Monday, December 12, 2011

Giveaway Day!

[Update: this giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to Thriftaholic, the winner!]

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

It's Giveaway Day here at cadamsCREATIONS!  For those of you just visiting for the first time, welcome!

My little blog is where I share my fun creations: soft toys, bags, photo props, embroidery, applique, kids clothes, and other things that I dream up along the way.  I'd love for you to follow along and comment if you are inspired.
On to the giveaway!  One lucky commenter is going to win a unique, handmade, felted wool hedgehog!  But which one???
Will it be Snoot, with his adorable expression...
...and heart tattoo?

Will it be Sniffles, with sprigs of hedgie spikes sticking out through her buttons?
(All of my hedgies are about 90% hand-sewn)
Or will it be Stella, with her quiet, reserved manner and monochromatic color scheme?
(she's got a quirky little heart tattoo, as well!)

Tell you what.  I'm going to let the winner decide!  And just in case you'd rather make your own felted wool hedgie than win one, visit this post for a free tutorial and pattern!

HOW TO WIN:
Up for grabs: One unique handmade hedgehog (cadamsCREATIONS original).
How to enter:  Tell me, in the comment section below, where you're from and if you have any faith-based or cultural traditions in your family (I love hearing about other cultures and no, your comment does not have to be about Christmas).
Who can enter:  Anyone - anywhere in the world!
Giveaway Details (per Sew Mama Sew rules):  Comments will close on Friday December 16, 2011 at 5pm PST and winner will be announced by Sunday December 18th via email (and this post will be updated as well), so make sure to leave me your email address.
(Special thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting this Giveaway Day!)

Please note: You do not have to follow my blog to win this giveaway.  I encourage you, however, to look around and if you like what you see, do follow.  I love to give inspiration where I can.

Thanks all, and let the commenting begin!
  :) Caren

93 comments:

  1. Depending on which state of the Union we are in, there are a couple of Christmas traditions my family practices. If we are close to my mother, all family members have traditionally gone to her home on Christmas Eve and opened gifts to each other there along with having a special Christmas Eve dinner. My children and I will call, text, or email each other EVERY holiday. Depending on the child, that may occur as early as 12:00am. Regardless of where we are, my sisters and I will always contact each other on Christmas. We know it is by the grace of God that we are friends and can call each other and depend on each other. To me, that is one of the most precious gifts/traditions that I have.

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  2. oh you did such an awesome job!! Love, love your creatioons!! Enjoy!

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  3. These are so cute! I'm in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon to be specific. We don't really have any religious or cultural traditions, but we do have family traditions. One of them is to make froot-loop garlands for the tree. The kids look forward to it every year.

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  4. I live in NM. My kids are still rather small so we're still working on 'traditions' I'm sure we'll figure out in the next few years which ones stick but as of yet we are trying out what we find.

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  5. These are adorable! I love Sniffles. I am from Christchurch, New Zealand (where we had the earthquake this year). I am from a christian family and one of our traditions is to go to the beach on Easter morning for a little service and to watch the sun rise over the ocean. We are the first country in the world to see the sunrise. It's kind of cool.

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  6. Your hedgehogs are so cute. We are from Pennsylvania. We have a CHristmas tradition of driving through the nearby neighborhoods that have luminaries on CHristmas Eve. It is so peaceful.

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  7. How adorable are your hedgies?! Love them all, but Stella just had me with her gorgeous blue eyes and wonderful colouring :)

    Here in South Africa there are so many cultures and obviously traditions that one can easily lose yourself in them all. My favourite is doing a potluck supper where you have to bring something traditional from your own culture / Mom's kitchen. It's great to see which food other people celebrate with :)

    Thank you for a fantastic giveaway.

    I'm following you now :)

    Marilize
    (marilize.paulsen@gmail.com)

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  8. OMG - these are SO adorable!!! I grew up in the United States, but my paternal grandmother had Swedish roots - so we always celebrated a Swedish Christmas with most of our celebration happening on Christmas Eve when we enjoyed a scumptious Smoorgasbord and opened our gifts. My grandmother always made a ham with scalloped potatoes...and a plate of the best cookies EVER!!!

    caribousmom (at) gmail (dot) com

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  9. I was raised Christian and we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas. When I still lived with my folks, we would go to church and have Christmas Eve Service there and then go home and put out goodies for Santa to eat.
    Your hedgehogs are adoreable! Thanks for sharing.

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  10. oh, those are too cute! we have lots of traditions for december - we're catholic, so there's advent candles, st. nick's shoes, our lady of guadalupe today, midnight mass on christmas eve, mass again on christmas morning, santa = st. nicholas, etc.!

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  11. Waffles for Thanksgiving dinner has to be our oddest, but everyone we've told has adopted that tradition. The waffles that are cooked but still light enough to be soft get butter and sugar. The waffles that are dark are pulled into small pieces and eaten with turkey gravy.

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  12. Such cute little hedgehogs! I'm originally from Michigan and moved to Arizona 25 years ago. Our most strange tradition is Spaghetti for Thanksgiving - being a Vegetarian, Turkey is not on the list of things to eat! Thanks for the opportunity to win! Hugs, Janice p.s...love Clothdragon's Thanksgiving tradition...waffles sound wonderful!

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  13. How cute! That would be a tough decision but I'm learning more towards Snoot.
    My family is Christian so we attend church service on Christmas Eve celebrating Jesus' birth. We then spend the rest of the evening making and decorating cookies.

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  14. Those little guys are sooo cute! Our faith based tradition is the Advent wreath with four candles being lit in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

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  15. Very cute hedgehogs! We are Christians and will be going to church at Christmas. On Christmas Eve we read the velveteen rabbit to the kids along with The Night Before Christmas.

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  16. Hedgehogs!!! My most favorite animal! I've got to check out your tutorial, for sure. :-) Our family does have one tradition...since my brother, sister and I live at a distance from each other, we each light a candle at the same time on Christmas Eve, to remind ourselves that we're together in spirit, if not in person.

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  17. Such cute hedgehogs!I live in Oregon with my husband and two little ones. We are sort in the process of developing our own family traditions, but for the holidays we mostly enjoy spending time together making our own gifts and decorations. I am trying to instill a love for handmade things in my children :o)
    woodlandrabbit@yahoo.com

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  18. they are all so cute:) I'm from Porto, Portugal!

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  19. Southern Germany here - well we don't do any washing during the "Rauhnächte" (rough nights) which go from the 24th december to 6th january (in some other parts from the solstice to 6th december)as it's said to bring bad luck to hang washing up to dry because who knows what strange creatures might use them to play tricks on you ...

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  20. I am from Baton Rouge, LA. Thanks for the giveaway! robyn(dot)geddes(at)gmail(dot)com

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  21. I'm from Oklahoma. The only tradition we have is reading the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas morning. :) Thanks for the chance to win!

    okiedokiemama at yahoo dot com

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  22. We are catholic and we just started doing the tradition of the Jesse Tree this year to celebrate advent!!
    Elaine

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  23. I live in Colorado and our tradition involves our holiday cards- finding the right picture and designing the card- it's a family affair and everyone has an opinion.

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  24. I'm from Toronto and was raised Christian :)

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  25. so cute! My daughter loves hedgehogs!
    We don't have any faith based traditions..but we always have pancakes, bacon and hot chocolate for breakfast on Christmas morning!
    lisadpope (at) yahoo (dot )com

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  26. Hi, I'm Kathy at renaissancemommy@aol.com and I absolutely love those hedgehogs! So cute! Our church has a "Lessons and Carols" service one Sunday evening at Christmastime every year... this year it's actually on Christmas.

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  27. Hi, I'm Kathy at renaissancemommy@aol.com and I absolutely love those hedgehogs! So cute! Our church has a "Lessons and Carols" service one Sunday evening at Christmastime every year... this year it's actually on Christmas.

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  28. I adore hedgehogs. We have tons of traditions! Faith based and secular. An annual cookie party, now hosted by my adult daughter, has been going on for over 85 years now, since my (now deceased) mother was a child. We have a family sugar cookie recipe that starts off the day, but we always try a new recipe or two, and it is a special lovely family treat... in more ways than one! :)

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  29. I am from the uk but live in Japan, we always have a party with our bilingual friends on the 23rd and we go to the ice candles show at a local farm the week before xmas

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  30. i LOVE the hedgehogs! i live in Virginia, and we celebrate Yule. On of my favorite trsaditions is digging up and bringing inside our yule tree and decorating it. We use a living tree, and replant it in the spring. It's always like welcoming an old friend back into our home.
    enchantedtree(at)hotmail.com

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  31. Each day as I said goodbye to the children, I"d say "God is with you". I still say it....even though they are adults with children of their own....and I hope that they remind their children that "God is with you" each day too!

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  32. Well when I was younger and still lived at home, we used to go to the late church service on Christmas eve. It was very beautiful.

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  33. I am from Hillsboro Oregon. My family is Christian.

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  34. Hello from Ohio! Our faith-based tradition is setting up the Nativity. Thanks for the giveaway, those hedgehogs are just too cute!

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  35. Hello from Pennsylvania! I like to go to church on Christmas Eve because I love the candle-lit service, especially when we sing Silent Night!
    Pick me! :D

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  36. Hello from Alberta, Canada. All the hedgehogs are absolutely adorable, but I think I love Sniffles and all her buttons the best.

    In our family, we attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve then come home for some specially-made and saved-until-that-night meat pie. It's a tradition (both the church and the pie) from my husband's family.

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  37. Our biggest cultural tradition is the type of food we eat. My mother is cajun from Louisiana. We always have really good, spicy food at any holiday gathering. I love your hedge hogs. thank you for the tutorial and the chance to win.

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  38. I am from Virginia in the USA. Probably our biggest faith based tradition is the candlelight service on Christmas Eve.
    Love the hedge hogs!
    beth(dot)sebastian(at)gmail(dot)com

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  39. Hi, I am from California and Christmas seems to mainly be a secular holiday in the big cities.

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  40. Love Sniffles. :o)
    I am from Indiana. Our tradition consists of my daughter being in a small version of the Nutcracker (at dance) and having my parents over for Christmas morning. We have a small, but close family. :O)

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  41. Snoot and Stella hehe so freakin cute!! Our traditions are to have fun as a family and enjoy the moment...

    xo Steph

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  42. Oh my sweet, sweet, SWEET goodness...these are ADORABLE!!!!!!! My daughter would flip for one of these :D

    We live in North Georgia, and are Christians. We celebrate Christ's birth, His life and His life-giving death (aka Easter, lol)

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  43. We're not religious, but our family has a tradition of always inviting home sailors who either have nowhere to go for Christmas or can't make it home to be with family for the holidays. On the years that we don't have spare sailors, we adopt a struggling military family (we've been in their shoes far too often) or an elderly person and buy gifts and make baked goods for them. It's something even our youngest kids have always enjoyed. We also send the kids around with trays of cookies for the neighbors. They feel so grown up delivering huge trays of cookies to the neighborhood.

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  44. OMG! I have to have one of these!

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  45. I am from the Seattle area, in WA state, USA. I am not deeply religious. But one of my favorite traditions my husband and I started way back when we 1st met, is to go out for breakfast one Christmas morning. Then we leave an obscenely large tip for the waitress! :)

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  46. I am from India. The biggest festival we have is Diwali. We buy new clothes, presents for everyone, cleaning and repainting the house and lots and lots of sweets.

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  47. We're not religious, but we always make a lightening tree :)

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  48. I love your hedgehog. I am raised as a fundamental christian but I lost faith when my mother died when I wsa only 16 years old. So now I am searching.........I am Dutch and I live in France

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  49. oh my! they are so amazingly cute! my cultural tradition is that our family makes polish bow tie cookies Chrusciki every year..it helps to have some extra hands :) raineoc@yahoo.com

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  50. I would pick Snoots, but it is definately hard to decide. I am from Tennessee and every year we go to a local church and have a time of singing and lots of eating and visiting.

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  51. Oh these are soo cute! I'm from western N.Y.

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  52. thanks for a great giveaway... I an from New Orleans Louisiana.... and every thing is different here :)

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  53. I am from indiana we try and go to a xmas eve servic

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  54. We light our advent candles every night while we eat dinner, then have a family devotion when we finish eating.
    mindfulhome at gmail dot com

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  55. Look at those sweet little hedgies! So cute. Thank you for the chance to win one. :)

    We don't have any religious or cultural traditions, not in the sense that we do them because of religious beliefs. We do have an advent calendar and I know that those are usually associated with religion, but we just put a little ornament on the little tree every day and it's more a countdown to Christmas than anything else.

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  56. Boy, these are about the cutest things ever. *grin*
    It's hard to think of a cultural tradition per se, because everything we do just seems "normal" to me. *grin*
    My boyfriend and I were buying our first house and (since Christmas holidays are all filled up with family stuff and we still wanted to celebrate something on our own in our new house) had planned to celebrate 3 Kings Day in early January. But... the house fell through, so no 3 Kings this year. Next year, though...
    Thanks for the opportunity to win! :)

    sarita0818 at comcast dot net

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  57. So so cute! I think Sniffles would be my girl if I won! I am from Maine-lots of traditions, but one is cutting our own Christmas tree &/or greens from wreaths each year.

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  58. These are great, Caren -- although I don't know if I could keep this poor hedgie safe from my cat!!! My fanily tradition os to go see The Christmas Revels every year in Cambridge, MA -- it's a winter solstice celebration, and they feature winter holiday traditions of a different culture each year. Always something interesting...

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  59. Ahhh....so cute We like to celebrate participating in our church Christmas pagent. Thanks for sharing your talent!!

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  60. I'm originally from Michigan (although we live in North Dakota now). The only ethnic tradition I can really think of: making Almond bars for Christmas. I'm Dutch, and almond paste is a very dutch thing !

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  61. Stella is so cute! We live in Nashville, TN. She could come to stay with us here. I think my son would take care of her.
    Our Christmas tradition is going to the movies on Christmas day.
    Thanks for the chance to win. stephspitzer at gmail dot com

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  62. I'm in Anchorage, Alaska :)

    In my family, growing up, we eat a seaweed soup on our birthdays and a dumpling soup on New Year's Day. My mom "says" the seaweed soup's supposed to promote healthy life & the dumplings are for a bountiful year ahead. I say "says" because we're pretty sure she just made this tradition up to get everyone in the family together because, of course, the blessings don't truly work without everyone there with you. Never once has anyone argued the tradition with her though :)

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  63. I'm from California :-) We have homemade cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. My Grandpa had them as a child....he made them for my mom when she was a child....I had them when I was a child....and my kids have them. I don't know if that counts as cultural or spiritual but its what we do. A longstanding tradition. LOL!

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  64. These little friends look so cuddly!
    I'm from Austria and we do have lots of cultural traditions here. It starts with horrable perchtas run at the beginning of December (I do not join these activitis, because some of these guyes are realy rude), than there are a lot of traditional Christmas markets and at the 24th lot of people got to church bevore seleprating Christmas at home. We seleprate Chrismas tradtional at the 24th evening and we don't have a Santa, we have the "Christkind".

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  65. O my gosh these are so cute!!

    I am from Indiana - we don't really have any traditions... time to make some!

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  66. Those are great!! I love going to see Christmas lights with my family, hot chocolate in hand! Thanks for the chance!!

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  67. I am a Catholic from the London Suburbs, UK. I used to always LOVE Midnight Mass, but with two little ones, I have not been for a few years but we still go to Family Mass on Christmas day. However, I much prefer the Christingale Service with Carols :)on one of the Advent Sundays

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  68. I love the hedgehogs!
    I'm from the UK!

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  69. Hello! Thanks for a great giveaway! I'm a new follower! I'm from California! Love the hedgie! Happy Holidays! :)

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  70. So cute! Love the hedgehogs.

    My husband and I are Christians and so we celebrate the birth of Christ, our Saviour. I don't mind the Santa decorations, etc. around, but that's not our focus at this time of year.

    We live in Canada, in the capital (Ottawa).

    Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!

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  71. I actually have a real hedgehog named Stella! These are adorable! I would love any of them. one of my families traditions is Pizza for dinner Christmas eve. I live in Northern Wisconsin.

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  72. So cute especially the little one with the heart Tatoo.
    I'm from Malaysia.
    Thanks for the chance to win!

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  73. These are all soooo cute! My favorite stuffed animal is a little armadillo by the name of Armando, and any one of those cuties would make a good playmate for him.

    We celebrate Christmas by opening presents in the morning, unlike the night before like the rest of my extended family (i guess my immigrant parents wanted us to be like the other americans, lol). We are also vegetarian so our traditional entre on Christmas was veggie lasagna, picked by me as a child because I loved Garfield and he loved lasagna.

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  74. I live in Istanbul Turkey, but I'm originally from America. A tradition we have started with our own family is to sing the Christmas hymns around the Christmas tree every night until Christmas. This is the first year after three years of doing it, that the kids have really gotten into it. They finally know the songs and we literally go from one song to the next, singing 8 to 10 a night. I like it because I love music, and also because the lyrics remind me what Christmas is about. What a gift!

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  75. love these! no faith based traditions here, but plenty of other family traditions i've started with my son. from minneapolis...

    thanks for the giveaway!

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  76. I am from Canada, we have chinese takeout on christmas eve all because of the "Christmas story" that came out in the mid 80's

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  77. We go to church on Christmas eve and then watch "It's a Wonderful Life." Merry Christmas!

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  78. So cute! We like to go into the Temple grounds in Salt Lake City, Utah and see all of the Christmas lights. They are amazing! They start putting them up monthes before Christmas and turn them on the day ofter Thanksgiving.

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  79. I am from Texas. We started this year a Jesse Tree during Advent with my 2 year old. I know this will become one of our favorite traditions

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  80. So cute! Snoot is the man for me... er, the hedgehog, that is :P I'm from Pinedale, Wyoming. Our favorite tradition is to do a Bible study each night starting at Thanksgiving and going through Christmas that is an overview of the whole Bible - we do a Jesse tree filled with ornaments representing each reading.

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  81. I'm from TN, and one of our favorite family things to do at Christmas is go to a live nativity that a church close to us puts on every year!

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  82. I love little hedgehogs, they are so sweet when they look at you with their little eyes and try to hide behind their thorns.
    I am from Greece. Our Christmas traditions are mainly church going on Christmas morning, a great meal with stuffed turkey (or chicken) and lots of sweets.
    AriadnefromGreece!
    ariadnesky@hotmail.com

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  83. These hedgehogs are simply adorable. Our tradition is to light an advent candle each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas and the Christ candle on Christmas Day. We also go to christmas eve candlelit service.
    momik97(at)aol(dot)com

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  84. Christmas Eve each year we reenact the Nativity. The first Monday of December we give goodies and go caroling to friends.

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  85. Oh my gosh, I love them!
    Every Christmas eve, we go to Midnight Mass, then go to my moms for pesole(Mexican soup). It's so good!
    chacoyaguayo(at)yahoo(dot)com
    Thank you for the opportunity;)

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  86. i love them all but especially stella!!!

    we celebrate both hanukkah and christmas, as well as winter solstice. we love frying up delicious latkes and lighting the menorah... leaving out cookies for santa and getting together with extended family on christmas day. i just love all the opportunities for togetherness there are in the month of december in particular.

    thanks for the chance to win!

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  87. Since I cannot (by law) have a hedgehog as a pet, much to my dismay, I would adore a little stuffie version! Sniffles is just wonderful :D

    My most memorable traditions that I do each year is stocking the advent calendar with sweets and some little toys for the kids and leaving talcum powder 'Santa footprints' on the carpet on Christmas morning. My Mum always did footprints for me and I couldn't imagine a Christmas Day without them :D

    Thank you for your giveaway!

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  88. Sniffles is wonderful with all of her buttons! Setting up the nativity is one of our traditions.

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  89. they are lovely. we are used to put up the tree. hugs

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  90. I do follow your blog anyhow... you're very inspiring to me at this point in my life! www.crownojewels.blogspot.com if you want to see what you have inspired!
    Love the hedgehogs! Have never tried something like before.
    One of our traditions is always reading from the Bible the Christmas story, then saying things we are thankful for. We do this sipping apple cider or something by a lit Christmas tree and then we open presents.

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  91. Your creations are so awesome!!! We go to Christmas Eve mass and afterward the family gathers at my parents house for a gift exchange. Thank you so much for your compliment and for participating in my giveaway!! I'm from Philadelphia. :)

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  92. These are so unique and fun! I love them! I'm from Colorado, although originally from San Francisco, CA. Our traditions are to gather and eat! Nothing fancy! Thank you for the chance to win!

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