Holiday Tradition - Christmas Eve Celebrations

Hi everyone. While I was thinking about what holiday tradition I would write about this month, I started thinking about some of my own family traditions. Growing up, my family would go to midnight mass. After mass, we would come home and open one Christmas present. Usually our parents would pick out which present we could open. I guess they didn't want us choosing the biggest one.

This is probably a tradition held by many families, so I thought I would try to find more information on how or why that started.

Tradition holds that Jesus was actually born at night. Midnight Mass is held on Christmas Eve in commemoration of his birth. Christmas Eve is referred to as Heilige Hacht (Holy Night) in German, Nochebuena (the Good Night) in Spanish and recognized also in such the song "Silent Night."

Some people actually view Christmas Eve as a full or partial holiday in anticipation to Christmas Day. They invite family and friends to share in a Christmas Eve dinner, sing Christmas Carols and visit decorated houses to enjoy all the holiday lights and decorations.

Now, the age old question, should presents be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Growing up, my parents would wake us up in the middle of the night (after Santa's arrival) and we would open gifts. We have photos of our happy, sleepy faces and I remember it being such a treat. But it certainly made for a long day the next day.  As we got a bit older, we started opening gifts in the morning. I remember that my parents said we could not start until the coffee was made and that seemed to take forever. I don't think there is any right or wrong answer to this question. Each family has their own traditions as to when presents get opened. So I will leave you with this question. When does your family open up gifts? Would love to hear what everyone's traditions are in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

References:
Unknown. (Unknown). Christmas Eve. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Eve. Last accessed 07/15/15.
Unknown. (Unknown). Christmas Gift Opening . Available: http://community.cookinglight.com/archive/index.php/t-98284.html. Last accessed 07/15/15.
Image:
Reprinted with permission from
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=103837&picture=illuminated-christmas-presents&large=1

DT Call Sticky Note....

***This reminder will remain at the top of the blog until July 20th, 2015.  For newer posts, please scroll down.***

We’re looking for a few enthusiastic, dedicated, dependable, team-oriented, designers to join us.   If you help us to spread the word about our DT Call, you might even earn some free goodies! If interested, please be sure to click HERE to see the original post with all the details!

Challenge #7 Midway: Optional Theme: Holiday Traditions Ornament Exchange

Hello everyone, it is Monica here with you today! We have reached the midway point of Challenge #7.  Just before we start, I wanted to remind everyone that we are currently holding a DT Call and you have until the 20th of this month to get us your application. You can find all the information HERE.

So lets see what the Merry Maidens have been up to with their images from Robin's Fetish Digital Stamps, our guest sponsor this month!

Check out all the wonderful images that the Merry Maidens got to work with this month for the mid point of the challenge.  Clicking on any of the image watermarks will take you to their page over at Robin's Fetish Digital Stamps store where each of these images can be found.

Putting Up The Tree

A Bell For Christmas

Christmas Ornaments

While team members had the option of working with any of Lisa's Décosse's Dynamite Doodles papers, she did create a special set called It's Ornamental, based on the theme for this challenge.  Check out the preview...

Everyone who links up a minimum of two cards during the month of July will earn ONE of the digital papers from this set.  The specific paper up for grabs will be shown during the winner announcement post.  Additionally, one random winner will earn the full set of papers.  

Have your say in determining which specific paper will be offered to those who link up a minimum of two cards this month by completing the poll in the sidebar on the top right hand side.

As Lisa mentioned during the start post, we're currently in transition with two members down so some of the team had the time to create a second card to help out.   While two of our Merry Maidens helped out at the start, this time around one of our Sleigh Belles, Helen, pitched in.  Check out what they came up with to inspire you. I also had the chance to make a card for the midway of the challenge.  Clicking on the names will take you to the individual blogs where you can check out the details for all these wonderful cards...

So if you haven't entered already, what are you waiting for?   It is time to link up your Christmas and other holiday cards for July.  Whether you choose to link up two Anything Goes themed cards simply to earn your free paper this month, or you choose to also follow the optional theme to have a chance at the sponsor's prize, it is completely up to you! 

Here is a refresher of the details for this challenge...

Please remember that this is a CARDS ONLY link up.  While we've had some lovely tag entries, we've sadly had to disqualify them.

Optional Theme:  Holiday Traditions Ornament Exchange

Holidays are all about traditions. Getting together with family and friends for an ornament exchange is one many people celebrate. It's fun adding a new ornament to your Christmas tree each year, so lets add a new Christmas Card "with ornaments" this month.

In order to have a chance to win the prize from our wonderful guest sponsor this month, make sure that your card follows the ornament theme. If you do follow the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that we include you in the draw for the prize.

Remember, you don't need to follow the theme to link up your cards and earn a free paper each month, and have your name thrown into the year end draw for some extra digital goodies. You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of three digital stamps from our sponsor Robin's Fetish.

If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why Lisa started it under the 'Introductions' tab.  As this is a unique kind of link up where we have both an anything goes Christmas option and an optional theme to follow, be sure to read all the details and rules you need to know in order to participate, by checking out the 'Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog).

You can find the Challenge Details Summary along with the link up for Challenge #7 by clicking HERE.

 Don't Forget...

• Deadline to apply for the DT Call is July 20th!
• Be sure to join us on July 23rd, when I will be back to share another holiday tradition with you all.
• Next up it will be time for our new challenge to start on August 1st.
• Then, the winners from Challenge #7 will be posted on August 8th.
• Other special posts may be published throughout the month.  Be sure to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!

We look forward to seeing you participate!

Tutorial: Holiday Gift Bag

Hi everyone,  It has been a while since I have done a tutorial, so I thought I would share a Christmas gift bag I recently created.  So I am here today to show you how I transformed a plain white gift bag into a Vintage Christmas Gift Bag.  

So lets get started.

I used a striped printable from VectoriaDesigns and added the sentiment Merry Christmas from PicMonkey. I then layered it on top of some paper from Tim Holtz Paper stack 

I then used my Misti to place my Holly Snowflake Swirl Stamp exctly where I wanted it on my paper. I used my paper distresser along with Walnut Stain (one of my staples) to to make the edges look more vintage.

I added a sticker swirly to the bottom and adhered the finished piece onto the white gift bag.  Now a bit of advice, when you are adhering to the gift bag, make sure you use some strong adhesive, because once you start filling up this back, the paper may pop off. I tell you this from experience.  A hot glue gun worked great to make sure the paper stayed in place.

I also added a fun matching gift tag. 

I have this great tool called Crop A Dile that I use on all my tags. Work Great!

These bags were super easy to make and will house lots of fun Christmas Goodies this holiday Season. So don't go out and buy gift bags this year, make them. People will be ooing and aaahing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Items I used:

InLinkz.com

Challenge #6 Winners Announcement

Hello and happy hump day to all of our friends out there in blogland.  Sorry this post is going out a bit later than it normally would but I've finally managed to pull it all together so it is time to announce the winner and top three of Challenge #6 along with the list of individuals eligible to receive a free digital paper for June.  Are you one of those lucky peeps?!

Please note that there are still prizes and digital papers that have not been claimed from past months.  Were you a lucky past winner and may have missed it?  It might behoove you to check our Challenge Win Information page listed at the top of the blog (or you can click HERE to go there now but be sure to come back and check this post as well).

TERRIE

Terri, you are the winner of a a $15.00 gift card from Lunagirl, our guest sponsor for June (chosen by Mini Web Tool), based on all eligible participants (i.e., those entrants who followed the optional theme).

Terri,  please send an email to the_12_moc_linkup {at} outlook {dot} com (or click HERE to bring the address up in your email program), with the subject, "12MoC Challenge #6 WINNER" to make arrangements to receive your prize.  Please note that it may take me a few days to get back to you.  Thank you for your patience.  In the interim, please grab a copy of the winner badge below for your blog.

Next, it is time to get on with showcasing the Top Three for Challenge #6.  With all the great entries to choose from, this was once again a difficult task for the design team.  We did however settle on three wonderful  creations.  So, without further ado, here are our Stocking Stuffers for Challenge #6:

ROSINA

CATHY

MEGAN

Congrats to our top three Stocking Stuffers!  Rosina, Cathy, and Megan, please grab a copy of the badge below for your blog.

Next up, it is time to share all the names of those people who linked up two cards in June which makes each of them eligible to receive the sixth free digital paper of 2015.

20 people linked a total of 51 cards.  Only nine of those individuals linked up a minimum of two cards each qualifying them to receive the digital paper from June. The purple coloured grungy paper was the clear winner in the poll we had up during the month of June with 66% of the votes.   I have included the watermark of it, below.

So, the following people need to send an email to the_12_moc_linkup {at} outlook {dot} com (or click  HERE to bring the address up in your email program), with the subject, "12MoC June Paper" to make arrangements to receive your free paper:

• Marji (Tiggerscraps)
• Hazel
• Steffi H
• Margaret A
• Terrie (Paper Addict)
• Crafting Vicky
• Megan
• KT Fit Kitty
• Ursula Uphof

This past month we saw five new faces linking up just one card.  Hopefully these ladies, along with our other regulars who only linked up one card during June, will get the chance to link up two this month so they can start earning their free paper.  To all of you who linked up this past month, thanks ever so much!  We are so happy to have all of you with us and hope that you'll continue to link up your holiday cards throughout the year!!!

Now, as always, if you thought you had linked up two cards but don't find your name in the list above, just let me know and we'll sort things out. We will also add these names to the 'Challenge Win Information' page as soon as we get the chance, for anyone who doesn't see this post.  I ask that you be patient with waiting for me to send out your paper. I promise that I'll get to it as quick as I can.

Once again, we are going to have a random draw from all the entries and give out the set of six papers to one lucky individual.  The papers are all made so why not have an extra prize!  Here is the watermark for the full set..

The winner of the A Grungy Christmas Mini Set of Papers is (chosen by random.org)...

BRENDA B. 

Brenda, please send me an email (address and link above).  Use the subject, "12MoC: A Grungy Christmas Set" and I'll make arrangements for you to receive the full set of six papers.

Well folks, that is it for today.  While you are here, please be sure to check out the details for our current challenge going on now (if you haven't already), with the Optional Theme this month of being "Holiday Traditions Ornament Exchange".  You can find out all the details along with the link up, by clicking HERE.

Also, be sure to join us on July 15th, for our midway post where you'll get to see cards created by the Merry Maidens!  Then on July 23rd, Monica will be back to share another holiday tradition with you all.  Other special posts may be published throughout the month.  Be sure to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!

Don't Forget...

Our DT Call is on right now.  We’re looking for a few enthusiastic, dedicated, dependable, team-oriented, designers to join us.   If you help us to spread the word about our DT Call, you might even earn some free goodies! If interested, please be sure to click HERE to see the original post with all the details!

Until next time,