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Famology
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Famology
Our Favorite Christmas Traditions
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Christmas traditions have a way of shaping our families for generations. In this special Famology episode, Jonny and Amy share some of their favorite Christmas traditions—from competitive cookie decorating and generational poems to sleigh rides, family movies, and time spent with extended family.
They talk about why traditions matter, how they connect generations, and how simple moments often become the memories our children carry with them forever. Whether your family traditions are big or small, this conversation will inspire you to create meaningful moments this Christmas season.
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Welcome to FAMOLogy. We're Johnny and Amy Claussen, and we are here answering your questions about marriage, parenting, and family. So if you have one, uh find the link down below and you'll be able to submit a question for us for future podcasts.
SPEAKER_02We've had wonderful questions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Some hard, some fun. Uh it doesn't matter what your question is. It doesn't matter how specific or general you want to be. It doesn't matter how old your kids are. Yeah. We want to entertain your questions and we will give them our full heart and attention. Amy and I don't share our answers beforehand. No. Which always makes it kind of fun and interesting. Normally we mostly agree on the other thing.
SPEAKER_01We've been doing this family thing for a while together.
SPEAKER_02So we usually see it eye to eye on most things. Um, but but we offer different perspectives and different life experiences for sure.
SPEAKER_01Like you're a boy and I'm a girl. Like that, for instance. I'm a dad, I'm a mom. Those kind of things. You're a husband, I'm a wife. All those things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes. All those offer different perspectives. All of those. So, what is our question of the day, my dear?
SPEAKER_01So, our question today is is our what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? And since this is Christmas week, this was the week for this question.
SPEAKER_02It's a great question.
SPEAKER_01It is.
SPEAKER_02And so much fun because family is fun.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And I know that you guys have your favorite ones too. So take a second and write your favorite traditions below so people can get kind of some ideas of what other people do as well. Because family is unique and so are our traditions.
SPEAKER_02So my wife, more than ever this year, is becoming kind of this Christmas. Uh what's what's a fanatic is too big of a word, but that's not a bad word to be a fanatic about Christmas. But our house is like every corner has a decoration in it. And um, and it's really fun. I I enjoy it, she enjoys it. Um, but you really went all out this year.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_02But but I mean it's funny because I think there's a light or a greenery or an ornament or something pretty much in every nutty green.
SPEAKER_01I do have some areas though. I just hate to tell you that I am lacking.
SPEAKER_02Seriously, there's more?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a couple things that when things go on sale after Christmas, yes, we'll talk later. But there's a couple, I just, you know, in my main room of my house, I kind of want to see lights and greenery everywhere my eyes go.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy. So to donate, go to go fam.org. Gofam.org. You're a donation. I'm just saying. So we have a very festive house this year, and it's been very fun. Yes. And it's been very white. We've gotten a lot of snow, it's been very cold. Yeah, it's been a very classic Christmas for sure. And uh we're looking forward to fun with our family.
SPEAKER_01So Johnny's mom is uh Grandma Extraordinaire. She kind of she could write the book on it, really. And one of the things that Yogi always, they're Yogi and Papa Bear. That's their name. So Yogi would always have the little wind up toys in a drawer. It was always in a drawer in her guest bedroom, and she would get them out for the little toddlers to wind them up and play. But that is one of the things that I bought this year for Christmas, is I found these little Christmas like wind up toys. One of them hops and some of them walk, and a Christmas tree spins. And um, they make me very happy. They're in my little grandma uh drawer so that I can get them out for my toddlers now. So generational traditions.
SPEAKER_02That's a Christmas tradition, yes, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yogi. Yogi teaching me a few a thing or two.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah. What else do you have?
SPEAKER_01Well, well, I feel like we have a we have a few Christmas traditions. Um not not any massive Christmas Christmas traditions. I mean, one of the things that we always do is that we make Christmas cookies with any of our kids that are home, and my mom and dad always come over and we make Christmas cookies for days, but some of them are the utilitarian, just decorate them so people can eat them. But everybody decorates one Christmas cookie. It feels like I'm echoing.
SPEAKER_02There you go. I think I just fixed it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, perfect. Yeah, I was like, I'm hearing myself again. Um, everybody decorates one Christmas cookie and it gets submitted to a neutral cookie sheet that Johnny does not know whose he is whose. And so, and then he is the one that awards the Christmas decorating championship every year. And it's highly competitive.
SPEAKER_02It's very competitive, and there's different categories like creativity and beauty and different things that way.
SPEAKER_01But we're closens, so everything is a competition, it's terrible, yes, and so you know, if it's not a competition, the kids will try to make it a competition. And Emma, youth pastor Emma, is maybe the worst.
SPEAKER_02Oh, she's very competitive. Um, but unfortunately, her younger sister Lydia has typically won most years, and so that also makes everybody remarkable.
SPEAKER_01I can hear all of our kids clamoring right now, even hearing you say that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then they, of course, they accuse me of being biased and different things along those lines, and so anyway, it's all it's all good. Yeah, and a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01But that is one of our Christmas traditions, and delicious, yes, and delicious.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. So my favorite tradition, and this this is a a Clausen family tradition that goes back generations for sure. Um, but I what I remember, and then you can add what what you know. Um, what I remember is my grandfather, so this is grandfather Helterhoff, um, would write poems for his kids. And so something funny that happened that year, and then sort of a gay gift that would kind of go along with it. Um, well, that became tradition. And so when we were with my grandparents, my grandpa would write different poems, and then my mom picked up the tradition when we were kids. Uh I I guess I remember being maybe eight, nine years old. Yeah. And she kind of picked up that tradition once my grandpa wasn't able to do that anymore. And uh, and also just funny, funny little things that happened that year, funny little gift that would go along with them. And so we always enjoyed that. So when we started our family, um, I start I kept the tradition once the kids were old enough to appreciate a poem.
SPEAKER_01Yogi had too many grandchildren to do it for every family anymore. And she kind of stopped.
SPEAKER_02And so the crazy part is that I would I would write these poems. Yeah, well, then you know, we have eight children, and so there were times, and this I actually looked it up, it was a 2020 that we started doing poems to 2019. I wrote them for everybody.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, even before that, up to 2019.
SPEAKER_02Up to 2019, I wrote a poem for every one of our children and my wife. Yes, um, so that was nine poems, nine gifts.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm gonna just I'm just gonna brag on you a second because actually he would 100% man the Christmas shopping for our children. That's true, and I had nothing to do with it. He would Christmas shop for them, wrap the presents, write the poem. And so I getting ready for Christmas was a piece of cake for me because I didn't have to do any of it.
SPEAKER_02A lot of times the gifts would go along with the poem, and so I had to do the gifts as well. Um, but yeah, it it, you know, once we had eight and once they started marrying, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Abby was our only one that got away.
SPEAKER_02Then I was like, I'm not sure I can do this anymore. I would start at the beginning of November. Yes. I would shop and then I would wrap. I'm not a horrible rapper of presents, just horrible. I mean, it didn't matter. I mean, it doesn't have to look great, but it didn't look great. Um, so I did all of those, but um, so I would write a poem about everybody, and then in 2020, we started picking names. Yes, and so everybody would write a poem. I mean, all of our children have a great sense of humor, and they've heard these poems for years, so they kind of know the general gist of it. Um, and we have so much fun, and they are absolutely hilarious, and and and we have absolutely no problem laughing at ourselves and teasing each other, yeah, and which just makes family time so much fun. Um, and so we just anything funny or embarrassing that would happen that year, I'm a little worried about this year for me, by the way. Yeah, um, then uh you know there would be a just no there would be a poem that would that would come along uh that would that would memorialize the event. Yeah, for sure. And so so the poems have have persisted, and then we'll see if our if our kids continue on their tradition.
SPEAKER_01But so this was the fun thing that I was grouping mom, Yogi and Papa were moving into an assisted living, and I inherited probably 10 to 15 boxes of old family mementos and pictures that I was going through and kind of sorting and trying to figure out what to keep, what to get rid of. And in those boxes, I opened up this little shower invitation to a wedding shower. And it was dated like 1906. And one of Johnny's great great-great aunts wrote a silly poem for the bride to be in this little card. And I was floored because I'm like, oh my goodness, writing funny poems has been over a hundred-year generational thing in his family, and so I think that's really, really fun. And so we are carrying on a you know, centuries-old family tradition of having a good sense of humor and knowing, you know, the fun ways to tease and interact with course, you know, my parents, you know, will call and say, Well, what were your poems about this year?
SPEAKER_02Because they just want to know, you know, the the funny things that happened throughout the year. Um, but I do have one. Oh, you do as an example because this is my poem.
SPEAKER_01Which which child is getting thrown under the sleigh.
SPEAKER_02I should say it's Elijah, of course. Some kids are easier than others. Love you, Elijah, if you're listening. Um, but the you know, this is my kind of my Pulitzer Prize, you know. This is from 2019. Okay. Um, and a couple funny things happened that year. We we were on vacation, you and I were, and there was a snowman in our front yard that had been there all year. And then it, you know how snowman kind of turned to a solid block of ice eventually. And so now it was an ice snowman. And Elijah's our big football player, and so he sees this snowman, it's toward the end of the year, it's kind of becoming spring, but this thing is a solid block of ice. He decided that he was gonna go tackle the snowman. His siblings tried to stop him, um, but he just ran full bore into this thing and hit this ice block, hurt his shoulder. Still to this day, so it kind of bothers a moment, but he just smacked this thing, it just wasn't the greatest decision that he's ever made. No, that's um the other thing about him is that he is super sensitive to poison ivy. And and so we're always like, Elijah, every time you go into the woods, you gotta you wear socks, you gotta wash your clothes afterwards, because I mean he just erupts. Yeah. And uh present zone every single time. And so, of course, there was one year where his his cousins were hunting in the field and he wanted to just watch them in the morning to see he wasn't actually hunting, they were like goose hunting or something, but you know, it just you know, outside of parental advice, he goes into the woods and he literally lays down into the woods to kind of conceal himself for the hunt, but he like lays in poison ivy. Yeah, he was covered from head to toe that year. Yeah, so neither of those things were really a great experience for him, but we thought it was just a little bit funny, and I captured it in the following poem.
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's hear it.
SPEAKER_02So, one of the greatest things for a parent that causes us to rejoice is when our children are very wise and make a really good choice. This year, what one of our children was the greatest example to demonstrate good choices, and the opportunities were ample. The story it started on one late winter day. The children were sent out of the house into the snow to play. A snowman was there standing and looming out in the front yard. It had been there all winter and had slowly become rock hard. I have a great idea, our Elijah cackled. It's the end of the season. That snowman should be tackled. His siblings tried to stop him, feeling very afraid. But Elijah was already in motion. The decision had been made. Nothing now would stop him, he would pay the price as he hurtled toward the target, the snowman made of ice. His shoulder would take the brunt of that great impact. Like Clay Matthews, Elijah registered an unsuccessful sack. That was a little dig on Packer fans, by the way.
SPEAKER_01Which our family enjoys.
SPEAKER_02Yes, the decision we make have consequences, and some result in pain. But as long as we learn our lessons, the end result is gain. From now on, Elijah exclaimed, I'll make better choices instead. As he closed his eyes and took a nap on his poison ivy bed. Nicely done. I'm just saying, you know, I mean, it captured the moment. It was it was it was moving.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very moving.
SPEAKER_02So that gives you an idea of the things that the Klausans do during Christmas each year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And so that's kind of our we are kind of gift, a little bit gift minimalists at our house. So the kids will all get something from us. And we tell the kids, don't buy us anything, we're fine. Just come and bring your poem and then a silly gift that goes with it. And and that's our that's our main Christmas.
SPEAKER_02And we do try to try to focus on generosity and helping other people this time of year. And we've too much have been given, much is required, and that we've always tried to live that way, that we've been blessed as a family, and I'm sure your family has as well. So as we continue to turn our hearts towards others because compassion is what moved Jesus. Yeah. And that's why he came. Yeah. He came because of compassion. He came because of the love of his father for us. And he came to free us. Yeah. And so it's a great time to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_02That's for sure. We have a lot to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01Do you have any other traditions that you have written down? No. Oh, you just went with the main one. That was my favorite. Yes. Okay. Well, I have a couple little things. So um the other thing that we have done in the past, and I'm super excited about bringing this one back, but when our kids were younger, we would take them out on a sleigh ride, and Johnny would tie a big sled behind our four-wheeler, and we have a bunch of little jingle bells, and we'd sing jingle bells and Christmas songs as we pulled the kids through the woods. And then usually along the path in the woods, somewhere there would be a gift, and it would be a family gift of something that we could do. A game or something. Yeah, a game or something that we could do together. And uh and we haven't we haven't done this for a number of years because our children, a lot of them are grown up and out of the house, and they're adults, and they wouldn't fit in a sled any longer. I mean, 12 adults and I don't that's doesn't really work anymore. But we have three little toddlers, and next year we're thinking that finding a gift along the path with Nina and Papa is going to be fun, and maybe like a little craft activity or something to do with Nina and Papa would be really fun. Um so and then the the other thing that every year at Christmas, my brother and his uh family. My I I'm one of two siblings, and my brother Jeff has nine kids, and we have eight kids, and our oldest um to their youngest, I think there's 16 years for all the kids, and so they're all identical ages, and it's tons of fun. And so uh they have been coming for about four days over Christmas for years and years and years and years. And playing with cousins is the very greatest of play, and so that's kind of that's kind of one of our biggest Christmas traditions is for sure extended time with my family.
SPEAKER_02So I saw this on your notes, so I'm able to say this. Oh, yeah. So because it probably a top ten movie for me is the sound of music. Oh, yeah, and for whatever reason, it's kind of are you sniping my yeah, I'm sniping. Gotcha. So um just as we're clear, it's kind of a Christmas movie, or it used to at least traditionally been shown around Christmas. Yep. And uh, and so we have watched this movie um often, and then we would do food that was related to the movie. Yes, and so when they talked about, you know, schnitzel with noodles, or they talked about chocolate cake, or they talked about lemonade. If you know the movie, there's different moments. Um, and then Amy would have sort of that meal prepared, so we'd pause the movie and then we'd go eat our schnitzel. Yeah. And uh, and it was so you know, these are a few of my favorite things. Yes, and uh, and so we'd work our way through the movie. That's that's been super fun.
SPEAKER_01We do that ever about every two or three years. Yeah. Because you just, I mean, it's it's number one, it's a lot of work to get all the different components of the food. It's that's a long movie. So we kind of space ourselves out on that one.
SPEAKER_02So you could try that one out. Son of Sonic Music is fun. One of my one of my favorites. So Christmas traditions are fun.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they are. Family play fun.
SPEAKER_02So, Lord, we just pray a blessing over every family listening uh over this Christmas season. And and Jesus, you are the one. Uh, you're all we ever need, and you're the answer to every one of our questions. And so, Jesus, we thank you for coming, we thank you for dying, we thank you for loving us, and we um we adore you this time of year. And uh, that's why we sing to you and celebrate you because you are so worthy. And so we bless you, Jesus, and we bless these families in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00If you would like to submit a question for Johnny and me to answer on a future episode, head over to the FAMology page on our website at goldfam.org, or simply click the link in the caption below. And if you're enjoying the show, be sure to leave a review or a comment wherever you listen to watch. It really helps us out. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next week.