What are your Holiday Traditions?

[alison]

We haven't gone this year, but we went last year. It's actually pretty authentic, except for the prices and the quality of the food. It's not bad, and I'll eat German food any time of the day, any time of the year! The sausages are so much better in Germany, or rather, I think it's the bread you get with the sausage that tastes better in Germany and that makes a difference to my husband. I like gebrannte Mandeln (roasted almonds). They're really good when they're fresh and I remember them being pretty good at the market.

In Germany, you can get mushrooms in garlic sauce with bread to scoop up extra sauce. It's so good.

Have you gone yet? Or ever?

One of our traditions is that we buy our Christmas tree from the same "tree guy" every year. It takes about 5 minutes to pick out our tree, but we are usually there for a couple hours catching up with him and his wife.

We also watch A Christmas Story while we trim the tree. Once the tree is all decorated and ds is in bed, we watch Christmas Vacation and drink eggnog....don't know why but I HAVE to have eggnog while I watch that movie.

One tradition that we started last year is to have lasagna on Christmas Eve and a big breakfast & traditional dinner on Christmas.

We make sure to buy ornaments whenever we travel....they always bring back fun memories. We've also started the tradition of giving ds an ornament each Christmas. Once my siblings and I moved out for college, my parents tree was bare.....so I make sure to buy two of each ornament...one for our family and one for ds to take with him when he starts his own.

This Sunday we'll be going to a brunch with Santa thing....I'm sure we'll continue to do that every year.

[ides]

Growing up in my family for Christmas our traditions began with putting up the tree about three weeks before christmas and we'd have champagne and orangejuice drinks and snacks. Christmas eve my mom would take my sister and I to the 5pm or midnight mass. We'd watch holiday movies that evening either before or after mass and put out cookies for santa. In the morning we'd open all the gifts and have a special breakfast (waffels, fruit soup). We'd then laze around the house doing puzzles and playing a few games. We'd then have a big dinner around 5pm and usually neighboors would come over for dessert.

Since I've been on my own, we don't really do anything. I guess our traditions are buying something for ourselves that isn't house related, eating good food and laying around.

[reciprocity]

Have you gone yet? Or ever?

I went last year, and I walk through it every day practically.

We were planning on going tomorrow, but I have to work, so I'll probably miss it this year.

I really enjoy it, though! And not just because of that mulled wine.

Oh, and my new holiday tradition is baking cookies with my mom, we do it usually the weekend after thanksgiving, or the following weekend. We've done it for two years runnning now, and it is just so much fun, and it is a great way to spend the day catching up with each other.

[alison]

My parents are thinking about getting a tree this year because dh and I will be home over the holiday!

[Stella]

Seeing as my parents have been divorced since I was 11, most of our traditions are the same, but a little different. We have to "split" Christmas so I essentially get two!

We get to pick one present from our parents that we have our eye on under the tree to open on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, we used to rush down to the tree in our pajamas and we would get so excited. We used to bug my parents so much to wake up that they ended up letting us go through our stockings until they got there. Then we make coffee and cinnamon rolls and eat while we open gifts. We take turns around the circle, usually youngest to oldest, and open one gift at a time. We also pass out our personal gifts one at a time so everyone opens the gifts from me, then the gifts from my brother #1, then brother #2, etc. It takes forever, but I love that tradition. It gives us more appreciation for the gifts and you get to see everyone's reactions when they open a present. I love seeing my siblings smiles when they get something they love. (I'm the oldest, and my youngest sister still believes in Santa Claus so it's lots of fun.)

Even though my sister is at my mom's and everyone at my dad's Christmas is 16+, he puts the presents out in the middle of the night to surprise us in the morning. Last year, I got to help!


BTW - My nickname during the holidays is Martha Freakin' Stewart because I'm holiday crazy. Sorry, grinches, I'm cheery! :>

[Amiens]

Seeing as my parents have been divorced since I was 11, most of our traditions are the same, but a little different. We have to "split" Christmas so I essentially get two!

We get to pick one present from our parents that we have our eye on under the tree to open on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, we used to rush down to the tree in our pajamas and we would get so excited. We used to bug my parents so much to wake up that they ended up letting us go through our stockings until they got there. Then we make coffee and cinnamon rolls and eat while we open gifts. We take turns around the circle, usually youngest to oldest, and open one gift at a time. We also pass out our personal gifts one at a time so everyone opens the gifts from me, then the gifts from my brother #1, then brother #2, etc. It takes forever, but I love that tradition. It gives us more appreciation for the gifts and you get to see everyone's reactions when they open a present. I love seeing my siblings smiles when they get something they love. (I'm the oldest, and my youngest sister still believes in Santa Claus so it's lots of fun.)

Even though my sister is at my mom's and everyone at my dad's Christmas is 16+, he puts the presents out in the middle of the night to surprise us in the morning. Last year, I got to help!


BTW - My nickname during the holidays is Martha Freakin' Stewart because I'm holiday crazy. Sorry, grinches, I'm cheery! :>

Stella, I love your Santa!

Crystal

We take turns around the circle, usually youngest to oldest, and open one gift at a time. We also pass out our personal gifts one at a time so everyone opens the gifts from me, then the gifts from my brother #1, then brother #2, etc. It takes forever, but I love that tradition. It gives us more appreciation for the gifts and you get to see everyone's reactions when they open a present.

That's how my family does it....I always loved seeing everyone's reactions and hearing all the oooohs and aaaaahs. With my IL's, it's just a free for all and half the time we don't even know if someone even opened our gifts.

[ellie]

A friend of mine makes these Advent Calendar kits that we've been using for the past couple of years with our oldest daughter. Each day of Advent DD receives a small bag with an activity card and materials that go with the activity -- the activities help her to learn about generosity, peace, spirituality...they include things like choosing some of her unused toys to donate to other children, buying food for the food bank, making luminarias for the neighborhood, or reading special books about peace and love. These activities have really become DD's favorite part of the Christmas season.

We used to attend midnight Christmas Eve services, but with little ones we go to the earlier service. Afterwards DD sprinkles "reindeer food" outside for Santa's reindeer, and sets out cookies for Santa . We read 'Twas the Night before Christmas before bed, and once the kids are asleep, it's usually a mad frenzy of last minute present assembly and wrapping.

I always make the same eggnog French toast with cranberry/apple compote for breakfast but don't have a traditional Christmas dinner...I like to try out different recipes every year. Maybe I just haven't hit upon just the right combination yet.

I always make the same eggnog French toast with cranberry/apple compote for breakfast but don't have a traditional Christmas dinner...I like to try out different recipes every year. Maybe I just haven't hit upon just the right combination yet.

You know you have to post that recipe now, right?

[ellie]

Nellie, it's now posted in the recipe forum.

Something I've started with my nieces and nephews whom I don't get to see often enough is a present advent calendar. Every day in December they open a small gift from us. I put simple things inside, typical stocking stuffers, but I also arrange it so on weekends they get to do something as a family. They love it, and are reminded of how much we love them every day, even though we're far away.

I also started individual long-distance ways to connect with each of them; for my 13 year old nephew I sent a small magnetic chess board. Every once in a while we call each other to make our 'move' and end up chatting a little as well. Or I'll send him a postcard with my move and an update on our family. He loves it. For my 8 year old niece who loves writing I've started a journal that we mail back and forth. I'm hoping she will eventually use it to open up to me if she ever needs an adult to talk to and feels like she can't talk to her parents. I can't figure out what to do with my 4 year old niece, though.

I guess they're not holiday traditions per say, but I thought of them fairly recently while in the 'holiday spirit.' And I'm going to steal quite a number of ideas posted on this board as well. Don't worry, I'll give credit where credit is due.

Jodi

[medpedspouse]

Our Christmas begins as soon as the Turkey is eaten at Thanksgiving. We spend the rest of the 4 day weekend decorating and the last decoration we place is the advent wreath. Then each week thereafter, usually after church, we light another candle. I love, love this time of year. We have many of the same traditions already mentioned except for pie night. Now that is an great idea.

One tradition our family has that has not been mentioned is celebrating Epiphany. We usually do Santa on the 25th but save the gifts for one another for this day. We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with little gifts each day (usually stocking stuffers/cards/notes) and then have a dinner party and invite friends on Epiphany. We read the passage from the bible and we have a little gift for our guests. I am really excited because January 6th will fall on a Saturday next year. If it is on a weekday, people sometimes have other responsibilities and our party ends up being very small. Regardless, I love this tradition because I think that by the time the 6th rolls around the craziness of the holiday season is lessened and people are more relaxed. Maybe what I'll do on the 6th instead of a dinner party is have pie/dessert night.