Picture above: Pictures taken in the streets of my neighborhood on the night of Christmas Eve
This particular tradition has been held by my neighborhood's association for many years and it has a special history to the Pham family.
After 10 years of living on a private property that was in an unsafe area, we moved to a normal house in a normal neighborhood in the northwest area of Houston. Our family was happy to move to a safer, friendlier neighborhood after so many years of living in the... wild (haha not really "the wild"). We were happy to meet neighbors who greeted us and welcomed us to the neighborhood. We were excited to be able to walk around our neighborhood without worry. We were excited to be able to stay at home without worry. This neighborhood was so safe. And the house was old and custom so we loved it!
We moved in our new home in the month of December in 2007. As we moved in, the oldest sister of the Pham family picked up the neighborhood's monthly newsletter and read about a Christmas tradition that the neighborhood would do every year. She told the entire family about it and we all pitched in to participate in the tradition. Our family spent our first Christmas Eve night together by driving around the neighborhood to look at this event... then we all got lost. hahahahahaha
After 10 years of living on a private property that was in an unsafe area, we moved to a normal house in a normal neighborhood in the northwest area of Houston. Our family was happy to move to a safer, friendlier neighborhood after so many years of living in the... wild (haha not really "the wild"). We were happy to meet neighbors who greeted us and welcomed us to the neighborhood. We were excited to be able to walk around our neighborhood without worry. We were excited to be able to stay at home without worry. This neighborhood was so safe. And the house was old and custom so we loved it!
We moved in our new home in the month of December in 2007. As we moved in, the oldest sister of the Pham family picked up the neighborhood's monthly newsletter and read about a Christmas tradition that the neighborhood would do every year. She told the entire family about it and we all pitched in to participate in the tradition. Our family spent our first Christmas Eve night together by driving around the neighborhood to look at this event... then we all got lost. hahahahahaha
12/24/12: This year is my first year in college and I was placed in College Algebra even though my math skills is fairly high. I decided to take a Trigonometry minimester course because I did not want to learn Trigonometry for one full semester.
I enrolled in a mini-term course and took part in "tutoring" my classmates every day after school. Christmas Eve was the day of our first test, so I got to go straight home after the test. When I came home, my sisters and I decided to work on the Christmas Eve project together for our neighborhood's Christmas tradition!
(This tradition is something that each house in the neighborhood would participate in individually. More than half of all the houses in the neighborhood would participate in this tradition every year! However, although there are several groups of teens who would volunteer to put these up together for families who do not have time to participate, there is still a great number of houses/families who do not participate in this tradition... sadly.)
I enrolled in a mini-term course and took part in "tutoring" my classmates every day after school. Christmas Eve was the day of our first test, so I got to go straight home after the test. When I came home, my sisters and I decided to work on the Christmas Eve project together for our neighborhood's Christmas tradition!
(This tradition is something that each house in the neighborhood would participate in individually. More than half of all the houses in the neighborhood would participate in this tradition every year! However, although there are several groups of teens who would volunteer to put these up together for families who do not have time to participate, there is still a great number of houses/families who do not participate in this tradition... sadly.)
MAKING THE LUMINARIES
First, we fold the bags:
Second, we place the candles into the holders:
Next, we put sand into the bags:
Then, we place the bags on the curb and place the candles into the bags:
Here's a random picture with a story:
My sisters and I actually completed the preparations for the candles in a short amount of time since this was the sixth time we've done this. However, when we came outside to place the bags on our curb, I was completely bothered by how our front yard was littered with weed. I went into the house and told my mom that I wanted to do something about it. The double-layer of mulch was put into place by the entire family in a few hours right before sunset on Christmas Eve.
I stalked our new neighbors who just moved in next door!
Finally, we wait until sundown to light up the candles:
As you can imagine, the neighborhood looks like it's full of trash... until nighttime comes about!
Pictures of our Christmas Tradition
A Cleaning Tradition...
The not-so-fun part of this activity was not setting everything up but cleaning everything up. Rain would occur during the past few Christmas seasons so the sand and bags would be somewhat wetter and heavier than they normally would be. This heaviness makes carrying everything back to the back of the house a lot more difficult than carrying the dry bags/sands out to the front of the house. Another thing we would do is take the aluminum candle holders out to keep them for the next year. Cleaning the wax and sand off of these cups is a tedious and dirty job. But the good thing is: in the end, we can just throw the bags of sand and these candles into the trashcan so that the trash company can dispose them...