Holiday Traditions Thread

[lovemy2girls4eva]

The holidays are approaching so I was thinking that it might be a fun idea to start a Holiday Traditions thread this year that we can keep going through the new year. I am always looking for ideas for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) whether it be a great recipe or a special tradition I can start with my own family. So if you can add your favorite holiday traditions, recipes, decorating ideas, and more for everyone to share! Thanks!!

I have a few of my own to share:
-We always have a train around the Christmas tree
-We have an Advent Calendar
-Leave milk and cookies for Santa
-Watch holidays movie like Yes, Virginia, Rudolph and Frosty.

 

[rebelbuddhist]

My wife and I have gone to WDW for the past six Christmas holidays. There are so many traditions at WDW for us:
Holiday storytellers at Epcot
Christmas Eve Candlelight Processional. (Wish Whopi or NPH would narrate)
Christmas Day at AK to avoid crowds and then late dinner at Narcoossee's to view MK fireworks (we will miss Jingle Jangle parade watching from 2nd floor window seat at Yak & Yeti)
Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios
to name a few.
No place like WDW for the holidays!

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

My wife and I have gone to WDW for the past six Christmas holidays. There are so many traditions at WDW for us:
Holiday storytellers at Epcot
Christmas Eve Candlelight Processional. (Wish Whopi or NPH would narrate)
Christmas Day at AK to avoid crowds and then late dinner at Narcoossee's to view MK fireworks (we will miss Jingle Jangle parade watching from 2nd floor window seat at Yak & Yeti)
Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios
to name a few.
No place like WDW for the holidays!

sounds like so much fun! My plan is for the next Disney trip to be around Christmas time!

 

[worm761]

The holidays are approaching so I was thinking that it might be a fun idea to start a Holiday Traditions thread this year that we can keep going through the new year. I am always looking for ideas for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) whether it be a great recipe or a special tradition I can start with my own family. So if you can add your favorite holiday traditions, recipes, decorating ideas, and more for everyone to share! Thanks!!

I have a few of my own to share:
-We always have a train around the Christmas tree
-We have an Advent Calendar
-Leave milk and cookies for Santa
-Watch holidays movie like Yes, Virginia, Rudolph and Frosty.

We have a few family traditions that we do throughout the year.

We watch Rise of the Guardians at Easter. And of course do Easter baskets/gifts. Though I try to put more stuff than candy as the candy rarely gets eaten.

Halloween: we watch Hotel Transylvania. I love this movie and so does DD. I hand out candy/trinkets to trick or treaters.

Thanksgiving: We host Thanksgiving for our friends and any of the sailors that my DH works with and their families if they have no place else to go. For any kids that come over I always have crafts for them to do. But the big one is we make butter for the dinner table. Baby food jars, clean marbles, and heavy cream. Add in a whole lot of shaking and you have little jars of butter. A couple of our friends make meade as a hobby. They always bring a nice selection for after dinner. Two flavors they always bring are apple pie and cranberry. Everyone (adults only) looks forward to the meade.

Christmas doesn't happen until after DD's birthday. We put up the tree after her birthday. Visit Santa and get pictures. Every Christmas season we visit Build A Bear and make a new lovey. Christmas Eve dinner will be sloppy joe's and Ballreich potato chips. I spend a small fortune having them delivered but that is what we have had for Christmas Eve dinner for as long as I can remember. Christmas morning I make homemade cinnamon rolls. Christmas dinner is whatever we decide on beforehand. No real tradition there.

New Year's Eve we eat appetizers all day. I have started collecting new recipes on Pinterest to try. Last year I had a buffalo chicken dip that was really good. And some other dip that is amazing but not what it was meant to be. Cream cheese, goat cheese, and salsa mixed. Served on sliced baguette. I could live on this stuff which is why I only have it once or twice a year. We watch the Pelican drop and then go to bed. Okay, technically my husband wakes me up so I can watch the pelican drop and then I go back to sleep.

 

[ladyjubilee]

We normally start decorating outside November 1, turn on the lights on Thanksgiving. We also put up the tree on Thanksgiving.

This year, we are going to do all natural decorations.

We used to unwrap Santa gifts on Christmas Day, but now do the Twelve Days, opening a gift or two a day.

One of our newer traditions is visiting Dollywood and Busch Gardens during the season.

This year we'll be in at WDW.

 

[AZMermaid]

Weird question about the train around the tree, where do you put the Presents? Inside the train? I don't think they'd fit? Outside the train? How do you see the train? I want to get one, just not sure on the logistics!

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Weird question about the train around the tree, where do you put the Presents? Inside the train? I don't think they'd fit? Outside the train? How do you see the train? I want to get one, just not sure on the logistics!

I put some of the small boxes inside the train and the bigger ones on the outside but on the side so you can still see the train going around.

 

[rapunzelmom]

I we have really been trying to keep a few traditions

Trip downtown to see lights and take a horse drawn carriage ride.
Christmas at the zoo
Wrap presents and watch Christmas movies
Shop for church giving tree we each pick 2.
This year since DD is older going to symphony holiday performance.

 

[tchrrx]

I always buy a few books for DD and wrap them early in the month. The tag says, "To be opened on a snow day or christmas, whichever comes first!" So, if we end up with a snow day (no school! Yay!), DD has books to keep her entertained.

Christmas Eve DD gets new pjs and a few books. The books are to be read in bed e next morning while DH and I sleep a little longer.

Santa wraps all his gifts in a special paper that fits DD's interests that year (princesses, tinkerbell, one direction, etc.). Her pjs that she received on Christmas Wve also match that theme.

 

[worm761]

I completely forgot! We also drive around and look at Christmas lights. We go to Chick-fil-A first and get peppermint shakes.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

I completely forgot! We also drive around and look at Christmas lights. We go to Chick-fil-A first and get peppermint shakes.

Peppermint shakes...yum! I love anything with peppermint!

Anyone have an easy recipe for peppermint cookies or bark? I want to try this year!

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

This year want to make a gingerbread house with the kids! I love the holidays!!!

 

[iheartwalt]

Cute! I love this!
Leading up to Christmas we attend a Christmas parade in our city (always bitter cold but lots of fun). Our city also has a huge light display in a large city park that we go to at least once.
On Christmas Eve we celebrate with my extended family and do a ham dinner. Before bed we give DS the gifts from us: an ornament (usually something from our previous year's Disney trip), Christmas jammies, and a new Christmas book. Usually (way too) late we snuggle in bed and I read Luke 2 aloud and DS falls asleep.
Christmas morning I make Monkey Bread (recipe on the Pillsbury biscuits, so easy and so tasty) and DS opens Santa gifts (we do Something to wear, read, wants, and need) and then everyone has stockings (stockings are my favorite). We do appetizers throughout the day with lots of sledding and other snow fun.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I love the holidays so much!! I usually do dinners for friends and DH's family but I'm feeling unappreciated this year so I'm cutting that out This year I am focusing on just the 4 of us.

We will be in WDW for Thanksgiving! I usually decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. I think I will put the trees up (we have 4!) before we go to Florida so they're ready to decorate when we get home. I'm just doing lighted wreaths on the front windows and that's it for outside.

We always go to our city's Christmas parade in mid December

We drive around and look at Christmas lights at least once, but usually twice a season. Hot cocoa, Christmas music playing...

We donate toys every year.

Christmas Eve we go to church. We come home and have lasagna and watch Christmas movies.

Christma Day is always just the 4 of us, though my parents may be here this year. We make a big breakfast, watch the Disney Parade and just enjoy each other. I love it. Before we had kids, DH and I always went to the movies on Christmas Day. We started that again this year and the kids loved it, so that's one of our most unique traditions.

 

[olwyngdh]

My favorite tradition, handed down from my Mom who got it from her mom is to open one gift on Christmas Eve--Mom's choice.

Somehow it always ends up being new PJs so that Christmas morning pictures look nice.

We also do a big village under the tree, so presents are stacked around the room in piles for each person.

We decorate sugar cookies on Christmas Eve and leave a couple of those and some spiked eggnog for Santa.

DD12 and her Dad do a pre-packaged gingerbread house every year. This gives me time alone to wrap without either of them bugging me.

Putting ornaments on the tree always involves a lot of storytelling. Every year everyone in the family gets a new ornament, sometimes commemorating some milestone, sometimes just reflecting their interests or personality. We have all the ones that were my Mom's, and use the time to remember her. Some of my ornaments are over 100 years old, and I can remember them on my Grandmother's tree and hearing stories about her Mother when she hung them.

 

[Disneyelf10]

Some of our Christmas traditions are I have my niece and nephew over to bake cookies sugar cookies and frost them. I have a lovely girlfriends luncheon and send them home with a homemade favor that changes ever year. I love to wrap gifts and play carols while wrapping.
We host my family for Christmas Day dinner and open gifts, watch movies, play and eat!
I can't wait!!

 

[ladyjubilee]

Anyone have an easy recipe for peppermint cookies or bark? I want to try this year!

Easy peppermint cookies: add peppermint oil to any sugar cookie mix, divide, then add red food color to half, that shape the two into canes


Bark is way easy. Melt chocolate (wafers are easiest, but I like to use better quality). You can use dark, milk or white. Mix in a touch of peppermint oil. Pour onto cookie sheet. Top with crushed peppermint.

You can also just use peppermint chips from Hershey's or Ghirardelli. I like to use different layers of chocolate, just be sure not to oil all the layers, it gets too strong.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Easy peppermint cookies: add peppermint oil to any sugar cookie mix, divide, then add red food color to half, that shape the two into canes

Bark is way easy. Melt chocolate (wafers are easiest, but I like to use better quality). You can use dark, milk or white. Mix in a touch of peppermint oil. Pour onto cookie sheet. Top with crushed peppermint.

You can also just use peppermint chips from Hershey's or Ghirardelli. I like to use different layers of chocolate, just be sure not to oil all the layers, it gets too strong.

Sounds easy enough...thanks!!!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Christmas -- My favorite!!!

We always put up the Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving.

We open the stockings on Christmas Eve after hosting a nice party for our family where we exchange presents.

We watch Christmas movies all month long, we have a ton of them!!

 

[texasroni75]

- Bake homemade gingerbread cookies from scratch.
- Watch White Christmas and A Christmas Story (over and over!).
- Set up our tree the day after Thanksgiving - and take it down New Year's Day
- Drive through the Christmas light trail at the park in town - it's literally across the street from our house
- Christmas breakfast used to be at my parents' home. But since we moved 1000+ miles away, we now have Christmas breakfast at Denny's. I cook Christmas dinner.

Unfortunately, DH isn't a fan of holiday music, so I only play it when he's not home. He worked in retail for many years and the hours and hours of Christmas songs all day at work from late October through New Years every year burned him out on it