What are your Holiday Traditions?

[SuzySunshine]

The talk about the Prime Rib got me to thinking - what are your family (including extended family) traditions?

Mine:
Christmas Eve - mass around 6 or 7pm, then came home to dad's homemade chilli (yum!) and open presents before bed. Christmas morning Santa's presents would be the only ones under the tree (unwrapped!).

DH's Family:
His aunt always has a big party at her house on Christmas Eve so we go to that and then come home and have champagne while we open presents.

Both are Christmas Eve traditions because we usually get up on Christmas morning and drive to other side's event. This year we're having Christmas Eve at the IL's but we're still having Chili at mom and dad's on the 25th or 26th!

I'd love to hear what your traditions are with your kids - my mom regrets that every Christmas morning we got up and rushed to one of the grandparents without having our own tradition.

:santasleigh:

[migirl]

We don't really have any firm Christmas traditions here. Christmas Eve we've been going to IL's house for dinner, MIL always has a small gift on the table for everyone (CD, DVD, book, etc). Christmas morning I make cinnamon rolls and we watch Jim Henson's Emmitt Otter's Jug Band Christmas (apparently it was DH's fave when he was little, MIL managed to track one down and now it's our "new" tradition!). When we used to exchange gifts we would do it in the morning, then in the afternoon head over to IL's for Christmas dinner with IL's family.

Notice how there's no mention of going to church in there?

One thing that we started doing soon after we got married is every year we go out and buy a new ornament to put on our tree. It's a nice way to collect interesting and unique ornaments, and it's a good way for us to spend some time together (even if we're surrounded by crazy mall shoppers!).

[SuzySunshine]

Another tradition we have, we started when we all moved out. My two sisters and my mom and I trade ornaments every Thanksgiving (or Christmas). So you buy three ornaments to give and you end up with three new ones for your tree. It really helps us all increase our ornament collections.

I'd love to hear what your traditions are with your kids - my mom regrets that every Christmas morning we got up and rushed to one of the grandparents without having our own tradition.

Some of the most practical advice we received before getting married -- start your own holiday traditions, before kids if you can. We both had family in town and did a lot of rushing around. I guess it works out since we are the only ones with grandkids, but the new tradition is: come on over to see your grandkids!

Usually on the day before Christmas, we will make lefse (Norwegian potato tortilla sort of thing) and spritz cookies for Santa. For Christmas eve dinner, we have some sort of messy, newspaper on the dining room table seafood dinner, usually crab legs. We read The Night Before Christmas and Jesus' birth to the kids and put out milk cookies for Santa Claus and carrots for the reindeer. DH likes to make a mess of the cookie plate. The next morning, the kids are in awe of what a messy eater Santa is.

We open gifts on Sunday morning and do a relaxed breakfast or brunch in our jammies and then play with new toys and such for the rest of the day. Maybe go for a walk or little hike. We might do a Christmas dinner, probably not this year, though.

[Amiens]

I love Christmas. I simply love holidays- Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc., especially since we have three children. It's fun to see them get excited.

1. Buy or make an ornament
2. Pie Night- we have one every year. The theory is one normally doesn't have enough room to eat pie after the big holiday meal. So we have a night dedicated to just eating and sampling pies. We invite friends and co-workers over to enjoy the occasion.
3. Christmas Eve- We have a picnic by the Christmas tree with cheese and crackers, and other goodies. We then get to open one small present each. We also read the Nativity from the Bible, and make a cake for Jesus, and sing Happy Birthday. Right before bed we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I remember one year as a child living in Hawaii, my mom was reading the story to us, and the very end my brother and I heard jingle bells on our roof. Later I found out my dad got on the roof to do that so we would now that Santa does visit children in Hawaii.
4. Christmas morning- Stockings and wooden shoes filled with goodies by the kids' bedroom doors. When mom and dad get up, it's time to open presents. After opening presents we eat breakfast- cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, and hamburger gravy, toast, fruit and eggs.
5. Christmas dinner- we have ham, green bean casserole, scalloped potates, salad and rolls. We usually have a Honey Baked Ham Co. Ham, but in our new area we don't have one, and my parents are coming for Christmas dinner; so we will have to figure something else out.
6. Christmas lights- we try to take a night and drive around the various neighborhoods
7. Boxing day- my mom is Canadian, so I grew up celebrating Boxing day. When I was little it was that we got to open an extra present the day after. However as we got older, my mom would take us to the after Christmas day sales to buy something nice.
8. Fudge- I grew up having my paternal grandmother mailing us fudge every year during the holidays, so I have taken on the tradition, and do it for my family and the in-laws.
9. Christmas cookies- we make cookies with the kids
10. Christmas devotional- we watch the Christmas devotional that our church does every year on TV.
11. Anonymous gift- We give a really nice anonymous gift to someone in need- we have been doing dh's siblings as some of them have financial burdens. We have been given so much through the years, we feel it is time for us to give back. Last year we gave dh's sister a Britax car seat, and Baby Bjorn as she was expecting her first child. This year we gave to dh's youngest newly married brother and sister-inlaw (our former nanny) a set of pots and pans and nylon tools, and cookbook from their Pampered Chef wedding registery. Probably once we have done something nice for dh's family members, we will ask our bishop (a volunteer pastor) for a family that we can do something for.
12. Old school Christmas shows- We watch all the fun shows that dh and I remember watching as kids- Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch who Stole Christmas (cartoon-version not Jim Carey), The Christmas Story and so on.

I'm sure that we will add another this year as it will be just "us" this year.

Here is one tradition we have yet to incorporate into our own family- In dh's family they "reinact" the Nativity story- someone is the donkey, Joseph, Mary, 3 wise-men, etc. and then tape it!

Crystal

Crystal, I love the idea of a Pie Night!

I'd like to get those Christmas shows on DVD. The shows come on around 8pm here which is too late for the kids.

[Auspicious]

Crystal, your list is awesome.

At some point every December my brother would break down and eat everyone's chocolates.

That is so funny. But I'd be super-pissed if my brother had done that.

I am so all over pie night. I just wish I'd learned of that one earlier in the season.

In reference to Cheri's ornament collection-growing, we always did something similar. My mom would buy 3 of the same ornaments (one for my 2 cousins and I), and my aunt did the same, and then my "Aunt" (family friend that I like better than the aunt) did the same for her 2 girls and I, as did my mom. Each year each of us got 2 to 4 new ornaments. Sadly many of mine died in the tragic storage moisture issue of 2002 (lots were that dough-clay that was so popular in the '80's). My cousins, friends and I have continued the tradition on our own, first doing it just for each other as adults, and now doing it for each other's kids. Each year I pack up the ornaments, specifying which are the boys ornaments - just for the sake of organization.

Since I have all of my mom's ornaments I really have no shortage of goodies for my tree -- but I like the tradition nonetheless.

I like the ornament idea too, so we have some of our own. I'm going to have to think about a way to start that next year.

Our tree is mostly full. I have most from my childhood (set aside the one's specifically belonging to my brother) and then we have DHs too. Most of DH's -- some are in storage and we will need to get those out. It's nice to have a full tree and my kids like to hear the origin of some of the decorations but I want to have more that are our family's.

[Amiens]

Crystal, I love the idea of a Pie Night!

I'd like to get those Christmas shows on DVD. The shows come on around 8pm here which is too late for the kids.

I haven't found them on DVD, yet. This year and last we TiVo it, and then let the kids watch them at a decent hour.

Crystal

[Rapunzel]

Costco has a DVD set with most of the old, stop-motion Christmas shows (Rudolph, etc) in the store.

[Amiens]

Thanks Julie!

Rapunzel I will have to look for them the next time I'm at Costco.

About the ornament- I did it growing up, and it was fun to see all the different ornaments through the years. When dh and I were newlywed we started the tradition. It was a nice gradual way to start gathering ornaments for the tree. Also each child has an ornament for their first Christmas. My mother-inlaw has also started sending each grandchild their own ornament, the goal being when they are old enough to leave the house they will have their own set of Christmas ornaments.

The chocolate advent calendar sounds fun, but I could see one of mine eating all of the chocolates before everyone else. We have a felt advent calendar and Emma and Brigham take turns doing the day. We also have a count down to Christmas. Whoever does the advent calendar, the other gets to change the number on the countdown. Both were Christmas gifts from my MIL a few years back.

Crystal

[alison]

My family isn't religious, but we do do a cultural Christmas. We open gifts on Christmas Eve if there are any- , no tree, no lights. New Years is bigger for us.

Dh is German, so Christmas is essentially the whole month of December. Advent calenders, Advent wreaths, Christmas markets, candles on the tree, Christmas tree fires (yes, it happens), and... Christmas is THREE days long over there. The 24th, 25th and 26th. It's nonstop food, music and being together as a family sans church. It's nice, but I wouldn't mind if it were on the same 4-year cycle as the Olympics.

[reciprocity]

alison, have you guys made it down to the christmas market this year? Does he think it is cheesy, or does he enjoy it?