another christmas thread...

[scarlett873]

i was just wondering what kinds of traditions that you may have with your families?

for my immediate family...every christmas eve, we get to open one present. it's always pj's of some sort. the rule is that youhave to wear them to bed and then while you open your presents the next morning. it's always amusing to see what mom's come up with each year! some year's are really humiliating!!

then, christmas morning (after we've all stayed the night), we are woken by the same CD blaring, which signals us that it's ok to get up...usually at some horrific hour.

and there's always one gift that's expected by the kids...it was something my grandmother started and my mom continued after grandma passed away. each "kid" would get a coloring book and crayons. every year. no matter what...if that wasn't under the tree, it just wouldn't be christmas...

how about your families? anything traditions?

 

[preshi]

for my immediate family...every christmas eve, we get to open one present. it's always pj's of some sort. the rule is that youhave to wear them to bed and then while you open your presents the next morning. it's always amusing to see what mom's come up with each year! some year's are really humiliating!!

We have the exact same tradition... I love getting new pajamas.

 

[Tony-NJ]

Christmas Eve Tradition that my Grandmother started. Now that my Parents are no longer with us, I usually have 15-18 people at my home for all kinds of Fish and Pasta. Christmas Eve is just as big as Christmas day here!!

 

[browneyes]

We open up all our presents on Christmas Eve. We try to have dinner on Christmas Eve too. Christmas Day is just a day to relax and play with our gifts.

 

[shep]

We open 1 gift on christmas eve and then we go to her family, then to my family, don't know how it will work this year since I have to work..
Then Christmas morning we open the rest of the gifts and then later in the day we go to my aunt's house..

 

[CamColt]

Thats funny about the PJs. my Mother always buys the kids(her 4 grandkids) pjs and gives them to them on Christmas Eve.

We do the typical traditions of Christmas Eve at my house for Chinese food, breakfast at my parents, and and Italian dinner at my sisters.

The one tradition I have started in my family is every Christmas Eve before our guests arrive I videotape the kids in their Christmas outfits in front of the tree, while the Charlie Brown Christmas CD plays in th backround(Oh Christmas Tree). I started this when DS#1 was just a week old. The next year I thought it would be neat to do it again to see how much he had grown. Then I thought, I should make this a regular thing. So far we havent missed a year.

 

[alabamaalan]

My wife's family always opened one gift on Christmas Eve but I won't allow it

We started traveling to our families the weekend before and the weekend after Christmas to celebrate with them even before we had children. It makes it easier now, because everyone expects us to have Christmas at home. Although it does keep us on the road a lot in Decmember.

We open the gifts from family members when we are there, which this year will be Dec 14 and Dec 21 (no one wanted us on the 28 )

Our girls are young, so we are starting traditions! Last year, my oldest daughter and I placed a different small ornament on an advent nativity calendar each night and told a little more of the Christmas story.

On Christmas Eve, we have a cake and hats and have a Birthday Party for Jesus. Laugh if you want, but it is still what this holiday is all about

The advantage here, of course, is that He doesn't take much of the cake so I get to eat a lot!

I don't know if I want to keep this "putting up decorations in early November" thing going on though, but it is fun for this year.

 

[Disney845]

We also do the open one package on christmas eve tradition. We usually also go to SO's grandparent's house for x-mas eve. We have a yummy dinner consisting of all of us bringing different dishes and feeding ourselves buffet style. Then we have a cookie decorating contest. SO's grandfather is so competitive. He thinks his cookie is always the best and makes REALLY mean comments to every one else about their cookies, but we love him. Then we do a white elephant gift exchange. This is the highlight of the evening and so funny. I love it when people steal. Then we all sing the 12 days of christmas, where each of us is a different day, and sometimes his grandmother reads the biblical passage that is supposed to go with each day. This was funny last year because one aunt and uncle couldn't make it down for x-mas so we sang the 12 days on speaker phone with them in Ohio, the funniest part though was that something was wrong with the speaker phone in the living room so we all went out to the garage (where SO's grandfather has another phone with speaker phone hooked up) and sang the 12 days of christmas in the garage! Although this year we will be driving non stop through on christmas eve from Indy to FL. We leave at about 12:00pm (when SO can get out of work) and we figure we can make it by early morning christmas morning, so we probably won't be opening a x-mas eve gift!



We usually have big hot gooey cinnamon rolls for breakfast at my moms on x-mas day and open gifts. Then it is on to SO's mom's house where we open more gifts and have a small breakfast if we didn't have it at my mom's. Then all of our families meet at a big christmas buffet at the Hilton on the beach (not my favorite part, I would rather have a home cooked meal, but SO's family thinks this is easier, and I agree it saves his grandma and the other women from being in the kitchen all day). then it is back to SO's grandparent to open the other family gifts. For the rest of the family (not including our parents those are separate gifts) we all do a gift exchange. A few weeks before christmas we draw a name out of a hat and only buy one gift for that person. There is a price cap. This is supposed to help us all save from buying for everyone, and it is nicer because if you only have one person to buy for, the gift can be a little better than the smaller gifts you might buy for the whole family. Then we spend the rest of the day playing with the kids and their new toys, or a cut-throat game of poker might start

 

[aprincessmom]

We limit our holiday party going and events to one per week so we can enjoy the season for what it is -- a time to give thanks and spend time with those we love.

DD has a mini-tree in her room and from Thanksgiving until New Years Day we use that as a night light in her room. It's really pretty all lit up at night and she says it gives her very good dreams.

One night DD and I will get into our pajamas right after dinner, pack a thermos of hot chocolate and hop in the car to ride around and look at all the houses light up. It's something my parents used to do with us. It's great fun and there's nothing like the look of the face of a little one watching his or her mommy in her p.j.s while driving around town.

We do the Feast of the Fishes (an Italian tradition) on Christmas Eve. Since my nana passed away I have been doing it. Anywhere from 50-75 people come. This year, due to a number of things, my cousin will do it. Next year it will be back at my house. It's a day long thing that lasts into the night with lots of people, presents, food and fun.

We also go caroling through my neighborhood which is a lot of fun.

That night we get to open one present. We read the Night Before Christmas before we go to bed and place all the cookies and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer.

Christmas day we spend the entire day in our pjs, eating left overs from the Feast the day before and playing with all our cool presents. We may get dressed to play with any outdoor kind of presents like sleds or skates (if the weather is cooperating). But once we are back inside it's back into pjs for us.

Makes for a very enjoyable and relaxing day...besides you always eat too much the day before and nightgowns are far more forgiving that a waistband!

 

[Boots]

Well we always go to my dad's house for Christmas. My mother loved Christmas and since we died it just doesn't seem the same. My step mother is very very good to me, but at Christmas I always missed my mother.

 

[Mermaid02]

We always have lunch at my fil's favorite restaurant on Christmas Eve.... unfortunately this will be the last year- the restaurant is closing on New Year's Day.