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Christmas memories fill my head as I close my eyes and remember my father's 3 o'clock in the morning trump through our house, yelling, "ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas everybody!" We would all run down the stairs, after having fallen from our beds by the booming of my father's voice, and would be welcomed to a tree overflowing with presents. The wonder would fill our eyes with the twinkle lights and dim room. There were gifts of every size and color on the mantle, under the tree, around the tree, and up the stairs. The parents would be sitting in their big chairs, waiting for the six of us to come and sit under the golden glow of all those Christmas tree lights. It was a moment and a memory to capture.

Christmas scrapbooking is about capturing special moments during this magical time and preserving them. The moments can be spontaneous like a flour fight while making cookies or dad falling off the ladder while stringing lights. Some of the best tips for scrapbooking Christmas memories are to be ready for the unexpected and involve the entire family.

The following are some ideas for the season.

1. Purchase several disposable cameras around the Thanksgiving season so you are equipped and ready.

2. Place these cameras strategically around the house once the holiday season kicks off for your family, for some, it is the early morning trek to the store the day after Thanksgiving, why not take snapshots!

3. Remember to get film, batteries, and memory cards for your other cameras and always keep it with you.

4. Purchase a photo box to keep all the disposable camera once they are completed and then hurry to get them developed, Christmas scrapbooking doesn't have to wait until Christmas is over.

5. Watch the Sunday papers and cut out coupons from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, then take the family and pick out several scrapbook papers, ribbons, and stickers for the season. These stores also have photo boxes for your supplies and accordion-type folders to keep your pages.

6. Set up a small table at home specifically for Christmas scrapbooking, keep it stocked with supplies so pages can be produced at any moment

7. The fun part is the actually scrapbooking. Involve the entire family! Give each of the children and parents a page to decorate, if the pictures aren't back, let them save room for them. Be sure to have a Christmas-specific album at the ready.

8. Think of a theme for your holidays this year or special traditions that happen every year, take photos of your family doing that activity whether it is baking cookies for charity, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, caroling, whatever it is, preserve it and every year make a page. It is nice to go back and look at how the children have grown.

9. Make this activity part of a new tradition. There can be pages dedicated to Christmas shopping, or wrapping, or cooking. Keep small journals around the house so a special moment can be recorded for a scrapbook page. These can then be joined with a photo of the time everyone sat around stringing popcorn and dad kept eating the decorations.

10. Remember it is about fun and family. This is a great activity to involve the school-age children during the two weeks of Christmas break. Children are very creative and have great ideas of how to preserve a memory, perhaps something unheard of.

I look back at a special scrapbook page of my father's last holiday season. His 6'4" frame was frail and he was in a wheelchair, but his eyes held that special sparkle. I remember him every Christmas and can still hear his "ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas everybody" in my dreams. Scrapbooking Christmas memories allows me to relive special moments and it will allow you to relive your own special memories, it is a magical time of year.

Learn more about this author, Taye Foster Bradshaw.
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