Traditions

SarahS11 · September 2014

With many holidays coming our way in the next few months, what are some traditions you want to have with your family? Maybe you already do them, maybe you want to start a new one now that your little babe has joined your family! What issues with other family members might you run into with your own family's traditions?

For example, as a kid I never ever opened presents on Christmas morning. We were always traveling to see extended family... I just talked to DH last night about how we want to do Christmas for LO. Since I never got to, I have always wanted to have Christmas morning as just our little family. You know, wake up and have all of the excitement of presents. However, if we decide to go this route, it will be a hellacious fight with my in-laws... especially MIL since she always wants us to travel there for Christmas. Regardless of when we decide to actually have "Santa" come, I want to have the tradition of my kids opening a present the night before (it will be a new pair of pajamas and a holiday movie) and we will snuggle on the couch watching that movie in our new pjs that night.

Thanksgiving... well the only tradition there is to eat a lot of food no matter where we are and look at Black Friday ads!

lest12 · September 2014

Christmas Eve was always a big night for us. It would be a big party with extended family and too much food, we would do the traditional Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes. That has to continue.

FWIW, I feel you on Christmas morning. Since I've known DH, we have spent Christmas morning at his mom's house. Which means waking up at 7 to drive two hours and get there. I told him last year, when we have kids, Christmas morning is at our house, with just us. MIL doesn't know yet. She won't be happyand neither will my bils and sil. But they never come to this we invite them to so I don't feel bad.

Edited - hit post too soon!

babygabe614 · September 2014

We are going to my aunt's house in Florida for Thanksgiving this year (DH, LO, my mom, and myself) and I would love to make that an annual tradition!! We never had a real Thankgiving tradition before, and DH likes any excuse to get out of the cold, so that is a real possibility.

I want to start the tradition of getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve. We never did that in my house growing up, but the idea of doing that with the holiday movie (thanks for the idea, @SarahS11!) is just perfect!

Before LO, we would go to DH's aunt's house for the traditional 7 fishes dinner, which we will continue to do... but now we have an excuse to head out a little earlier.

SarahS11 · September 2014

@mmandm603 love the 1st birthday book idea!

@babygabe614 We never did the pj thing either... that was all DH, but I think it will be really cute! It will be a brand new tradition for me! I've heard of it being pjs with Christmas books too, in case you don't make it home from DH's aunt's house in time for a movie! We are just going movie because I looooove holiday movies!

coffee89 · September 2014

My sister's work schedule rotates (one year she is working Christmas Eve and the next Christmas Day) so DH and I decided our first Christmas to just go with that so we could see everyone, and his mother never put up any fight to it. So one year we are at my parents for Christmas Eve and his mom's for Christmas day and the next year will be opposite. No matter what I want to have there to be the excitement of Christmas morning with just us before making the drive to family. My parents also always have us new christmas pi's on Christmas eve and I want to continue that.

I'd also like to start making Christmas cookies for everyone again once LO is old enough to help.

Thanksgiving normally with my family on the actual day and MIL the day or to after. Now she is living alone so DH might push for us to see her on that day.

Easter is such a pain in the butt. My hubby is a devote Catholic so we end up at church that whole week and he is very against the Easter Bunny, I've barely got him on board with Santa.

ricecakes1216 · September 2014

Christmas Eve is my favorite because the excitement is so high and it's so peaceful. We go to church, look at Christmas lights and come home to open PJs and watch Christmas movies. Christmas Eve will be spent with my sister but Christmas morning will be home.

Along with Christmas, we have a "cookie day". My family gets together and bakes a couple weekends before Christmas. It's both a fun and frustrating day.

I'm not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving.

FAWKES81 · September 2014

I had no idea PJ's were such a tradition. My parents always did this (and I plan to continue). About 5 years ago (I was in my late 20's) my mom didn't get me any PJs. I cried. She bought me 2 pairs at after Christmas sales. She didn't realize how much it meant to me. It's probably why I have a "thing" for pajamas. I probably own more pajamas than I do "regular" clothes.

DH works a swing shift and has to work Christmas Eve and Day this year. I told him no biggie since LO is so small. Still sucks though. I plan on going to Midnight Mass (Christmas Eve service) and that being a tradition for us.

My Granddaddy died on Thanksgiving Day in 1998 and ever since it's not been the same. We are thankful but it is always a bittersweet day. Hopefully we will come up with a tradition with AJ to make it better.

ashanne88 · September 2014

DH and I have always driven down to our parents houses in Southern California to split the holidays. Usually, we're at DH's family for Xmas and then to my parent's for New Years. We go to the Rose Parade every year (I've never missed one) and I'd really like to continue that tradition with DS. In a year or two, when DS gets bigger I want to have Christmas morning at our house and then drive down for the parade.

I love the PJs and a Christmas book idea and definitely want to start that as a tradition.

Thanksgiving is easy since our parents live close enough to all get together at my parent's house.

JmeJoLee83 · September 2014

@ashanne88‌ I want to check out the Rose Parade! Jealous!

@Babywear‌ aww "pressies" love it. :x

We usually did Easter egg hunts growing up so I want to keep that for sure since it was so memorable and fun to be outside.

I am hoping to get to host our first Christmas dinner this year because we will finally be moving to a house big enough to accommodate our family. I agree with PP that I don't want my LO to only remember traveling on holidays, I want memories at out house! My hubby would put out carrot sticks for the reindeer growing up and I think that's adorable so we will do that too!

kimberly11511 · September 2014

My family isn't a big thanksgiving dinner family, but we always go Black Friday shopping.
Christmas Eve is spent with my parents. We have always gotten Christmas jammies and an ornament. We would change into the pjs, hang our ornament and watch Its a Wonderful Life. On your first Christmas you are given a stocking and not an ornament. I'm so excited to do this with Wynne.
Christmas Day is with DHs family. They do a huge breakfast and open gifts slowly all day. I'm excited to share these traditions with baby as long as we can.

The only other tradition we have is on birthdays we make a special breakfast.

kks4471 · October 2014

The only tradition my family does every year is watch "Christmas Vacation" on Christmas Eve. I'd love to start more traditions this year with the baby though, so thanks for the ideas!

Taymiller · October 2014

We always do Christmas with just is and that is a tradition I want to keep with LO. We also make billy chili Xmas eve (DH's tradition) and eggs Benedict Xmas morning (my tradition).

For thanksgiving we do friend thanksgiving and cook for anyone of our friends who isn't going home for thanksgiving. It is a lot of drinks and turkey and my special spinach mashed potatoes.

babygabe614 · October 2014

Regarding the presents from Santa debate, growing up I think my mom split them 50/50 between her and Santa. However, my DH always did all but one present from him/me and one big present from Santa for my stepson. I think we will continue to do it his way for DD.

Also, we are big time NON-Elf on the Shelf'ers. Just had to put that out there.

@Babywear - I think Thanksgiving traditions really vary... some eat a big meal early in the afternoon (like 2p.m.) and others will serve it at a normal dinner time, but generally the meal components are the same - turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberry sauce, vegetables, green bean casserole, etc. and lots of desserts. Of course every family will tweak it and add/remove what they like or don't like!

And there is always an NFL football game on so if you are into that, you watch that and eat and then pass out from all the tryptophan from the turkey.

My DH has a tradition of playing a touch football game with his friends every year on Thanksgiving morning. He has been doing it for probably 20 years now! I like to run a turkey trot 5K on Thanksgiving, so I'll need to find a stroller-friendly one this year.

jenlynne0624 · October 2014

@tayawear I love that idea with the poem. I may have to start incorporating that.

I kind of started the PJ thing with DH last year, so we will continue that and add a book this year until little man is old enough for movies. DH got me all of the old cartoon and claymation movies on dvd a few years back so we have those.

We celebrate Saint Nickolas day on Dec 5 where we set out our stockings. This was from my family and I wanted to continue it. Dh and I exchange Christmas ornaments and a small gift.

We go to both families for Christmas Eve. Both big shindigs. His family does the 7 fish thing. I don't like sea food though which sucks. Typically midnight mass then. Elf on the shelf will start this year too. Christmas Day dinner will be at or house this year. Hopefully MIL knows this and knows that it's just me dh and ds opening gifts and stuff on christmas day. Definitely don't want to take him out, especially the weather in Pittsburgh is stupid and unpredictable, plus when he's older I don't want to take him away from his toys.

nicolewhelan · October 2014

I love the holidays but they are exhausting for us. DH's family is an hour from us in one direction and then my mom is 30 minutes in the other direction. So we spend our holidays driving all over the state of Georgia it feels like.

DH had to work last year on Thanksgiving and my mom went out of town and his family doesn't cook ever, so I got chilled out on the couch all day watching the parade and dog show and going through the black friday ads. I was quite thankful considering all of the nausea I was having!

We do DH's family on Christmas eve and they open gifts (which I hate), and then my mom's on Christmas day. I'm looking forward to waking up in our house this year and doing xmas, then heading to my mom's even though LO has no idea. I think I might adopt the xmas eve pj tradition too! My mom usually gives me new pj's on xmas day (which I so look forward to too @Fawkes81, I was bummed one year when she didn't get me new pajama pants!)

DH wants to put grandparents on gift restrictions and limit them to 3 gifts to give to LO. My side always goes overboard for xmas, we just love to find a lot of gifts from santa under the tree. So it's going to be hard for me and my mom to restrain, but I think it's because he doesn't want LO to favor one grandparent over another because my mom makes significantly more than his dad does. So it might not be a bad idea after all just so they don't get so much stuff they don't need and will appreciate what they receive more.

I'm so looking forward to decorating the tree with LO when he's holder. It looks like xmas puked all over my house, it's awesome! And now we have more incentive to decorate the outside:) I'm ready to decorate right now the more I think about it!

Hairstylist16 · October 2014

I've been taking DS "trick or treating" since he was born which basically consists of dressing him up and then showing him off to my parents and brother. But I think this year I'll be taking him around town to trick or treat. Not that he needs the candy but he loves the excitement and people.

I would love for Thanksgiving to be a bigger deal around here but our house isn't very big and my sil and brother normally have a huge dinner for her family so I typically cook the meal for our little family and it's hit or miss if my parents come by.

Christmas is so hard because I want to see my family but I want to have nice traditions for the kids at home too. Plus I'm tired of dragging them all over the state for Christmas. We finally eliminated my in laws because it was always a nightmare so hopefully we can do my parents on Christmas eve and then Christmas day be just us. LO won't remember anything but DS is getting bigger so I think he'll really enjoy Santa and get a kick out of the carrots for the reindeer (he LOVES animals). Plus I love the whole 4 gift rule ( something you need, something you want....) and I wanna start the pj's on Christmas eve tradition.

babygabe614 · October 2014

@nicolewhelan it's interesting you brought up gift restrictions. I also have the same sentiment that @babywear mentioned that people go SOOO overboard nowadays. I know my ILs are going to go nuts (they are the "buy love with presents" type, and we are not very close with them so they try to mend fences with gifts...) and I just want to tell them to not get her anything since our house is already cluttered enough with baby stuff, but I'm sure how that would be received...

temursgirl · October 2014

Since my family is local and the only side that celebrates Christmas, Easter, and thanksgiving, I have already started negotiating with DH that we do holidays with them, at least for LO's early years. Some traditions we have that I think are more unusual are that we eat lamb (not ham) on Easter and have an Easter tree. It's a small tree that you hang eggs on. My dad also has a rather obnoxious musical egg. It has been in the family since at least the 1940s. It's large and you crank the handle to get a truly irritating tune! I also want to limit gifts when LO is small. I thought I would ask my family to give only one per year of her life, i.e. this year only one, next year two. And what is this 7 fish dinner?

nicolewhelan · October 2014

@babygabe614 and @amtellez28 my girlfriend had her daughter's 1st birthday party and on the invite put 'no gifts please'. I'd say about half still brought gifts, but they were mainly family of course, so that helped cut down on the amount. I plan to do the same for LO's 1st bday I think. He's going to be entertained by anything he finds, why overwhelm him! LOL! Plus we already have some toys put aside (thank God we have a basement!) so we are set. I don't want my living room overflowing with toys, he doesn't need them and I don't want to be cleaning them up every night. So the 3 gift rule is sounding better and better! I think DH said something they need, something they want, and something to wear or something like that:) how about diapers, formula, and daycare money:)

MrsRahl · October 2014

I'm probably in the major minority here but we don't celebrate halloween. Instead we have a harvest fest at church and play games and get candy there. I'll continue that with my kids most likely. We also do the pumpkin patch which us major in our family.

As far as Christmas goes, I had Santa growing up but we'd like to focus the holiday more around Jesus for our kids. I want to start a tradition of singing happy birthday with a cake on Christmas day for something fun and more unique for our family.

I've also read an idea that I liked a lot of limiting your kids to 3 main big gifts (and maybe a stocking) because Jesus only got 3 gifts, and like in the camp of @babygabe614‌ I think Christmas and gifts have gotten out of control. No side eyeing from me for people who want to do that! It's going to be so tempting to spoil her, but I want to keep what I feel is the real reason of celebrating Christmas as the focus and hope that the kids appreciate their gifts more.

I've also as a kid gone Christmas shopping for kids in need with my mom and loved it is made me feel so good so I'd like to continue that with our LO.

MrsRahl · October 2014

@temursgirl‌ the fishes dinner is an Italian thing. You have 7 different fish/seafoods for Christmas Eve. Here is more about it:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes

Rosebud2587 · October 2014

Halloween we do pumpkin patch, carve pumpkins and trick or treat.

Thanksgiving we don't really do. We have no family around and neither DH nor I are very keen on the thanksgiving spread so why bother cooking all that when the 2 of us don't really eat it. For the past 2 yrs we've gone out to eat down town.

Christmas: this is the first year we won't be traveling for Christmas. I'm excited to actually have Santa come on Christmas Eve and see DD1s reaction on Christmas morning. Although I am sad that we'll be missing out on the snow this year.

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