What Are Your Family Traditions?

On Christmas Eve we have a fire outside in the firepit and keep a watch out for Santa while we drink hot cocoa and sing christmas Carols.

What my family has been doing since before I was born is on Christmas Eve eveyone gets together, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents...everyone and we sing Christmas carols and when everyone looks like they are getting tired we will put all the kids on the floor and one adult would sit with them and we would sing Up On The House Top with hand guesters and all and then "Santa" will ring his bells outside and drop a big red velvet bag full of gifts for all the kids. When the kids would hear the bells they would run out the front door to try to catch Santa (the one playing Santa had to be quick) before he took off in his sleigh again. The kids would bring the big red bag in and the adult that sat with them would start passing out the gifts to all the kids and they would open them. Each parent would bring a gift from home with a gift tag with their childs name and From Santa. Once everyone had a chance to share their gift and play a little longer it would be time to go home and go to bed so the will be able to get up early to see if Santa had been there.

We haver a fairly lage family and we tend to go to eachotheer ouses for most of the big holadayes doing pat luck so it is not to hard on anyone for example hannucka is at our house, we make the potatoe pankacs and wvwery body breings the other stuff we bring presants for a certant amount of money and when people come in the door they pick a no. Ththen after dinner after we light candels and say prayers the person with no i gets to pick the first gift he opens it if he likes it he can keep it if not theycanexchande it latter oh by the way we you a sided top 1 take new gift 2 take unwanted gift 3 take any gife 4 aby of the above we di have fun for you do whatever you are comfortable if its fun soon it willbecome a traditions doo luck dont worry it will be fine we have been married 89 years 4 children and grandchildren have fun and relax A. no hills

My kids LOVE having the treasure hunt. Their very first gift on Christmas morning, they have to find via treasure hunt. When they were little, I would draw on post it notes a toilet, and when they got there, there would be a new clue, like a drawing of a TV, etc. and at the end, after going to about 10 places, they would find their gift. Now that they're older, I still do it, but not with pictures, but clues that they read and figure out. They love this, even my teen does too!

We have Elf On A Shelf. We love him. (so do all our friends who also got him) We bought ours at a Hallmark store, but I bet you can find him on e-bay or Amazon cheaper now. And I think he would be a great tool for an "energetic boy". You just keep telling him "the elf is watching" and they straighten right up. So great, you start him right after Thanksgiving and you have this amazingly easy way to keep kids inline for a month!

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/home

I think he is about $29.95 now, but WELL worth it. The book is great.

the best one from my family is Christmas jammies. We would go to midnight mass growing up. We would all get out to the car and my mom would say she had to go to the bathroom first. She'd go back in the house, turn on the light in the bathroom, put the packages on our beds, flush the toilet then come back out of the house. All the work had to be done in the bathroom because the window looked out on the driveway. Then when we came home we had Christmas jammies from Santa.

I try to do this with my step-sons but it's tough when we only have them on Christmas Eve every other year. I make sure each of them gets a nice ornament every year so they have a nice collection when they're out on their own.

Hi there - well, we've been doing this for the last several years....We do a Secret Santa gift - over Thanksgiving weekend my family (my husband, me and our 2 daughters) draw names and we have to MAKE a gift for that person. On Christmas Eve we go to our Christmas Eve service at church, then my in-laws come over for dinner, then we sit in front of the fireplace and take turns reading The Polar Express and then we open our gift from our Secret Santa which is always a lot of fun. When my daughters were younger we would track Santa online at noradsanta.org - the closer Santa got to our city, the more excited the girls would get and it was a good way to get them to bed so we could finish up all the last minute stuff, like the stockings and the gift that Santa was going to leave. It's fun establishing your own traditions to carry on year after year. Even though my girls are older now, 16 & 20, they still love doing this! Merry Christmas!

We give our two little girls a bath, put them in their pjs, give them each a spillproof cup of chocolate milk and then the 4 of us load into the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights. It doesn't cost a cent and it gives us some time to gawk and awe at all the festive colors of the holiday and just spend happy family time together where no one is fighting, feeling left out, whining, etc. It has become one of our most favorite traditions. We do it at least one a week during the holidays.

Lots! On Thanksgiving and Christmas my husband's family plays games and on Christmas we do an ornament gift exchange- where you can steal twice before the gift is frozen! My husband and I open presents on Christmas Eve and of course wait till the morning to empty our stockings. Since our little girl was just born last year I am sure more traditions will be born! I would like to continue a tradition my mom had and that was buy her new jammies. I notice others have that same tradition! Good luck on your talk. :-)

We have three that pop to mind immediately.

1) Thanksgiving: I used to try to fit in two(!!) Thanksgiving meals in one day. One at Dad's house (or a relative from his side) while *ours* was cooking at home. Then we'd race home to finish up the cooking so we could also share it with my mom. That's just hard. So now we do Thanksgiving on Thursday (Dad's side) and on Friday (Mom's side). It turns out I can make it through the day without passing out, and we love it.

2) Christmas: When my son was little we'd have my mom spend the night on Christmas Eve. Then she could be there in the morning when he awoke to see what Santa brought. As he got older... and slept in later... she decided to just come early enough to be there when he awoke. Now that we have a daughter who's celebrating her second Christmas, we're starting that one up again.

3) New Year's: Same idea as Christmas... Mom spends the night so we can get up and watch the first showing of the Rose Parade over a yummy breakfast.

I haven't read anyone else's yet, and I'd imagine there are some pretty exciting ones out there. Ours are simple, but they are the ones that make me feel like home.

I can remember waking up Christmas morning and smelling my Great-great aunts Applesauce cake baking in the oven and Barbara Streisand Christmas Album playing quietly. By the time I was dressed and running downstairs the music would change to Johnny Mathis Christmas and my brother and I would have to wait at the kitchen table and have a cup of juice or milk and a slice of cake before we could go into the living room and see if Santa came. The smells, sounds,tastes and excitement of that moment of waiting is what made Christmas...Christmas. Now, I do the same with my son, and I get the same feeling I did as a little girl. I can't imagine it anyother way. Even, in my younger days, when I would spend Christmas alone overseas, as long as I had that music, could make that cake and had twinkle lites on a twig....it was Christmas and it was all I needed to be happy all day long. Even tho I was alone, I wasn't, I had my family with me thru all those senses.
Gotta get the decorations out now...thanks for asking this question....Happy Holidays!!!!!

We make plates of goodies that we take around to our neighbors as we go caroling.
We always open one gift on Christmas Eve.
We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas starting on December 26th like they do in Europe. On January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas it's Three Kings Day and gifts are given. Although in the US, most people think the Holidays are over the day after New Years, something fun you can do on the 6th is throw a Fiesta like they do in Mexico and smash a pinata.
Also, while I was growing up we always found someone who was alone and we'd invite them over for Dinner Christmas eve. It was great to share joy with those who might be lonely.

Every year we each get a new ornament. I try to find collections that are all similar but slightly different. We initial and date the bottom so that we'll remember which one is for each child. That way, by the time they're older and have their own trees, they'll have a start. My parents did the same for me and my sisters. It always makes me happy to see my childhood ornaments and talk about it with my girls (ex. how Aunt Sarah has the angel with brown hair, and Aunt Neesie has the angel with blond hair, and I have the red-headed angel).
We also have a "Christmas Bell". It's a little silver bell with a snow flake handle. Whoever wakes up first on Christmas morning gets to ring the bell to awaken everyone else in the house.

Thanks for posting this question! I love reading the responses.

Hello

I'm Scandanavian and we celebrate on Christmas Eve. We get all of our family together and open our presents and eat and eat and oh did i mention eat? :) We do nothing on Christmas Day, so I developed my own tradition of going to see a movie since that is just about the only thing open. I have been doing that since I was 12 :)

* At Christmas my Aunt Tricia would make a donation to a non-profit agency in each family member's name. Although she has now passed away, one of us always continues this tradition.

* We make cinnamon rolls (my great grandmother's recipe) and deliver them to our friends on Dec 23 or Dec 24. That way we get a short visit with friends and they have breakfast while they're opening presents the next day. (Frosting in a separate container.)

Have fun!

This seems to be a popular one, but we get our kids a new ornament every year. I always try to get an ornament that is connected to what they have been focused on that year. My daughter has her Baby's 1st Christmas, Raggedy Ann(She had curly red hair that year, and dressed up as Raggedy Ann for Halloween), a Big Sister Ornament (the year her brother was born), last year she got Ariel, and this year we got her a Disney one, we started going to Disneyland a lot. I love this tradition. It also helps me remember all the past Christmas'.

When we were kids, our step-dad worked as a fireman. This meant that he always worked on Christmas morning. So our family started havingChristmas dinner the night before [a huge spread of Mexicanbecause my step-dad was Latino]and opening our gifts afterward.Al's been gone for almost 15 years,now but his tradition still goes on.

Xmas: (celebrated usually up in Seattle, ugh. Rain. But mi familia, and DH's are up there)

Long running
- Pictures with Santa
- New ornament every year (dated... my mum's tree hasn't had a non-personal ornament on it for 30 years... I even got to take mine "home" with me when my son was born, and there is STILL hardly any room on her tree).
- Advent Calendar (with junior mints)
- Decorating the house & tree with lights & hanging stockings
- Wish lists
- Twas the night before xmas, and all through the house...
- Movies: Grinch, Muppet Xmas Carol, Frosty the Snowman, Polar Express, M on 34th st.
- Music : Carol of the Belles (son's favorite), and many many others... from VBC, to manheim steam roller
- Xmas eve jammies
- Xmas eve drive to look at the lights
- Xmas eve cookies & milk & carrots left out
- Going to my mum's house xmas morning
- Staying in new jammies until at least 3pm the next day
- Dad making brunch between opening presents from santa and presents from family
- Trying to figure out timezones, & remembering to make sure we call all of our friends on the appropriate day... Japan being a day ahead, Orthodox Xmas 9 hours earlier, but on Jan 7th, Islamic Santa Day (new years trees, not xmas trees, and that's a hard one for me to remember) is the hardest, because it moves around from Jan 1 - Jan 15 (direct correlation to when dad gets paid)

Newish traditions:
- Blow a glass ornament (started 3 years ago)
- Tie the tree to the Jeep in such a way that at least one of the doors doesn't open :) (7 years ago)
- Invite all of our Jewish and "Orphan" ;) friends over on xmas eve (2 years ago)
- Make truffles & truffle stuffed figs (last year)

BRAND NEW (aka, we'll see how it works)

- We're going to try having xmas on xmas eve morning, and then xmas morning at my mom's (also her birthday) the next day.

When my children where in grade school we had the twelve days of Christmas. We hung a Christmas bag on each door to be opened in the morning by every family member for the twelve days before Christmas. Most nights we put a little gift like coins, candy, cookies, or a little toy and most importantly, a note in the bags. The promise of a gift got everyone, especially the kids, to participate. On these notes we wrote something that we valued about the other person. Something they had done well or just something we liked about the person, anything really, as long as it was positive. What was meant to be a little learning exercise to help my children remember to say positive things about one another and to practice their writing (which worked very well in both cases); turned into something much more. The things they said were so precious and sometimes very funny. I saved these notes and put them in an album. Reading them is like a snapshot back in time to what they were like at that age. These notes are some of my most treasured keepsakes.

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