Making Christmas Morning Special...

For Christmas breakfast, I always do something bakeable (egg casserole or french toast casserole) and mix it up the night before. I make hubby get up early to put it in the oven, then we snooze and cuddle until it's ready. When the kitchen timer goes off, the kiddos can stampede the stockings, and breakfast is ready to go. It works pretty well for us.

We would eat a nice meal, go look at the neighborhood lights, read the Nativity story, and open presents from friends and family on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Morning, we woke up to the presents that Santa had brought, had some hot chocolate to start the day, and made German Pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for a late breakfast. For dinner, we made pizza as a family (little kids can squish the dough on the pan and help "decorate" the pizzas, older ones can help chop veggies, etc, and we all loved it!), so you really can do just about anything make it be special for your family.

I agree about the Christmas morning thing and there has been the debate between when to open presents in our household as well. My father's family did it Christmas Eve and mom's did it Christmas Day. So we went with Christmas day. My husband and I continue to do it Christmas day as well. With the exception of two gifts Christmas eve - matching jammies for the boys and an ornament for each boy. I like the idea of dressing up and opening family gifts Christmas Eve and then gifts from Santa Christmas Day. Maybe that will work in our house in the future. But we prepare an egg bake that needs to sit overnite on Christmas Eve and it becomes an easy meal Christmas Day. Like I said, we do matching pajamas for the boys - but my husband and I end up being grungy...need to fix that one! I look forward to hearing responses that are more helpful than mine!
K.

This has been a wonderful put-together-the-night-before and pop-in-the-oven-in-the-morning breakfast for Christmas that has feels like you put a lot of love and effort into it but saves Mom's sanity every year:

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/christmas-morning-breakfa...

It has been altered from year to year, and if you read the other comments you will see how, with bacon instead of sausage, toasting the bread, etc. It always turns out yummy! And the smell of it baking makes the house feel like Christmas.

My mom used to do the whole eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, etc., meal and my hat is off to her. She was an early riser naturally though, and that has never been me. :)

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Matching pj's is a great idea...my friends and all 3 of their boys all match and have a picture taken infront of the tree on Christmas morning.

Anyway, we do several things. Christmas eve we go out to my in-laws and have a nice dinner and wait until evening and play a game to open presents. Sometimes my father-in-law would do a treasure hunt where we had to do a science or math problem to figure out where the next present was hidden in the house. Sometimes we would just play a board game, and whoever won got a present to open. Then we would come home and have our kids leave a key hanging on the front door for Santa so he could get in our house, and leave cookies and milk. While the kids were sleeping of course Santa would come, but we would also hide a pickle on the tree. (a Fake pickle ornament). Also my husband and I would share a bottle of sparkling cider infront of the tree. In the morning the kids wake up and wake us up and we open presents from Santa. We would then open our gifts to eachother and then have the kids find the pickle in the tree. Whoever finds the pickle gets an extra present to open...we make it a family gift though, like a game or a movie. Then we all get dressed up and go over to my parents house. The men make breakfast. We eat breakfast and then open up our gifts from my family, and then we have a Big fancy lunch. Somewhere in there my side of the family all gets together and has a huge family Christmas also. We either get together the weekend before Christmas, the weekend after Christmas, or Christmas Eve.

We are a christmas eve AND christmas morning family too! Something I love that we do on christmas morning is eat this delicious breakfast pastry called Monkey Bread (there are A LOT of versions online. I don't make it with raisins). It is tasty! We just eat monkey bread and open presents (youngest to oldest... lots and lots and lots of rotations with extended family, but gives each present its due, and makes sure people say thank you). They're probably not the best traditions, or the most fun, but we really enjoy them!

My family always did the xmas morning thing and my hubby did the Xmas eve event. I personally prefer the morning (and I am by no means a morning person)because it gave the kids all day to play with their toys rather than have to go to bed. My mom got us all one present that we could open on Xmas eve and it was always a brand new festive pair of PJ's for Xmas morning. My littest sis would get up early Xmas morning and wake everyone else up. We would all wait in outside the living room until everyone was ready (my big bro would shower and do whatever he could to stall.. big pest:) and then all went in together. We had one unwrapped present from Santa and then we got to unwrap all our other presents. Afterwards, while the kids played with their gifts the adults made a special breakfast together. Usually we had blintzs (sp). Those are some of the best childhood memories that I have and I try my best to follow this tradition with my own family.

Growing up, we always did xmas eve at my dad's family and opened presents. We then went home and opened one present. In the morning we did the Pj's open present thing, then a big breakfast, then had to leave all the toys and go to my mom's family. I can't say I really enjoyed any of it, except the time at home.

My husband and I decided not to travel for Christmas (my family is out of state). The reason for this was that Christmas falls on random days so we would have to take more time off work, and airfare is so much, we travel Thanksgiving instead.

His family expects us as his parents' house both Christmas Eve (almost all day, or at least after work) and always the SAME meal that I don't enjoy - reminds of when I was a kid. Then all Christmas day. They are well off and the opening of presents alone could take an hour or two. They would have a huge breakfast, snacks all day, just sitting around watching TV, maybe a game or two, but it was usually a 2-3 person game, and then dinner. Not much interaction, and not any different from other dinners up there.

Since my son was born, we have decided not to leave our house on Christmas Day. We want our son to be our joy of Christmas and let him nap when he needs to and enjoy his presents and own toys, and just enjoy the day. He is the only child in the family, and isn't christmas for the kids and for spending time together? His grandparents' house isn't babyproofed, so the day would consist of me following him around and moving things out of the way and constantly telling him no. Also trying to avoid the 64 inch tv that is constantly on because we don't have him watch TV. (It is how I will be spending xmas eve anyway.)

Our new plan is to give in to xmas eve, but we aren't showing up so early. We go to an evening mass at our church. Morning and breakfast/presents in whatever order our son decides, then relax and enjoy the day until we host a dinner for anyone that wants to join us.

The morning is special because we make it special. We put on christmas music, slowly open our presents, have some breakfast foods that are special to us and that everyone will like and take our time with the whole thing. You can still get dressed up for the dinner and visiting, and that way the focus is on the family, and not the gifts.

Sorry that was so long. I am just a strong believer in doing things for "your" family, and not necessarily worrying about everyone else so much.

My in-laws do the Christmas eve thing. One thing they started a couple of years ago, that I like, is giving all the grandkids pj's for Christmas. They aren't matching, but each is appropriate for the child. They all get their pj's on before opening any other presents (this also helps with getting home and going straight to bed before Santa comes).

Maybe you can do something similar - everybody in your family gets pj's on Christmas eve. If you want to make them matching that's great. You all wear your new pajamas that night and stay in them for presents.

We also have a "Christmas breakfast" of sweet rolls (Pillsbury or something similar makes it super easy) and "Orange Julius" - 2/3 c frozen OJ concentrate, 1/4 c milk, 1/3 c sugar, 1/4 c water, and about 12 ice cubes, mixed in a blender. We've also swithced out the OJ for other juice mix concentrates, and we vary between cinnamon rolls and orange rolls.

We like to look at what Santa brought first and let the children play with those for a while and have a good look at them, then maybe open open up some other really special gift...homemade or special gifts to each other, etc.
Then, we actually stop the whole thing and go and prepare and have a fancy breakfast! We do omlettes and juice, muffins or pancakes, etc. with our fancy plates and goblets. After we eat and clean up, we then go back and as a family sit down together and finish opening gifts. It helps make the day last longer and you take time to open them up and enjoy them, not just rip them all open and be done in a short time. If you are eating a meal that day(especially relatives), it is ideal to have it LATER in the day because you are still full from your late breakfast. So you might want to request eating a little later. But, it is a very special way to enjoy the day and bring in a special tradition as a (immediate) family.
P.S: We also have a tradition of opening ONE present Christmas Eve, and they can choose, but if there's PJ's under the tree, they all want their new PJ's to sleep in!

Why not do both?

Dress up on Christmas Eve, have a nice dinner, and maybe open one gift (that's what we do), or maybe all the gifts from each other. Then in the morning, open the gifts that Santa brought overnight (BTW, how did that work when you were a kid? Did Santa not come at all, or did he come while you were eating, or what?)

We always had a special breakfast. My mom would make a "cinnamon roll wreath" meaning she'd make one big long cinnamon roll and form it into a big circle on a pizza pan, and decorated it with nuts and maraschino cherries cut in half to make it look sorta like a wreath. Hot chocolate and orange juice and scrambled eggs, too. I don't do the homemade cinnamon roll thing (yet) but you could also put store-bought ones (like Rhodes) in a circle on a pizza pan. We always ate after we opened gifts because there was no way my parents could keep the kids away from the tree and stockings long enough to eat any reasonable amount of food. When we were older, we'd take a break from unwrapping to eat.

That reminds me. I always thought it was impolite to have the 5 minute mad-dash to open all the presents. Parents and relatives put a lot of energy into finding the right gifts and wrapping them. So we always had to take turns, opening them one-by-one. On Christmas Eve, we'd go in order from oldest to youngest (including parents) and on Christmas morning, we'd switch and go youngest to oldest. There was time to say thank-you to the gift giver and/or show it off to everyone and you get to see the excitement and precious look on your child's face. It also takes much longer than 5 minutes and makes it all more calm and special.

It's been hard to incorporate my husband's family traditions and my own into our own family traditions, but I think it's been worth it to show my husband that I care about what he grew up with (even if I think they're kind of lame!). And turns out, I actually grew to enjoy some of them! And some of them, he decided weren't important, after all.

I think you hit the right note: memories. You have yours, he has his, and now you have your own family. Get a babysitter, take him out for dinner. Decide what memories you want your children to have. Weigh the options, and come to an agreement about what you want for your family. There really isn't a "correct" answer to this. But there is a good feeling that you are striving for. Go get it!

Ya know, just because your mom had a great wedding doesn't mean you need to wear her dress to have a great one too. Do your own thang, this is your family, your turn!

My SIL's family always buys new xmas jammies for the whole family. They open those up on xmas eve and wear them to bed. When they get up to open gifts, the whole fam is in their cute new holiday jammies. Nice for pics. When the kids got older they were allowed to get up before parents to open gifts in their stockings. Parents wake up a little later, get coffee and holiday cookies for breakfast :o) and everyone takes turns opening gifts.

Our pets always get us special pj's that we open on Christmas Eve so that we look nice on Christmas morning for the pictures.