Christmas Isn’t Over! Celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas Which Started On Christmas Day

Posted on December 27, 2025 by treeoflifemama

December 25 is over for 2025, but Christmas Day is just the beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Growing up, I thought the Twelve Days ended on Dec. 25. As an adult, I have learned that Dec. 25 is actually the start of it. Watch the videos below to learn the history of these days.

I love Leila Marie Lawler’s ideas over here, on the blog likemotherlikedaughter.org, about celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas as a family. The following list is what she suggests on how to celebrate the Twelve Days, but of course, you as the mom and dad are in charge of your family. I certainly trust you to be flexible and do what fits your family the best. These are just suggestions, not commandments. The purpose of celebrating these Twelve Days is to spread out the Christmas festivities with wholesome recreation for your family, connecting your family to each other while celebrating the birth of the Christ child. This spreads Christmas out to be a big season into January, not just the Advent days in December.

Day 1: Christmas Day, which is over this year. I hope you all had a relaxing and merry Christmas Day with the perfect balance of relaxing and merry, which can be hard to find, I admit. It was a certainly merry day for me to the point of being overstimulating. Anyway, it’s over! Another day I’ll blog a debrief of Christmas Day like I have for other years, such as over here. So moving on…

Day 2: We usually play board games on this day, Boxing Day, December 26 and eat leftovers from Christmas Eve and Day dinners. Ms. Lawler suggests on this day for the family to make gingerbread houses. That’s never going to happen here. After the Tetris marathon of prepping for and orchestrating Christmas Day, there’s no way I’m doing gingerbread houses the next day! I like the idea of boxing up stuff to give away to make more room for all the new toys and clothes given as presents the previous day, but alas, I have never actually felt that ambitious and energetic the day after Christmas.

My nieces’ collections of Playmobil, Calico Critters, blocks and Legos.

Day 3: She suggests the family open up a whole-family present that everyone can enjoy for the day, like a board game. Or it might be an addition to a set of family toys to revive interest in an old family favorite, such as Brio railroad cars and tracks, Calico Critters, Legos, or a Playmobil collection.

Day 4: It’s good to add some outside time. Mrs. Lawler says to do an outing on this day: museum, Nutcracker, ice skating, etc. Hmmm, does any theater keep showing Nutcracker after Christmas Eve, I wonder? Regardless, I like the idea of getting out for a change of pace. She says to look for discount or free pass days.

Day 5: Have a quiet day at home doing a jigsaw puzzle together, she says. We did this puzzle above as an extended family during that week between Christmas and New Year’s at my parents’ cabin. Of course, I found the puzzle when thrifting. You can find great puzzles for just a few bucks at your local thrift store. Some people avoid getting puzzles at thrift stores for fear of missing pieces. I have only once out of all the puzzles I’ve bought at thrift stores had one with missing pieces. I love putting puzzles together because they are vehicles for conversation and relaxation while still challenging the brain. Here’s my mom and great-niece working together on it, below.

I add to this suggestion to listen to Christmas-themed audiobooks or podcasts while assembling the puzzle if conversation lulls, like The Christmas Chronicles if you didn’t already finish it for the year. Or take turns reading aloud to each other the Christmas chapter books you haven’t finished yet, like Holly Claus. It’s OK to be reading Christmas-y things after Christmas Day!

Day 6: Take your children book shopping. The Lawlers used to go to a huge bookstore and spend all day with each family member totally absorbed in browsing the books. They would let each of the 7 children bring home a book. If you don’t have a huge bookstore in your area, go to a new or used bookstore, including thrift stores. Or if you can’t afford to buy any books, go to the public library, and come home and stay home for the rest of the day, having a reading party, reading the books you just got. This could even be the day you celebrate Jolabokkaflod. That’s the Icelandic word for “Christmas book flood.”

Day 7: New Year’s Eve! She suggests having a party at your home where you have your children invite all their friends to come. Her reasons for hosting the party are here. At the party she suggests smashing the gingerbread houses you made on Boxing Day.

Photo Credit: likemotherlikedaughter.com

Day 8: New Year’s Day. Watch a family movie she says. Go to Day 8 over here to see her suggestions. I suggest watching Mully, a great documentary/movie to inspire new goals for the new year. (Warning: if you have young children, you might want to skip over some of the early war scenes and the scene where he is abandoned.) If you want to stay Christmas-y, then watch Journey to Bethlehem, The Nativity Story, Muppet Christmas Carol, or Klaus. Home Alone deserves another go-around, especially after you learn of its Christian symbolism. Go here to learn more about that. I have lots of movie suggestions for Christmas here, scroll down to the “Activities” section to see Christmas movies to watch. It’s totally OK to watch Christmas movies after Christmas.

Day 9: For this day, she says to pull out a forgotten box of candy. Then there’s nothing else she suggests. Which surprises me. Just eating a new box of candy is not enough of a family time suggestion to me. Maybe she meant for this day to be a self-directed day of play and learning for each family member, a breather between days of programmed activities.

Day 10: Take a family walk she says. I’m adding here: how about a hike or sledding? A walk isn’t that exciting for most kiddos.

Day 11: Her suggestion on this day is to have a reading day. If you didn’t have Jolabokkaflod already, maybe do it on this day. Use the books you got on the day you went shopping for books! Or have this day be a time you visit an elderly relative or work on crafts, she says.

Photo Credit: likemotherlikedaughter.org

Day 12: Epiphany Day, January 6. This is the day traditionally celebrated as when the Wise Men arrived to see the Holy Family and gave gifts to Jesus. Mrs. Lawler says to make a Christ the King Spice Crown Cake. For this day, she says to also have your family give your Christmas gifts to each other. That makes sense in honor of the Wise Men giving gifts. She says that on Christmas Day she just did one Santa gift to her children. (They are grown and out of the nest now.) She also says somewhere that if she had to do it over again with her children at home, she would do stockings on St. Nicholas Day, December 6. This is really stretching the season out! I like this idea!

Of course, none of this is set in stone. It’s one veteran homeschooling Catholic mother’s ideas of enjoying family time in the darkest time of the year when school is generally out. It helps to have some guidance with all the free time we have right now. You might already have extended family or friends that you do things with on these days which already sets your rhythm for Christmas vacation. Myself, I prefer to play board games on as many of these days as I can. I like that in the top video the narrator says that the festival of the Twelve Days of Christmas helped make winter a communal time instead of

I hope it gives you some ideas to enjoy these precious winter days! I wish I still had a houseful of children to try this schedule out. This seems like a great recipe for keeping the joy afloat for all of Christmas vacation, keeping the day after Christmas from being a huge letdown. Thank you for sharing these ideas Mrs. Lawler.

This is one of my new games I got for Christmas that I’m excited to play.

Besides playing board games with family, I’ll be finishing up my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum, while adding to it the Twelve Days of Christmas Craft Lit podcast, over here. If you haven’t already checked out those audio and print goodies, please do partake of them. Merry Twelve Days of Christmas everyone!

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New Christmas Tradition I’ll Be Doing Every Year From Now On

Posted on December 26, 2025 by treeoflifemama

Even though my oldest is 32, I’m still evolving our Christmas traditions in my family of 7 children, 3 children-in-law, and four grandchildren. Here’s one I tried out yesterday that went well, which I’m going to keep and do next year.

After all the gifts were opened yesterday, and the little grandsons had retreated to a room to play with their new toys, I gathered the 16 year-old-and-ups to hear me read two books aloud, to generate reflection, writing, and discussion. We had pulled out the food for brunch as well and some people were done eating and others were still eating.

First we lit all the candles in the Immanuel Wreath plus a big fat candle in the center. Sorry, the photo above is from Christmas Eve and doesn’t show the center candle lit. It was on Christmas Day that we lit the big center candle. Anyway, then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. The two grandsons may have wandered in at that point to see what was going on.

Then I read aloud this book below:

It is a beautiful book featuring the artwork of Carl Bloch, and two other classical artists: Frans Schwarz and Heinrich Hofmann. Their artwork has been featured or is currently featured at the BYU Museum of Art. The book emphasizes all the holy gifts that Christ has given us. It is sold by the BYU Museum of Art Store, over here. (It’s only $9!) I’ve been blessed to find this book at a thrift store, not once, but twice. (The recent one I found I gave to a friend in a gift basket of books.) It’s a lovely book printed in board book format so it’s even suitable for tiny hands to flip through and not damage the pages.

Depending on the age of your children you might not read all the words just say a few words for each double-page spread.

Each spread mentions one gift from Jesus: a body, sight, wisdom, immortality, etc. Then each spread also has the refrain of “What gift will you give Christ?” This question is the perfect segue for the next book which I read aloud, below, by Kathryn Gordon Jenkins.

This book has gorgeous layouts of color, text, and design highlighting one gift you can give to Jesus on each two-page spread. Gifts like: studying the scriptures daily, forgiving others, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, being honest, being kind, attending the temple more often, etc.

Credit for Images of Gifts for Christ Above and Below: ldsliving.com

Each gift idea is accompanied by quotes from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the facing page. So it is just a bit wordy for reading aloud all of it. So you probably will want to just read the gift suggestion and tell people they can read the rest on their own. I also found this book when thrifting. I love finding books that I end up using in family traditions!

Then I shared what they had written down as their gifts to Jesus from years past. This is something we’ve done off and on through the years. I have totally been SO imperfect/inconsistent at this, and that’s OK. Every mom gets to plead some kind of insanity for pulling off Christmas each year, overcoming invisible obstacles and hurdles that only fellow mothers recognize. For years I have forgotten where I put the envelope with the slips of paper. Does anyone relate? I finally found many of these envelopes this year, all the way back to 2000 (!), in the box of our porcelain Nativity set. I don’t know why it was so hard to remember where I put the envelopes, I just have a lot to keep in my brain and inevitably, I forget things.

So this year, I set the envelopes out on top of the piano next to the Nativity set so I would see the envelopes every day when I sat down to play the piano for Christmas carols. The visual reminder helped me keep it in my mind to share them on Christmas Day and ask my family members to write new gifts. So yesterday I remembered! Can I get a hearty “Hooray!” for that!? I passed out the previously written on folded slips of paper, asked them to read and reflect on what they wrote, and write down a gift for 2026.

I invited people to share their thoughts. I can always count on my son-in-law to share something wonderful, and he did, which I loved. My married daughter shared as well and so did I. Then I put the slips of paper away in each person’s envelope to save for next year.

I had completely forgotten what I wrote. It was interesting to read what I wrote back in 2000, when I was a young mom of 3, and then we skip decades, ahem, to 2020. then 2022, 2024, and 2025. I’m excited to be more intentional on what I wrote yesterday and create my my gifts for Jesus in 2026. I decided to give three, not just one.

It’s not too late to start this tradition in your family! You don’t even have to have the books, although they help. You can see more of the pages from the Gifts to the Savior book over here.

Another idea is to make lists on a white board or big piece of a paper, first, those of gifts Jesus gives to you, then make a list of what you can give to Him. This works if your crowd is good at brainstorming and being verbal. Not all families are like that. So if your family is one of those, which is totally OK, just go look at the pages of the book here.

Make it extra special by lighting a candle, or all the candles of your Immanuel Wreath, playing your favorite Christmas carols in the background (like from over here), and serving some herbal tea or cocoa, with or without a treat. Do it this coming Sabbath Day, or for New Year’s Eve, or even All Kings’ Day, which is in January. After all, that’s the day that traditionally has been celebrated as the day the Wise Men gave their gifts to Jesus. Have an envelope for each person or each year, whatever works for you, then put each little envelop in a big envelope. Then remember where you put it! Putting it with a Christmas decoration you use every year, like the Nativity set, or your stocking is my big suggestion.

I found a pad of this pretty scrapbook paper when thrifting earlier this week, right before Christmas. I just might get a manila envelope and decorate it with this paper. I love that it is so Christ-centered.

Next year I’m going to remember to have the last name of Christ on the Immanuel Wreath that we talk about be “Gift,” to be talked about on Christmas Day. Concluding with “Gift” as the name of Christ will be a great prelude to discussing the Savior’s gifts that day. I love experiencing Christmas and continually refining it to be extra meaningful and life transforming. I’ve always wanted to make Christmas Day be more of a birthday party for Jesus, and this little ceremony definitely helped with that. It helps family members see that gift-giving is to be a two-way street, just like the original meaning of Christ’s grace. (That’s another post for another day.)

If you want more ideas about traditions, for seasons and holidays all year round, go to my companion website here.

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12/19/25 #frugalfriday: Thrifting for Gifting #3

Posted on December 19, 2025 by treeoflifemama

Let’s talk more about thrifting for gifting! It’s Frugal Friday! You have less than a week left for Christmas shopping. If you still have some shopping to do, I encourage you to check out your local thrift stores. You can find things still new with their tags, or in like new condition, which are totally OK for giving, even if you pay thrift store prices.

I’m so excited about giving my gifts for Christmas! Many of those gifts include ones I found at thrift stores. Mostly books! Today I wrapped a lot of the books plus other items. I wrapped these fun guys and one girl Duplo figures plus non Duplo guys shown above for my grandsons. I found them in a bag for $3.60 at Savers. We have a big Duplo collection that we’ve gathered through the years for Christmas that the grandchildren now play with. They also have a lot of Duplos at their home. So I was thrilled to find these Duplo guys with some non Duplo guys. Definitely a Magical Thrifting Moment (MTM)! I wasn’t even looking for them, they just fell into my lap. Someone had placed the bag of them on a shelf with board games and puzzles. I saw them, and eagerly scooped them up. Brand new Duplos are expensive, so to find a bag of six official Duplo figures for less than $4 with my coupon was such a deal. I love that they are knights and one lady to inspire chivalric fantasy play in my grandsons. This is just spectacular! I felt my Thrifting Angels watching over me for sure!

I’m combining them with the book above and two books below which I found in the same aisle, right across from the games. I’m making a boys’ adventure-themed basket or box for my two grandsons who are brothers. Then I’m adding to the basket or box a new kit I found on amazon that is for cutting up and joining cardboard together to build play structures and objects. I thought it would be fun to build little houses for these guys or a castle and big structures too for the boys to use as homes or forts. I’ll put these action figures and the books all in a big basket I find in a thrift store this coming week, with some coupons that say “Good for Two Hours of Building and Playing Adventures With Grandma.” I’m excited to play with them with these fun toys, and read to them the books below. Hopefully the books will inspire some playful adventure.

The book above was $4. It looks like it was never used! I have had my own copy for years for my sons and the companion book for girls to inspire my daughters. Actually the girls book is my older daughter’s. She never took it with her when she left home for college, so it’s still here on a bookshelf here in this room while I blog. Maybe she’ll let me keep it until she has a daughter. I like seeing it sit next to the boy one, as sibling volumes.

So far she has three little boys and no girls yet. I love these books because they teach all the old-fashioned skills like tying knots, recognizing constellations, carving wood, rowing in a canoe, playing yard games etc. All fun things to do away from screens. It also has tons of lists for trivia lovers, like the 50 US States and Capitals.

My grandsons are a little young for it, at ages 4 and 7, but they will grow into it and hopefully use it their whole lives. In the meantime they will definitely benefit from The Little Book for Boys, which is for ages under 8. They can fight over them all when they move out, LOL, or leave them with their mom for the grandchildren. I also got this fun Marvel character storybook below for them to add to the adventure box/basket. So I’ve got a mix of old school fun with comic book superheroes and medieval times. It’s just so amazing that the Duplo guys, the book for big boys, and the book for little boys and the Marvel book were all on the same aisle. The books were all $4 or less each! I didn’t have to hunt for them, there were just there!

Here’s what the companion book to the Dangerous Boy book, the girls book, looks like.

My daughter’s copy is very worn and well-loved. As you can see below :-). It looks like she took it camping and on many other adventures! I think I’ll wrap it up and re-gift to to my daughter to open after the boys open theirs.

You can see other stuff I got for Christmas gifts over here, and items I gifted my mom for her birthday here.

Watch these videos in YouTube over here and below for more thrifting for gifting inspiration!! It’s not too late to find cool stuff for Christmas gift-giving. Merry Thriftmas!

Want even more thrifting inspiration? Go here to see all my posts about it.

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Christmas Music Resources: Traditional + New Songs

Posted on December 19, 2025 by treeoflifemama

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music! It is just the sublimest of all. So today I’m sharing my favorite resources for Christmas music, which includes old and new songs.

Let’s start with the basics. First is the book of Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has the basic traditional Christmas carols of “Silent Night,” “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” etc. I prefer the spiral-bound edition so it stays open on the rack above a piano keyboard.

Second is the songbook above. I got this from the BYU Bookstore (now known as the BYU Store) for my 16th birthday. I eagerly took to playing as many songs from it on the piano as I could. It is out of print but you can find used copies from booksellers online. Check ebay first then if you can’t find it there use addall.com to find the cheapest copy. (You might have to search by the ISBN number of  978-0895771056 in addall instead of the title.)

This image below shows one of the later editions. I love both covers! So vintage looking!

It has come in so handy through the years to take to our extended family gatherings so I could accompany the family singing, as well as for our nuclear family singing on Christmas Eve and Day. It has almost every “old” Christmas song I can think of: all the traditional carols, plus songs like Jingle Bells, plus the Christmas songs that have been written in the 1900s like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “White Christmas,” “Rudolph,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Frosty,” “Mele Kalikimaka,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” etc. The ones it doesn’t include are: “Silver Bells” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. It has different editions. Maybe the later editions have some of those songs. Fortunately, I have found those songs in the book below.

OK, now we are moving into lesser-known Christmas songs. The new collection of hymns from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Hymns– for Home and Church has a few songs that aren’t in either of the books above or the old hymnbook. The Christmas and Easter songs start at #1201.

Some of these Christmas songs are:

“Still, Still, Still” which is here

“He is Born the Divine Christ Child” over here

“Star Bright” found here

Maren Ord Bushman wrote “Born to be a King.” This is probably my absolute favorite Christmas song. You can watch Maren sing it and play it above. I love, love, love playing this song on the piano. When I do, I feel like I am bouncing on jingling bells and playing chimes all at the same time. It is is just so fun to play! You can get the sheet music here. I have a little story to go with this song, a little Christmas miracle, which you can read about here. Maren’s website is here. She is an amazing musician! Then the official music video is below. I am so grateful to Maren for writing this song. It just makes me happy! It’s a great way to start the day, when I play this on the piano as a call for our morning family prayer.

Then there’s Christmas music here by Shawna Belt Edwards. Her latest Christmas song is below.

Then the video below shows many of her Christmas songs. You can get the sheet music here.

Just like Shawna, Sally Deford has written so many beautiful Christmas songs! One of them is shown in the video below. You can get her music here, and it’s all free for noncommercial use.

Then there is music published in the magazines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1971 on. These magazines are The Friend, The New Era, later renamed For the Strength of Youth, and The Ensign, later renamed The Liahona.

I have curated the music from 1971 to 2020. My Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook has this music linked to the internet under the December section. You can get the ebook for free here. You can print all this music for free by clicking on the links and then printing them. I have a binder to keep all this music together with a beautiful Nativity scene on the cover that I got from on the LDS Church magazines.

This month of December 2025 the Friend, which is for children, has this song here by Janice Kapp Perry called “Somewhere a Baby Sleeps.” Hooray, a new-to-me children’s song by Sister Perry!

Speaking of Janice Kapp Perry, her Christmas music is over here. You can only get hard copy CDs or songbooks, no digital downloads. That link also includes music from her daughter Lynne Perry Christofferson.

I hope you enjoy all this music!!! May it bring the spirit of Christ, of love, light, life, liberty, and joy into your home and heart!

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12/12/25 Frugal Friday: Thrifting for Gifting #2

Posted on December 12, 2025 by treeoflifemama

It’s late, after 9 PM on a Friday, but I don’t want to let Friday pass without sharing again about thrifting for gifting with a #frugalfriday tag. I don’t have many days left to share about thrifting gifts for Christmas, with the big day less than two weeks away. Here are more ideas of thrifting for gifting! Part 1 is over here, where I talked about making themed-book baskets for the book lovers in your life. I gave my mom the basket above, with the theme of her interests, for her birthday yesterday. I had so much fun putting this together. The photo below shows the books I picked. Now that I’m posting this photo I realize the bow’s loops aren’t even but oh well, just look at the books and not the bow.

I found all these books at thrift stores, as well as the basket. I know my mom loves near death experience stories (NDE) or stories about people who die and come back to life so when I saw the book in the upper left corner months ago I got it for her. Sorry about the glare in the photo above, here it is below.

The book in the bottom left corner is a book by Susan Branch, a tiny gift book about Christmas. If you want to know more about Susan Branch books, go here and here. I love finding her books when thrifting, it feels like finding thrifting gold! They aren’t gold in terms of being able to resell and make a huge profit, but they are gold in terms of bringing much pleasure to me. Sometimes I find them in the children’s book section even though they aren’t children’s books. They are cookbooks and homemaking books. Ms. Branch does all the text by hand-lettering and illustrates all the books with ink and watercolor. They are just so charming with all the fun illustrations, ideas, and anecdotes. I knew my mom would love reading this since she is an artist as well. This was only $1!

I remember my mom telling me a few year ago that she likes Sarah Palin so when I found a book about Christmas by Sarah Palin with her conservative views I knew my mom would love it. It was $1.50.

Then I found a book that still had the retail sticker price on it, about Mary, the mother of Jesus, by Camille Fronk Olson. It was $2. It has so many different lovely artist renditions of Mary, along with Ms. Olson’s scholarship on Mary. Again, since my mom is an artist I knew she would love seeing all these different paintings of Mary. My favorite painting in the book is the one by Elspeth Young, and my second favorite is the one showing Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem by Joseph Brickey, below. I just love his use of light and shadow. It is so amazing!


Image Credit: brickeyfineart.com

I took the basket to my mom yesterday on her birthday. We enjoyed looking at all the paintings in the book together and talking about them. The image on the cover is also by Elspeth Young. I just love beautiful artwork and love to look at art with my mom.

Then I found the cute mug below back in November, on Black Friday. It’s hard to tell in the photo below, but it has a cut-out-heart shape that goes all the way through the mug. I knew my mom would get a kick out of it and she did, as evidenced by her laugh when she saw it. Then I got the potholders new at the Dollar Tree and the tea at a grocery store. The herbal tea bags are what is inside the mug.

I also added a candle, never used, as the wick was not burnt, that I found at the Provo DI for $1, plus a bag of mixed nuts and sugar-free chocolate chips since she is allergic to sugar. She loved it all. When I walked into her home and showed her the basket, she said, “Oh, do I get to pick one of the presents from your basket?” I told her “Oh, they are all for you!” She was so surprised! It really made my day, as she said I had made her day. Then on this Sunday we are having a family dinner birthday party for her with everyone, and I’m going to give her another gift, the gray cardigan sweater I thrifted on my trip to Maine to visit my sister Emily last October. It was NWT but only $10, at a Goodwill in South Portland, ME. It’s in the photo below. It’s a large so I don’t know if it will fit since she’s a small, but if she decides it doesn’t fit, she can give it back to me :-). (There’s something about my camera lens that makes the sweater look wavy, when it really doesn’t have wavy lines.)

Then I also have some Christmas gifts that I got for her and my dad that are all thrifted. I’m giving my mom these two books below:

My mom and I are descended from John Howland, “The Boy Who Fell off the Mayflower” and my dad and I are descended from William Bradford, so I think she will enjoy this book because, hey, it’s family history! Then I got this board game below, brand-new, with the seal intact at Savers’ earlier this year, which I think she’ll love because she’s an artist. I was gong to keep this myself to replace the same game I got thrifting years ago but needs new markers but now I’d rather give the new one to her. I’ve played it once before and enjoyed it. I gave her another Bob Ross board game for Christmas a while ago so this will complete the collection.

Then I got this puzzle for my dad, below, at Savers for $4, since he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Winnipeg Canada as a single young man before he met my mom. He has a bunch of Eric Dowdle puzzles but I’m pretty sure not this one. We often put these puzzles together as a family when we stay at my parents’ cabin.

My dad has gotten into poetry lately, especially since he retired after 45 years as a college professor. I’m hoping he loves this book I just found at the Provo DI for $2. It’s over $45 on amazon right now so what a deal!

Below are some fun videos I’ve enjoyed lately that can show many more ideas for thrifting for Christmas gifts. It really is amazing what you can find at thrift stores! You can give thoughtful gifts that really make the people feel loved for a fraction of the cost of new items.

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Our December 2025 Morning Basket

Posted on December 8, 2025 by treeoflifemama

I haven’t blogged about what’s in my Morning Basket in a while. Morning Basket time is when I share what is good, true and beautiful with my son who is the last one left in my homeschooling nest. The Advent season makes it extra exciting. So many, many wonderful, beautifully illustrated books abound about Christmas for us to enjoy!

Here’s what we are doing for Morning Basket time this month.

Year, round we always start out with this book above to see what happened on this day. It has a few interesting historical facts for each of the 365 days of the whole year. On Monday we go over Monday and Sunday, and on Friday we read the Friday and the Saturday entries. I have a similar book way at the bottom below to bookend with this.

OK, now on to Christmas-themed material!

Then we read aloud an article or story from one of the December magazines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I just love all of these! I’ve been reading all of them since I was about 10 or 11. When I couldn’t sleep at those ages, I would go into the hallway where my mom had a stack of old issues in a box, and I would read them until I was sleepy and go back to bed. I have a bunch of Christmas stories curated from these magazines over here in my FREE family devotionals ebook.

I’m focusing on the For the Strength of Youth, which is for teenagers, then/if we finish all of those stories, we’ll do the stories in the Liahona, which is for adults, and then the Friend.

I heard about this book above from veteran homeschooler Carole Joy Seid’s podcast down below and knew I had to get it. I’m looking forward to finding out what is really inside the huge box that this little family receives on Christmas Eve. They are told it’s a lion, but we shall see. We do 5-6 pages a day.

Then this one below I found when thrifting sometime in the past year or two. I have never read this one either. Some years I’ve read aloud books to the younger children that I already read to the older children. So I already know what happens. Such is not the case this year. It’s about a family that moves from Utah to Arizona after losing a bunch of money and having to start over. They end up having a rich, yet grumpy landlord/neighbor. Just with the title’s name I can tell what will happen already and you probably can too. I’m counting on it being heartwarming!

I just love picking up what look like promising Christmas chapter books and picture books from thrift stores throughout the year and saving them for Christmas. Then when I get them out with the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving it’s a little surprise because I’ve forgotten what I bought. A little foretaste of being surprised on December 25th.

We started this one below last year, maybe the year before, and never finished it. I found it at a thrift store. It’s a novel about Mary the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, especially their journey to Bethlehem. It’s for adults and every wordy so we just do 2-4 pages a day. It’s fun to read about one person’s idea of what they were like and what their journey must have been like.

Then we are doing one or two Christmas picture books a day. Picture books are not just for children! Teens and adults can learn from them too. I love reading the ones that either make me laugh, give me that cozy Christmas vibe, or help me learn about the first Christmas story or Christmas history, cutlure, and lore. Go here to see my HUGE list.

Then we do a chapter a day from this book above. We’ll do A Christmas Carol the week of Christmas. We did the one below last year. It’s just fun to experience different versions of this beloved classic.

I have so many Christmas picture books and the above chapter books are long enough and our Morning Basket time is so short that we’ll be spilling over all this material into January. Which is totally OK for me. I love reading Christmas stories in January. No Christmas police are coming to get me.

We end by reading what happened for the day in the world of children’s literature from the book above. It has fun and interesting tidbits about authors and illustrators with great suggestions of titles.

When MB time is done, it’s on to math for my son. While he does it, I sit by him and have my drawing time. Then throughout the day I’ll be continuing with my Merry Mother’s Christmas Curriculum, which I detail over here.

I’d love to hear what you are reading or learning about in your December/Christmas Morning Basket. Merry Christmas!

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12/5/25 Frugal Friday: Thrifting for Christmas/November 2025 Thrift Hauls

Posted on December 5, 2025 by treeoflifemama


I didn’t do much thrifting in October. Just on my trip to Maine which I shared last month. I made up for it in November though!

Above is my first haul for the month. I got to go with my married daughter to the Provo DI, which we haven’t been to in awhile together. We were also with my mom who offered to pay for my haul since it was my birthday. A birthday thrifting spree! I was thrilled to find a brand-new candle still in the wrapper, with a Pyrex dish to hold it. The teal blue frame now holds a photo of my missionary son. I was super excited to find the Venn board game, I had actually checked it out from the library. It’s a great logic game that teaches how Venn diagrams work. It involves word association. I love these types of games! Then the Metagame, which is 4 games in one. I might give that one away as a Christmas gift to a family member.


Here’s more of what I found, above and below. Ok if you are any of my children please stop reading. Some of these photos show Christmas gifts for you. I don’t want you to have your surprises ruined!

I love the lime green trench coat. It’s XXL so it will fit on me when I have on a bulky sweater underneath. Plus a Mickey Mouse T-shirt to put in my 16 yo’s stocking, and navy top with stars to wear next Independence Day! The yellow cardigan looks so pretty but I took it back for an exchange. It was 100% polyester and felt yucky on my bare arms when I finally tried it on at home. I just love the tablecloth with the harvest theme. I went looking with the intention of finding a Thanksgiving tablecloth and I found one!

Then I went back a week later and found the following, below. I had just dropped my son off for his percussion sectional class and felt this inkling of a magnetic pull to go to the Provo DI, even though that wasn’t my original plan for the morning.

A Hanna Andersson sweater for my oldest grandchild! Only $4! I texted my daughter (his mom) right away about it. I’ve been wanting to find something Hanna Andersson at DI ever since she said she found Hanna Andersson PJs there last year, which created downright thrift envy in me. So now I can say I’ve had a Magical Hanna Andersson Thrifting Moment (MAHTM), lol. She said she wanted it for his December 1st box, and that she had been wanting to find a sweater for him. So this was a major score, and the reason, I suppose, why I was pulled towards the store on that particular morning. (A December 1st box must be a Millennial Mom thing. We had no such things when I was a young mom. So much for her being a minimalist!) Then a sparkly Christmas sweater for me to wear with my poinsettia shirt I got in Maine when thrifting in October, an adorable chunky ivory sweater that looks handmade (there was no tag inside), which looks so hygge, a fun floral top, a new candle to give to my mom for her birthday to go in a gift basket with NWT gray sweater I found in Maine last October when I went thrifting with my sister, a NWT Disney shirt for me to be a pajama top, and two books! The American patriot book is also for my mom, for either her birthday or Christmas, and the DK New England book is for me! I just love DK books and I love New England so I’m super excited about reading that book. It’s something to look forward to reading in January since I don’t have time for it in December!

Then on Black Friday I got the stuff above, at the Orem Savers, and the stuff below, at the American Fork DI. The two books for boys and the Duplo people and the little house front will go in a Christmas gift basket for my two oldest grandsons, along with the Marvel book below. I’m making them a boy’s adventure-themed basket. A Pioneer Woman toaster for only $5 to add to my Pioneer Woman kitchen! I got the Disney songbook for my guitar-playing son. I had that same book in my family home growing up, and I’m not sure where it went. I’ve looked for it here at my home and can’t find it, but it may be buried in my voluminous piano sheet music collection. Maybe it’s at a sister’s home? In any case, for $2 I definitely got it, whether it’s for me or for my son! It’s out of print and has songs from shows that he grew up with like Disney’s Johnny Appleseed and Disney’s Robin Hood. I now have a Disney piano songbook similar to it that my parents gave to me for Christmas when I was a young mom as a nod to the book we had in our family home, but the newer one doesn’t have those oldies songs. So this was a major find! I got the Mayflower book for my mom for her birthday since she and my dad each have at least one Mayflower ancestor. Also the mug. The fertility book will go to my married daughter since she has asked me about natural family planning. I read that book when I was a young mom and found it to be an invaluable resource. I’m giving the poetry book to my dad for Christmas since he has really gotten into poetry in his old age. The quote game will be for my dad as well, and the the Orson Scott Card books are for two of my children’s stockings. The Anne of Green Gables graphic novel is for my married daughter’s stocking. My sister Emily has been raving about this version of the story for years. Then the two C.S. Lewis books are for my son-in-law’s stocking. (We have huge stockings.) The Mom Trivia card deck will go in my stocking. It matches the Dad Trivia card deck for my husband’s stocking that I found at a DI a few months ago! The Wizard Always Wins will go to my married daughter and son-in-law with two other games, since last year at Christmas time she said she wanted to play more board games more often. The white book on the left is a Terryl and Fiona Givens book that I got for a friend, along with the John Grisham book. I put those in a gift basket I blogged about here.

The CM scrapbook pages were only $1 a set for two sets. I do need more of those to finish the scrapbooks I started decades ago. (Gulp, is anyone else severely in a scrapbook delayed condition like I am? I’ve gone digital for some but also feel a pull to finish the old school versions.) Then a little photo album (for my old school hard copy photos that need preserving some way), a pretty silver frame that says “Sisters” to frame a photo of my sisters and me, and more books for family members. Plus some black pants! It was a very good day at two thrift stores! So many great treasures to give to many loved ones, and a few things for myself, for around $60 total!

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12/04/25 Thrifting Thursday: Thrifting for Gifting #1, Themed Book Baskets!

Posted on December 4, 2025 by treeoflifemama

‘Tis the season for gift planning and shopping! Christmas is three weeks from today! Have you ever thought of giving Christmas gifts from things you find at a thrift store? If not, I’m here to tell you to do it! Contrary to some people’s opinion, not all thrift store merchandise is junk. You can find beautiful, useful and valued items perfect for gift giving at thrift stores.

These items can be new with tag or like new without tag, still looking never used or gently used. They are perfectly suitable to give as gifts. For example, you can often find books that look brand new. It’s fun to get a basket from the thrift store (they abound) in like new condition and fill it with like new items that you know your recipient is interested in, to make themed book baskets. Of course you can add new stuff too. To make it easy on the budget add not-cheap looking stuff from the dollar store. Recently I decided I wanted to assemble a gift basket for a friend. I knew she loves books by John Grisham as well as Harry Potter books. She’s also a member of my church so we share the same faith. She also lives in a cold climate so I figured she would enjoy a new cheery Christmas mug with some herbal tea. So for this basket, the theme was my friend and her interests and the fact that’s she’s headed into winter.

This is what I came up with.

First some books for her to enjoy reading this winter with a candle from the Dollar Store. I also threw in a Christmas DVD still in the shrink wrap that I somehow acquired through the years. I found all the books at thrift stores.

One of my sons had Terryl Givens as an instructor for a religion class last year and he said he was fabulous. So I was super excited to find a book that Brother Givens had authored with his wife, Fiona Givens, at Savers last week. I figured she’d enjoyed reading about “rethinking sin, salvation, and everything in between.” Sounds fascinating right?! I want to read it! I will be definitely finding a copy for myself.

Then I added an assortment of herbal tea packets that I already had on hand. I’m hoping she’s not a tea snob like the mom of the main character in the book Under the Egg, who has a penchant for gourment, expensive tea. These are just run-of-the mill herbal teas you can find at a regular grocery store. Plus a mug and some potholders I got at the Dollar Store. I also threw in some brand new gloves from amazon that came in a collection I bought that aren’t in any of these photos. The fingertips of the gloves are designed to work with touch-screen phones so I hope she finds that super useful.

Here’s what the finished basket gift looks like. I used a basket that I had found thrifting and tied it up with one of my many Christmas ribbons that I like to recycle.

I gave it to her early, last week, before she left on a long road trip. I won’t be seeing her until the spring. She was thrilled! So go thrifting for baskets and goodies to fill them up. You don’t even have to do any baking!

To encourage you more, here are some photos of ideas from YouTube thrifters, as well as the related videos.

Above, we see an example basket from the video below by Katie Scott of Salvaged by Katie YouTube channel. It’s for someone who loves to cook. Ms. Scott found a cookbook and paired it with some beautiful wooden bowls and salad servers, along with some decorative nutcrackers and a pretty plaid dish towel. She got them all at thrift stores! So festive!

Here’s a gift basket for a bird lover. This thrifter found a bird watcher book and added a decorative birdhouse, some birdseed and other bird stuff. When I find the video I got this screenshot from I’ll include it below.

Then Monica Bazemore over in YouTube shows her thrifting trips to make three book-themed baskets, shown above: Polar Express, Narnia, and a cookbook for Christmas. So, so fun! She added some pretty scarves to some of the baskets and non-thrifted edible items like spices, candy, and tea.

I love that she found a toy stuffed lion and a Narnia picture book, then bought some Turkish Delight to add to the Narnia basket! My married daughter was enamored by Turkish Delight when she was about 12. She found a recipe and made some. I know she would love this basket!



I’ve always wondered what real Turkish Delight looks like ever since my daughter attempted making it.

Watch her two videos below where she finds the items and then assembles the baskets.

Then here is another video to inspire you. Not all the baskets below involve books. You can do themed baskets of anything! The sky’s the limit! It’s so much fun to assemble these.

Merry Thriftmas!

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Thriving on Thursday: Detoxing From Artificial Light

Posted on December 4, 2025 by treeoflifemama

Photo Credit: pixabay.com

I’m finally joining the crunchy mom bandwagon/party and learning about natural light. As well as all about toxic light that stresses the body and disrupts circadian rhythms. I know I could really benefit from implementing everything in the video down below.

The video shows Thaddeus Owens, a presenter from the 2025 Weston A Price Foundation Conference that was in Utah back in October. While I did go to the conference I didn’t go to this presentation so I’m super happy that the good folks at the WAPF shared this one for free in YouTube. So thank you Weston Price people! This is super important information for everyone to act on and be more hale and hearty.

My favorite part of it is when Mr. Owens shares the success story of one of his clients. This client struggled and struggled to lose his last 45 lbs. Finally he focused on changing his light diet. He didn’t change his food diet. The only two things he did differently was go outside at sunrise and wear blue blocking glasses at night. In 6 weeks he lost 45 lbs.

Mr. Owens also shares the study of two groups of mice. They had the same diet and exercise. One group had light 24/7. The other group had 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. The darkness deprived mice became obese and the group that got darkness stayed at a normal weight.

Screenshot

With all the extra stimulation going on during the Christmas season, following this light/dark protocol is a great way to protect ourselves from holiday stresses and emerge feeling nourished and not depleted. I’m excited to test it all out! Wintertime is the best time to honor darkness and see just how nourishing it can be!

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My Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum 2025

Posted on December 3, 2025 by treeoflifemama

It’s December! For me that means taking a break from my regularly scheduled everyday fare of books, audiobooks and podcasts (I’m currently listening to Travels With George and The Mayflower, both by Nathaniel Philbrick and Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss) to binge on all the good, beautiful and true things Christmas! I’ve been doing this for years. I didn’t really have a name for it, but I just found a name for what I do. Today I discovered this video below to describe what I’ve been doing every year: a Merry Mother’s Christmas curriculum. I love it! If you homeschool, you probably have heard about Christmas school. This is Christmas-themed homeschooling curriculum. What about having a personalized Christmas-themed curriculum for the homeschooling mom? That’s what this is! You don’t even have to be a homeschooler to do this. This is what veteran homeschooling mother Karen Andreola calls Mother Culture. (Her book about it is below.) It’s what Ramona Zabriskie in Wife for Life calls drops, delights, and dazzles of the heart. But for December it’s Christmas-themed! These are little and big things to fill your heart so you easily feel willing, happy, and able to serve others. With so many demands on you, mom, as chief merry maker of the family, it’s more important than ever to have an especially joyful December Mother Culture/Merry Christmas Mom Curriculum, to nourish your soul!

(As an Amazon associate, any purchases of books made through the links on this post earn me a small commission. The cost is the same to you.)


Watch below to see homeschooling mom America describe her Merry Christmas Mother Curriculum.

OK, so here’s my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum. Some of it overlaps with family reading/Immanuel Wreath discussion at dinner time and December Morning Basket time for homeschooling, as well as family movie time.

First, I’ll be reading from these two advent books above and below. We do the Our Family Christmas as a family at dinnertime, after we do the name of Christ for the day/lighting the Immanuel Advent Wreath. (Go here to read about the Immanuel Wreath.)

Photo Credit: desertbook.com

Our Family Christmas is basically an Advent book from an LDS Christian perspective. I found this thrifting for only $3! One of my favorite ever thrift store finds! Definitely a Magical Thrifting Moment. Each day has a question that can be used as a journal prompt or discussion starter. Like for Dec. 1, the question is “What are you looking forward to the most this Christmas season?” and for Dec. 2 the question is “What is your favorite Christmas tree ornament?” There’s always a story, an activity, and a song for each day in this Advent book. We always do the question, never the activity, and sometimes we look up the history of the song in YouTube and watch that video. What I do on my own is sometimes read the whole story. Then I often retell it because the story is often long and people are done eating before I’m done with the story if I don’t condense it.

Then this Advent book above is from a different Christian perspective. I’ve seen it mentioned it by a lot of homeschool Christian moms vloggers. I found it in the children’s book section at Savers and joyfully snatched it up for $5 a few years ago. I just love, love the pretty cover. I’ll pick it up and read from it occasionally with no systematic study plan which is totally OK. Even though I don’t agree with all of it doctrinally I do enjoy it.

Then we have magazines from my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I absolutely love reading the Christmas stories in these. I have this month’s print copies that I’ll share with my son for our homeschool Morning Basket, and then I also love reading stories from previous years in the LDS Gospel Library App. (You can find a collection of stories I curated from Gospel Library in my Family Devotionals Ebook in the December section. Go here to get it.)

Usually I listen to one General Conference talk a day after I listen to the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. For December, I’ll be listening to at least one talk a day from the First Presidency Christmas Devotionals.

I started listening to this book above last year after seeing it in the BYU Store. I never finished it and now I’m starting over. It’s in Everand and I just unlocked the title yesterday. So far I’m loving it. It has a familiar ring to it since it’s historical fiction based on Charles Dickens and his writing of A Christmas Carol. So it sounds like The Man Who Invented Christmas. Deja vu! I’m curious to see if it turns out the same way as TMWIC. Which one came first and which is better? We shall see!

I heard about this Christmas romance from a homeschool vlogger and it sounded fun and clean so I also got it in Everand. So far I’m enjoying it.

Then there are Christmas podcasts. I love listening to Focus on the Family Christmas Stories podcast. Also the BYU Radio Constant Wonder Advent. I learned about the Constant Wonder Advent last year, when I providentially met the producer, Tennery Norton, at a women’s party for my church. I listen to one episode a day. I am getting so educated as to different people, cultures and places around the world and how they celebrate Christmas. I just love it! Go here to read more about the podcast and how to listen.

I’m also enjoying The Christmas Jars podcast. The Christmas Jars book is fiction, but it has inspired many real, true stories of people receiving Christmas Jars anonymously. These stories are so heartwarming! Just what I love to hear! Read the book (and the picture book), watch the movie here, and only then listen to the podcast here. It’s hosted by the author of the book, Jason F. Wright. I just love these stories!

Then there’s the Christmas Chronicles story, which isn’t really a true podcast but is published on podcast platforms by BYU Radio. This is a story written by Tim Slover. I just love the story because it is my favorite telling of the backstory of Santa. Not only that, but it tells the history of Mrs. Claus. We hardly ever hear about her. What’s with that in this post-feminist world? She definitely deserves equal time! The fantasy elements of this story kind of remind me of the Chronicles of Narnia. Go here to listen. I listened to this with all of my children when they lived at home, so it just breathes nostalgia for me as I fondly remember those Christmas years and I hope it does for them. The charming magical fantasy of the story with the epic battle of good vs. evil takes your Christmas to a whole new level of delight and wonder! Mr. Slover definitely has a way with words to weave a marvelous Christmas tale.

Next, movies! I have some of my favorite, little-known Christmas movies/videos over here and some of my fave Christmas rom coms here for date night. We usually always watch It’s a Wonderful Life (except the past few years I’ve needed a break after watching it annually for 30+ years) and Muppet Christmas Carol. I’ve been meaning to watch I Heard the Bells and haven’t yet so will definitely prioritize it this year. I also want to watch The Most Wonderful Time of Year (stars Henry Winkler) for the laughs it gives me as well as Christmas With the Karountzoses. Both are so, so funny! They also give you that happy holiday family energy as well.

It’s been awhile since I watched The Nativity Story movie so I want to watch that this year.

Then there are a few new-to-me Christmas movies I noticed in this video below that maybe I’ll watch for date night with my husband.

I’m also going to dabble in watching/listening to as many Christmas Concerts with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. Many are on YouTube here, and often tell the backstories of well-known Christmas carols and/or stories. I got to see in person the one with the Muppets back in 2013 or so which was so fun, as well as the one about Dickens narrated by John-Rhys Davies. Some of these concerts have been made into picture books as well, like the one above.

Speaking of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, that leads into music. I’ll be piano-playing as many of the LDS-themed Christmas songs I’ve curated in the December section of my Family Devotionals ebook, here, as I can. I will also be playing classics from The Reader’s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook. I play on the piano every morning and evening as a call for family prayer, and scripture study in the evening. I got this for my birthday when I turned 16, and have treasured it ever since.

It has almost every Christmas song you can think of in it, that you would want. (Not the obnoxious ones like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” “Feliz Navidad” etc.) Sadly, it is missing “Silver Bells” and “Mary’s Lullaby.” Mine’s an old edition, maybe the newer ones have rectified these oversights. So I’m rejoicing in the bounties of Providence in that the Our Family Christmas book which I showed above and show again below, has those two songs and the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah. I just love, love playing and singing all these songs! (Hint: you can buy the songbooks above for cheaper

And guess what?! One of the libraries I patronize has this book of piano and vocal sheet music below waiting for me to pick up! This is so, so exciting! Soon we can be singing the song above while I accompany on the piano, maybe for my Jolabokkaflod party or Christmas Eve! This is the one movie I love to watch every year with the family and haven’t gotten tired of.

How can I leave out thrifting as part of my December curriculum? It’s not really a course of study, which is the technical definition of “curriculum” but it does bring me a lot of joy. Especially thrifting for gifting! You can see what I’ve found here and here so far, including the gorgeous Hanna Andersson sweater for one of my grandsons above. Unless you are a family member, then don’t go look. I have a little bit more to do and look forward to what else I will find. I’ve also found more earlier in the year but don’t want to bother to hunt down which posts have those pictures :-).

I gave the above thrifted books, DVD, and new Dollar Tree candle to a friend who just left for Nevada where she lives. I put it all in the basket below with some Dollar Tree potholders and new set of gloves. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow so I’ll be making a gift basket for her too.

Next, handicrafts! America in the top video of this post mentioned that having a Christmas handicraft is important to her. I’ve got a scarf I started crocheting a few years ago. I’d love to finish it so I’ll work on that during movie time. I will also be getting out my two Nativity jigsaw puzzles to do if I have the free moment when I’m not doing other multitasking while listening to the audiobooks and podcasts. I will also work on them on Sundays and hope to get the family to join. Of course I will be sipping some peppermint tea in my Christmas-y Pioneer Woman mug while puzzling. One of my sons gave me these mugs for my birthday two years ago. They make me so happy!


Photo Credit: thepioneerwoman.com

I also love watching slow, soothing crafting and decorating for Christmas videos, like this one below with Little Women vibes. The paper snowflakes are probably the only thing I’ll be making from it but if you want some old-fashioned craft ideas to do, watch below. Or just watch for fun! 🙂

I’ve also posted this handout below on my fridge to encourage/invite/remind myself and my family members to do at least one thing each day to #lighttheworld with the light of Christ. This is part of the #lighttheworld campaign from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Giving of ourselves doesn’t have to be grand projects, it can be little acts of kindness.

I always do a little reading in bed after saying my prayers, sitting up, with an amber light bulb in my lamp. For Christmas I swapped out my usual night cap reading fare for these Christmas books:

I was thrilled to find this book shown above, while shopping at thrift stores last year, twice, once right before Christmas and once right after! It’s a tiny book but packs a punch. The first copy I gave to my married daughter, in her stocking, and then on Jan. 3 I found a copy for me. Except our copies are red. This book is a companion to a picture book for children. You can read about them here.

Then I’m reading a story a night from the books above and below. Being able to be in bed, all cozy, reading with my soft amber light motivates me to go to bed!

Merry Christmas! God bless us everyone!

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