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@Mrs. Polish: we haven't discussed this since LO was born (did discuss before) but I feel the same way - my family will be more accepting than DH's family. We will probably do the runaround this year because LO will only be 6 months old but not next year.

We haven't made any changes since lo came. Both of our parents live close so we can go to both. Were Jewish so chanukah is 8 days.... We can go to each parent, a family friend has a party, and we still have days to ourselves. Thanksgiving is spent doing the turkey trot and brunch with my family and dinner with his.

Lo #2 will be here before Christmas so our Christmas and new years traditions will havevto change this year, but that's only because we don't want to take the baby in crowded places yet.

We will be making changes for sure and I don't know how it will go over.
We have always done Christmas at my parents house. First, because we live near them and not my in laws. Second because my sister was a mom and I was not so we have all always catered to her schedule and desires. However, now my in laws live here! So we have to figure out how to celebrate with both families. Plus we have a sweet little baby everyone will want to see, while my sisters baby is almost 14 now! Another problem is my dad smokes heavily and we decided not to ever take him to my parents house so that's a huge issue. We have a small apartment so unfortunately we can't just host everyone here. I have no idea what we are going to do!!

We made pretty drastic changes Chloe's first Christmas and thankfully, everyone understood. We made equally drastic changes her second thanksgiving, after we'd instituted a bedtime and had sleep trained her.

My parents live 20 minutes from us and my inlaws a little over an hour. My side the family always celebrates on Christmas Day, with dinner at 5pm. My in laws are more flexible with their plans and have never (in the 7 years I've been around) had a set tradition. We've celebrated with them on Xmas eve, Xmas day, the week before, after, etc. Regardless, it made for a lot of running around.

For Chloe's first Christmas, she was about 8 weeks old. We invited my inlaws over for brunch. It worked out great! We napped after they left, then went to my parents for dinner.

Last year for thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, we left my parents house early because Chloe has an 8pm bedtime. It raised some eyebrows at first but now no one gives us a hard time about it.

We will probably just go with DH's schedule every year. He's a police officer, so holidays off aren't usually in the cards. I will probably end up taking DS to see my family if DH works, and then come back the next day to do our own belated Christmas.

Pre LO our holiday plan was always alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving between my and his family. LO's first Christmas was last year and even though it would have been Christmas with my family we decided to stay put so that she can have her first Christmas at home. This year we have decided going forth, for at least the next few years, we will be spending Christmas at home. My family doesn't really celebrate Christmas the way we want our kids to experience Christmas. ie My brother & SIL will stay sleeping till like 10am while the kids wait anxiously to open presents. We want our kids to wake us up early, run down the stairs to the tree and demand to open presents at 5 in the morning!

Anyway, for the foreseeable future we'll be traveling for Thanksgiving and staying home for Christmas. Hopefully my family will be able to visit for Christmas soon.

My parents always host a big Thanksgiving, whereas DH's parents go to a relative's. This year my mom invited DH's parents (and sister) to join us for Thanksgiving at her house and the in-laws accepted. So that takes care of Thanksgiving.

We haven't quite figured out what to do about Christmas yet. Christmas Eve is usually spent at my aunt's house. Then Christmas Day dinner is at my grandparents house. My parents do a big breakfast and gift-giving on Christmas morning so we will go to that. DH's parents don't really do anything planned for Christmas, so we will probably stop in and see them for a quick visit. My parents and DH's parents are in the same town, so it won't be hard to stop by and see both sides.

We've decided that Christmas mornings are for us. Typically we had done brunch and other things. And then we will go over and do the big family Christmas with DH's family in the afternoon. We will visit my parents sometime after Christmas. They are really upset we aren't coming down FOR Christmas, but it is very important to us that our children wake up in their own house on Christmas and have traditions *with us*.

I'm still deciding with they will be. And i'm really excited about it Cookies for Santa, special breakfasts, etc!

We trade off Thanksgiving. Last year we drove down (4 hours) to see my parents. This year it will be with DH's family.

Christmas is also really boring with my parents. They go out to eat somewhere and it is just the two of them and DH and me. It's just kind of depressing. There's nothing fun, no cousins to play with, etc. It's just going out to eat and opening up presents.

Last year LO was a few weeks old and no one expected us to go anywhere. This year we will be traveling to my in laws 3 hours away. It doesn't bother me because I'm Jewish so I'm totally fine with being with DHs fam on Christmas.

We've decided that we are staying home and celebrating just the three of us. My mother lives far away, and his parents and family live near each other but a 5 hour drive away. We have not spent a Christmas at home since 2009, so we are ready to have a small intimate one this time around.

We are not changing things, but I wish we were! We live 4 hours from my parents and 6 hours from my ILs. So, we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. It's really the only way to see everyone for a holiday. DH and I both grew up having Christmas morning at home with our own family before going to our grandparents. I really, really wish that we could do this, but I just don't see anyway. To make the trip worth it, we always stay a few days so we'll be the parents trying to lug around and hide Santa presents. AT least this year and probably next they won't have a clue!

I don't know what we're going to do. We are going nowhere for Thanksgiving, not even to my parents house and they live an hour away. For Christmas/New Year's, we may need to travel to see my inlaws for a few days. I'd love to create a tradition where we would have that holiday to ourselves.

@swedishfish: We'll probably need to do something like that. Good idea. I think really I'm just sad to not have that Christmas morning excitement be a more intimate family setting!

@swedishfish: We just made sure that we lit the candles every night, sang the Hanukkah prayers, and we also made latkes and did a special dinner one night. Generally, I wanted to make sure that Hanukkah wasn't getting short changed. I'm actually thinking of joining a synagogue so that DD can get more exposure to Judaism, since we live in an incredibly Christian part of the country.

We do Thanksgiving with DHs family and Christmas with mine. His family is Jewish but its too hard for them to travel to celebrate Hanukkah so they get together for thanksgiving. My sister and I will alternate having Christmas since we're in different states and both have kids

I have no family here. So we always do Christmas Eve at my in laws. Then Christmas morning we leave at like 7 am to drive 2 hours away to see MILs side of the family. Then we have to drive back and make a pit stop at our house to let the dogs out, then go to FILs side of the family. It's a pain even without LO. DS was born early December so we went ahead and did the usual so everyone could see him. I told DH we aren't doing it anymore though. I want a nice relaxing Christmas morning with my baby. I want watch him open and play with presents rather than rushing off.