sharing our posts using the hash tag #ChristmasBonanza





This Linky is for participating blogs only, but We would love to see your Christmas Crafts too. Come and link up your Christmas post at ArtsyCraftsyMom.com

An InLinkz Link-up

Holiday season - Play Secret Santa :p

Yay! Holiday season starts with Christmas.. As i studied in a christian missionary school, Iam used to holidays, Christmas tree, Christmas carols etc.,We also used to perform dance songs on Jesus Christ's birth story and Christmas carols.. Holidays start from here and another set of holidays await for Pongal.. So, Isn't it a lovely season for kids? Our head mistress used to keep someone as Santa Clause and distribute gifts and chocolates to us before Christmas. We used to wait for that day :)

All this fun was gone after schooling and again the fun came in the form of gifts after i joined my first job. We used to play Secret Santa.. Everyone gets one colleague as their chris-child, to whom we have to gift until Christmas without revealing our identity. We also used to call it as 'Chrisma- Chris child' game.

When it comes to gifting for kids, choice is not that tough for parents. what do you say? Have you ever played Secret Santa in your family? Of course, many a times, we would have surprised our children with interesting toys, books, shoes, clothes, school bags, chocolates etc., right? This contest from HDFC Life made me think of good gifting options for kids.

Here are 5 gift ideas for children:

1. Toys are children's friends.. i hope everyone agrees to it. I try to pick some interesting toys as per my kid's interest which also improve his gross motor skills and logical reasoning. Some examples are  clay modelling kit, puzzles, train sets with track setting etc.,

2. For a child at an age of above 10, good books / pens might be useful. For children below 5 years, i would opt for big colorful story books to read at bedtime, painting/ sticker books/ fun art and craft books with which they can make less mess and also learn making crafts :)

3. Children love outings.. Isn't it? I would love to surprise my child by taking him to a zoo/ a park/ a game zone/ a beach.. we both love nature and more physical exercise by running and playing in parks :)

4. Now, moving to something which can help him long term.. Every parent wishes that their children study well and settle down without financial problems. Education has become very expensive these days and we cannot assume what will happen to kids when parents are no more to support. So, an investment option or a policy to support child's education is a mandatory gift i would like to present to my kid. HDFC , LIC and many other companies have specific policies to cater to child's education, wedding expenses etc., This HDFC link explains more about child plans.

5.Last, but not the least.. Love, Care and Moral values are something parents always gift their children by default and these are important for child to grow up as a good human being in the society, Agree?

let me know your opinion on these gifting options and also share more..

This post is a part of the 1001 Gifts Activity by HDFC Life in association with BlogAdda.

Until next time,

Image courtesy: picmonkey.com