3rd Day of Friendship – Girlfriend Traditions | Book Club, Ornaments & Lots of Laughter
What Girlfriend Traditions do you have? Any Book Club, Mom’s Group or Sorority Get-togethers? (Those count as Girlfriend Traditions!)
We’re on day three of the 12 days of friendship for our holiday celebration of the gift of female friendship. Today we’re celebrating the gift of girlfriend traditions …
Tonight is our neighborhood Book Club. We’re a very friendly (we like to think!), non-stressful group of women who really like to hang out together, eat, drink and laugh. Oh, and sometimes we read a book! But not tonight!
Tonight is special. It’s our annual ‘Ornament Exchange’ party. We’ll all gather at Penny’s home, bring our appetizers, desserts and beverages (wine generally!) and an ornament to offer to the girls.
It’s a fabulous tradition of women sharing their lives and laughing a lot as we catch up on whose kid is doing what, the latest restaurant nearby or the funny stories that all women have to share with other women. (The above photo is from last year’s ornament exchange – we don’t go hungry!)
Our fun girlfriend tradition starts when we draw numbers and begin picking a package to open. Everyone watches as the ornament is discovered then passed around the room for full examination. Then, in true ‘White Elephant’ or ‘Dirty Santa’ fashion, the keeper of the new ornament may exchange it for a previous gift that was opened. It gets pretty heated as certain ornaments are desired by multiple women and there often are negotiations to secure the most popular ornament.
When we talk about one of the main benefits of female friendship being stress relief. I GUARANTEE that any stress from the day or life in general will be laid aside tonight by every woman there tonight. Concerns over finances, health, relationships, too much to do, etc. – all will be forgotten for at least a little bit as we genuinely laugh and enjoy spending time together.
That’s part of our ‘girlfriend tradition’ – just enjoying the time we share and our friendships together.
Here’s more ideas on Holiday Girlfriend Traditions.
What are your Holiday Girlfriend Traditions? Share below in our comments – and inspire others!
Be the kind of friend you’d love to have! 
And, come back for the next 10 days as we look at more of the great gifts of friendship.
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Tags: 12 days of Christmas, 12 days of friendship, Book Club, Christmas, Friends, friendship, Girlfriend Gifts, girlfriend traditions, girlfriends, Hanukkah
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Nearly 20 years ago, my besties developed a twist on the typical Christmas ornament exchange. (Of course!) we brings lots of food, but we exchange the bible verse that has been most meaningful to us over the last year(creatively produced, framed or packaged). When our verse is opened we explain how the verse impacted our lives. Invariably it seems the verse applies to the life of the woman receiving it in an equally powerful way. I’m a military spouse and move often (and around the world); I’ve carried the verse tradition wherever I move and share it with my new best friends (we milwives have to “go deep fast”). I’ve received feedback from countless women that the verse exchange is a powerful and welcome relief from their chaotic Christmas preparations.
I’m in an online book group for a particular book series and every year we mail Christmas cards to each other. I usually volunteer to collect the home addresses for everyone who wishes to participate then on Dec 1st I email everyone on the list the complied list. I just love receiving cards from all over the world, this year we had the largest number participants of 106 people. Some of our folks are so talented they make their own cards or inventive Christmas poems about characters in our series. Its all great fun and lends festive cheer for my whole family. My daughter loves opening the cards! Happy Holiday!
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