What family traditions do you cherish this time of year

[DebMcDonald]

I absolutely love this time of year and it's just not the holiday's itself, but what the holiday's mean to my family and the traditions that we carry on from year to year.

My holiday tablecloth is one of my favorite and now I have one for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I read it in family fun a couple of years ago so I can't take any of the credit, but all it takes is family, a tablecloth and some Sharpie markers. At some point after dinner everyone at the table draws something on the tablecloth, whether it be something significant that has happened throughout the year or just a silly holiday decoration, but it's so great to get these out year after year and see how the kids drawings have changed or who was there that year. That first year everyone was gumpy about it, but I have to say that now everyone loves and really has fun with it.

When decorating the tree each girl gets a new ornament, something that marks their year, also I put an ornament on with a picture of them. My idea behind that is when they are long gone and decorating their own tree with their family I will have a small tree with just their pictures throughout the years.

My holiday cookie party with friends.

Our elf "jingle" who will arrive on Thanksgiving morning, it's just great to see the kids get so excited out it and it makes the joy of Christmas last an entire month.

Decorating our gingerbread house together as a family.

And my very last is our Christmas Eve fondue which I have carried over from my parents (the only tradition that I carried on from my childhood), we sit around the table for hours on x-mas eve and just really enjoy the family.

 

[SaraJayne]

On the first day of deer hunting (Saturday next weekend) all of the girls in my family (no matter their age ) come from all over the US to bake/exchange cookies and visit all day and we end the day with everyone at a nice restaurant. It's a tradition started by my Grandmother and all her sisters and their daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters have carried on the tradition.

I also get an ornament for the kids every year and it's fun to pick out.

Putting out the ceramic 3 ft tall Santa that was passed to me from my Mother. It was an integral part of my childhood Christmases.

We also get new pajamas every year for Christmas.

 

[pigletto]

All of them!!!!!!
I am a Christmas nut I think.
My favorites are driving around drinkign hot chocolate and seeing the light displays. Buying my kids their Christmas eve jammies and ornament and reading "The Night Before Christmas". Picking out and putting up the tree. Making gingerbread houses (this year we are using leftover halloween candy to decorate them.. a tip I got here!).
Oh and we always do family movie nights but soon they will be Christmas themed movies. We have our favorites and watch them every year

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

Last year when I was student teaching my co-op teacher did a "Craft Day" and she set up 10 different stations, parents came in to help their kids and at the end of the day each kid walked away with 10 nice crafts for Christmas to decorate the house with or give to family members as gifts.

But the one thing that they did, which was so cute that I even made one for my DD and brought it home was Reindeer Food.

It was very simple, just a plastic baggy, some raw oats and tons of glitter, and then one of these sayings attached to it.
http://www.youthonline.ca/christmas/crafts/reindeerfood.shtml

And we left it out on christmas eve on the front lawn. So we'll do that at home this year and I'll make some for my cousins.

I also have a "key" into our house that I got from Hallmark 2 years ago, DD loves leaving that out on the door on christmas eve, she gets so excited.

I also usually take her Michaels or AC Moore and let her pick out a Christmas ornament craft so she could make a new one for our tree.

And every year usually 2 weeks before Christmas my whole family goes to my Aunt's House b/c Santa comes to the houses on a fire truck every year. LOL, its so priceless when the kids see Santa, I think 2 of them are starting to catch on though, "Why is EVERYONE here today? Is SANTA coming today?" lol

 

[MinnieLove]

Love the tip of using halloween candy to decorate the gingerbread house. I was just considering throwing it away this morning. I will be saving it! THANKS

Our holiday traditions - one new ornament for each child. PJs for Xmas eve. And our favorite is.... Each year we make use the year pics and make a video - set to popular music and share funnies from throughout the year. The video is a year in review. Each Xmas eve we gather and watch with family. It is the only silent time of the night - accept for the laughter. I can honestly say it is my favorite! Each family (4 sibs and their kids and MIL & FIL) leaves with a copy. We watch it year round.

 

[figment3258]

For Christmas we also get new Christmas eve pj's and also my cousin and I keep our grandma baking a live we make polish chrischici ( not spelled right i am sure) its really good and not easy to make but lots of fun we also play games on Christmas eve with family like bingo and guess who which is so cute!

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Thank-you for starting this thread, I was a little down today because I found out yesterday that none of our extended family will be joining us for Thanksgiving this year so I need to look at the things I enjoy with my family.

Like a previous poster, we sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn on Christmas Eve, we've been doing that for about 11 years now. My teens still expect it.

We always have Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Thanksgiving and Christmas day.

Those are really the only ones I can think of right now, but I'm sure as I read more posts more will come to me, I'm just not in the holiday spirit right now.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Oh, I've got another one. On Christmas Eve before I go to bed I put a couple of wrapped books in the kids' beds. When they wake up waaaaay too early they are allowed to unwrap them and read quietly until it's time to come downstairs (I tell them what time they can wake me up when I'm tucking them in). I love picking out special books for them.

 

[Tickla]

Chopping down our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving! I did this growing up with my parents, and my dad still comes with my husband and I and my 3 sons every year. It's what I look forward to the most

 

[r4blessings]

Love this thread! Some of the things we enjoy.....

Decorating the Christmas tree the saturday after Thanksgiving. Family movie nights with Christmas themed movies. We also dvr abc family's christmas specials so that we can watch the classics!

We take the kids to the Dollar Store and give them each a dollar to spend on each of their siblings. Its so neat to see how carefully they shop for each other and how much they love picking out the perfect present. Its a special afternoon and not expensive!

We allow each child to invite a friend over to decorate gingerbread houses and have pizza on a friday night.

We also have an elf on the shelf....ours is named Mickey and he reappears in a new spot each morning.

We make reindeer food...sometimes I will go into one of my children's classrooms and do this craft with them. I also make reindeer chocolate lollipops with my kids for them to hand out to their classmates.

One Saturday in Dec my mom and I go out shopping (I am usually done with most of my shopping by this point, so I don't feel pressured and usually buy candles, wrapping paper, etc) and then have lunch while DH watches the kids.

I love the idea of the Magic Santa Key and just looked at some online. I think I will try that this year as well. Our elf on a shelf will return on Thanksgiving morning and he always brings some small treats like chocolate turkeys, a xmas movie....this year he will be bringing the Rudolph Wii game and some turkey webkinz!

 

[pantherlj]

All of them!!!!!!
I am a Christmas nut I think.
My favorites are driving around drinkign hot chocolate and seeing the light displays. Buying my kids their Christmas eve jammies and ornament and reading "The Night Before Christmas". Picking out and putting up the tree. Making gingerbread houses (this year we are using leftover halloween candy to decorate them.. a tip I got here!).
Oh and we always do family movie nights but soon they will be Christmas themed movies. We have our favorites and watch them every year

I just bought the girls their Christmas Eve PJs today I just hope they fit - they are both in between sizes. Getting ready for our Christmas movie spree too.

We love driving around looking at lights. DUH - never thought to bring hot chocolate!

We also love the Santa Train in town but the prices have tripled since we first started going. And, they let members buy for a week before non members now so not sure if we will go. We have been going to at least 6 years so would be hard to miss it.

 

[QVCshopper]

My family never celebrated XMas when I was a kid, so I tend to go WAY overboard now. But, I love the lights, the music, the movies. It's really one of my favorite times of the year since it's still so new to me.

Anyway, my favorites are:
Visiting Longwood Garden's light display (we go at least 3 times every year)
Setting up the tree on Black Friday
Watching the Disney XMas classic. We've already started. I like Curious George's new XMas movie, too.
Baking Gingerbread cookies
Wearing PJs most of XMas
Free holiday party in town at a very old movie theater
Dutch Winter Wonderland
Reindeer at a local garden center
Walking by the house in the neighborhood over that goes crazy with lights
Luminaries on XMas eve night
Cookies/breakfast with Santa
Getting out my decorations. Got new hand soaps and towels this year!
Listening to the songs in the car

Hoping to start the elf thing this year. Also, I really want to sleep under the XMas tree with my kids, like a family camp out. I think it would be really fun... not sure what DH thinks yet. Maybe make a candy house? I have many plans!

 

[MomToOne]

Alot of our traditions happen on Thanksgiving weekend...

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving my daughter and I go get a new Christmas book, go out to lunch, then go buy our new Nutcracker for the year. It started out as being the day I'd take her to go visit Santa (I won't go near a mall after Thanksgiving) but now that she's older we've replaced it with picking out the book and Nutcracker.

Thanksgiving day we sit around the house in our pajamas all day and watch non-stop Christmas movies. This year we aren't even cooking a traditional meal - neither of us really like turkey and it's too big of a mess to clean up so we are going to eat a variety of appetizers all day long

The day after Thanksgiving we are one of the first families to hit our Christmas tree lot. We spend the day decorating the house and putting up the tree. Our tree is what I call a "family tree" - lots of random ornaments from our travels, handed down from family, etc. Every ornament has a story so we spend lots of time talking about each one.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we like to hit a Christmas movie, if there is new one out. This year the pickings don't look so good though, so we may end up going to see Tangled...

Then on random weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas we'll:
- Go to "Emigrant Christmas" day at Sutters Fort, one of the forts many pioneers were heading for when they first came to California. There are lots of old fashioned Christmas activities for the kids that my daughter loves. It's just a nice, quiet day of enjoying a simpler way of living. If it doesn't rain, that is (but we still go even in the rain - makes it feel even more authentic!)
- Spend an afternoon decorating our Gingerbread house
- Spend an entire day baking and EATING lots of cookies and other treats
- Make orange and apple "ornaments" for the trees outside as a Christmas present to the neighborhood squirrels and birds

Finally, for Christmas proper, we travel cross country to my Mom's. Christmas Eve is a HUGE deal with my family - we make a large meal followed by the family gift exchange. It's really looked forward to more than Christmas Day itself, even by the kids!

 

[Minnie M6]

Oh, I've got another one. On Christmas Eve before I go to bed I put a couple of wrapped books in the kids' beds. When they wake up waaaaay too early they are allowed to unwrap them and read quietly until it's time to come downstairs (I tell them what time they can wake me up when I'm tucking them in). I love picking out special books for them.

This is SUCH a great idea! I am totally doing this this year- th anks!

 

[DebMcDonald]

Oh, I've got another one. On Christmas Eve before I go to bed I put a couple of wrapped books in the kids' beds. When they wake up waaaaay too early they are allowed to unwrap them and read quietly until it's time to come downstairs (I tell them what time they can wake me up when I'm tucking them in). I love picking out special books for them.

Love this idea!!

 

[mlaw]

What a fun thread. Our traditions start with cutting down our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Often other relatives join us. The tree farm allows dogs, so our family dog has always joined us for the tree cutting and the hay ride they have at the farm. We just took in a rescue dog, so it will be her first tree hunt and hayride this year.

Christmas day is the big extended family celebration, so Christmas eve has always been just for the four of us. It starts with Christmas eve mass, dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and then driving around looking at Christmas lights. Once home, the Christmas pj's is the only present the girls get to open that night. Now that they are older, I actually send them up to bed earlier so my husband and I can get things "taken care of" for the next morning. At age 16 and 13, they still sleep together on Christmas eve, which is a tradition they started on their own once they got their own bedrooms when they were much younger.

Every year, each girl also picks out an ornament. We put their initials and the year on the ornaments. It is so fun to remember each one, as well as the one's we have bought on vacations, when we decorate the tree each year. Plus, when they move out and have their own tree, they will already have many precious memories to hang on their trees.

Yeah, only 40 days until Christmas. I LOVE this time of year.

 

[JamesMom]

We have so many Christmas season traditions it's crazy!

- Buy nice sweater sets for the Christmas card pictures (which are being taken this Friday). These clothes will be worn to Christmas eve Mass.
- After shopping on Black Friday it is decorating central. The trees (3) go up and outside lights. Stockings & Nativity collection (minus baby Jesus)
- Light Advent Candles and prayers every night before bed. Afterwards kids do the Advent Tree- a box like tree with 24 compartments that we put M&Ms or Hersey's kisses for the kids to share. When all the compartments have been reversed a picture displays.
- About 2 times a week bundle up in the car and look at decorations. Also, kids make crafts (kits from Michaels).
- Bake! Bake! Bake! Make dozens of cookies, bon bons & fudge for neighbors, friends, teachers & bus drivers (and ourselves!). And build a gingerbread house. We make a batch on christmas eve for Santa and leave carrots for the reindeer. Christmas songs are always played while cooking.
- Visit Santa to give our lists and Nana & Grandpa the weekend before Christmas for a special dinner (since they visit other family on Christmas day).
- Adopt an Angel tree family, don't pass by a Salvation Army bucket without donating and bring food for the pantry every time we go to Church.
- Mass on Christmas eve afternoon followed by dinner at Golden Corral (long story behind the restuarant choice - think blizzard, lol). Jesus is now displayed in the Nativity.
- Put on new Christmas PJs (the only night of the year they actually wear PJs!), watch Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Rudolph the Rednose reindeer and try to sleep.
- And, of course, Christmas carols played while opening presents. Santa is a messy eater and always leaves crumbs and a half filled glass of milk behind. After opening gifts, we have a big breakfast complete with Coffee cake, a staple from my husband's childhood. Then that evening we have our Christmas dinner (ham & fixings).

We stay very busy over the season. I think about adding "elf" and others, but I think we already have enough.

 

[Silverbelle990]

Our Christmas tradions start on Thanksgiving. A few years ago we start secret santa with the family. Eveyone's name goes into a hat and we pick our secret santa. There is a ten dollar minum for our santas. this year the youngest get to join . They are very excited. Black friday shopping starts the season off. I am the crazy lady in line at 2am for toys r us.

In between this time we shop bake and are planning a day of wrapping in which my sisters and i will go to each others house to help wrap.

Christmas eve my whole family comes over to my house for our now traditional tortalinii and antipasta. After Dinner the adults gets a glass of wine and we do our secret santa. It is fun trying to figure out who everyone has. Usually we do the trick give where you say i got you then snatch it back and so it to someone else. Usually we are afriad to open a present if it is really for us. ( i smile as i see it in my head) After secret sant everyone goes home. I clean up then we do the one gift to each other. Which is of course New Jammies. I see everyone likes this tradtion. We leave out carrots for the reindeer and cocoa and cookies. The kids get tucked into bed and my husband and i wait for quiet. We sneak upstairs a couple time to make sure they are realy sleeping. My oldest is ten now so we are trying very hard to keep santa alive for him. After we eat and drink cocao set up santa gifts we go to bed knowing we will be up early.

5 am hits with children asking to open gifts. My husband goes down first and turns on the lights and says he didn't come go back to bed but that never works. He lights a fire and our NEW tradtion is to turn on Disneys Magical Fireplace on the TV. I go this for me and my sisters last year. The best thing ever!!! The kids run down and we do stockigng first whic are toothbrushes and deoderant.

After gifts we clean up and relax beofr going to my sisters for family presents. We have a great dinner and then do family gifts. We laugh, cry( which has become a game to see who can make someone cry first) and have a great time.

 

[klacey1]

I also have a "key" into our house that I got from Hallmark 2 years ago, DD loves leaving that out on the door on christmas eve, she gets so excited.

Love the "key" idea!
Our main tradition is going into the city and doing all of the touristy things-- the windows at Macy's, 5th Avenue, and of course-- that beautiful tree at night!