Christmas Traditions

orangegoggles · October 2013

Not sure if we've talked about this yet but as I'm starting to think about DS's birthday (December 26th), it made me think of Christmas obviously lol. What kind of traditions are you hope to pass down to your child? Is there anything that give each year or do each year that are memorable? Not sure what I'm looking for but I was thinking about special traditions families have and was hoping to add some more. Right now I know I will give him an ornament for the tree (my mom did that with us and it was neat to have memorable ornaments when I moved out). I will also probably do xmas pajamas and the usual stuff when he gets older (making cookies, etc.) Any good ideas for memorable traditions that I haven't thought of?

MJM3108 · October 2013

Ooh, I am so excited for Ben's first Christmas! We go cut down our Christmas tree every year the weekend after Thanksgiving and then spend that whole weekend decorating the tree and house and baking cookies. We used to go with my mom and Barb every year, but since mom passed, it's time for a new tradition. I'm pretty sure Barb will come with us, I hope she will.
We always attend Christmas Eve service at church, then come home and open one present each.
As Ben gets older, I look forward to baking and cooking with him, and doing Elf on the Shelf!
In my family, we love to eat. And we love to cook! So there are a lot of family gatherings, lots of cooking, and lots of eating. We take turns hosting Christmas, and this year, I think I might ask Barb if she wants to cohost with me. That way we don't have to take Ben 4 different places, I can make everyone come to us!

I love Christmas SO much, and I'm extra excited this year! Thanks for starting this thread, @pangnl79.

ETA- spelling

orangegoggles · October 2013

mrsjessicamitchell said:

Ooh, I am so excited for Ben's first Christmas! We go cut down our Christmas tree every year the weekend after Thanksgiving and then spend that whole weekend decorating the tree and house and baking cookies. We used to go with my mom and Barb every year, but since mom passed, it's time for a new tradition. I'm pretty sure Barb will come with us, I hope she will. We always attend Christmas Eve service at church, then come home and open one present each. As Ben gets older, I look forward to baking and cooking with him, and doing Elf on the Shelf! In my family, we love to eat. And we love to cook! So there are a lot of family gatherings, lots of cooking, and lots of eating. We take turns hosting Christmas, and this year, I think I might ask Barb if she wants to cohost with me. That way we don't have to take Ben 4 different places, I can make everyone come to us! I love Christmas SO much, and I'm extra excited this year! Thanks for starting this thread, @pangnl79. ETA- spelling

Haha, I love the enthusiasm! I was worried you all were going to tell me to worry about Halloween first! lol

I think Barb will love to continue on the tradition and I agree with having people come to your house. We are planning on doing that too. Christmas is always a huge event at my aunts house with tons of people but for christmas day I just want my family to come to us. Good idea to have her cohost it with you because its a ton of work.

I love that you cut down your own tree, I wish I could convince DH to do that but I think its one battle I will not win lol. We also make cookies with my mom but it takes like 3 weekends so it gets kinda tiring after awhile.

orangegoggles · October 2013

Michbot12 said:

We used to get hot chocolate and then cruise around looking at lights. We had a neighborhood in town that had a decoration contest and it was pretty over the top. We also used to go to Chicago and look at the store window decorations and Christmas shop. They used to have a theme, like a fairy tale of the year, but I have no idea if they still do. Something I want to do when Liv is older is do a Christmas countdown with bags or boxes with holiday activities in each one. Like bake cookies, make cards, watch a holiday movie, make garland, etc. got that off Pinterest though!

Great Idea! I was thinking of buying an advent calendar that I saw on PBK (the xmas tree one) and I thought that would be fun for when he's older. I love the idea of putting activities on there on a slip of paper because sometimes those pockets are so small and candy probably gets old for 25 nights (or maybe not!). THanks for the idea! I think I will probably order it after xmas though as he's too little for it this year and I'm sure it will be at least 50% off by then.

misternmiss · October 2013

Michbot12 said:
We used to get hot chocolate and then cruise around looking at lights. We had a neighborhood in town that had a decoration contest and it was pretty over the top. We also used to go to Chicago and look at the store window decorations and Christmas shop. They used to have a theme, like a fairy tale of the year, but I have no idea if they still do. Something I want to do when Liv is older is do a Christmas countdown with bags or boxes with holiday activities in each one. Like bake cookies, make cards, watch a holiday movie, make garland, etc. got that off Pinterest though!

Chicago? You must not be too far from me, @Michbot12.

misternmiss · October 2013

@Michbot12 OK, I'm the opposite direction. I grew up in Milwaukee and live in Madison now. Still not too far.

martinimomma · October 2013

someone did post about this but it was probably last year.

One thing a friend of ours does that I am totally stealing starting this year is making the first thing the family does when they go out to the tree to sing "happy birthday" to baby Jesus in the nativity set.

FmrAFBrat · October 2013

Some good ideas.

This year I'd like to take the boys out to see Southern Lights at the horse park and do a night of hot chocolate and cookies. I'd love to do some type of brunch spread on Christmas Day since we don't meet up with family until later in the afternoon/evening (& the ILs Christmas Eve.)

I really miss doing church and a family dinner on Christmas Eve (we always did with my mom's side when we were close enough to visit family or wherever we were stationed) but my ILs and DH don't really do church.

ProfessorPedals825 · October 2013

I love all of these ideas! We don't really have many traditions besides gathering at my Grandmother's house and opening family gifts on Christmas Eve. I'm really excited to start my own traditions this year!

4legsRbest · October 2013

We get drunk on Christmas Eve, but I don't plan on passing that one down. Yet...

Probably just our Christmas Eve routine of my family's GTG which includes opening all presents. We do only stockings on Christmas Day and it is very low key as each family spends the day alone. I guess I will have to tell him Santa is broke. We have done it this way for so many years, I kind of like being alone on the 25th. Since his bday is the 29th I think we may make a new tradition of taking all decorations down by the 27th.

tetiananina · October 2013

I want to do the Christmas Jammies that come the night of Christmas Eve and a book to read that night. We are also doing the Polar Express with one of our great friends and her daughter. I plan on doing lots of baking and cooking. I want Jackson to know his Ukrainian side and Christmas Eve will always be the traditional Christmas with all the courses. Christmas Day is the relaxing fun day of just hanging out in comfy clothes all day. I will do Elf on a Shelf once he understands the concept.

ksyknelvr73 · October 2013

We have a few:

Christmas Eve, we open one present and it's always pajamas. We watch "It's a Wonderful Life". We leave out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for reindeer (we didn't start doing that until last Chrismtas b/c DS was too young to know, but now he does) We also usually go to church for the Christmas Eve service, and we read the story of Jesus' birth that night.

Christmas Day, we open stockings first, then gifts. I get DS and DH an ornament each year - usually something they are really into or a funny memento - for example this year I got DS the Toy Story ornament b/c he is so into it and DH I got the Christmas Vacation ornament of Clark turning on the lights (he loves that movie!).

Overall, nothing too crazy but we stick to those things for sure.

NBBride05 · October 2013

I love Christmas and am so excited for Alexandra's first this year! My mom made me a stocking when I was born so she is making one for Alexandra this year.

We always go look at the lights and I think A will love those. We always give each other at least one ornament. I love to watch Christmas movies and plan to make that a special time with A each year. DH and I started dating on Dec. 20 (this year will be 10 years) so I make a year in review scrapbook - just a small size one that is the last present he opens each year. I include pictures, concert tickets and other momentos that I collect all year long. There is more, but I have to go back to work now.

And there are a couple of new ones I want to start. I love the idea of pajamas and a book/movie on Christmas Eve. I also love the idea of a Christmas countdown with activities when she gets older.

minicheezburg · October 2013

My aunt gave us an ornament every year and I want to do that, I know when D is older we will do a traditional breakfast. My family lives 2 hours away so there will have to be some finagling to get everyone in (even though I still think they should come to me). Currently we go see my family two weeks prior so DH can also go. We will see how that works out this year. We also spend Christmas eve at DH's gram's house. I am anxious to see how things work this year though.

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