I know it is early, but I want to start planning...

megs52881 · October 2012

Are there any Christmas/Holiday traditions you want to either continue with your child or start? Here are mine:

1. I want to put glitter and oatmeal on the walkway so the Santa can see the house and the reindeers have something to eat.(That's right I got this from Taylor on BHHW)

2. Every Christmas eve we will open new pj's to wear that night.

3. I am going to buy Elf on a Shelf.

megs52881 · October 2012

jfresh:
Love Elf on a Shelf, I'll probably steal that from you. Read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve after church with hot chocolate [my dad did that every year] Make Christmas cookies in a bunch of different shapes and decorate. We always wore new pajamas too! I'm getting excited for the holidays with Oliver just thinking about this stuff.

I just bought a really pretty hard cover"The Night Before Christmas" at Kohl's for 5 dollars! I forgot that one.

BransonsBecca · October 2012

I think we might do the 24 books of Christmas where they get to open a new book every night. And get PJs for the night before.

We also do something like Elf on a Shelf but we do it with a vintage Grinch doll that belongs to my dad- but I tracked one down on Ebay for my family!

DH and I always host a soup/bonfire night before Christmas at our house, where we try to make new soups and then go out for a fire and smores.

megs52881 · October 2012

BransonsBecca:
I think we might do the 24 books of Christmas where they get to open a new book every night. And get PJs for the night before.

We also do something like Elf on a Shelf but we do it with a vintage Grinch doll that belongs to my dad- but I tracked one down on Ebay for my family!

DH and I always host a soup/bonfire night before Christmas at our house, where we try to make new soups and then go out for a fire and smores.

Soup and bonfire night!! So cute. I am so excited to get all of these ideas!

Lisa07 · October 2012

Definitely Christmas tree day. It's the day after thanksgiving when you decorate for Xmas and eat cinnamon rolls. Big in my family and so much fun.

love_ya_babe · October 2012

We are doing books as part of our advent calendar. Every night he will open a new book and we will read it before bed. Family present with new pjs, movie and hot chocolate to open on christmas. When he gets a little older we will volunteer with the toy drive in my hometown that my dad (and consequently mother and I) used to oversee.

piper09 · October 2012

We also do the pj thing and elf on the shelf. Our elf Jingles shows up under the tree the first night it's put up and brings the pjs. Since we put our tree up right after Thanksgiving, this way they can get more use out of their Christmas pjs!

britbratjf · October 2012

Reading The Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express on Christmas Eve.

Watching A Christmas Story and eating cinnamon rolls Christmas morning after presents.

New Pjs Xmas Eve.

mrs.sewell · October 2012

I apologize now for my long ramble...

I grew up Jehovah's Witness, which means no holidays at all. I had my first Christmas in 2009. It was just me and my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time). He was telling me that as awesome as Christmas was, it gets even better when you have children to celebrate it with.

I'd never heard of any of the traditions he described. Something about a pickle, an elf, and reindeer food...

Many of you already know about the loooooooooong custody battle with his ex that finally ended earlier this year. Part of the custody agreement states that on even numbered years, his two kids spend Thanksgiving and the first half of Christmas break with us. That means this year, they will have Christmas at our house and with it being Hayden's first Christmas and my first "traditional" Christmas, I am SOOOO excited!

I am halfway convinced that Santa is real at this point. That's how exciting and magical this is for me...

Anyway, my husband says that these are MUSTS for Christmas at our house:

1. Jack, the elf, will be there to keep an eye on the boys and Hayden will probably get his own elf for the years that the boys are with their mom.

2. The magic pickle will be hidden in the tree. It sings.

3. He tells me that on Christmas Eve, you get a present in your shoe...

4. We will be making reindeer food, as well as the usual cookies and milk. I am going to make sure the cookies are good, though, because apparently his ex made crappy cookies and he hated having to eat them every year.

5. I don't know if this counts, but he insists that Santa doesn't wrap gifts. He says Santa sets up the toys to be played with right away, unless it something like legos. Considering the amount of Imaginext and Playmobil on the kids' lists, our living room is going to look like a crazy toy wonderland...

6. My husband collects nutcrackers and so do his boys, so I will be starting Hayden's collection this year.

oncoRN · October 2012

We have lots of traditions I want to carry over...starts at Thanksgiving with Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life movies...then:

- Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve as a gift

- Cake for Santa instead of cookies (my sister is born on Christmas Eve, so we will continue to celebrate Auntie's birthday!)

- Watching The Snowman, The Santa Clause (my FAVORITE, I can't help it), A Charlie Brown Christmas, and all of the amazing movies that are out around the holidays!

- Reading The Night Before Christmas and the Polar Express on Christmas Eve

- My mom bought my sister and I each an ornament every single year from birth...and then gave us the collection when we moved out for our own trees. I will totally be doing this with my little guy and making sure to store them really carefully so they don't break or damage! I think this was my favorite tradition my parents had...

- Special Christmas morning breakfast of cocoa and something super gooey like monkey bread or Cinnamon rolls

Obviously LO won't understand most of these yet, but I'm still really excited! I may have to steal the glitter/oatmeal idea I love it!

ETA: I totally forgot about the zillions of Christmas cookies I'm planning on baking. And I love the book idea for an advent calendar...I'm getting super excited.

JulesET · October 2012

I am not familar with Elf on a shelf and I saw several people mention it. What is it?

lilahbean13 · October 2012

We will also bake cookies, open pjs, and read books. But in my family giving gifts was more fun than receiving. Even if it was only like 20 bucks, my parents would give us money and take us somewhere, sometimes it was the dollar store, and we would get to pick out gifts for our siblings and parents and grandparents. I loved picking stuff out and then wrapping it with paper I got to pick out. Baby girl is too young for this now but we will do it when she's older for sure

reinedecajun · October 2012

We always let the kids open one gift christmas eve.

Put up the tree day after Thanksgiving

New pj's christmas eve and go looking at lights.

I like the idea of the elf on the shelf but honestly that little bugger creeps me out... Indifferent

DeniseRN · October 2012

reinedecajun:
We always let the kids open one gift christmas eve. Put up the tree day after ThanksgivingNew pj's christmas eve and go looking at lights. I like the idea of the elf on the shelf but honestly that little bugger creeps me out...[:]

Lol!! He is super creepy!!! But we do have one for DS1 who is 3. He didn't get it last year, but I think he will this year

reinedecajun · October 2012

DeniseRN:
reinedecajun:
We always let the kids open one gift christmas eve. Put up the tree day after ThanksgivingNew pj's christmas eve and go looking at lights. I like the idea of the elf on the shelf but honestly that little bugger creeps me out...[:]
Lol!! He is super creepy!!! But we do have one for DS1 who is 3. He didn't get it last year, but I think he will this year

I'll have to get over my fear of this elf for lo's sake because it is a really cute idea. But gees would you look at that face..

KarmB · October 2012

Elf on the shelf.

Wrap 24 books seperatly and open one a night.

The elves deliver a package of pjs on Christmas Eve.

Gotta make sure we tape a candy cane on our front door. We don't have a chimney so Santa uses the candy cane as a key for our door.

Most of these will start next year.

KarmB · October 2012

Oh year. We buy a special ornament each year.

APendola · October 2012

Our current plan is not to make a big deal out of Christmas. My hubby insists that telling her Santa Claus exists is just lying to her, haha. We'll see how long that lasts...

rebecca4980 · October 2012

Gosh, our family was boring-we didn't do any of these when I was little except my grandma would let us open 1 present xmas eve. I do put up my tree after Thanksgiving and I bake. Alot. Like, hundreds of cookies.

I guess I also do the advent calendar but we have a giant xmas tree with 24 velcro pieces on it and a velcro at the top of the tree for the star. My mom made little felt gift boxes and we stick them on day by day. I love the idea of doing books with the advent calendar!

Elf on a shelf sounds fun but my DH is a big scrooge when it comes to xmas so I doubt he would get into it. Maybe once DS is older it will be more fun for DH to participate.

Grreat ideas-I love hearing about all your traditions.

whynotwhynot · October 2012

1.) Spending an afternoon and cutting down our own tree

2.) Driving around looking at lights on Christmas Eve

3.) Taking a family photo for Christmas cards

Pleione · October 2012

What a fun thread! Thanks for starting it Megs.

We're still figuring out what traditions to invent for Christmas - figured we have at least a year before we really start them anyway. I did want to start the tradition of buying a special ornament for the tree this year though. This can be a fun thing to do with LO's collaboration when she is older. But I wanted to get the piece that goes on top of the tree this year for her. If anyone knows of any unique tree toppers (not just the light up star kind) let me know!

cwm11985 · October 2012

We did the pjs growing up so we'll probably do that, elf on a shelf, Santa brings the stockings to your room and you open it before everyone goes downstairs. I love the book advent calendar idea and the soup and bonfire! I just told DH we're doing that.

brennarobbie · October 2012

We will eventually do Elf on a Shelf and an Advent calendar with activities...this year we'll start this awesome tradition that a family I babysit for does:

We'll read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas together as a family on Christmas Eve and inside the front cover, we'll write the year and the family members present that read the book together. Ex: 2012: Daddy, Mommy, Baby Nate, Grandma, Pop-Pop. Then each year we'll add the year and family members (it gets really cute when new babies are born!!) )

We're also going to do the Reindeer food. I make it with my kindergarten students: we get a package from Santa with cups of red and green sugar as well as oats (if you use glitter it can kill animals that live outside!). We'll set out cookies and milk for Santa by the fireplace, and sprinkle the Reindeer food on the ground outside.

I can't wait for Christmas!!! )

Pandril19 · October 2012

We'll do new PJs on Christmas eve, monkey bread for Christmas morning, and Night before Christmas as bedtime on Christmas Eve.

TheBoy's family is German, so they do all of their presents on XMas eve. I grew up doing mine Xmas morning. So we'll probably do Xmas eve with his family and then Xmas morning at our house with my parents joining us.

Decorating Christmas cookies and Gingerbread house in the run up to Christmas.

We'll see what else.

Pandril19 · October 2012

Oh. And we do a Lego Christmas village, so we start building that the day after Christmas. We'll have to figure out how to handle it when DD is old enough for the Legos to be dangerous but not old enough to help.

michaela080 · October 2012

Countdown to Christmas / Advent calendar type thing. I like these 2:

Christmas-Countdown-Garland

Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

shermans · October 2012

I think we will definitely be reading night before ChristmAS and I LOVE the idea of PP to write inside the book the year and who was there. Thanks for that idea! Also going to cut our own tree.

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