Traditions and Christmas go hand in hand for some of us. For others – like many of the children who come into our care – Christmas has involved more chaos than tradition.
Thus, our Home Parents, staff and volunteers do and host a variety of activities to help our children have a memorable Christmas, full of fun traditions that we hope they’ll carry with them throughout their lives. For instance, three of our four homes chose to go to Starr Pines Christmas tree farm to select their own, live tree. (The fourth home didn’t go because of allergy problems. No one ever said a traditional Christmas tree has to come from a tree farm!)
Home Parent Mom in the Zimmer Home, Amanda Cox, said, “Our kids really enjoyed it. The biggest challenge was deciding which tree; everyone had a different opinion. We finally just had to pick one and it was all good. They thought it was a lot of fun – especially the free, hot apple cider afterwards.”
Home Parent Mom in the Atherton Home, Mandy Wallace, concludes, “When I was growing up, our family’s tradition was to put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. So this year, the day after Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect day to go pick out our tree! We headed out with seven kids to find the perfect tree. When we arrived, they asked what size tree we wanted. When I was a kid we just had a six foot artificial tree, so I really wanted something taller and fuller. The kids agreed!
“They took us on a hayride, out to the large lot to find our tree. The kids did well going back and forth with their suggestions about which was the right tree. Finally, we narrowed our choices down to two, and took a vote. The one decided upon is nine feet tall and very full. We watched them shake out the loose needles and wrap the tree, then we all enjoyed some free apple cider. We looked around in their gift shop for a family ornament and decided to go with the Christmas Pickle. Whoever finds it Christmas morning gets to pick a gift to open first!
“This is the first time I have ever been to get a real tree. We all had a great time!”
