Ring in the New Year - The meaning behind the saying

Ever wonder why we 'ring out the old' and 'ring in the new'?

It was a custom in England, and many places around the world, to ring Church bells at midnight on New Years as a way of "ring out" the old year. Celebrating its passing, in the same way as they would ring the bells for a person that had died. And to "ring in" the new year joyfully.

In 1850 Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells" about this tradition. A poem with such depth, hope, renewal and challenge it is no wonder it has made a mark on history.  It is from the bells and this poem that we derive the saying "Ringing in the new year".

"Ring Out, Wild Bells"

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

It is believed the bells of Waltham Abbey, (pictured above) are the bells in this poem. 

Happy New Year!

You can print this poem by clicking the printer friendly button below.

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New Years Mantel Decor

Simple Quick New Years Decor! On a little low bookshelf in my home I gathered together some of our clocks to create a New Years vignette with old world charm.

 I set the clocks on their sides, and then placed some heavy books in front of them to keep the clocks from toppling over.

 Added a little bell from our Christmas tree to the mix.

If we were going to be home for New Years Eve I would leave the clocks set to their real time as it would be fun to watch them all tick tock down to midnight.

 But, this year we will be with celebrating with my husbands parents so I set and left them all at midnight.

This little clock is one of my newest finds, I love it's vintage-ness.

 Collecting pretty clocks is a habit I picked up from my father who's house if full of them.

Happy New Year!!

Free Printable New Years Stationary

Four New Years stationary free printables. Made in a couple of styles, these free printables are wonderful for sending 'news letters' to family and friends by mail or even e-mail.

To print (do not use the printer friendly button) Click on the printable you would like to use. Click again to make sure it is fully expanded and then click file and print from your browsers menu. (If using google chrome, click on the wrench and then select print from there). You can also right click save these to your desktop and print as you would any photo or document. (If using a mac, drag the photos to your desktop to save).  Personal use. And sharing these on blogs with a link back to aholidayhaven.com is always ok.

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New Years Place Cards - two free printables

Two fun free printable place cards for New Years.

To print: (do not use the printer friendly button below). Click on the place card you would like to print. Click again to make sure it is fully expanded, then select file and print from your browsers window (if using google chrome, you may need to click on the wrench). You can also right click on these to save them to your computer and then print from there. Personal use. And it is always ok to share these on your  blog w/a link back to this post.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

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Merry Christmas

Macy's store in downtown Seattle, WA

Merry Christmas 

from my family to yours! 

May you have a wonderful

Christmas with many smiles this year!

Each year I am blessed by all of the people who come to this site and find it resourceful. It is such a blessing creating and sharing all of the fun in my life with you.

Thank you for all of your kind comments,
and for joining in the Christmas party fun! 

Merry Christmas!

The 12 days of Christmas:

Tonight, Christmas night, begins the first of the Twelve days of Christmas, with the 26th being the first full day. Many in America believe the 12 days are the days leading up to Christmas. They are however, traditionally the twelve days between the birth of Jesus and when the Wise Men came to visit, or when Jesus was baptized. The twelve days end with the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th and in many places a cake called the Three Kings Cake is baked.
In my household we use this time as a time of reflection and prayer which ties in nicely with beginning 
a new year. 

Tracking Santa!

It is Christmas Eve do you know where Santa is? 

For the last several years NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) has partnered with Google in mapping Santa's flight around the world on NoradSanta.org
Here is their fun video:

And they have an app too for your phone too! More about it here: Google Maps for mobile.


Two other fun Santa sites:
http://www.santaclaus.net/SantaTracker.asp - this tracks Norad's Santa as well and has a lot of Santa fun.
http://www.santa-t.com/northpole_weather.html - this site has a tracker too and is just SO adorable.

Happy Santa Hunting!

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Free Printable Christmas Songs

I have been collecting Christmas songs on Pinterest! It is our family's tradition to sing one of these each day from Thanksgiving to Christmas so I was delighted to discover a few on pinterest and have started putting together a board of them which you can see here: http://pinterest.com/holidayhaven/christmas-songs/. For those not familiar with pinterest, when you get to the board you can click on each of the songs to see the original source and print from there. 

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Beautiful Gift Wrapping

Wrapping gifts beautifully is so much fun! And easy to do with pretty wrapping paper, ribbon, and a bit of hot glue.

These are actual gifts under my tree this year, I leave wrapping to the last because it is one of my favorite parts of the holiday, though I am glad to be done wrapping everything now. And even though these decorations are not too time consuming, wrapping gifts always takes so much longer than I expect.  

 I make these ribbon roses every year with the left over crinkled ribbon.

This year I was adding mini birds nests. I make these for my etsy shop too and keep a few for fun projects like these.

 

This is just an old broken garland that I hot glued around a gift. 

White and silver.

Merry Christmas! I hope you are having a lovely time finishing up everything.
 Last year I posted a tutorial here: Ribbon Rose Tutorial
 I also made the gift tags, they are a free printable you can find here: Printable Gift Tags

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Secret Gifts are Magical

Its night, I'm dressed in black, Sneaking around, heart pounding, and giggling. What am I doing? This was my room mate and I at age 19 in our first apartment building hanging small gift boxes with a couple of wrapped candy canes in them on all of my neighbors door knobs. 

Fast forward a few years I am now at work on the 15th floor of a sky scraper in Seattle. Which is filled as far as the eye can see with cubicles. My pockets are full of small ornaments and I am walking around placing one in each person's inbox while their back is turned. 

Forward again to now. We have an 'elf' that brings us small unexpected gifts. Sometimes he leaves them at the childrens places at the table, sometimes he leaves coffee and a breakfast treat in my husbands car. Sometimes he leaves a Christmas movie where the children will find it. 

OK I know you have guessed already the elf is me. My family isn't fooled either. 

There is just some thrill in blessing others and watching them try to figure out who and why. It is like someone trying to figure out a magic trick. And like all great magicians I never admit my tricks, it is just too much fun!  Try leaving a gift basket on a neighbors door step, or giving a secret gift to someone you don't get along with very well (it does something wonderful for you), or try giving anonymously to a charity, or an unmarked gift under the tree. Who can you surprise? Trust me you will be the one who receives the true gift. 

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Peppermint Chocolate Gingerbread Men {Christmas Cookie Recipe}

Full of flavor, these designer looking cookies are actually quite simple to make! 

Gingerbread cookies are a tradition in my household. A tradition that began when my husband and I were so very young, just starting out in life. I was a new mom still in my 20's. We lived in a little apartment and I had just quit work to stay at home full time with my kiddos.

At that time my husband worked on commission and had a very bad month. We knew his check was never the same from month to month, and was usually not forgiving at Christmas, so we were prepared.

 But, that first December was even more difficult that we expected. And we knew there would be no money for gifts outside of our little family. Being one who liked to bake, I always had an ample supply of flour, brown sugar, and such on hand. So I rifled through my cabinets and found that I had enough to make several dozen gingerbread men!

My oldest son, who was all of 2, and I set about making gingerbread men. We had the best time. He giggled as he saw them take shape. He waited as for them to come out of the oven and cool. He ate ALL of the broken ones. We made faces, smiles, frowns, and crooked little mouths.

We had so much fun! It became a tradition. And after 11 years of tweaking, the recipe below is the recipe we now make each year at Christmas. And that little 2 year old, who is now nearly 14, still smiles as he cuts out gingerbread men!

These cookies are really simple, there are no special tools required. The snowflake was an added touch this year, I bought a shaker full of them, but we usually make these without snowflakes. Once you have made your gingerbread men you just dip them in Chocolate that has been heated with a little vegetable oil and then when they are completely cool use a tablespoon to drizzle a mix of powdered sugar water and peppermint extract. Peppermint extract is found right next to the vanilla extract in most stores.

And the recipe above is printable!
To print: click on the recipe, click again to make sure it if fully expanded. Select 'file' and 'print' from your browsers window. (If you are using google chrome you may need to right click and open the recipe in a new window, click again to expand it, and then select the wrench from the top of the page to find the print button). If you have any trouble try saving the recipe to your desktop by right clicking on it and saving it and then printing from there.

Added this to the holiday parties going on here:

Holiday Haven's New Years Party!

Welcome to 

Holiday Haven's

New Years Party for the New Year of 2012!!!

<br /><a border="0" href="http://www.aholidayhaven.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yYjvIU-aQfA/TuJ7IQaLtbI/AAAAAAAAF_k/ZP70IOigtVc/s1600/new+years+linky+party.JPG" /></a><br />

New Years comes up so fast after Christmas, and we tend to forget how special this holiday until it is already here, so this year I decided a  party was in order. I know everyone is still focused on Christmas... but, this party will be open all the way to New years, and it is my hope that it will be a resource for those who are scrambling for ideas quickly after Christmas. SO, in order to make this easy on everyone, you are welcome to link up ANY  New Years themed posts you have published old  or new!! Multiple posts are OK too. A link back to aHolidayHaven.com within the post is appreciated, but if you are in a hurry the party button posted in the side bar will do just fine. You can find the code for the button above. And it is a hop, so you can take the whole party to your site too (get the code here).

Now for a look at some of my New Years ideas (click links under photos to see full posts):

 New Years Eve Traditions - Around the World

 Full Moon Festival - My New Years Eve Tradition

 New Years Punch

 New Years Table Setting - The Family Game Table

 New Years Free Printable Banner

Great Sites to help you keep your New Years resolutions

Now it is your turn! What do you do for New Years? Crafts, recipes, decor, tablescapes, printables, what ever you've blogged about within the theme of this holiday are welcomed. Multiple posts and posts from previous Years are OK! The party button can be found in the sidebar and at the top of this post. (Your links will show up in my side bar too!)

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Christmas Fun - Need a little Christmas cheer?

This week I have gathered up some fun posts to inspire and spread a little holiday joy! 

If you are following along on the challenge, we are now completely done! And it is time to focus on family, friends and your favorite parts of the holiday. 

Not done yet? Now may be the time to simplify and consider only what is most important. If you are like me, the need to put final touches on everything can drive you crazy, there seems to be no end! But, mom smiling at everyone, relaxed, and having fun is so much more important that having everything perfect, and  surly more important that that last little gift that may be overlooked in 6 months anyhow!

To spread a little cheer here are some of my favorites, they are crafts, quizzes, easy ideas that bring joy, and some fun:

(Click links under photos to see the full post)

Fun snowman craft -Frugal gift idea or activity for kids. Rocks, sticks, a little paint, and some things you have around your home is all it takes to create a snowman kit.

 Gingerbread house photo tour - amazing and fun photos of gingerbread houses (I love these)

 Giving at Christmas Time (even if you have no money)

 Jingle Bell ~Pajama~ Sleigh Rides - a fun spontaneous activity for a family.

 Secret Gifts are Magical!-and a sure way to spread a little cheer!

  Christmas traditions around the world.

 Christmas Quote Quiz -test your knowledge!


And even though I have seen it many, this Christmas Flash Mob Video still makes me smile!!




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Orange Hot Cocoa Recipe

A fun spin on ordinary hot cocoa and a delicious Christmas treat, this simple recipe is a one of my favorites.

Ingredients: Hot cocoa, packaged. And 1 orange peel, zested. (I have heard organic oranges are best whenever you are using the peel).

To zest the orange peel, I used a normal sized cheese grater. Then gathered all of the shredded peel from the orange and placed it in a tea strainer. 

Allow the zest to steep in hot water for a few minutes, just as you would tea, and then add your hot cocoa mix. One orange peel will make several cups. If you make your hot cocoa from scratch, I would flavor the warm milk before adding the cocoa and sugar.

 

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