Christmas traditions or favorite things to do?

[mommy2emily]

What are some things you find yourself doing every Christmas season?

We go to Storybook Land every year since the girls have been born to see the lights, although this year might go to Hershey Park instead.


I wrap every item including stocking stuffers, whereas my sister in law grew up where Santa did not wrap anything. (I couldn't imagine Christmas where everything was unwrapped).

Decorate on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[kkmcan]

We go to several neighborhoods that go all out on decorations to drive/walk thru and see the lights. We have several movie nights- Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Santa Claus 1, 2 and 3. We put up our tree on whichever day dh is off over the Thanksgiving weekend. On Christmas Eve we go to my moms for her traditional dinner. We have a ham dinner, tons of goodies to eat and then we exchange and open presents with them.

I like to try different candy or cookie recipes. I am also in charge of several dishes for our Christmas Eve celebration at my moms.

My kids are allowed to open 2 gifts before Christmas. They are always new jammies and an ornament. We also wrap the stocking stuffers and all gifts. I like to make it look like more than it is so every little thing gets wrapped. Items that come as a set get wrapped up individually.

Christmas morning is for the 4 of us. We have a slow, leisurely morning with a quick but yummy breakfast- eggs, pancakes or cinnamon rolls, bacon and coffee. We open our gifts one at a time and then we start playing. It's so much fun playing the games, doing the crafts etc while in our jammies.

 

[reelmom]

I buy all 4 of us new pajamas to wear the night we put up our Christmas Tree. We bake cookies, drink hot chocolate, and watch a Christmas movie in the dark so we can see how pretty our tree is.

 

[JackJack08]

Elf on a Shelf!

 

[myminniemouse]

I love elf on a shelf too. I better get that out!

 

[kldmom2000]

Sooooo many traditions.....

We always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving

We usually go to a live presentation of "A Christmas Carol" @ a theater that tweaks it just a bit each year so that it keeps it interesting

We drive around and check out the light displays while drinking hot cocoa

We like to go to both Edaville RR and LaSallette for the lights and Christmas displays

We usually take a shopping trip into Boston and look at the window displays and visit Faneuil Hall (my dad used to take us by train every year and now we just drive in with our girls).

This will be the 3rd year that Charlie, our elf, visits and causes mischief until Christmas Eve. My girls absolutely love having him here!!!

Mass on Christmas Eve. The last 4 years my now 10 year old DD participated in the live presentation of the gospel during the Mass (one year as Mary, 2 years as an angel, and 1 year as a narrator). This year though, they're moving the play to mid-December so it won't be during Mass on Christmas Eve

My girls and I bake Christmas cookies and treats..... and on Christmas Eve day, we deliver them to a bunch of our neighbors. The last 2 years we made them homemade cinnamon buns so they'd have that for Christmas morning

We watch as many Christmas specials as we can.... our faves are A Christmas Story, Elf, Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Santa Clause, and all the classics like Rudolph, Frosty, etc....

We always select tags from the giving tree at church and our girls go with DH and me to select gifts for the people whose tags we've pulled

Every Christmas Eve, we leave a note, cookies, and milk for Santa..... say our goodbyes to Charlie, and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then peek one more time at the Norad site to see where Santa is

On Christmas Day, we open gifts the second the girls wake up.... then we get ready to go to our families' homes an hour away. First we go to DH's parents' get together for lunch.... afterwards we go to my parents' house for dinner. We usually get home around 10pm after leaving our house at 10am... gone the whole day.

I love Christmas

 

[RMulieri]

ALL our Christmas decor goes up Black friday and that weekend.We watch lots of christmas movies on DVD.Christmas eve( If I am not working the holiday, I am an RN so I rotate thru holidays) we track Santa on Norad tracks santa, watch Christmas Story on tv and DH and I celebrate the holiday once our daughter goes to bed.Christmas day is just the 3 of us opening gifts, having a wonderful pancake breakfast and then a wonderful christmas dinner.All our family lives 3-4 hrs away so we don't see them till the next day which is my daughters birthday

 

[happydisneyfamily]

The kids each choose a child from the Angel Tree to buy presents for.

We bake holiday treats together for ourselves and to give away for Christmas.

We dress up and take holiday pictures.

Decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving.

Watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music.

Drive around different neighborhoods looking at the decorations, go to see the city lights, and just enjoy the decorations.

Track Santa on Norad.

DH and the kids bake DH's special chocolate chip cookie recipe on Christmas Eve and they set aside one cookie for Santa with a cup of milk.

Go to Mass on Christmas Eve.

Open presents at home, have breakfast at my parent's house and exchange gifts, lunch at home, dinner at relatives house and exchange gifts.

 

[averill94]

After we open gifts and have a little bite to eat we watch "Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas". Of course my husband and I sit through the whole thing. The kids get up now and again. It really is a great movie!

 

[VirataMama4]

Our traditions have changed last year as we moved cross the country from my family. We now start our Christmas season by visiting my DH's family in Florida for Thanksgiving and then we go to Disney for a few days to see all the decorations. On Christmas we open gifts first thing in the morning and then head to NYC to enjoy the holiday displays and to go ice skating!

 

[Ash&Wes07]

We always go out for dinner on Christmas Eve to save the hassle of dishes and mess. Our newest tradition is going out for sushi!

We're allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It's always PJ's to wear to bed. Gotta have nice, new jammies for photos on Christmas morning!

 

[JackJack08]

Sooooo many traditions.....

We always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving

We usually go to a live presentation of "A Christmas Carol" @ a theater that tweaks it just a bit each year so that it keeps it interesting

We drive around and check out the light displays while drinking hot cocoa

We like to go to both Edaville RR and LaSallette for the lights and Christmas displays

We usually take a shopping trip into Boston and look at the window displays and visit Faneuil Hall (my dad used to take us by train every year and now we just drive in with our girls).

This will be the 3rd year that Charlie, our elf, visits and causes mischief until Christmas Eve. My girls absolutely love having him here!!!

Mass on Christmas Eve. The last 4 years my now 10 year old DD participated in the live presentation of the gospel during the Mass (one year as Mary, 2 years as an angel, and 1 year as a narrator). This year though, they're moving the play to mid-December so it won't be during Mass on Christmas Eve

My girls and I bake Christmas cookies and treats..... and on Christmas Eve day, we deliver them to a bunch of our neighbors. The last 2 years we made them homemade cinnamon buns so they'd have that for Christmas morning

We watch as many Christmas specials as we can.... our faves are A Christmas Story, Elf, Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Santa Clause, and all the classics like Rudolph, Frosty, etc....

We always select tags from the giving tree at church and our girls go with DH and me to select gifts for the people whose tags we've pulled

Every Christmas Eve, we leave a note, cookies, and milk for Santa..... say our goodbyes to Charlie, and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then peek one more time at the Norad site to see where Santa is

On Christmas Day, we open gifts the second the girls wake up.... then we get ready to go to our families' homes an hour away. First we go to DH's parents' get together for lunch.... afterwards we go to my parents' house for dinner. We usually get home around 10pm after leaving our house at 10am... gone the whole day.

I love Christmas

What great traditions you have for your family! Good for you.

 

[JackJack08]

We always go out for dinner on Christmas Eve to save the hassle of dishes and mess. Our newest tradition is going out for sushi!

We're allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It's always PJ's to wear to bed. Gotta have nice, new jammies for photos on Christmas morning!

Love the sushi tradition! Very modern

 

[ceemys]

Things change so much but the one thing that we do every year is attend Midnight mass.

 

[lyncecelia]

Growing up, we had a few traditions. I hope to carry some on to this year.

On December 13th, we'd always celebrate "Santa Lucia" (Saint Lucy's Day).
We'd always go around and look at lights etc. closer to Christmas
On Christmas Eve we would go to mass. Then we would come home, get in our new Christmas PJs, and watch The Polar Express. After that, we would read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas; leave cookies, hot cocoa, a bit of water (in case Santa burned his tongue!), and crackers for the reindeer out and go to bed.
In recent years I'd stay up with my mom and dad and be an "elf". So that was fun

This year will be my first Christmas on my own, and I don't know what we are doing yet.... hopefully something similar. But we do plan to spend a day in Boston in December to look around . This is also my first Christmas with snow! (I'm from Florida originally) so that'll be fun!

 

[Ash&Wes07]

Love the sushi tradition! Very modern

LOL! It started because it was the one restaurant we could get into a couple of years ago. Every other place we tried was either closed or there was a wait.

So now, we go straight to the sushi!

 

[dizneychik]

We put up the tree the Day after Thanksgiving, play music and make cookies or cinnamon rolls to eat.

I go shopping on Black Friday while the girls hang out with Dad.

We watch pretty much every Christmas movie there is starting Thanksgiving night and running through Christmas.

We open presents on Christmas Eve-have done this for the past 9 years (which last year worked out great because it snowed here in TX but not on Christmas day).

We drive around our city to Check out Christmas lights.

We buy new Christmas coloring books and socks every year.

We all wear our Christmas p.j.'s for pictures, normally same color. So we have a fun family photo-aside from the formal pics.

This year will be our Second Christmas in TX, and I am thinking we should start a new tradition of going to Sea World.....

Another new tradition that we will start this year is my girls are going to donate to a couple of children who are in the hospital that do not get the chance to enjoy Christmas as much as they would like too and we will go and visit them if allowed.

There's probably more but I can't think of any now

Feliz Navidad!!!!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We always listen to John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD when we open presents. We did it when I was a child, and now I do it with my kids.

We always have a baking day usually the week before Christmas.

We leave out cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.

DH and I always watch the TBS movie marathon of A Christmas Story on Christmas eve while we are wrapping presents until all hours of the night.

We always wish my youngest DS a happy birthday as soon as he wakes up on Christmas morning.

 

[marcemc]

-Christmas decorations go up on Thanksgiving Weekend.

-Christmas' Eve we go to church, come home & watch The Polar Express while drinking hot cocoa. Then leave cookies & cocoa for Santa by the tree.

-Chrismas morning wake up early to open presents, we have a nice breakfast & sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus & have some yummy cake.

It's our favorite time of the year

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Every year we:

Clap when Santa Claus appears at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Watch White Christmas Thanksgiving evening.

DW and I get up early to do Black Friday shopping, and then stop for breakfast.

Get our Christmas tree from the marching band Christmas tree sale.

Listen to Christmas music and have food fights in the kitchen (mostly throwing flour) while making Christmas cookies.

Open one gift Christmas Eve. Every year, they are pajamas.