Contest WINNER: Favorite Holiday Traditions

Amid the hustle & bustle of the busy holiday season, we absolutely loved taking a break to read about YOUR favorite holiday traditions!  From Christmas cookies to the Nutcracker ballet to good times with great friends, hearing about all the awesome ways you spread your holiday cheer with family & friends allowed us to take a step back, and remember what this time of year is all about.

With so many great traditions (and we’re suckers for traditions around here), it was very hard to pick just one winner, but….

Congratulations to our “Favorite Holiday Traditions” contest winner, Rachael Telford, for her inspired – and inspiring – Christmas tree decorations!  Rachael kept the holiday spirit alive during the financially strained times at the beginning of her marriage by adorning her tree with random items around the house, includingHalloween buckets and skulls!  (How Tim Burton of her, right!?!)

Even though times are easier now for Rachael, she still decorates the tree with those very same ornaments to remind her that even when it feels like there’s not enough, she’s able to pull in the unexpected to make something spectacular.

Check out pictures of the amazing tree on her blog:  https://onmyowntwohands.blogspot.com/2010/12/tree-part-three.html.

Because there were so many great entries, we had to share just a couple more of our favorites with you! It’s a pretty common tradition to build gingerbread houses, but Ashley Bell and her crew add a little competition into the mix.  Everyone starts with a teammate and one cup of candy and – voila! – creativity ensues!  Last year, Ashley’s team constructed a castle, and the year before that they took on the task of completing a Japanese pagoda!  We’re all pretty bummed that we didn’t get to see photographic evidence of Ashley and her team’s works of art, so instead we cured our curiosity with a little Google search.

Take a peak at some of the outrageous gingerbread house designs we found!

We had NO idea that gingerbread houses could be so complex! (Kind of makes those “masterpieces” we made when we were kids seem less remarkable now.)  Not to worry – blue prints have already been drawn up for next year’s gingerbread mansion!

Jessica Alexander also shared her newly-discovered holiday tradition – touring all of the Christmas lights around town.  However, she doesn’t do it in the traditional “pack-the-family-in-the-car” kind of way.  As the 2011 New Belgium Brewing Tour de Fat “Car for Bike Trader” for Los Angeles, Jessica recently traded in her car for a new set of wheels (well, really just 2 wheels).  Now that her new mode of transportation has her slowing down a bit, she gives her own self-guided “Holiday Lights Tour” every night on her way home from work.  To learn more about her year pedaling around town, read her blog at https://ofbikesandbeers.tumblr.com/.

As if she doesn’t get enough exercise biking everywhere, she also joined a few running groups and recently ran in the Holiday Half Marathon in Pomona, CA.  We LOVE her festive costume complete with Sock It to Me’s green bike socks!

Many thanks to everyone who shared their favorite holiday traditions!  We hope you all have a fun, fabulous & festive holiday break, and we can’t wait to catch up with you in the NEW year!