What are your Christmas traditions?

[AUdisfan]

I'm always trying to think of special little things I can do to make Christmas more magical and fun for DD 4 and DS 10 months. However, I'm not creative at all and have a hard time coming up with things to do. We do the standard cookie baking and gingerbread house making and we do daily Advent devotions and an Advent calender. What are some special things you like to do with or for your family this time of year?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions?

 

[MSSANDRA]

-We keep a basket for all our Christmas cards to go in and pull one out to pray for that family each night at dinner.

-We have a family date. A nice resturant and then go see Christmas lights.

-We have Christmas eve dinner under the Christmas tree. We stated this when DS was a toddler. We do finger food (sandwiches and fruit when he was little, now wings and nachos). We read the christmas story from the bible and DS gets to open one gift. it is always Pj's and still is even as a teen!! We always have a box of GOOD chocolate and then head to our church for the Christmas eve service.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

Every year the Day after Thanksgiving is our "Put up the Christmas Decorations Day" (after black friday shopping of course)
And we have this really need advent calender that is made of wood and is shaped and painted like a chimeny..and each day you pull a brick out of the chiminey and Santa falls a little closer to the bottom of the fireplace. Then on Christmas Eve..he falls in. WE LOVE THIS.lol Also, when i got married my mom passed down to me her Christmas Village set, that I always enjoyed when I was a kid. And so each year I take DD to Michaels and we pick out a new peice for our village and then when she gets married someday (or has her own home) I will hand these villages down to her. So we really enjoy putting those up every year.
First weekend in December we go cut down our tree and we bring hot cocao, sing carols then come home and while the tree is warming up we put together our gingerbread house. Then decorate the tree while watching the Polar Express (occupies dd while dh and I put on the lights as well)
That next weekend in December we always go to the drive around light extravaganza in town..where you can meet santa and his reindeer and see all the beautiful lights.
DD and I usually have a special day that we go out and go xmas shopping together and we will stop at a diiner and have some lunch and ice cream. (the best part)

We do baking throughout the season, but we really start pumping things out on the 23rd, we make TONS of cookies, candy,sweets adn pack them into containers for all our friends and family. And that night we get all bundled up and walk through our neighborhood with big cups of hot chocolate and look at everyone else's lights.
On the 24th, We USUALLY go visit with grandparents and other family before it gets too late, then around 6 or so we head back to the house and we make "special" cookies for Santa and reindeer food for the reindeer. We also make a secret recipe of sparkle dust, and we sprinkle it outside the house so the Santa will have no trouble finding us and landing his sleigh. Then we come in,open xmas eve gifts (always new pj's and new crayons and a xmas coloring book) we make a bunch of snacks and watch a Christmas Movie, usually The Santa Claus, dd sets out her cookies, milk and reindeer food, writes santa a letter we read the Night before Xmas and dd goes to bed. And Dh and I watch Christmas Vacation and get Christmas Morning "ready." DD gets up in tha am and we open stockings and a few gifts (we really take our time, sometimes it takes until noon to open everything.) then we have our "CHRISTMAS CEREAL" lol, we all pick out a special box of anything we want cereal for xmas day. (dh brough this tradition with him, since when they were kids his parents never let them pick out any of the good novelty cereal..but on xmas they each got to pick out whatever box they wanted.) we also have cinn. rolls and oj. We just spend the rest of the day playing and being together. We go sledding if there is snow, and watch A Christmas Story (usually in peices as TBS plays it ALL DAY!) lol We make a nice dinner and just enjoy the time together.
Oh and every night leading up to Xmas, dd and I will watch a Christmas Movie together all snuggled up with a special "christmasy" treat.
New Years Eve we have a BIG family party with JUST THE 3 of us. And we put up decorations, play music, games, make lots of good food, order pizza...and stay up late and watch the ball drop.
usually after the holidays, everyone is sad to see all the excitment be over and have to take down the christmas decorations...So, we started this new tradition 3 years ago, where every year on January 1 we take down the decorations, and that night, when we are all having dinner there is a little box all wrapped up beside each of our plates..and inside is a button (that dh has picked for me, i have picked for him, and we have picked for dd.) We sew each persons button onto their own stocking after dinner. The button is to represent something that person has done in the past year that is extra special. And dd is always VERY excited to see what button she gets every year. So lends some excitment to the days after christmas as well.
Have a HAPPY HOLIDAY!!
We just LOVE Christmas here!!

 

[AUdisfan]

Thanks for the great replies! It sounds like ya'll do a great job of keeping up traditions that are really special to your family. That's what we want to do for our DD and DS. Thanks for sharing. Anyone else?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

[Aliceacc]

One of my favorites, started the Christmas after 9/11:

On Christmas Eve morning, as we start our last minute chores, we load the kids into the van. We take a bowl of wrapped candies to the local fire house and police station. All 5 of us stop in to say Thank You to whoever is on duty.

It takes practically no time, costs very little, and leaves a strong message with our kids about thanking those who keep us safe.

-- Also during the day on Christmas Eve, stop by at www.noradsanta.com NORAD tracks Santa's progress as he crosses the world, with 30 second videos they update every hour. So we see him at the Sydney Opera House, over the Great Wall of China, buzzing an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf... It's loads of fun and the kids get a real kick out of it.

-- I take my kids shopping at the dollar store each year. I let them know who is next on their list, and they choose anything they want. That way the gift is from THEM, not me (I just bankroll it.) They also do their own wrapping. Now that 2 of my kids are older, they can cut the paper; when they were younger I gave them precut squares. They'll use tons of tape (so buy the cheap stuff!!) but they'll put tons of heart into the gift as well.

 

[mickeyfan9194]

Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving we put up our tree, and everyone helps with putting on the ornaments. We have ornaments from vacations, kid handmade ornaments, ornaments given to us as gifts, and special occassion ornaments--all remind us of very special times, and usually lead to a lot of good stories.

One weekend in December we have a progressive dinner with our neighbors (5 other families) who have also become very good friends of ours.

Another weekend, we go out to a nice restaurant for dinner, followed by driving around to see Christmas lights.

We also usually take the kids to a professional play before Christmas--sometimes Christmas themed, sometime not. As they became teenagers we thought we could let this tradition drop, but THEY are the ones who want it to continue. It's just become a little more expensive now that we go to the bigger nicer theaters instead of the childrens theaters.

Then on Christmas Eve, we go to the earliest candlight service at church, followed by board games and watching "Christmas Vacation".

Christmas Day is always varied, sometimes home, sometimes at someone else's house, sometimes on vacation...but we always open stockings before gifts and try to have a very special breakfast.

 

[kimsuenew]

-We keep a basket for all our Christmas cards to go in and pull one out to pray for that family each night at dinner.-We have a family date. A nice resturant and then go see Christmas lights.

-We have Christmas eve dinner under the Christmas tree. We stated this when DS was a toddler. We do finger food (sandwiches and fruit when he was little, now wings and nachos). We read the christmas story from the bible and DS gets to open one gift. it is always Pj's and still is even as a teen!! We always have a box of GOOD chocolate and then head to our church for the Christmas eve service.

That is such a wonderful idea!

 

[bord1niowa]

Two things we do prety much every year. We make graham cracker houses. Like gingerbread but mad with graham crackers for the walls. We buy tons of different kinds of candies and my wife makes the "edible glue" as I call it. Really just good stuff. You would be amazed at the houses and more that people have made. Including all the details, like people, gummy bears, sidewalks, garages, Geodesic homes, you name it! The best part is they get to eat them too, so you make it with the candy you like.
The other thing we do is very traditional, we go out caroling as a group. People are kind of surprised yet happy to see and hear us. We now have friends and even our kids' friends joining us.

 

[Disneylush]

All your Christmases seem so peacefully. I feel like it is a bigger rat race then black Friday shopping! Getting to all the grandparents and great-grandparents... (we see 60+ people in 2 days!!) I guess this is another reason we go to Disney in January. It is a reward for me and DH for surviving yet another wild and crazy family Christmas. But I wouldn't trade having close family for anything!

 

[Aliceacc]

Two things we do prety much every year. We make graham cracker houses. Like gingerbread but mad with graham crackers for the walls. We buy tons of different kinds of candies and my wife makes the "edible glue" as I call it. Really just good stuff. You would be amazed at the houses and more that people have made. Including all the details, like people, gummy bears, sidewalks, garages, Geodesic homes, you name it! The best part is they get to eat them too, so you make it with the candy you like.
The other thing we do is very traditional, we go out caroling as a group. People are kind of surprised yet happy to see and hear us. We now have friends and even our kids' friends joining us.

My daughter's teacher does this (my son had the same teacher.) She uses Orange Juice/milk containers as the base (sometimes cut in half, then the halfs inserted into each other to make them smaller.) They use cans of frosting as the "glue", then put the graham crackers right on. MUCH easier than real gingerbread, and the kids have a blast!!

Not quite the level of expertise you're talking about, but cute and a lot of fun nonetheless!

 

[mrs.beast]

We have the Christmas elf who leaves a holiday book on the fireplace every night during advent. Then we read the book each night before bed. We also go to the Polar Express or Christmas train. We go to a performance of the Nutcracker and tea or nice dinner (depends if we see a evening performance). We use snowman dishes starting the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We go to the living Nativity with friends and have a pizza party that night at our house.

 

[goofyisinphilly]

The day after Thanksgiving we put up the tree and pull out all the decorations. For dinner we have chili. My mom started this tradition and I continued it at my home.

Dec. 23 mom and I do the baking and since everyone is home we play games at the card table in front of the fire all the time from Dec. 23 through New Years.

Dec. 24 after DH and I return from the in-laws (a 5 hr. drive) we have chili and potato soup with whoever is at my parents house. Then we pile in the car and go look at lights around town. Mom and I stay up late and stuff the stockings ( I have to do hers early and she does mine late)

Dec. 25- Christmas Morning!!! Dad wakes up and fixes the pot of coffee. No joy before coffee. When we were kids we would have santa then, now that we are grown it is straight to stockings. After stockings, is a big southern breakfast. Then comes presents. Sometimes we open one at a time and other it is just a free for all. Depends on the crowd. Then time to clean up and work on dinner. Grandpa says 'oooohh boy i'm gonna be fancy in these new duds.' Dinner is late afternoon. Then we all play games as a family until very late.

Dec. 26-New Years is varations on the same thing. Eat, drink, play games. Dominos, Rummikube, Catchphrase...you name it we have it.

Then we start planning the next year. This year New Years is going to rock. We are celebrating my parents retirement and dad's and my uncle's successful by-pass surgeries.

 

[reelmom]

The night that we put up our Christmas tree, we watch The Polar Express. We all get new pajamas that day, which usually have the same theme. Spongebob was this year. We eat cookies and drink hot chocolate.

 

[coolbeans]

I love traditions and have a couple.

The kids always get a new ornament from Hallmark that goes on a prelit wreath that I hang in the living room. I have one for DD and one for DS. Any other ornaments that we fall in love with go on the tree. I want to have the wreaths for the kids when they are on their own...if I can give them up.

First weekend of December is Christmas tree-house decorating weekend. Tree goes up and decorated, all outside lights and decorations are done too.

Christmas Eve we open one present each..usually a toy and a movie to watch. This year it's jammies for the kids and the new Pirates of the Caribbean for all to watch before bed.

Christmas Eve both kids sleep in our room (DD sleeps in the recliner and DS sleeps in our bed) to make it easier for Santa to move around the house uninterruped.

Christmas morning is coffee, (timer on the coffee pot is set for early! and stays on for two hours which is great!) breakfast and presents in the living room... stockings are always opened last.

Another thing is Santa usually wraps presents at our house except for stocking stuffers and one or two things (like a new Build a Bear), each kid has their own Santa paper to make Christmas morning less hectic.

And this year I bought Santa bags from Pottery Barn kids and had them personalized so they know whose is whose.

Santa always gets home made cookies and glass bottle coke left out for him. DD started this tradition on her own a couple of years ago and we have just done it for her. (I think she saw it on tv.)

Next year I plan on adding a Christmas Elf into the mix, DS is too little to understand this year and I know that DD will play along next year.

 

[dandelion]

Besides the cookies and eggnog and milk or Coke - that's a cute one - for Santa we leave a carrot for Rudolph.

We also sprinkle some magic reindeer food outside, to help give them the extra power they need to continue the night's flight. The original 'recipe' we learned at a craft festival used colored glitter, but who wants to eat glitter? We used uncooked oats, brown sugar and some colored sugar. I was glad to see several online 'recipes' also suggest colored sugar crystals and have some nice notes to print with it. Search on 'reindeer food' if you're interested.

My kids are 8 and 11, and I thought they'd lost interest in things like a December countdown calendar. Boy, was I wrong. When they were little I would get the chocolate "Advent" calendars, then we got the Lego ones for a few years. The Lego one seemed pricey this year, so when I was begged for 'some kind of Advent calendar' I got the chocolate ones again. They were only too happy to catch up to the days we'd missed.

My kids are getting a Wii for Christmas, and we are debating how to present it. Generally we opened gifts from Dh's family on Christmas Eve (his tradition), then had Santa and my family's gifts on Christmas day. Well, this year his family sent $$ for the kids to get some more Wii games, which is wonderful, but I'm just not sure how to spread it out.

 

[r4blessings]

I LOVE the idea of picking out a new Christmas village piece each year with your daughter and then eventually passing the set down to her when she marries. I am going to start that this year with dd! She is 3, turning 4 in January and loves to decorate for the holidays so I know it will be fun now, and also a treasured collection to give to her when she marries!

I start our holiday traditions off on Thanksgiving morning (which I host) and give the kids either a Christmas themed toy or movie. This year it was the reindeer webkinz for the older three, then a Christmas thomas train for ds2!

We have Christmas movie and popcorn nights each weekend, and read a Christmas story each day leading up to Christmas. My kids always get Christmas pajamas too, but I give it to them on Dec 1st, so they can wear them the whole season! They love wearing their holiday jammies!

We do tons of baking and make special Santa cookies on Christmas eve morning. Along with the reindeer food, which we sprinkle as we leave to head to dmom's house for our holiday with her. Usually we leave around 1pm and spend the day there catching up with my dsisters and dbil. We are italian, so we do a big seafood thing and then exchange gifts with everyone. My kids track santa on norad.com and we usually head home around 9pm. Then its to bed for the little ones. After everyone is sleeping, DH and I get the house ready for Christmas morning and then have a nice bottle of champagne!

Christmas morning is crazy! After all the presents are open, we head upstairs and eat breakfast. Then while I clean up and get ready we try to get the little ones down for an early short nap before heading up to my dsil's house. She does a beautiful Christmas and we love going there. The kids play with my dnieces and then we head home around 7pm, lugging way too many presents home!

The 26th is usually our pajama day home, since dh is a teacher and home that day. It is the day we play with our toys, games, watch dvd's and have appetizers for dinner. I love our holidays!

 

[jcc0621]

We also sprinkle some magic reindeer food outside, to help give them the extra power they need to continue the night's flight. The original 'recipe' we learned at a craft festival used colored glitter, but who wants to eat glitter? We used uncooked oats, brown sugar and some colored sugar. I was glad to see several online 'recipes' also suggest colored sugar crystals and have some nice notes to print with it. Search on 'reindeer food' if you're interested.

We also do the reindeer food but were using the glitter...Thanks for the idea with the sugar

Our traditions

Saturday after Thanksgiving - Put up the outside decorations
Sunday after Thanksgiving - Put up the tree and indoor decorations.

Throughout the month we see Santa, bake cookies, etc.

Christmas Eve - Seven fish dinner. Then we place the angel on the top of the tree and hang our stockings. Leave out the reindeer food and milk & cookies for Santa.

Christmas Day - open gifts, breakfast (uaully something simple like muffins), watch the WDW Christmas Parade . Everyone comes here for dinner and we just have a grand time.

Dec 26th - Jan 1st - We visit relatives and friens we didn't see on Christmas, or they come to see us.

 

[MrsBanks]

Am I the only one that leaves Bailey's out for Santa?

 

[MNdisneymom]

Oh, this is is so much fun....Here's how it is with our family (I live really close to my parents, so we spend a lot of time with them...)

The day after Thanksgiving is when my mom starts to get out her christmas decorations. (I don't have as much as she does in my house---it's an hour for me to do it all, but for her it's an all-day process.) Her tree goes up the first week in December--and she lets my DS (4.5) help decorate! (I do our house tree while he's at preschool.) My mom and I do a lot of christmas baking (and I hardly ever bake the rest of the year). I love making krumkake (it's norwegian, a thin rolled wafer cookie) and chow mein chews (noodles and peanuts and chocolate). (There are lots of others, too!) I don't bring any of it back to my house--as a defensive mechanism--so I won't eat it all, LOL.

Christmas Eve...we head to their house in the morning. I help my dad get the luminaries (paper lanterns) --everybody in their neighborhood puts them out--ready. DS and I go to an afternoon church service, then come home for dinner. It's always the same thing. Mad Hatter Meatballs (from a reallllyyy old Betty Crocker Kid's Cookbook), mashed potatoes, cold broccoli salad, lefse (think Norwegian tortilla made with potatoes instead of corn). We've been eating the same meal since I was little. After everything is cleaned up, then it's present time! (yes, on christmas eve...) It's nice and relaxing, since we have a relatively small family. After that is all over, my parents and sister head for church, and my DS and I enjoy some quiet alone time until he head off to bed.

In the morning, when everybody is up (and yes, I do make DS wait!) there are stocking gifts for all, and for DS his one big "santa" gift. We eat a yummy breakfast casserole and drink mimosas. Then, in the afternoon, DS heads off to his dad's house for the rest of the day.

So that's our christmas. I wouldn't change it for anything, I love the sameness of it every year.

 

[AUdisfan]

This is great! Thanks for all the responses. I love to hear about everyone's traditions and can't wait to read more.