Lets talk holiday traditions..

[kldmom2000]

I forgot to add one of my favs...
Each Christmas Eve the fire company here drives up and down all the streets with the sirens blaring and Santa on the back throwing out candy. We always have on our PJS and sit at the door watching to see where the lights are so we can run out and say hi and take our pics. My DD loves it!!
I love everyones traditions...seems like Christmas Eve PJs are a big item

Our city does that too!!!! It's usually the Saturday before Christmas

 

[kldmom2000]

I'd posted a month or so ago on a similar thread.... here's ours:

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

 

[golfgal]

Delivering cookie platters to friends and neighbors Christmas Eve.

This year delivering 2 big bags filled with gifts to a family I know in town who's mother passed away early this year from cancer

On Christmas Day I always make my cinnamon sour cream coffee cake and homemade egg nog. Prime Rib and twice baked potatoes for dinner.

Also, we SAVE our stockings and open them up Christmas night just before bedtime. Just another way of making the fun last. I LOVE this tradition

Can you post your recipe for your coffee cake please

 

[Talking Hands]

our traditions are changing. Usually we go to WDW for candlelight but this year we aren't for a number of reasons.
We will have our grandson's first Christmas and I bought him his first ornament from Germany in Epcot. Will add to the collection every year.
Christmas music from Thanksgiving on.
For the last few years I have interpreted the Christmas service at church and will do it again this year.
Deaf Christmas party at church as well as one with hubby's small group party.

 

[christineann]

My kids are now 22 and 25, and my oldest is getting married in May, so this will be sort of our last Christmas with him, though he will be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (police officer). Our traditions are:

New ornament for each of us that is representative of some event during the past year. I write the year on the bottom of each ornament.

Christmas Eve church service.

Light dinner at my brother's house with his family and my parents.

Driving around the neighborhood looking at the lights. When my kids were younger, we did this on bikes.

New pajamas on Christmas Eve, and then a photo of the kids and the dogs sitting on the fireplace with the cookies and milk for Santa.

Put on Christmas music, Christmas morning brunch and mimosas with my parents at my house, then stockings and gifts (reverse order when my kids were little The dogs get new toys and "busy bones" that are wrapped and under the tree as well.

Each of us buys a little something for each stocking. It can be practical or humorous, and these are the highlights of the morning.

A few years ago, my kids decided to do a retro Christmas morning, set their alarms for 4 a.m. and crept into my dark bedroom, intending to act like excited little kids on Christmas. I awakened to see two tall, dark figures standing over me. The word that came out of my mouth was not very ...... uh, Christmas-y. The last thing I heard was my kids going back to their bedrooms and my son saying, "Well, I thought it would be funny!"