Holiday Traditions

[Eliza]

It's that time of year again...The Holiday Season. I was wondering about everyone's Holiday Family (or personal) Traditions. What kinds of things do you do every year that really set the mood for you ...or amuse your family at gatherings?

My husband and I always try and take an evening out of busy schedules, throw a bunch of Christmas CDs in the car and ride around looking at all the light displays. There's a town close by that I swear it's mandatory to go Grizwald every year. We also have a special ornament that we hunt for every year to represent something special or eventfull that happened that year. Every year when we put up the tree we get to remenice about some of the great things we've done together. These things always get us in the right frame of mind.

How bout you all?

~Eliza

[jay-t]

We go out looking at the Lights also with a trip to Shannon Springs and walk across the Crystal bridge (100 ft long covered in white lights)holding hands.I also make all the little kids (that still believe in santa) reindeer shoes to find on the front porch Christmas morning.Its always good for an arugment with them on which riendeer lost a shoe.And its not Christmas until Bing Crosby sings White Christmas

[maddy]

Every Christmas Eve my Dad and I make these cookies that we both love, but my Mom isn't fond of. By the time we are done it's time to clean ourselves up and get on some church clothes and head out for the late night service. Then we come home and snack on various things including the cookies :)

[Pita]

We also go and look at lights and make cookies. On Christmas Eve my daughter and I make a cake for Jesus's birthday and lay out cookies for Santa (Still after 12 years :) )

I also buy my daughter a special ornament every year and give it to her when we decorate the tree and rock out to Christmas music.

[dicksbro]

Mainly when the kids were smaller ...

... We always listened to the radio show called, "The Cinnamon Bear," which played the month leading up to Christmas.

... We used to bake a birthday cake for Jesus that we had at our Christmas Even dinner.

... We still open gifts Christmas morning. :)

As an aside, some dear friends of ours have a neat tradition ... they get just three gifts from their immediate family (reminding them of the three gifts from the three wisemen). Not sure how well that would have played with our kids, but it does put the meaning of the season back into it. :)

[flutelady]

Tradition rules this house beginning the day after Thanksgiving when the kids haul all the Christmas stuff out and begin decorating the house. Christmas music and movies also make their debut on that day.

The tree goes up the first Sunday in December.

I make each family member and loved one an ornament every year. Each child has a nice collection by the time they leave home.

I also made stockings for each family member. This year I have a new son-in-law and my daughter has been breathing down my neck to get his stocking done.

Santa brings gifts on Christmas Eve. That will never change. He always makes a mess as he's coming out of the fireplace, too.

I have a set of homemade pipe bells and I put some music together... Everyone gets one or two bells and it's alot of fun to play songs as a group.

I was proud of my kids... they unanimously voted to get fewer gifts so we could scrape the funds together to fly their oldest sibling home for Christmas.


These are a few of their traditions. There are some things I've wanted to do but haven't been able to. I'm hoping to make some changes.

[LixyChick]

I love reading all the traditions! Made an audible "awwwwww" even!

We make it a tradition to change every year. LOL! I'll explain. Each year we have Christmas eve at Mr. Lixy's mom's house...that's a given. We open all the gifts his sis and parents give us...and they open ours to them. Then, Mr. Lixy and I go visiting whichever friends are home and still up, and exchange gifts with them. Then we go home and open one gift to each other...have a nightcap...and go to bed. We wake in the morning...open our other gifts to one another...and off we go, for the entire day, to either Aunt Flossie's (on his mother's side) with his mom and step-dad and sis and nephew, or to his dad and step-mom's house...depending on who we visited the previous year. See? A traditional change of time spent from year to year!

I always kid the family that it'd be worse for lack of sharing time if both my parents were still alive...as they didn't live together either, and we'd have to spend every fourth Christmas day at one or the four homes...lol! Some day soon, I'm just gonna make the whole family come to our house for the day. It gets exhausting!

Oh...I almost forgot the ornaments. Mr. Lixy has hand blown ornaments from the year he was born till he moved from his home. Various aunts and uncles and godparents gave them to him through the years. We always display those in the front of the tree. They are so delicate and beautiful! Since his moving, his mother started giving him...and then me...Hallmark Keepsakes every year. They always reflect something special in his and my life at the time. We have dozens of them now...and still getting more with every year.

[osuche]

I have several "mini-celebrations" with family....We always celebrate seperately with my mom's family, my stepfather's family, my dad's family, and Mr. Osuche's family. There was a time when I bought gifts for 42 people, but over the past 5 years several people have passed away...since my stepfather died and his parents died, this is the first year I will have to "eliminate" one Christmas off of the list. And my paternal grandmother died a couple of years ago, so the celebration at my dad's family is rather smaller also. This year I will be buying for @23 people, if that gives you a feel for the decimation of family members. :(

Christmas Eve was always reserved for my stepfather's parents, who were of old German roots and always opened presents on Christmas Eve. We always ate dinner, sat and talked, drank a shot of Peppermint Schnapps, and then opened gifts. Eveeryone would take turns opening gifts and my stepfather would walk around and take pictures. Oma would make these wonderful cookies, and Christmas morning we always ate sausages, potatoes, and cabbage for brunch...as a sign of good luck. Then Oma and Opa would give us kisses and let us be off to the next home for Christmas.......Geez, I am going to miss them all SOOO much this year!

[faerie_princess]

I go around with a camera taking pictures of peoples christmas lights around their house. Then I take the pictures and write nice little critiques and put them in the peoples mailboxes. So if you've gotten a picture of your house with nice little suggestions on how to make your lights not tacky, it was from me.....(but shh.... don't tell) :wine:

[PantyFanatic]

Like Osuche, my traditions have slowly evolved over too many Christmases now. The combined customs of my childhood family gave me a few to take and build into the traditions for my family and now they have taken a few and are building their traditions. One that both of my children have chose to make part of their Christmas is to have a colorful fishing lure hanging on their tree each year. The first Christmas, for my yet to come family was spent outside of Ft. Bragg, N.C. by newly weds that could only afford one box of store bought ornaments for their small tree. It was filled out with all the shinny colorful spoons, plugs and poppers a tackle box could hold. Turned out to be one of the prettiest trees ever and at least one beaded lure was always on the tree as our kids grew up.

The newest tradition establishing itself is to gather at my daughters house on Christmas eve and after much cheerfulness and excitement and snacking, grandpa takes the all the cousins into the family room for the reading of the story about The Six White Boomers, while gifts are separated into piles for opening. It was first sent to me three years ago by a very special friend, as a Christmas poem to show how other people celebrate in the world and a globe helps see this far away place. We now know it as a song, like Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, and have a CD and pictures that Santa sent last year. I was asked the other night, by a granddaughter, if we could do that again this year because it’s the only place they get to hear the story. This is last years pic.

Thank you Sharni. :)


This is from last Christmas.

[osuche]

((((PF)))) ~ That is lovely.

[darogle]

PF that is one incredible lookin' bunch ya got there! :)

I am somewhat "traditionless" at the moment. We had traditions as I was growing up, but my family has kinda split up in the past 10 years or so, so we don't get together like we used to. We used to go to my Great-aunt and uncles each year and they would fix a traditional Swedish meal. The foods there I will always associate with Christmas (Thanksgiving too).

Now I'm starting a new chapter in my life, and have new loved ones to welcome into my family. So while I don't have many traditions to speak of at the moment, we will be starting new ones and reviving old ones this Christmas. Traditions I whole-heartedly intend on observing for many, many years to come. :)

[rabbit]

We have a few that we cherish:

1) Church on XMAS eve in the evening.

2) A homemade coffee cake my wife makes but once a year...XMAS morning. :slurp:

3) Opening one present at a time...the person picks the next gift for the next person and so on...sometimes we don't finish until 1pm...and we have two little ones.

[Lilith]

I am leaving in just a few to participate in one of our fave holiday traditions. The first saturday in December in my town is the big Festival of Lights. It's a beautiful lighting ceremony downtown and a fabulous nighttime parade. But the best part of it is the event that kicks it all off, The Jingle Bell Run. Thousands of people register and run/ walk/ skate/ push stollers/ walk dogs through a down town course wearing santa hats and jingle bells tied to their sneakers. It is a beautiful sight, not to mention the sound. It puts me in the spirit because every jingling bell represents a person who has given a toy to Toys for Tots!

[cowgirltease]

Pantyfanatic those babies are precious!!!!!! :love:

[PantyFanatic]

TY CGT I think so :)

[jseal]

Eliza,

Our Christmas traditions are realized rather like a Japanese Noh play.

On the first Saturday of Advent, we cut down our Christmas tree, and decorate the front of our house. On the third Saturday of Advent, we bake the myriad Christmas cookies. Many new words are invented then! We decorate our Christmas tree on the last Saturday of Advent.

Each Sunday of Advent, we light the appropriate candles of the Advent Wreath at dinner, and read aloud the corresponding prayer.

Christmas Eve is packed. When the family was young, I read “The Night Before Christmas” to the children, then later we moved on to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. We attend Midnight Mass. After the kinder are asleep, Santa leaves presents.

On Christmas Day, we each open one present before Mass, leaving the children tingling in anticipation until after the Christchild has been again welcomed. Finally, the Madding Crowd descends upon Chaos Manor in the afternoon for a family gift giving and feast.

[musicman]

Well just to throw a loop into things, we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas in my house.

For Chanukah we do brunch with the immediate family - my one last grandparent, my parents and my sister and brother-in-law (who also celebrate both) and light the Menorah for each of the 8 nights. We eat latkes with apple sauce and usually, bagels, cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon)

My wife gives me my gifts for Chanukah and I give her a token gift or 2 and the rest of us exchange gifts as well.

For Christmas, we have my wife's mom and aunt, my parents, sister and brother in law and my best friend and his wife (who also celebrate both) up to my house for Chinese Food - a somewhat Jewish Christmas tradition. After dinner, we all sit around the tree in my living room and exhange the gifts we bought for each other (except for my wife's family....)

Christmas Day with only my wife's Mom and Aunt starts bright and early with coffee, cinnamon buns and stockings.We then follow it up with a full breakfast and get dinner in the oven....then back to the tree for gift exchange (where I give my wife her gifts and she gives me a token gift).

Then we spend a day together and finish it up with a full Christmas dinner with enough food to feed at least double the 4 people who will eat it.

And that's that.