Partridges and Parrots...

We love singing Christmas carols...during the daytime, but especially at bedtime...

Every night at bedtime during this Advent and Christmas season, in addition to our already fairly lengthy nighttime routine of reading bedtime stories, saying our prayers, and singing our regular songs, we have added saying three nice things about one another from the day together, reading a story from an Advent stories collection, discussing what we had learned that day about Christmas traditions from around the world, and singing Christmas carols.

 Advent Storybook is such a neat collection to read for this season...we have read a short story from this nightly...

Each night, we discuss customs and traditions from a different country in this book, Christmas Around the World...

Both boys love this book, Jingle Bells...the illustrations go so well with the lyrics to Jingle Bells. So much fun!

Yes, I know, a little lengthy...a little over-the-top...but it works for us so we are doing it and having a fun family time (despite the time it takes to get through everything before finally going to sleep).

Big Bro likes to compare and contrast the picture books that actually feature the lyrics to the Christmas carols we have been singing to what we actually sing, as he likes to check to see if our version of the carols matches the version in the books...he also likes to see how many times the refrain is supposed to be sung.

Big Bro loves this Deck the Halls book and Grace Lin's illustrations.

Big Bro is very precise and wants to make sure that we notice the differences between the written word for the songs and how we ultimately have interpreted it in our singing. Last night, he spent some time counting out how many fa la la's were on the pages of our Deck the Halls picture book.


Like Big Bro, Little Bro also enjoys Christmas carols, only he takes a totally different approach to them...

Little Bro loves, loves, loves singing, directing, and acting out Christmas carols.
He gets so excited every night when it is time to sing carols. Little Bro throws his whole heart and soul into it. He stands up in bed, starts off by waving his hands as if he was conducting an orchestra, and then, breaks into either dancing or acting out the songs. Little Bro wears a glorious smile and is quite the happy camper each night as he is belting out the tunes.

Fun book that contains pictures and the lyrics to Up on the Housetop and Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Seeing how differently the boys have interpreted the whole Christmas carol sing-along speaks to how different they are in some ways, but also how they are alike they are in other ways in that they are both so excited that Christmas is near and that we spend time singing each night.
Will truly miss it when they are older and no longer want to sing carols each night as part of their Christmas season bedtime routine. Am always going to treasure how they have been the last few weeks with their sheer joy at bedtime. Hopefully, we will have at least a few more years that they will want to sing together like this, as it has made the holidays brighter for all of us here.

One of the funniest things occurred last night, when we had finished our bedtime routine in Big Bro's room and it was then time to tuck Little Bro into his own bed. As we were walking to Little Bro's room, he was still humming along to The Twelve Days of Christmas tune when he stopped and asked,
"Why do partridges like to be with parrots"?
Me: Excuse me?
"You know...the partridges in the parrot tree, Mom...why do they like to share the tree"?

I had to then explain to him that it is a partridge in a pear tree, not a parrot tree.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, with the traditional interpretation of Day 1...

Little Bro nodded his head, as if he understood, but was still processing his vision of what was in the song from the actual lyrics.

He then added,
"You know, Mom, I liked it better with the partridge and the parrot, as I thought it was nice that they were sharing the tree for Christmas..."

Well, on that note, hope that you and yours have a very merry Christmas, partridges and parrots and all...

 *For an interesting read, please be sure to check out Shannon's post over Currclick. 
Shannon works at the publishers, Fortunately for You Books...

Shannon  wrote a very nice post about Christmas in Ireland and the origins and meanings of the Twelve Days of Christmas song...
Even though my family is of Irish Catholic origin, I had no idea that this Christmas carol was from Ireland or that it had more of a religious meaning to it...so neat to be able to find out meaning behind the song and to be able to share this with my sons...
Thanks to Shannon for enlightening us here in the Sunshine State.