what are your Christmas Traditions?

[luvthatduke]

What a great thread! I love reading all of the traditions.

We're a small family, and DS just had his First Christmas
last year, so we don't have any "firm" traditions in place, yet.
But, we're gonna have a blast this year as he's at
that wonderful "beginning to understand" age - he'll be 23 months at Christmastime.

We always drive around Christmas Eve to look at
the houses decorated, and we go to Kozier's Christmas Village
after Christmas because it's just way too crowded before,
but it also helps us to continue the feeling of Christmas
into the New Year.

One thing we do with the cards we receive,
is after we un-decorate the house (*sigh*),
we put the cards into a basket on the dinner table
and every night before saying the blessing
we pray for the family of the top card, and give thanks for them,
and so on until we've gone through them all.

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas
and Disney New Year!

 

[Jobomom]

This is so fun. I'm actually crying remembering some of these very same things.

When we were little, our grandma made her "Christmas butter cookies." When she died (I was 18) my mom started making "Grandma's cookies" because noone could bear to not have them! When my mom died, I was the one elected to be grandma! Mind you, I've a DH6 and a DH 18mos, so I'm no where near "grandma" age. We all fight about which ones we want, I can never make enough! 24 dozen last year and my DB was chasing my DSIL around their house because she took the last 3 "good ones."

We always have junk food (antipasta, chips, fingerfood) on Christmas eve and a big Italian feast on Christmas (also now at my house)

Santa used to hid our stockings, but it was so hard to find them sometimes, that I put the kabosh on that one!

Our Christmas card is always a picture of the kids dressed up in front of the Christmas tree.

I totally remember waiting for the movie camera (it wasn't a video camera back in the 70s) to be ready before we were allowed to come out. The light from the thing was so blinding, we couldn't even see what the gifts were!

I'll be stealing some of your fantastic ideas and making them a part of our holiday traditions also. Thanks!

 

[MerryPoppins]

Originally posted by luvthatduke
One thing we do with the cards we receive,
is after we un-decorate the house (*sigh*),
we put the cards into a basket on the dinner table
and every night before saying the blessing
we pray for the family of the top card, and give thanks for them,
and so on until we've gone through them all.

We may have to add that somehow to our Christmas card tradition. Thanks for sharing.

I thought of a few more:

We hide the Christmas pickle on our tree. The person that finds it gets to hide it the next year and gets a small gift.

We play Dirty Santa with each of our extended families, only we call it Silly Santa. Some of the gifts are silly, some are good and a few come back year after year. My side has Uganda Man, a ceramic totem-like guy who is really ugly. No one wants to end up with him. DH's side has a HUGE bottle of ancient English Leather. I bet it's a gallon. We draw numbers and either open a new gift or steal something that has been opened. After three people have touched an item it is dead and can't be stolen. We laugh and have a lot of fun.

I also have a Christmas Memories book that we fill out each year. Then we look back over years and sometimes we watch old holiday videos. I remember the first Christmas after my dad died. We all cried when we watched the family videos of him, but it was kind of like he was there in a way.

 

[princessbaileigh]

My grandma makes "PINK-STUFF". At our house every year it was a must! All it is: Cool Whip, Cherry pie filling, chopped pecans, Evaporated milk, Crushed pineapple, and red food coloring.

She has Alzhimer's now and that side of the family, well, doesn't do anything together anymore.

I made it one year for my In-Laws, they just turned up their noses at it. Anyway, that is one I will always remember. I wish it was still part of our Christmas feast.

 

[CinderellaIam]

DD18 and I have lived in the same house has my parents since she was born. Our traditions go back to when I was born.

DD, myself and my dad go out for the tree the weekend prior to christmas. It HAS to be the biggest tree ever! DD has final approval on the tree. When we get home mom has hot cocoa and cookies waiting, and then dad and I wrestle the monster tree into its stand.

Christmas eve all of my siblings and their SO and children come over, and now that some of the kids are older, their BF and GF, and a cousin or two, meaning there is roughly, 20-24 ppl. My mom and I put out a spread of baked ziti, meatballs, sausage, peel and eat shrimp and tons of finger foods. We nibble on the food, have drinks, while everyone helps to decorate the tree (with bing crosby singing chrismas carols in the backround, and yes, it has to be bing crosby). Once the tree is finished, we take pictures in front of the tree, many, many pictures. Then comes the gifts, tons of gifts. We open them one person at a time, starting with the youngest child and ending with the oldest, which is always my dad.

DD also has always gotten new pajamas on christmas eve, as I did as a child.

Christmas morning DD opens her stocking first, which hangs on her bedroom door, even last year, she woke up at the crack of dawn, and brought her stocking into my bedroom for me to watch her open her gifts. Then it's down to the living room to open santa gifts, and my parents and I exchange our gifts. We have cinnamon buns for breakfast and watch the Disney parade in out pajamas.

We watch the Bells of St Mary's and It's a Wonderful life.

We pick one night and ride around to see all the decorations.


Not a tradition, but this year I am surprising DD with a trip to Disney as her Christmas gift. We will leave on 12/19 and get home at midnight on 12/23...just in time for our Christmas with our family...

 

[raysnkaysmom]

oh my gosh..I love reading about traditions..I just LOVE Christmas. Each year I'm getting more into it. My girls are now 9 and 4 (as of xmas) and it's just soo much fun to decorate. Each year the girls get a new ornament that is of something they've been 'big' into this year. In the past it's been Powerpuff girls, scooby and last year it was Brother Bear ornaments. Then, the Sunday after T'Giving we put up our tree. Just last year was our first REAL tree year and I want to make that a new tradition..I loved the real tree!!
Xmas eve is always with my family, first my dads house, then my aunts house with ALLL my family. Xmas Eve we usually open at home too, although this changes year to year pending time constraints with me working retail. Xmas morning is FIL's house for breakfast and gifts.
Xmas afternoon is a movie. The movies are PACKED that day!! The first year we started the 'movie tradition' we saw Mighty Joe Young at the theatre.
That's about it We like going to Waffle House Xmas night

 

[Danauk]

Christmas eve we go to church and then prepare the veg and make sure the table is set for the next day. We have all the family at my house for christmas day. My MIL and FIL come along with grandMIL and SIL (although SIL will be in Australia this year meeting her boyfriends parents!) Then my mum, dad and uncle come to visit too. Then on boxing day my parents go home and we just chill around the house. Then on the 27th I start a show in our local theatre (I am in a traditional English family pantomime.)

 

[DisneyRoys]

I think our biggest tradition is purchasing ornaments. Every year the kids pick out one ornament a piece. They can't buy the ornament until after Thanksgiving, even though they have already started looking at ornaments. They will look at every single store in the city and then we will go back to their very favorite. This is a very time consuming process but it something they really enjoy and remember doing every year.

The kids also get new pajamas and have their picture taken together and seperate in front of the Christmas tree just before bed on christmas eve.

The kids leave cookies and milk for Santa. Santa seems to always wear chapstick and you can see an imprint of his frosty lips on the clear glass.

Our Christmas tree goes up Thanksgiving weekend. We listen to our favorite carols while decorating. DD puts the star on top.

We open gifts on Christmas morning. We leave all the wrapping paper and bows in the floor until every present is opened. It's like a sea of wrapping paper, bows, and boxes.

Santa leaves us an orange and assorted nuts in our stockings. When I was little he also left a Susan B. Anthony dollar.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[poohtown]

Originally posted by DisneyRoys

Santa leaves us an orange and assorted nuts in our stockings.

I'll never forget the year Santa left me an orange and nuts in my stocking ........I cried and cried thinking I must have been really bad.

 

[luvthatduke]

Awwww.... But they were better than coal, right?

 

[remyandhollandsmommy]

We made up new traditions when we were stationed so far away from our family. Please add Holly to the following traditions since she is the newest member of our family and did not participate last year (she was less than a month old). They are:

Remy gets a personal letter from Santa talking about the upcoming holiday (it is delivered the week before Christmas).

Christmas eve Remy get a special Christmas pair of pajamas. We bake Santa's cookies, and write his "thank you" letter. Then we take the "reindeer" food and a few carrots and put them out in the front yard (we have to clear off a patch in the snow LOL). Remy and I make the reindeer food by mixing dry oatmeal, cheerios (reindeer like these I swear ) and cut up apples. We also sprinkle some magical glitter in it so the reindeer can see it in the starlight. Then we come upstairs and she gets to open one gift that "Santa" sent early by USPS (I set up a box with 'fake' postage from my ebay supplies). Then she pours Santa's milk and goes to bed. DH and I (after making sure she is asleep) go out to the front yard and hide most of the reindeer food in the snow and put out carrots that we have taken bites off (the ones Remy put out we throw away). We also sprinkle raisins on the ground(this is what happens when the reindeer eat the food LOL). We put out the rest of the gifts and bring out what our family has sent since 'Santa' picks these gifts up at their house and them off at our house. We fill her stocking (lots of Disney Dollars). Then DH eats most of the cookies and drinks the milk. He also writes a letter to Remy thanking her for being a good girl and to keep up the good work, etc. FINALLY, we get to go to bed.

Christmas, we get up (DH gets up first and tracks in real snow with his boots since 'Santa's' has already melted) and Remy gets to put on her Christmas dress (I get the girls matching ones). We check that the food was all eaten, Remy reads her letter, and then get to open the gifts and check her stocking. I start cooking and we have "dinner" at noon with a bunch of the single soldiers we invite over. After that we go sledding and have some fun! We go back to our house for real dinner, visit, and that is about it.

OH, and DH makes us take down our tree before bedtime!! He is such a GRINCH!!! Santa leaves him a chunk of coal in his stocking every year as a "warning" LOL!

 

[luvthatduke]

"and DH makes us take down our tree before bedtime"

 

[princessbaileigh]

I have loved reading these traditions. I am already getting into the spirit!
I may do something new this year, regarding Santa and his reindeer! I loved the raisins idea. My husband will think tht is funny too....but, he may want prunes instead! LOL!

Keep them coming!!!!!!!!

I leave for Disney World on Wednesday for the MNSSHP! my second time......Daughter's First ever trip to Disney World!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

We ALWAYS watch George C. Scott in "A Christmas Carol" on Chistmas Eve, right before presents.

We only watch the movie once a year, even though we own it on video.

 

[luvthatduke]

Have a magical time!!!!!!!

 

[TinkerBess_SnowTori]

of our traditions - it is a silly one.


My DH and I decided that we kind of liked the presents all wrapped in the same paper the first year we were married. So every year AFTER Thanksgiving we go out together (now with our DDs) and pick out one kind of paper to wrap all our gifts.

We joke about the day the girls will rebel and spend their own money to buy paper different than ours. Or call us from college and ask us to send us some of this years wrapping paper.

(at first it went against every thing I knew - you always bought paper after Christmas - when it was cheap - but now I love this silly tradition - because it is "ours")

 

[wdwgirl03]

Originally posted by minniecarousel
They were so cute when they were little - on Christmas morning, they would wait at the top of the stairs until their Dad had the video camera ready!

My dad would do this too!!

Let's see, what else do we do...on Christmas eve, we always celebrate with my mom's side of the family. We have dinner and everyone gets a couple of gifts. My mom and all my aunts have a tradition that they all make some sort of craft to give to each other (like ornaments, etc.) When me and my cousins were younger, we'd have a pinata to entertain us when Santa came. It's so fun watching all our home videos from Christmas!!

On Christmas day me and my sisters would always get up really early (well, we still do that!) to open our presents. Then we'd go over to my grandparents' house to celebrate with my dad's family. But now we have it at our house instead. We also go over to my other grandma's house for breakfast.

We also do St. Nick's on December 6. We all get our stockings filled with candy and other little gifts.

Man, now this is making me wish Christmas was tomorrow!!! Only 2 months away!!!!

 

[luvthatduke]

Originally posted by wdwgirl03:
We also do St. Nick's on December 6. We all get our stockings filled with candy and other little gifts.

My friends do this, only they leave their shoes
outside and dad fills them (their boys are teenagers, now).
Can you help me understand this tradition?
It sounds like such a nice addition to the Christmas Spirit!

 

[BethanyF]

Originally posted by luvthatduke
Originally posted by wdwgirl03:
We also do St. Nick's on December 6. We all get our stockings filled with candy and other little gifts.

My friends do this, only they leave their shoes
outside and dad fills them (their boys are teenagers, now).
Can you help me understand this tradition?
It sounds like such a nice addition to the Christmas Spirit!

St Nicholas Day This was just one of the links that came up. Basically, St Nicholas was Santa Claus, and December 6th is his Feast Day.

 

[gottaluvPluto]

We have several traditions:

make a gingerbread house

DD's make some ornaments

have a tree decorating party

Santa leaves something behind every year -example- last year he left his hat in the fireplace. The kids love this

Santa wraps all of his gifts in Santa wrapping paper.