Cheap/Free Holiday Traditions?

[Darsa]

Strangely enough I seem to have already started getting that warm, fuzzy, "holiday" feeling. If my boss wouldn't threaten my life, I'd probably be playing Christmas music already.

Would anyone care to share their holiday traditions, especially the inexpensive or free things you like to do? We get to go to a "cut your own" tree farm to pick and chop down our own Christmas tree; I can NOT wait!!

 

[cindermomma]

We make gingerbread houses! To save money, and time, we use graham crackers. Then I mix up a small batch of royal icing, buy a few cheap bags of candy and then set them up! This is an activity that takes awhile, so the whole day is house day! My DS9 LOVES it! (PS - I am listening to Christmas music right now!) Great thread - can't wait to see what others do!

 

[monkeybug]

I am a self proclaimed Christmas freak! One of my favorite inexpensive is the 12 days of Christmas. It's a doorbell ditch and it's a ton of fun! Every year we choose a family to be the recipient of 12 days of anonymous gifts. They each come with a tag relating the item to the song, and they are all inexpensive silly things. For example day 5 is "On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 golden rings! Well I'm sorry we think your family is great, but gold just isn't in the budget so we got you 5 Golden THINGS!" the gift is 5 gold wrapped chocolate bars (Hershey symphony) I always include an uplifting story or a Christmas crossword (with the answers coming the next night) with the gift. It is soooo fun to try to be sneaky enough to not get caught. We never tell who is giving the gifts and we try to enlist the help of neighbors and strangers to keep the family guessing. Some people do the same thing with a nativity. Giving one piece a night for 12 nights until the family has a complete set.
I can give you the link the poem we usually use if you like!

 

[Darsa]

Oh absolutely monkeybug, that sounds like a LOT of fun! I thought of one family member in particular when reading that one

Some of the gingerbread houses I've seen in the past have been REALLY cool; my DD has been itching to try putting one together. Maybe we'll invite her cousins over and try making a little village!

 

[DSNLvR]

Strangely enough I seem to have already started getting that warm, fuzzy, "holiday" feeling. If my boss wouldn't threaten my life, I'd probably be playing Christmas music already.

Would anyone care to share their holiday traditions, especially the inexpensive or free things you like to do? We get to go to a "cut your own" tree farm to pick and chop down our own Christmas tree; I can NOT wait!!

We give the kids matching XMAS pjs on XMAS eve so the XMAS pics are so cute with their new matching pjs.

 

[Disney Doll]

I do what I call "Light Night". A friend of mine, who is equally as enamored of Christmas lights as I am, and I drive around aimlessly looking at lights and decorations and listening to Christmas music. Usually hot chocolate is also involved.

DH will also humor me and do an abbreviated version of "Light Night" with me by driving home the "scenic" route when we are out, as opposed to taking a highway or main road route, so I can look at lights. He won't drive around aimlessly though, like my friend and I do.

 

[babytrees]

Lots of our traditions are free or low cost.

We always have one or 2 nights where we go looking at decorated houses...we ooh aah and give rounds of applause out. It was much better in Billings, MT compared to where we are now....more beautifully done houses there.

We also go to a holiday parade...in Billings it was the day after Thanksgiving....here it is the first weekend in December. Both are at night and a ton of fun....my oldest has performed in both at different times...this is her last time at the Parade of Lights.

The other free traditions include watching a Christmas DVD on Christmas Eve.

The not so cheap but not too expensive are: Dinner out at a "fancy" restaurant on Christmas Eve (usually have gift cards from my points) and a movie at the first run theater (go in the morning and it's $5/6 a person to get in .....also have gift cards)

 

[AndreaDM]

A local theater here puts on A Christmas Carol every year and they do a special perfomance for a company my friend works for for only $5 a person so she gets us tickets for that. At intermission they provide the cutest Christmas cookies and punch which my daughter looks forward to every year. She has started asking about it already this year. There is nothing that puts me in a feel-good, generous holiday spirit that watching that!

 

[Fire14]

Not exactly cheap but my mom and I used to pick an angel or 2 off tree to buy for. We also went out shopping each year on a mom and dtr. only day, wasn't always a w/e either which made it nice.
I also get a big thrill out of putting up lights on house with my dad, and decorating the xmas tree.
I really miss the mom and dtr shopping days now that my mom is gone and I'm married and live 5+ hrs away from family.

 

[KAMKIM]

A local church puts on a live nativity in our park. They have live animals, hot chocolate, and cookies and its all free. We bundle up and bring blankets. It is an awesome time.

We do a lot of sledding.

We also get the kids pajamas for christmas Eve.

We take a pic of the kids standing infront of the tree every year.

 

[stahshee]

we always make ORNAMENTS for our tree each year. I have 2 trees one tree is all the ornaments my kids have made ,and my other tree is all Disney ornaments from WDW

 

[Rora]

DFiance and I walk around and look at the lights.

We make hot cocoa and watch the Christmas movies on TV.

We constantly play Christmas music.. (okay, *I* do. He's not too happy about it ).

I would love to be able to pick my own tree but sadly, Christmas trees just don't grow in FL!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Well what I used to consider cheap--is not this year. (if I don't laugh--I'll cry!)

*Decoration night with cheese/crackers/snack type meal and new pj's where we play christmas music and decorate the tree. (likely no new pj's this year. )

*There is a local street that ends in a cul de sac where the neighbors go hog wild with decorations. It is free, but a friend of mine also sets out a box to collect donations for Team in Training as well as canned goods for the local soup kitchen.

*playing christmas music daily in the house

*will try to do more baking, but that depends on my condition and ability to do that since the idea of kids in the kitchen with lots of potential medicines makes my husband go .

We won't be doing Angel tree this year as we usually do.

Not sure if we will make it to Disney to see the decorations either. We have AP's.

We had a trip planned for early December out to Cali to visit my grandparents with plans to go to DL. We can cancel at the last minute. For now it is up in the air pending DH's job status.

In the past, we would go out to dinner on Christmas Eve and then go to mass at church. Love that! Will miss the dinner out.

 

[Catira]

We play christmas music when we are decorating our trees. I always bake brownies and chocolate chip cookies as we are decorating the house. Of course, hot chocolate is a must. Every year without fail, we see home alone as well as christmas with the kranks and other holiday movies. New PJS for christmas. Like others mentioned, going to see the wonderful houses that are decorated for the holidays!

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

We make Christmas luminaries and line the driveway with them. As the photo states, they are convenient, easy, safe and beautiful (not to mention inexpensive!).

http://www.simplyluminaries.com/images/welcome2.jpg

 

[NHdisneylover]

I have posted this on a couple of Christmas threads this year:

Every year we all 4 choose a cookie recipe to make. A few days efore Christmas I make sure we have all the ingredients. On Christmas Eve the kids and I bake all morning and make all four batches of cookies.

We leave out one or two of each for Santa and serve all the rest (along with some fruit) on Christmas morning for breakfast We nibble on cookies and fruit all morning while we go through stockings and play with new things, etc. The kids think cookies for breakfast is one of the very best parts of Christmas

 

[Darsa]

Cookies for breakfast?? SWEEET!!

 

[Saphire]

We also have made a tradition of cutting down our own tree. We then decorate it while playing Christmas music (the same music every year) and then have a nice dinner.

Check your local paper and see if any churches are having Christmas concerts. Our church always has a huge concert (standing room only) with choir and brass ensemble. Christmas cookies and coffee/punch are served at intermission, and it is free.

 

[puffkin]

We also pick a night, load up the car and just aimlessly drive through neighborhoods looking at the Christmas lights. I have a very classy decorated look for the outside of our house, but it is fun to see all the gaudy displays too!

My other "cheap" tradition is to read Jill's annual Christmas gift thread on the DIS. Every year she writes up what gifts her MIL gives her family. They always do their exchange early because the IL's go south for the winter. It is absolutely hysterical. I print it out and take it home and DH and I howl for hours reading the new one and all the old ones. Watch the community board, people start looking for it early December!

 

[darlak]

When mine were younger, we always picked one night and rode around looking at Christmas lights. We had one particular BBQ joint that became tradition to eat at after my oldest DD declared it a tradition after we randomly ate there one year. We still go every year, but it's not the same now with only DD15 left at home. (Of course, I would never tell her that though!)

Our local zoo has a Zoolight Safari that we try to go to every year. It's pretty cheap and the lights are always beautiful.