Christmas/Holiday Traditions

YayMom · November 2009

What family traditions would you like to pass on to your little one?

Mine: My sister and I were always allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was our choice which gift we wanted to open and I always looked forward to picking out which one I could open early. I think I would like to pass this tradition on to my little one because my parents always got a kick out of watching us going back and forth trying to decide which gift to open early.

ilovemyprince · November 2009

For Thanksgiving we like to go around and say what we are Thankful for plus there's always watching the parades!! For Christmas, we do the one gift on Christmas eve, the letter and cookies for Santa, and making a Gingerbread house and or candy apples. Yummy

CMMC23 · November 2009

We always did one of those Advent calendars counting down until Christmas! It was a big wooden wall hanging one with little doors for hidden trinkets/candies. We always did it right after breakfast and thought it was so cool we got to have candy in the morning before school.

MrsC17 · November 2009

Unfortunately DH and I don't have any real holiday traditions with our families, but we definitely want to start one with LO. I like the "opening one present" on Christmas eve--but it depends since that is our due date (I doubt highly she will come on that date but if she does I'm sure it'd feel like we were trying to pawn Christmas presents as birthday presents-lol).

getnmarried910 · November 2009

DH's family did the same thing, but the Christmas Eve gift was one they were given, not one they got to pick. It is always pajama pants. His mom still gets them for everyone if they are there on Christmas Eve. We weren't last year and won't be this year, so we'll miss out on Christmas pj's (oh darn-she always gets mine either too small or too big) but DH and I plan to carry on this tradition for now. A tradition we want to pass down from my family is reading the Christmas story from the Bible before opening gifts. That's one of my favorite memories as a child where Christmas is concerned...and I'm getting all teary thinking of my dad reading it.

Jen&Louie · November 2009

On Christmas Eve, my sister and I were given one gift and it was always our holiday pajamas that we would wear to bed that night. One of us would put baby Jesus in the nativity right before bed and leave cookies and milk for Santa. Last, that night our bedtime story was 'Twas the night before Christmas. I plan to carry on all of these traditions with my children.

ilovemyprince · November 2009

getnmarried910:
DH's family did the same thing, but the Christmas Eve gift was one they were given, not one they got to pick. It is always pajama pants. His mom still gets them for everyone if they are there on Christmas Eve. We weren't last year and won't be this year, so we'll miss out on Christmas pj's (oh darn-she always gets mine either too small or too big) but DH and I plan to carry on this tradition for now. A tradition we want to pass down from my family is reading the Christmas story from the Bible before opening gifts. That's one of my favorite memories as a child where Christmas is concerned...and I'm getting all teary thinking of my dad reading it.

Ditto love this one

MandyWes · November 2009

YayMom:

What family traditions would you like to pass on to your little one?

Mine: My sister and I were always allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was our choice which gift we wanted to open and I always looked forward to picking out which one I could open early. I think I would like to pass this tradition on to my little one because my parents always got a kick out of watching us going back and forth trying to decide which gift to open early.

We do this too, I'd like to pass this on. As well as making spritz Christmas cookies while listening to the Nutcracker, John Denver & the Muppets Christmas, Neil Diamond, Mannheim Steamroller and Bing Crosby on shuffle. Yes I know, quite a mix!

MrsButterfly_Brooks · November 2009

Thats a super cute idea. My brother and I got to do the same thing! I'm excited about passing that down!

aliciamariel · November 2009

Once my brother and I found out the truth about Santa, we did the one gift before Christmas thing. We'd go to Midnight Mass, which is so beautiful at my church back home, and then we'd go home, have hot chocolate and open one gift. A couple of years after that, we ended up opening all our gifts, since it was technically already well into Christmas morning. I hated when we did all the gifts, because teenage girls don't get much to play with, just clothes and stuff, so I had nothing to do all Christmas day, while my brother always had a video game or something. DH didn't have many traditions. I'm hoping to start a bunch, like for Thanksgiving, I saw this tree thing, where you have fall leaves that you write what you're thankful for and then put it on the tree. I thought it would be cool to see what we're thankful for year after year, and put some older ones on the tree to bring back memories, and add new ones. For Christmas, I want to read "The Night Before Christmas" as kind of a bedtime routine when I put the kids to bed. We already got the book. I'm going to read it to LO this Christmas. I can't wait! And I like the Christmas pj tradition.

laylandconner · November 2009

On christmas eve our kids get to open up two gifts. One is the pjs, and then the other is something they grab from under the tree, plus then if we have family over they open there gifts as well. Plus we always try and watch as many xmas movies as possible.

zeptattoo · November 2009

DH's parents do something called "Little Chirstmas" which is about a week after the start of the new year. I think the timing signifies the return of the 3 wise men, but basically we see his parents and get to open one more small Christmas gift. The only thing is that is probably when LO will be born, so we are not sure if continuing it is practical since we will birthday parties et al.

beckys96 · November 2009

getting our tree, baking cookies, leaving them for santa, christmas countdown! I can't wait.

We decided we are going to stay home this year esp cuz we will have a little one, so I bought all of us new holiday pjs, and will wrap them and we are going to open them on Chrismtas eve to wear for Christmas day. I think this is something I will do every year.

ernlei608 · November 2009

We would always leave out milk and cookies for Santa before bed. Mom would read Twas The Night Before Christmas and Dad would read Jesus' birth from the bible. Then Christmas morning I would sneak down stairs to see if Santa had came. If he had I would go flush the toliet which was my sister's cue to come into my room. (I was the older of the two of us and the "braver" one to go downstairs) We would cuddle up in my bed and try decide how much longer to wait before we went to wake up mom and dad.

I have learned with in the last couple years that Dad was usually already up waiting for us. He was just as excited to watch us open our presents as we were to open them.

jinnymb · November 2009

we always do a gingerbread house on christmas eve. We also added reading the night before christmas and this really hilarious one where I have 12 days of christmas ornaments, so each family member gets a couple in a random order and we have to sing your part as you put your ornament on the tree, it cracks everyone up!!

ChicNotGeek · November 2009

I want my LO to learn the true meaning of Christmas, which is birth of Jesus and giving of ourselves, not just receiving presents from the Toys R Us catalog, and that not every child her age will be as fortunate as she is.

We don't know what activity(-ies) that may entail yet, and it probably won't begin for another few years until she's old enough to participate and understand, but it's important to both DH and I that LO learn those lessons. For the last few years, I've been active in charities through my church, but I'd like it to become a family activity, too.

DH and I live out of state from our families, and we intend to spend Christmas Eve/Day in our home, and then travel to the relatives out of state after Christmas.

Lariah14 · November 2009

On Thanksgiving my mom switches out the "rest of the year china" with the Christmas china... (separate from the "fine dining/special holiday china). DH and I do this now that we are married. I can't wait to take out my Spode Christmas dishes!!!We also do the Advent calendar.

We also open one gift from under the tree on Christmas Eve. It's when we do the "sibling gift exchange." We also do the traditional seafood dinner on Christmas Eve... it's an Italian tradition.

Christmas morning the youngest sibling would put the baby Jesus in the manger and then we would open gifts. My parents always left a long letter from "Santa"... he told us an elf (Thron) lived in our house the whole year round to keep an eye on us and the rest of the neighborhood. Santa always "thanked" us for letting Thron stay with us.... It was quite elaborate, with drawings by my mom and elvish writing similar to what is in LOTR around the edges...

Our baby is due Dec. 24 so we won't be going anywhere for Christmas this year. It will be the first year we won't be spending Christmas with family since we just moved. I'm hoping LO will come early and my family will be down here for Christmas!

jinnymb · November 2009

oh yes we always do christmas eve mass and try to go to a soup kitchen or take donations somewhere the day before christmas eve, to be appreciative of what we are about to receive.

Sorry there are a million more, i love christmas!!!

My mom use to play the christmas music all night for ambiance, we also usually go to the movies on christmas day and watch 24 hours of a christmas story

I got this christmas quilt from cracker barrel that you can put pictures in, so I'm getting one for each of my kids with pics of their first christmas and they can sleep with that and use on christmas day : ) I'm tearing up thinking about it...

Smileygirl75 · November 2009

The Christmas Fairy always brings PJ's for everyone on Christmas eve. On the way out to the car for mass on Christmas eve, DH or I always "forget" something (like my purse), so one of us runs back in and puts out the PJ's and brings the item out. When we get home from Church the Fairy has come and left everyone new flannel PJ's on their pillows. Then we put out the milk and cookies, read the night before Christmas and head to bed.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas, it's only become more special since having DH's four children live with us full time now (almost two years) but I can't wait to share the Christmas love with LO.

LVargovl · November 2009

There is a German tradition on Christmas Day that my parents would hide a very small pickle ornament in the tree. Whoever found the pickle would get an extra gift---usually a family game or something everyone could play with-- I have started doing that on Christmas Eve with my husbands family and the kids love it!!

kls621 · November 2009

I am not sure what traditions my husband wants to pass on, but I know what ones I want. We had the Advent Calendar and we did it everymorning after breakfast. Also we did the letters to Santa, but in our house you only asked Santa for one gift. Our gift from Santa was left unwrapped in front of the tree, that way it was the first thing we saw Christmas morning. My parents loved watching us come downstairs and seeing that gift first, I can't wait to do that with my own children. I also want to take my kids to the Christmas Eve Service, that was always such a special activity for my family. I have yet to figure out how I can do the last one, my husbands family celebrates on Christmas Eve, and we live 20 minutes from each side so we can't not go. I will figure something out.

ablou · November 2009

For Thanksgiving (next year), I think that DH is going to go to our church and hand out hot meals with the baby while I'm cooking (we're going to be in Indiana this year).

Christmas, we go to church on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, we open our stockings before breakfast (a traditional English fry-up w/ sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and eggs, served with toast... only have it on Christmas, and it's the best!). After breakfast, we open the presents. After presents, we visit our neighbors and give them all a plate of cookies that I've made in the days before. We usually loll around the house after cookies... dinner is always take-out: either a brisket or prime rib with a couple of sides that we make.

And every year, starting the day after Thanksgiving, I pull out all of our Christmas movies and watch them at various times during the season. My mom and I always watch White Christmas while baking, and we all watch Scrooged! on Christmas Eve.

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