I love hearing about people's special traditions surrounding the holidays. Do you do anything special? Is there anything you'd like to start doing this year or in the future?
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We do a bunch - decorating the house/tree, bake cookies, watch Xmas specials, drive around to see lights, advent calendar. This year we're going to decorate a gingerbread house for the first time.
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we do an advent calendar, decorate tree after thanksgiving, gingerbread house (thank you trader joes!) see christmas lights, and this year we will blow up an air mattress and sleep under the christmas tree one night.. I don't foresee that going well - haha!
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This year we're going to do a book Advent calendar and a Christmas Eve box with Christmas jammies and The Night Before Christmas.
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We've started making homemade cinnamon rolls every Christmas Eve to eat Christmas morning after presents.
Other than that- we don't really have any traditions!
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We live abroad where they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve - we try to incorporate traditions from both of our cultures. We do an Advent calendar, spend Christmas Eve with the in-laws the Swedish way, and arrive home on Christmas Day to stockings stuffed with goodies from "my" Santa. Last year, we followed up with a Lego Christmas set (the one that comes free with purchase) and enjoyed it so much, we want to make it a new tradition.
ETA: My Santa roughly means my conception of Santa/the American Santa.
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Buying or making a new Christmas ornament every year. We gave up most of our old collection years ago when we moved, so I'm building it up again.
@fancyfunction: gingerbread houses are so cool! Did you ever see this series of stamps US postal service put out a couple of years ago? I read they had someone build really big ones for the photos!
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@Mama Bird: Oh very cool! This is my first one so I'm excited!
Also, we always make chocolate chip pancakes on Xmas morning
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Besides all of the Christian Christmas celebrations, we decorate a Christmas pennant for the hallway. Each of us decorate a different part of the banner.
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A lot of the things I'd like to do come from HB! I'd like to do a holiday season bucket list that has different activities like baking cookies to volunteering to seeing Christmas lights. I'd like to get LO an annual ornament that represent something he was interested in. Starting this year I will be able to start some holiday food traditions like Christmas Eve Chili and Christmas Day Pajama Brunch!
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We always go to cut down a Christmas tree with my family. In our immediate family, we exchange ornaments that have some significance from the past year. We also always spend Christmas Eve with the in laws and Christmas Day with my family. I would love to have more traditions!
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We bake cookies with my MIL and all of the women in her family. Each girl gets an ornament in their stocking each year, and my mom gets them pjs.
DD1 is 2 now, and we plan to adopt a child/family and start teaching her how lucky and privileged she is/we are. We are not religious, but we still celebrate since our families are. We just choose to focus on giving and being thankful. I want volunteering and service to be a big part of her version of Christmas.
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We don't do very much, I do have stockings that we hang up and this year I bought my son a lego advent calendar that I will put up in his fabric calendar.
We also do a box tree, where we gather up boxes and stack them to create a tree. It originated when I was living abroad and didn't have any decorations. I saw it in a store advertising wrapping paper, and copied it and just kept doing it. This year, we did our first theme, it's minecraft. I plan to continue to do this as long as my son is interested.
Other than that, my husband likes to bake some traditional cookies from his home country.
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@looch: Could you share a picture of one of your box trees in the past?
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I have a few traditions that I want to keep up with, and I'd like to start introducing some new ones. I always like to decorate the tree with Christmas carols playing and drinking egg nog. We make a big lobster dinner on Christmas eve. And wake up Christmas morning, open presents, and make a nice breakfast.
A new tradition I want to introduce this year is giving DS and DD Christmas PJs. We'll probably do it around when we decorate the tree. This year they coordinate
and I'm going to try to keep that up as long as they'll let me. I might also try to make sugar cookies with DS. I think at 3 he might be old enough now to have fun with the cookie cutters and decorating.
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- Christmas Jammies
- Christmas books
- Advent calendar or treats and activities
- Advent candles / wreath
- Volunteering
- Christmas brunch
- When they're young, jammies all day and when they're older, going out to the movies yes DH and I used to go out to the Christmas releases before kids.
- Stockings
- Ornament each year to represent that year -
- We set up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving
- We open gifts on the 23rd after making homemade pizza together; first gift is new pj's, hot chocolate, and a Christmas book to read.
- Christmas Eve is mass with my family and opening gifts after
- We add a new homemade ornament to our tree each year
- Last year we did a lights in the park after my mom's family Xmas, I'd like to make that a tradition
- I always gift my step daughter all of the photos of her from the year so she can add to her photo albums - a great excuse to finally print those photos! -
@Twolittlemen: I've never taken photos of it in the past...but will do so this year because it's actually themed.
In the past, it was stacked boxes in wrapping paper.
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On the 23rd we do a crab feed.
We drink hot buttered runs when we decorate our tree.
This year we are cutting down our own tree in the national forest.
We start wearing Christmas jams the day after thanksgiving- on Christmas we get a photo in them.
We do a book advent calendar- no wrapping just stickers on the front.
We play Christmas music on vinyl all month.
I make blueberry buckle Christmas morning-something my Mom did. -
@futuremama: This sounds perfect! We want to do something similar for all the same reasons.
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We do a book advent, and this year I'd like to do a reverse advent basket as well...put in canned goods or toiletries to bring to the local mission, or maybe a small toy every night to bring to the women and children's shelter.
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We do a version of the St Nicolas tradition on December 6, where we give the kids a Christnas sack to open to "launch" Christmas. It usually contains a Christmas book, gingerbread house kit, christmass pjs, crafts etc. We love it!
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We celebrate Hanukkah. We light candles every night and sing the prayers, and then continue my family's tradition of everyone giving each other a hug and kiss after (dh's family doesn't do that). One night we make latkes for dinner. I'm not sure yet if we'll do a small present for lo each night or just on a couple nights--we haven't thought about gifts for her yet!
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Some of our existing ones: Christmas Eve Box, Breakfast while we open gifts, Cookie baking day, New Jammies for Christmas Eve, Advent Calendar.
One I hope to start soon: Volunteer Day (when the girls are old enough); Putting the Tree up Thanksgiving Weekend, cutting the tree ourselves, Having a wrapping day for the charity gifts we buy - and ultimately having the girls deliver them with me.
I would like to get back to shopping the day after Thanksgiving but I am so bothered by what Black Friday has become I am just not sure. Maybe we'll do a SBS event...eat at and buy from all our local places on Saturday?
Also, in a few years I want to have the Christmas Eve box go both directions...the month of December leave it out and open for the girls to choose things to donate and put in the box - the better they fill the box perhaps the better Santa will be to them.
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We do cookie baking and decorating the house. Christmas eve new jammies and read the night before Christmas. We try to watch as many of the classic kid movies as possible. This year we are adding an advent calendar and elf on a shelf (I know not too popular around here) but I'm excited.
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We have a reusable advent calendar and I put a mix of candy, small toys and activity cards in it (e.g. read a Christmas book or watch and Christmas movie or make a card for a neighbor).
Sinterklaas (Dutch St. Nicholas) stops by on December 5/6 to leave candy/Dutch cookies in the kids' shoes that they've left by the fireplace (Cost Plus/World Market has a decent selection of Dutch candy/cookies). We also make a traditional Dutch meal for dinner. DH and I aren't Dutch but we studied abroad/lived there so it's a fun reminder/tradition.
and I'm going to try to keep that up as long as they'll let me. I might also try to make sugar cookies with DS. I think at 3 he might be old enough now to have fun with the cookie cutters and decorating.
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