1. Family + Decorations = Fun Christmas Spirit
A lot of people look forward in setting up the Christmas decorations the moment the -ber months appear in the calendar. Decorating your house with Christmas wreaths, trees and different lights together as a family is one of the oldest Christmas traditions. Just going through ornaments and untangling strings of light can be fun and will bring back memories of Christmases. Each family seems to have a unique way of decorating that makes holiday visits fun.

2. The Holiday Dinner
Food, happiness and love- that’s the Christmas spirit! Another long time tradition during Christmas season is to prepare and cook food for a special Christmas Eve supper. The foods at the dinner table are usually some of the favorites of the family and some of the member of the family’s specialties. My family loves to eat bacon sandwiches and American fries before we open presents.

3. The Christmas Service
Whatever religion you are, Christmas season is the one of the times when you and your family celebrate your faith. The Christmas Mass or the church service is one of the most sacred and significant traditions that marks the holiday season.

4. Christmas Gift Giving
Presents are essentials during Christmas season. In reality, it’s really the thought that counts. So make sure to give even simple, hand made presents to your loved ones to mark the wonderful time you have with your family and friends.

Advent traditions also vary according to the country. In Austria, the tradition of Christkindl (Christ child) is particularly representative of the spirit of Christmas. Children draw lots and the winner becomes the Christkindl (and the symbol of the baby Jesus), and every day until Christmas their family have to do something special for them. But it has to be done secretly and as a surprise. In Italy, the example set by St Francis of Assisi in the Middle Ages of creating a Nativity scene in churches has led to a whole cottage industry where craftsmen create the most incredibly beautiful and intricately carved scenes of Jesus’ birth. It is a Christmas Eve tradition in Italy for families to visit these wonderful examples of Christian art.

Apart from displaying Nativity scenes, Churches also put up an Advent Wreath. This consists of a circle laid flat with four candles around the outside and one placed in the middle. The outside candles are lit one by one on each Sunday leading up to Christmas Day and the central candle is lit on the day itself. Some homes have their own special Advent candle which has a line marked for every day of Advent and each successive day the candle is allowed to burn down to the next line before being blown out.

Children’s Advent calendars these days are usually a piece of card in the shape of something associated with Christmas, like a tree or Santa. For each day there is a small flap to be opened and behind it there is a little surprise – a scrap of paper with a wise saying, a piece of chocolate or even a tiny toy. More traditional Advent calendars are made of cloth and have a pocket for each day and parents put a present in them. While missing the element of surprise, this is much more environmentally friendly and it is also a very nice family keepsake.

One final thought. It is quite common for families and local churches to create their own Advent traditions because it helps to bind a community together. This Advent, why don’t you create something that celebrates the true spirit of Christmas and make it your very own family tradition?

If you need ideas for celebrating Advent and Christmas with your children, you will find lots of good ones in Lisa Whelchel’s .

The main goal of the Christmas Bird Count is to literally count the birds in the Northern-hemisphere in early winter for scientific purposes. However, the count is so much fun that most birders (and even some non-birders) make the CBC a traditional holiday activity.

Some interesting facts about the CBC:

• Annual event: Each year the birds of the North America are count during the Christmas holidays. This year annual bird count will begin December 14, 2008 and end January 5, 2009.
• Citizen science: The data collected will update what we know about how birds are doing in our region. Volunteers have collected the data for over a century.
• Open to anyone: Anyone can participate in this annual activity. You can be with your family or group of friends, you can be a student or a working individual, and you can have a medical degree or have a blue color job, it doesn’t matter what your status in life. You just need to have compassion for birds and the humor to count them at dawn and you’re good to go.
• Helps preserve birds: The census will help organizations preserve the birds in the community. Through this bird count they’ll have ideas on which birds are nearing the endangered species category and which are over-populating a region.

The original Christmas birding tradition in the 19th century involved killing birds and not counting them. This practice was observed for the long time until ornithologist Frank Chapman suggested that instead of killing birds, why not make a practice of preserving them. Thus the annual bird counting started.