All Kings’ Day Celebrations

Our family celebrates Epiphany, or All Kings’ Day,  each January 6th to mark the arrival of the kings with gold, myrrh, and frankincense.

We decided (thanks to the idea from Elizabeth Foss’s site, In the Heart of my Home) to wrap the gifts for the children in gold paper.  Because I was too late in coming to this idea, I missed the opportunity on the gold paper in the stores at Christmas, but I did find one last roll of gold wedding paper and tissue paper the very day of our celebration.  I think they turned out quite lovely, expressing our brimming-over love with the plethora of hearts on the paper.

We present the gifts saying, “Because the wise men brought gifts to Jesus, and because we love you…”

My mum gave me a lovely plaid table cloth over Christmas and I saved it just for this occasion.  I grew up with the tradition of pulling crackers at Christmas and wearing our crowns through the meal, so it comes naturally to keep passing this tradition down.

My eldest, much like myself, isn’t one for loud noises, and you can see this in how she’s keeping her eyes on that cracker she’s holding with her brother.

The only discouragement of the evening was our missing Aunt A in the mix, who wasn’t feeling well.  We’re sorry to have missed you! Thank you for sharing your wonderful family with us.

Dessert was the traditional  All Kings’ Day Bread,  and custard.  A coin wrapped in parchment and hidden inside the cake while it rose, was the secret mystery waiting to be discovered by all who partook.

Twin A won the coin and gift, with twin B photo bombing.

The game, Biblios, was set out and played by the adults, while the youngsters chatted and drew together.

To end the evening, eight of us played Telestrations (rather like playing Telephone, but with pictures and written words).  The best round was when the word started out as pumpkin patch, changed halfway through somehow to dancing penguins, and finally ended as mad teacher.  It’s definitely a must on our list for our weekly family game night in 2016.

Now to think up the next winter celebration.  Valentine’s is on the way!