Oh Erin, I wish we could all celebrate Epiphany together - those pictures of your parties look like SO much fun!! And I really love the older tradition of keeping Christmastide until Candlemas...we do it somewhat step-wise, removing a lot of the Christmas things after Epiphany, but still leaving some greenery etc. up until Candlemas.
Our kids have grown to LOVE Epiphany and seem to have the rhythm embedded now - to the point that after Christmas comes, they start asking "When is Epiphany?!" We bake a cake (just hide M&M's inside it), and we've made a tradition of watching the "We Three Kings" scene from the old California Raisins Christmas special. 😂
I am fascinated to learn about the influence of Queen Victoria on the Christmas Tree's American popularity; I always assumed everybody else was jealous of all the fun the German immigrants were having with theirs! What a lovely woodcut and portrait of familial Christmas Bliss in the early days of the "Victorian Era" before people thought of it as such!
I love the idea of extending the holiday season as long as possible 😊 We’ve generally kept the tree up until mid-January—the point at which I felt keeping it up wasn’t eccentric any more, it was just procrastination. But you (and your poll results) have inspired me—lights stay up until February… *Plus* I am going to cook a special Epiphany dinner. Thank you so much for this sweet treat of a post!
I love the sweet picture of napping by the tree! Valentine's or otherwise!!
Oh Erin, I wish we could all celebrate Epiphany together - those pictures of your parties look like SO much fun!! And I really love the older tradition of keeping Christmastide until Candlemas...we do it somewhat step-wise, removing a lot of the Christmas things after Epiphany, but still leaving some greenery etc. up until Candlemas.
Our kids have grown to LOVE Epiphany and seem to have the rhythm embedded now - to the point that after Christmas comes, they start asking "When is Epiphany?!" We bake a cake (just hide M&M's inside it), and we've made a tradition of watching the "We Three Kings" scene from the old California Raisins Christmas special. 😂
I am fascinated to learn about the influence of Queen Victoria on the Christmas Tree's American popularity; I always assumed everybody else was jealous of all the fun the German immigrants were having with theirs! What a lovely woodcut and portrait of familial Christmas Bliss in the early days of the "Victorian Era" before people thought of it as such!
I love the idea of extending the holiday season as long as possible 😊 We’ve generally kept the tree up until mid-January—the point at which I felt keeping it up wasn’t eccentric any more, it was just procrastination. But you (and your poll results) have inspired me—lights stay up until February… *Plus* I am going to cook a special Epiphany dinner. Thank you so much for this sweet treat of a post!