Holiday Traditions

Rebis58

Have we done this already?

Any holiday traditions you had as a kid that you want to continue on with your LOs now? Any conflicts with SO about whose traditions to follow?

Rebis58

One tradition I'm bringing from my family: my parents had 24 Christmas books that they would put away for most of the year, then wrap and bring out each December 1st. Every night we were allowed to pick one book and unwrap it for bedtime story. Like an advent calendar of books. I just need to build up our collection so by the time DD is old enough to participate we have 24 books.

It was funny, when I told H about the tradition he was like "No, we are NOT doing that!" I was surprised by how against it he was so I asked why, and he said "We're not buying her TWENTY FOUR books every year!" Once he understood that it's the same 24 books he was totally on board, haha

One tradition I've started since H and I got married, is that I buy us something cozy to wear (pj's for me, a robe, new underwear, long johns, etc. for H), and we unwrap it on Christmas Eve and watch National Lampoons Christmas (H's favourite) before bed. Yes, I buy and wrap my own pj's, it's the price I pay for the tradition I want that H isn't really into! Hopefully our kids like it more than he does. (For the record, he doesn't complain and he enjoys it, I think he just didn't really want to add another expense and "task" to his Christmas list)

MaryBB77

Love your book idea. Might have to steal it

km_md

My family has always done new pjs on Christmas Eve. We still do this at my moms house every year. I wanted to have something for just the three of us and since DD loves books, we decided to do one new book to open on Christmas Eve every year.

ETA: my plan is for all of us to come home with our new jammies, get ready for Santa, and snuggle up together and read the new story.

Rebis58

MaryBB77 said:

Love your book idea. Might have to steal it

@MaryBB77 go for it! It's one of my favourite holiday memories, can't wait til DD is old enough to enjoy it!

ETA: I told all family/friends who have asked what we want for DD to get us Christmas books, and then I plan to hit the bookstore for boxing day shopping and get some discount holiday books.

ThankfulSnail

DH and I have a similar Christmas Eve tradition. I get us both new pjs, stuff to make hot cocoa- spiked when I wasn't pregnant, and a new Xmas movie, put it in a big box and we open that after church, make popcorn and watch our movie in our new pjs while getting tipsy/cozy with our homemade cocoa. I already got DD a pair of holiday pjs so she can kind of participate this year.

Laurenlavay

I have one!! When my brothers and I were kids and it was time to decorate the christmas tree, we found Santa always came a few weeks early to drop off each of us a new christmas ornament. It was always wrapped and in the box of christmas tree stuff. There is a picture of each of us hanging our new ornament on the tree every year. I love this tradition and plan to continue it with my LO!

Rebis58

Laurenlavay said:

I have one!! When my brothers and I were kids and it was time to decorate the christmas tree, we found Santa always came a few weeks early to drop off each of us a new christmas ornament. It was always wrapped and in the box of christmas tree stuff. There is a picture of each of us hanging our new ornament on the tree every year. I love this tradition and plan to continue it with my LO!

Ooh I like this! H and I have a tradition of giving each other a new ornament every year in our stockings but I might tweak it a bit to this idea!

BABYROSEJEANS17

Ours is spending Xmas Eve to NYE as a family and in our PJs watching TV/Movies so we're going to do the same thing now it's the 3 of us.

@Arya808 Same here! I always take Xmas Eve until the New Year so that SO and I would spend lazy days and celebrate NYE. Now that DS is here it's even more special. It's hard enough being a working mom and it'll be nice to take the time off.

@rebis58 I love this tradition!!!

bensmommy518

When I was a kid my mom used to have to work on christmas day alot (she works in a hospital and had no way around it) and it would be torture for us as kids to not be able to open presents until she got home from work at 4:30 pm.  We started a tradition of on Christmas Eve we would go to church and out to dinner as a family.  Then when we got home, Santa had already come and put presents in our stockings so we could start Christmas early.  This way when mom had to work on Christmas Day we had already opened a few things together and had new toys to play with that made it easier to last until she got home at 4:30.   Mom would make sure there were always a couple of really cool items in the stockings so it wasn't just all little things like candy or trinkets. 

We still get together with my parents every Christmas Eve for church, going out to dinner and back to their house to open stockings.  The only thing that has changed is now we open all our gifts with them too and then we do our family's Christmas at our house on Christmas morning. 

LittleMommaBlueHen

Christmas eve pajamas are the only tradition I insist on from my childhood, but DH and I have established several traditions of our own.  We have an Advent wreath and pray evening prayer from the liturgy of the hours every night after dinner during Advent.  We celebrate St. Nicholas's feast day by stuffing the kids' shoes with little treats (we do this instead of stockings on Christmas).  On Gaudete Sunday, everyone gets a new Christmas ornament for the tree.  I collect Nativity sets so we have a Nativity in almost every room of the house.