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It was HUGE. My mom is a huge Christmas lover and she made it so special for us every single year. We had an advent calendar and an advent wreath. We did the tree, decorating the house, etc. We would do Christmas eve mass and then visit friends that night for cocoa and treats. Christmas morning was always family time and gifts. Lots of gifts. I hope to keep that going with our family.

B...I...G!! That's why it's so hard to not be "home" at Christmastime. We'd always have a big Christmas eve open house. My mom always gave me a bag with 12 little gifts, one to open each day starting the 12th for the 12 days of Christmas. (Socks, etc...). And she bakes a ton of stuff, and always makes monkey bread on Christmas morning.

We put up our tree shortly after Thanksgiving. We put Santa and Angel figurines, garland througout the house (stair banister, mantel, TV entertainment unit). In the family room we had special pillows, throws, and guest towels just for the season. Our tree was gorgeous. The ugly homemde ornaments always ended up in the back lol. We baked cookies the night before for Santa. We opened up our one present- Christmas PJs. We usually started camped out in front of the fireplace. Then, my parents would say Santa can't come until we sleep in our beds. The tree lights were always on when we woke up, which was special because throughout the season we turned them off each night. My parents made coffee and hot chocolate for us. We weren't allowed to open presents until everyone had their mug. We marveled at Santa's half eaten coikies. We took turns opening gifts because with every present my mom wanted to capture the moment with a photo. The most coveted toy would often be hidden somewhere in the house and we would play hot & cold until we found it. We opened stockings last. Then we could play with our toys and friends. Finally, we would get all dressed up for Christmas dinner.

ETA: the music, my mom loves music and she played holiday music non stop. My favorite was the Temptations Christmas album.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: sounds so lovely. The hot and cold game is a great idea!

HUGE. Tons of presents for everyone. We had three christmases a year. One at home with our immediate family, one with my dad's extended family and one with my mom's extended family. We always went to a Christmas eve service and always had a huge breakfast Christmas morning.

We didn't do Santa in our house growing up (I mean, we did pictures and stuff but that's all), so our christmas traditions were a bit different. We usually opened presents Christmas eve and my dad always read the story of jesus's birth from the bible while we all sat around the tree, and we would sing Christmas Carols at the appropriate time in the story---like Hark the Herals Angels Sing, O little Town of Bethlehem, etc. Then we would open presents and stuff. SO awesome.

I think the only thing my mom regrets is getting us TOO many presents some years. We recently saw a picture of on our Christmases, with all the presents under the tree and overflowing to a table nearby and all over the floor and my mom said she wished we'd made Christmas a little less about consuming. But otherwise, it was great.

My husband's family has never done Christmas since they are hindu. We will probably meet somewhere in the middle with our LO.

It was a really big deal. So much that even though I haven't had Christmas with "my family" in several years, it still makes me sad that we don't all get to be together anymore.

Christmas season was decorating with a tree, lights outside, and my Mom's many vintage Santa Clauses. Then it would include the town Christmas parade, church Christmas musical, visiting with friends, and occasionally a candlelight Christmas Eve service. Christmas Eve was reading the Christmas story, placing the star on the top of the tree, opening new pajamas, and then (as we got older) wrapping all of our gifts for the next day (including helping Santa wrap presents for our younger siblings). Then Christmas morning was lots of presents, a BIG breakfast (pain perdue, homefries, bacon and fruit), loud Christmas music, and lots of fun playing with our new things.

I really hope that I can make Christmas as special as my parents made it for me.

HUGE. My mom puts up two Christmas trees and decorates the huse top to bottom. We had stockings and presents under the tree. At my grandmas house, we'd gather on Christmas Eve. She had an open door policy for the holidays and while the immediate family was there almost all day and night, other relatives and friends would stop by throughout the day. We had a huge spread of food served buffet style and would gather around the piano in the evening to sing Christmas carols. She easily had 80 people in and out of her house on Christmas Eve.

Now that Chloe is here our traditions aren't much different. My mom still makes a huge Christmas breakfast, we still go to mass on Christmas Eve, and we still have a huge Christmas Day celebration.

My parents are immigrants too and we have always had a HUGE Christmas. They really embraced the traditions. We always opened our presents Christmas eve at midnight...staying up that late was soooo fun! Christmas is still a big deal in our family - which is why it is my favourite time of the year. Even DH look forward to spending the holidays with my family because he says it is such a great time.

Christmas was definitely a big deal when I was a kid. It was the biggest holiday for my family.

it was HUGE! it still is. we weren't religious, so there was never any jesus involved in our celebration, it was about celebrating generosity & spending time as a family. we'd all wear santa hats and go get an enormous tree (the house had cathedral ceilings and we'd get a tree that went nearly to the top, my dad needed a giant ladder to decorate the top of the tree) & we'd each pick out an ornament for that year & a christmas building for our christmas village. christmas eve my mom would give us new pjs that she had sewed and we'd get to open one gift, usually my brother & i would each give each other one to open. we'd make cookies & put out carrots for the reindeer. my dad would read us a stack of christmas stories (he does the best voices!) and i would get to sleep in my brother's room on his top bunk- i would get too excited about christmas morning, i'd vomit in his bed because i wasn't used to being up high & couldn't climb down in time to make it to the bathroom (hahaha, i vomit when i'm excited or stressed, my poor brother!). then, christmas morning we weren't allowed out of bed until 5am, then we could go out and look, but we weren't to open anything or wake our parents til 5:30, then we'd spend an hour fighting to get my dad out of bed. we had huge stockings and after we opened everything in them, we'd wear them like mermaids, we'd open the rest of our presents and have breakfast. many years we went and volunteered at a christmas dinner for the homeless, then we'd go have christmas with my mom's family. christmas with my dad's side was over new year's.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: how bad is it that still, at 29 & 30, it takes my brother & i (and now DH) over 2 hours to open all our presents? hahaha. we still go sleep at my parents' house and have a big christmas morning with them. i it! once we (SO & I) have a LO i guess we'll start having our own christmas, but my parents just do christmas so well!

Christmas is/was a big deal since it's a religious holiday for us. And we went to Catholic school, so it was celebrated a lot there too, of course... Christmas concerts, celebrating Advent, etc...

My parents were immigrants too, so presents may have been pretty simple some years, but Christmas was still a big deal in other ways. In our culture, spending time with family (including a big extended family) was especially important around the holidays. We'd get together with all our aunts, uncles, and cousins. During December, we'd go out and visit other extended family members that didn't live so close to exchange presents and catch up. Food was a big part of holiday celebrations as well!

It was big for me and DH so we will continue that tradition with DS. The one annoying thing I can't wait to end is the traveling. I grew up traveling on Christmas day every year and now we fly to my MIL's. I can't wait to spend the entire holiday in our own home and have people come to us!

Christmas has always been big with us and now we just add more and more traditions every year just because the kids have so much fun, and honestly so do us adults lol.

HUGE. I was raised Catholic so we had all the advent traditions starting weeks before Christmas: wreath with candles every night. We 'did Santa' so there were letters, pictures, cookies, etc. We always traveled to my grandparents place 8 hours away for a week. My mom loves baking so she would make and decorate hundreds of gingerbread men and make a yule log. Christmas Eve was a big dinner with my dad's family. Christmas morning we had stockings, then church, then breakfast, then presents. That was followed by a big family gathering.

This is my first year with the in-laws. Time to learn some new traditions.

We did a tree (until I got older and my mom decided she hated putting it up) and gifts. My mom always worked holidays, so we did christmas a few days early. We went to a nice dinner and came home and open presents. Christmas day my dad and I would hang out or go to dinner.

When I was a kid and doing santa we always did Christmas morning then my mom would go to work.

@Mrs. Bee: Just curious, is this a fact-finding mission purely, or are you considering adopting some new ideas for your family's Christmas? I'm sure the hive would have tons of tips and suggestions if you decide to embrace any of the madness!

@SAHM0811: this sounds like us, though my parents aren't immigrants. Christmas was first and foremost a feast day for us, but it also involved getting a tree, stockings, lights, etc. We also got to see our cousins, which was really fun, and to spend time away from doing homework.

We never had the strict traditions that many families had (eat at one place on Christmas Eve, host such and such party, etc), but we did do a few things every year. We always put up a creche, which was a big deal. My personal favorite was putting out luminaries all over our property on Christmas Eve. It symbolizes the Christ child coming into the world at night-and it's so, so pretty!

ETA: Looking back, I'm pretty sure there were years that my mom would have liked to make a bigger deal out of Christmas, but it was just so darn expensive that it became smaller and quieter. I'm realizing now that I have to learn how to enjoy Christmas in creative ways, because it seems like money is always tight this time of year. Even if you don't go all out for presents, Christmas can get expensive! So it is a priority to make sure that we are all enjoying the season without feeling too much financial strain as well.