GTKY: Holiday Traditions

raelynn71109

Do you have any favorite holiday traditions from when you were a kid? Any that you do now or plan to do in the future?

raelynn71109

When I was a kid my grandmother bought a Christmas ornament for me each year and gave them all to me when I grew up and had my own place. Most of them had the year or they were something specific to my interests at the time. I've been doing this with SD, except I let her pick out the ornament each year. It makes decorating the tree so much fun. She loves looking at my old ornaments and checking the years on hers to remember how old she was when she picked it out. I'll give them to her when she grows up. And I'll do the same for this kid/any future kids.

pmcd886

My mom got us kids an ornament every year too. We always have/do go look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, and have Breakfast Jacks from Jack in the Box for breakfast on Christmas Day. 

vtgoodspeed

We always would get a live tree and I would always want a bigger one than what we ended up getting.  There were always bubble lights.  Always have cinamon rolls on Christmas morning too.

tlc35

Hooray for a non pregnancy related thread!!!!

My family wasn't all that into traditions but we would always decorate the tree together and it was just family time.  I do love the idea of getting a new ornament every year that is special.  So cute.

xsarahbethx

Christmas Eve is the bomb! Homemade hot chocolate! Presents galore! Cozy PJs! It's the best.

haltandsalute

Growing up, we would obviously all open gifts together.  Then my mom would cook a big fancy pants breakfast, but before eating we would have one last little gift on our plates.  It was usually something small but special, like concert tickets, or a necklace or something like that.  It was always fun for us kids to try to come up with something to surprise our parents with.

shannonabigail

watching 24 hours of a Christmas story on TBS. At least once all the way through and bits and pieces throughout the day.

xsarahbethx

shannonabigail said:

watching 24 hours of a Christmas story on TBS. At least once all the way through and bits and pieces throughout the day.

YES!!! I LOVE that movie!

Tnmoore04

We would get to choose one gift to open on Christmas Eve. I don't remember doing anything fancy though... I think because we did it up so big for thanksgiving. So, I am looking forward to starting family traditions with my kid.

shannonabigail

xsarahbethx said:

watching 24 hours of a Christmas story on TBS. At least once all the way through and bits and pieces throughout the day.

YES!!! I LOVE that movie!

unfortunately DH does not feel the same :-(

xsarahbethx

shannonabigail said:

xsarahbethx said:

shannonabigail said:

watching 24 hours of a Christmas story on TBS. At least once all the way through and bits and pieces throughout the day.

YES!!! I LOVE that movie!

unfortunately DH does not feel the same :-(


Booooooo!

Ampaints

My dad always wrapped the presents but didn't put any tags on them. It drove my brother and I crazy! He would even have two boxes that were the same size in the same paper and always know which one each of us got. I hope I can do that, I have pretty good success now, but baby brain is already kicking in.
This year is the third year we've taken or niece to paint ornaments for the family. I got all teared up thinking next year we'll take our little one even though they'll be too little to paint!

panaricana

Each kid gets a mini tree with annual ornaments, and wakes with a special present under that tree. I did the advent (chocolate) calendar as a kid, and my mom likes buying that for the kids each year. This year we bought a Santa holding a chalkboard and the kids have really enjoyed taking turns writing the days left until x Mas. We also take the kids to see lights, but this was our first year doing it at Busch Gardens Christmas town - I think it'll be a new tradition. We're procrastinators and tend to do last minute shopping, which leaves us pulling an all nighter wrapping presents ... looks like we're keeping this tradition alive this year too. We do the one gift on Xmas eve and new pjs make their way into the mix. For the last couple years we've been doing gingerbread houses (post t-rex/godzilla visit, of course) the day of Xmas, after breakfast, which trends to come after the morning nap, since presents tend to be at dawnish. One of my favorites is shopping on the 26th. And we continue celebrating during the 12 days of xmas, leaving the traditional box out with camel snacks and opening presents on 3 king's day, too.

Edited to Add: I remembered while writing, but baby-brained and forgot to write - we also do nuts and oranges (plus some goodies) in the stockings and at some point we continue my dad's tradition of reading "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and a nativity story.

evalynn24

My Mom and Dad have always made Christmas goodies to hand out just before Christmas and now this has kind of become mine and my Mom's thing. We also have always opened one gift on Christmas Eve. It was always a fun way of spending the night off before heading over to our Grandparents the next day to open gifts with family.

At my Grandparents we would exchange a few gifts and then have "dinner" around 1 pm then almost immediately after the table was cleaned off we would play card games all night. 

shupertj09

We clean the house on Christmas Eve (lol....because and I quote my mother "Santa does not visit messy houses"). We would go my in laws later that day, have dinner and open presents (we did the same with my grandparents when I was younger. After that, we drive around and look at Christmas lights (basically my parents wore me out and we do the same to our DD). When we get home, we get in pjs, bake cookies for Santa and fall asleep watching "It's a Wonderful Life".

Christmas is lazy pjs all day, open present, play with toys, eat leftovers, watch "A Christmas Story" etc...

myfriendscallmemeg

Growing up there were 6 other kids in my family plus two parents all there with presents piled high on Christmas morning. All of the presents were wrapped and none were under the tree until SANTA came. That way it was a huge shock factor coming and seeing all of what Santa had done while we were sleeping!
Other favorite is that my parents live in a 100 year old church, that has 14' ceilings in it. the best part about their house on Christmas (now that all the kids are gone) is the giant tree. It's always an imperfect mountain tree but it's always so beautiful.

Now we wake up, have Christmas morning at our house and then go visit both of our parents' houses.

My little brother is living in Hungary on a church mission until July of 2016 and only gets to Skype twice a year, so we get to Skype with him first thing in the morning on Christmas. I'm so excited to see his face!

incir

There are a lot of holiday baking traditions in my family -- special tea ring on Christmas morning, rum cake with presents and apple pie at night.  Also baking Christmas cookies.  I'm excited for DS to be able to decorate some of the cookies this year.  We are also a family that opens gifts one at a time youngest to oldest and it is great to see everyone's expressions.  I also think it really teaches patience.  

We also celebrate Hanukkah (DH is Jewish, so is DS).  Nothing really unusual here, just the standard latkes and menorah.  But it is so cute to see DS so excited about it.  He woke up this morning and saw the menorah and said, "more Hanukkah!"  Its adorable that he is so excited.