JFF: Your family's holiday traditions

Other Topics All Other Topics
1

Another question got me thinking-- I love the things we do during the winter holiday season, probably more than I enjoy Christmas morning itself. It's the fun traditions that keep me pepped up and make me excited for my son to enjoy the holidays too.

Some things we do:
Early December, we plant a huge bowl of paperwhite bulbs. This year, Kiddo really got into it too and we have beautiful colored stones, a gnome, a ladybug, little plastic animals and towering buds on green stems waiting to bloom. Flowers for Christmas Day...

Cut out snowflakes. Loads and loads and loads. They are on the windows and on the tree...
Listen to good music. No NPR, it's time for the jazz station, which usually plays one carol or so an hour and otherwise, lively be-bop straight-ahead great music. We'll break out the other tried+true Christmas cds, esp. James Brown. Ow! Hit me!

Today we write our letter to Santa, then go to the big mailbox to send it off. Then, it's our tradition to go have pizza right afterward. Silly, but the pizza place is close and just a block from the mailbox.

We'll walk down Peacock Lane, likely on Christmas Eve, a street where every house is lit up and the decorations are fantastic. (If you live in Portland and haven't gone yet, do it!) We usually take a small flask of brandy and brave the crowds.

Christmas morning, feed the cat, feed the kid, small breakfast and then we gather round the tree...

I'm already so happy this year that we are healthy and together, and we'll go to my sister's house to do the afternoon with she, her son, and our folks who are staying with them this time.

So, what are your traditions? Anything you can't miss doing every year? I'm looking for new ideas to share with my family as Kiddo grows older and is able to do more.
TIA~ and a good one to you and yours.

2

We let the kids open a gift. X- mad pj’s and new Christmas book. Then we get into pj’s and go to the movies on Christmas eve.

3

I buy a bag of mixed nuts and oranges to put under the tree. When my Dad was little that was the only time they had them because they didn’t have any money and that was the only time they bought them. It reminds me of how fortunate we are to have so much.

We also put out 12 pennies on the windowsill on New Years Eve, leave them out all night and then bring them back inside on New Years Day. My Grandma used to say that if you do this you’ll have money all year.

Christmas morning I move heaven and earth to be home with my kids so they can wake up in their own house and open presents, and stay in their pjs all day if they want to. If we have family over, I don’t make my kids get dressed.

On Christmas Eve we drive around a look at the Christmas lights, have fondue for dinner and open one present.

Best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday season, and a Happy New Year. :slight_smile:

4

Tree goes up the first Sunday in Advent, the kids decorate it. During advent we attend a Festival of Trees and Lights, go on a sleigh ride, attend several concerts and parties, and the Santa Claus Parade. We write letters to Santa. I put the Galaxy Smooth Jazz Christmas music channel on for the whole season. We attend an evening Carol service on the last Sunday in Advent and a Christmas Eve church service. We open stockings on Christmas morning, eat a big breakfast, then open presents and we have dinner at home. On Boxing Day we go to my brothers for dinner. Through the week we go toboganning, to the museum, the zoo, the planetarium etc. On New Years Eve I cook a big dinner, then we go to the drive-thru Christmas lights display. On New Years Day we attend the Lt. Governors Levee at the Legislative Building, and we pick up Chinese food on the way home for dinner. I cook another big dinner on Epiphany. We celebrate all twelve days of Christmas, so the tree stays up until the day after Epiphany.

5

Tree goes up first Saturday in December. Hot chocolate, Christmas music and decorating the tree & house. As the kids are older, gifts go uder the tree as soon as it’s up (I’ve got limited space for hiding things, so it helps).
Christmas Eve, regardless of where we end up, one gift each is opened.
During the day, we make Cocito (Purto Rican tradition…our equivalent to Egg Nog)
Christmas morning, awake to Christmas music, a big breakfast and opening the rest of the gifts. Cuddling and snoozing and watching Christmas movies.
This is what makes any stress of the holiday season worth it.

6

We are secret santas to my daughter’s friends and drop off a goody bag from a ‘secret santa’ on their doorsteps. We pick one act of charity to do each year and do it as a family. Every year my girls do the research and decide what they want to do. My daughters write on shrinky dink paper their Christmas lists and we make an ornament out of them each year. It is a fun keepsake. We watch a bunch of Christmas movies throughout the season and have Christmas music going most of the time. We have an advent calendar where we open a window each day of the month as we get ready for Christmas. Also, this might be TMI but I buy a special holiday negligee that I surprise my hubby with at some point in the season.
Happy Holidays!

7

We always make tamales with my husband’s family the weekend before Christmas, have Christmas morning at our house and Christmas dinner with my folks. This year I plan to attend my church’s Christmas Eve service.

8

My favorite tradition is to open one present on christmas eve.
The present is ALWAYS new PJ’s for everyone.
I wash them before wrapping them and everyone wears them to bed.
No only is getting them more fun than getting socks and underware ( we usually get that too ) it makes it easy to identify the x-mas day pictures each year.
We also snuggle up before bed and read The Night Before Christmas.
I received a beautiful big copy of the story when my son was born.
It has become my tradition to give the same gift to others at baby showers.
My son is now 13 and still enjoys these traditions.
Opps, I almost forgot one.
Each year I buy my son a special ornament for the tree.
These are all kept together and when he leaves home and is ready to have a tree of his own, I will give them to him.
My mom never did this for me, but I also buy myself an special ornament for myself.
It is nice when we decorate the tree to reminence about the memories surrounding the ornaments.
My son is now 13 and still enjoys these traditions.
From my family to yours Have a happy holiday season.
Thinking of traditons - for birthdays we do one good deed for each year celebrated.