I try to have three small gifts for each kid and then some treats too.  This year I did it a bit different.  Our beautiful Baby Jesus is in his manger on our kitchen tables and all the gifts are wrapped and sitting around Him.  Kids each got a book, box of Christmas jelly beans that I got at after christmas sale and a roll of lifesavers - also an after christmas sale item.  Older boys got a $10 gift card to Taco Bell instead of a book.  Tonight we’ll have king cake and do the chalk over the doorways house blessing.

What’s a king cake?  That sounds like a tradition that I might want to try in the future.

We have three gifts to each person on Epiphany—obviously “from” each wise man. They are usually smaller in nature; although this year piano lessons and guitar lessons were some gifts. We do stockings on Dec 6 (I think that is St. Nicholas’ day).

This is my first year trying to do more for the Epiphany,  but I’ve always felt like we needed more closure and one more celebration for Christmas.  I googled King Cake recipes and we made 2 small ones yesterday - one to give away and one for us.  I put in a dried apricot, dried cherry, and a pecan to represent gold, frankincense and myrhh just cause those were things I had.  The kids woke up today to small wrapped presents (clearance items) around baby Jesus, but we are waiting till this evening to open them since before school is a bit unrealistic.  So tonight we will have a 12th night bit of family time with hot cider, king cake, and games.  And I told my little girls that we could dress up in fancy clothes too (I have 3 little princesses - the clothes make the party)

In our house, the 3 Kings finally make it to the Nativity and Baby Jesus, after a trek around the house, based on the childrens’ good behavior. Their trek starts on Christmas day, and how much they move…if at all…depends on how well our dds have behaved that day. On
the eve, we set out a plate of lettuce for the camels and some drinks for the Kings. The Kings bring a small treasure chest with real gold, frankincense and myrrh, for Baby Jesus, and one small present for each of the girls. We celebrated Epiphany, this year, on Sunday, since that’s when the Church celebrated it. It just seemed too early, though. I think we’ll go back to the real date next year.
I think we’ll try the date over the doorway tonight. Kings cake sounds good, too, and I have an apricot, dried cherry and pecan. Great idea, Laura!

Oh, I forgot to make a king cake…alas.

We celebrated last night so that my hubby could participate.  I had 3 gifts for each person (the kids all got arts/crafts stuff…new markers, embroidery floss, play-doh).  I hid the gifts all together in the house and the kids had to go searching for them, as the 3 kings had to search for the Christ.  In years past, we had the kids wearing crowns, and I usually put the infant from the nativity set on top of the pile of presents.  It took them about 15 minutes to find the presents, which gave my husband and I some quiet time together while he ate his late dinner!

I believe that in New Orleans and the area that spreads from there, the one who finds the infant in the king cake is supposed to host the next party (and the next king cake).  It’s carnival time now, so parties revving up for Mardi Gras are frequent from now until Fat Tuesday.

I am a few days behind, but I wanted to add that as a child, “La Befana” came to visit our house. My Mom is Italian (she moved to Canada as a child) and that was one tradition that she wanted to keep as it was a lovely conclusion to the Christmas season.

“She” would leave gifts in shoes/by the door, though no treats were left out for her. It was a nice little treat for me as a child and I hope to do it, too, when the kids are older.