Giveaway: Traditions and Shtuff
To me, the holidays are about traditions. And presents. And fudge. But mostly about traditions. In my family, my Mom’s Christmas village is a tradition that I love. And this year, I’ve decided to start a one myself. You all kindly helped me decide which village I should collect a few weeks back. I read every single comment and suggestion and after careful consideration, I blindfolded myself and randomly picked a village.
Just kidding.
I put a lot of thought into it and have decided to collect option #1 – The Original Snow Village. I think it is so pretty and because it is the original village, it will most likely stay in circulation the longest.
And Chris liked it because it has a Yuengling tavern.
I think traditions are important at the holidays. They remind you of where you’re from and how you got where you are. They remind us of special people in our lives and they help new people to feel like they are part of the inner circle. Like, at my parent’s house, you are officially part of the family when you get a Christmas stocking. My sister’s fiance, John Michael, got his stocking last year. It was a big deal. At Chris’ grandparent’s house, you are officially part of the family if you get a money envelope from his Granddad. His Granddaddy hides envelopes with money in the Christmas tree on Christmas morning and you have to find yours. I remember the first year I was married to Chris and I sat back like always while the grandkids all searched for their envelope. Chris’ Granddaddy kind of nudged me and whispered, “You better go get yours, too.”
That moment was almost sweeter than my own wedding day.
Now that I have my own, new, little family, I’m so excited to start our own holiday traditions. I’m torn though because I can’t decide if those traditions should come naturally over time or if I should make a big announcement.
“ATTENTION FAMILY! WE WILL CELEBRATE A NEW TRADITION TONIGHT!”
I think I’m going to do a little of both. For my first official act as Mother Christmas, I am deeming new pajamas for Beanie on Christmas Eve. I’ve always loved when family’s had that tradition, so we’re doing it in my house this year. I’m super excited. My second official act as Mother Christmas is that Bean will be allowed to open ONE GIFT on Christmas Eve.
You have no idea what a big deal this is. I can hear my own mother shaking her head in horror from 1,000 miles away as I write this. In our house, we begged every single year to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Never happened. And yet, we still beg to this day.
This year, I know exactly which present I want Bean to open. It was actually a gift from a reader of this humble blog. My imaginary friend, Jenn, has been reading my blog since before even I read my own blog. We have never met before, but somehow I feel like we know each other. Well, recently, Jenn started selling Tupperware as a way to pick up extra dough right here at the holidays. And what’s one of the first things she did with her new hobby? SHE BOUGHT ME A PRESENT!
This is why we are friends, Jenn. I always like people who buy me things.
And it wasn’t just any present. Jenn sent me the PERFECT gift. It was a toy for Beanie and it was a toy that I remember playing with when I was little. I’m so darn excited that he’s going to have the same toy that I did! Something about that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And yet very, very old at the same time.
And because Jenn is just the bestest, she’s offered to give away one of these shape toys to a lucky reader, too! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me about your favorite holiday tradition. Give me some good ideas cause I’m in the market for a tradition or two of my own…
Also, if your cabinets are stuffed with Tupperware like mine are, then head on over to Jenn’s Tupperware website and order you some more! I say you never have enough until your cabinets runneth over! As a bonus, for every $200 in orders, Jenn and I are going to donate a Shape-O-Toy to Toys for Tots this year. Just be sure to put a reference to Marriage Confessions in the “notes” section of your online order. If you have questions about a product or an order, email Jenn at jennford@my2.tupperware.com.
So, shop guilt free. Its for the children…
I’ve had the BEST time talking about holidays this week. Hearing you all share about your own families makes me feel like we’re, you know, related. Which is too bad for you cause I’ve been known to show up at random family member’s homes before demanding to be fed. So, if your doorbell rings on Christmas morning, answer with a plate of cookies.
67 Comments
Catherine
My favorite holiday tradition is pancakes in the morning made by my dad (who almost never cooks)!
Melanie K. from RC
We pretty much do the same you are going to do…I let the kids open one present Christmas Eve that I have picked for them and it’s always new pajamas. That way everyone is somewhat presentable for Christmas morning pics. Sometimes there’s a fun pair of socks or slippers. My mom would never let us open a gift on Christmas Eve either, so this is my rebellious streak coming out 🙂
Emily
We always opened one present on Christmas Eve, but that present was always new jammies. Kill 2 birds with one stone! (or something like that)
Angela
Right after the New Year rings in my Mom and I sneak down stairs together and have a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. It’s the best tradition.
Tressa
I LOVE THIS! So Sweet. I wonder if my 19 year old daughter will go for this tradition on Christmas Eve at midnight!!!
Diane
We always opened our presents Christmas morning as an entire family. Can’t wait to start our own traditions this year with our little monkey bean.
Katy
Oh man, this is gonna be long because, well, I have to tell the story.
Christmas eve in my family rocks, but, I may have to vote for the best tradition as my brother’s in-laws b/c my fantastic brother made it into the greatest proposal ever. They are of Dutch decent and have this thing with hiding a pickle ornament in the tree? The person that finds the pickle ornament gets a prize. When my brother decided to pop the question, he had been dating his girlfriend/wife for 7 years (ages 15-22). Her brothers let her find the pickle, which gave her the first present of a rose with a card that had a picture from their first year of dating, and a description of an event from that year. It led her on a scavenger hunt throughout the house, and to roses with pictures and stories on cards. Finally, it led her to my brother hiding out in the guest room, surrounded by DOZENS of roses. Ok, this is not a Christmas tradition, but he did make use of the pickle. Sorry so long!!!!
Zoe
Aww, what an amazing proposal <3
Allison
http://www.bronners.com/legendofpickle.html
This is the best tradition! My family does this, too!
Lauren
Our “new family” Christmas tradition is Raspberry pancakes made my my husband Christmas morning. That will be a great memory for our kids as they grow up.
And we definitely open 1 present Christmas Eve, sporting our new jammies, of course! 🙂
Kara
We always went to church and then rode aorund looking at Christmas lights as a family. It was so special and something I want to do with my little family I started.
Brandi Wright
We would always watch the Parades on TV after we open gifts on Christmas morning. I still love to watch the parades.
Jill @ nokoikonomia
We always read the Christmas story after stockings and before opening the presents.
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
My kids open one present on Christmas Eve too. At our house, it is always the present that their siblings got them. That way the present that their brother/sister picked out so carefully doesn’t get lost in the pandemonium of Christmas day.
Lindsay
My grandpa always made perfectly spicy bloody mary’s for the entire family (virgins for the kiddos, of course) while opening presents Christmas morning. Now that he’s gone, we still carry on the tradition and say a big “cheers” to him.
Heather O.
We, too, have the jammie tradition.
Every Christmas since the day I came into the world we have gotten an ornament to hang on the tree. I do the same with my kids and we always try to pick something that was going on in our lives…this year I think my daughter will pick something dance related since that has become very important. Although, she just got her first ever hair cut after 5 years of life! That was a major mile stone around here.
Lastly, the local ski resort here does a Trail of Lights where you ride the ski lift and look at hundreds of thousands of lights. It’s quite and pretty. Then we stop in the lodge for some hot coco and cookies.
Lacy
My family would all get together at my moms house and the children would get to pick on gift to open on Christmas Eve. My mom always cooks a huge meal and we have to eat before opening the rest of the presents on Christmas day! The best part is being with my family. Alot of us make long drives just to be there, its the one time of the year we all make it a point to get together! Its the best!
Sarah H.
Oh…riding around looking at lights. I’m looking forward to this! It’s my favorite! So I know we’ve both blogged about Christmas this week, and I’m cool with that. But can you use some of your firey red-headness to tell the people in my office that it’s too early to listen to Christmas music? Let’s wait until after Thanksgiving, Thanks 🙂 That’s my tradition–listening to Christmas music AFTER Thanksgiving.
kay
pajamas on Christmas eve! A huge buffet at my moms house on Christmas eve with family, friends, friends family and any one else who doesn’t have a place to go on Christmas Eve! It is after all “the most wonderful time of the year”!
Emily
Our Christmas traditions were I guess just like everyone elses! My mom’s favorite thing to do was to go around town and look at the Christmas lights. I think my Dad was the rebellious one because we always opened presents on Christmas Eve when we go home from a family celebration. Christmas Day was always about the food! I want to start the “jammies” tradition with my little girl this year. This will be her first Christmas….and then she will have a birthday 4 days later (poor baby)! I can’t wait!
Haley
I love traditions, they make me so happy. Maybe that’s why I love the holiday season.
Growing up we had the traditional traditions (wow, I’m hilarious):One present on Christmas eve, pajamas, reading the Nativity from the bible, watching “A Christmas Story” and of course good food.
My favorite tradition was every Christmas my family would pick one family in the community who were struggling financially and buy them presents. It meant that we didn’t get as much, but even as a kid I was ok with that. There’s nothing to compare to seeing their eyes light up and for a time all of our problems went away.
Alex
i had that toy when i was little, too! i’d love to have one for my kids.
most of my favorite holiday traditions center around food. my family & my husband’s almost all live within 20 minutes of us. i love christmas morning at my family’s house – growing up, we always had to go though our stocking before opening our other presents, i guess to keep up the anticipation, so i especially love stockings on christmas morning. my husband’s parents have lived in the same neighborhood for 20 years and on christmas morning, all the neighbors in their cul-de-sac gather outside in the cul-de-sac to make breakfast for everyone, and their kids, and their grandkids! (we live in arizona, it’s never below 60 degrees on christmas morning).
colleen
I TOTALLY declared new traditions for Christmas when began hosting my parents from Florida. One is to decorate a gingerbread house. I had never done it before and the first year I bought a pre-made ginger bread house. We decorated that ginger bread house so much it looked like a toddler did it. It was silly and fun, I think my Grampa enjoyed it the most- candy and frosting? Come on! It looked awful and as we sat back and admired our hideous decorations all the roof slid off one side. And the cookie part of that roof was so hard and stale it was inedible- except for the man with no teeth- he gummed it to death- because there was frosting and candy, of course.
My parents and now husband dread this tradition. I absolutely love it. And with a baby in the belly, the fun of someday doing this with a child and it’s grandparents is such a beautiful and fun image. Although family has requested I learn how to make gingerbread cookies instead of buying the pre-made. We’ll begin this year with cookies of Gingerbread people. Wish me luck!
Kayla
Hey Katie,
I didn’t think I had a Christmas tradition. I mean, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, but it was nothing specific… You know, the general traditions. It wasn’t until I updated my status on Facebook that I realized I had one, and that’s special to me because it’s my second year away from my family.
When I was growing up my I, myself, would put all the good Christmas music CDs into our 5-CD stereo in the living room and I would play some Super Nintendo. Preferrably, Super Mario Kart or something like Zelda: a Link to the Past, etc.
Every Christmas break from school I’d do this. Heck, my parents got so used to it that one year when I was graduating College I didn’t play it because of exams, and they frequently commented on “how it just didn’t feel like Christmas this year, and they didn’t know why” until I told them I hadn’t played.
Well, I don’t have my SNES out where I live now (two provinces away) but I still have my fave Christmas CD – Celine Dion’s “These Are the Special Times.” I know, I know!! It’s Celine Dion!! Talk about gagging me with a spoon. But… she does the Christmas songs really well, and it’s got all my favourite Christmas Songs like O Holy Night and Ave Maria.
Sue V.
My husband and I decided early in our marriage that we would always spend Christmas Day without extended family. Now that we have children we continue to protect that DAY. It allows us to focus on what the day really means, and not have to worry about dealing with everyone else. We visit my Dad and my husbands family after Christmas Day. It helps that his family gets together on the weekends, but if Christmas day is on a Saturday they won’t see us until Sunday. We also started a tradition of having burgers and brats on Christmas day. Every year we know what we are having, no stress, and everyone loves it.
Once we had children we started a tradition of purchasing an age appropriate “Nativity” story. We then read it Christmas eve just before we tuck the kids in. We write the year in the front of each book, and they are stored with all the Christmas stuff. There are so many new “Nativity” books each year that we always have lots to choose from.
Sarah C
We have candles we light in memory of past loved ones, then open a gift X-mas eve. We let the candles burn all night, as silly as it sounds it feels like they are with us this way.
Meredith
Back in the day when my brothers and I were much younger, we had a wake up time on Christmas day- a time that we could finally wake up our parents (usually 7 am). So on Christmas Eve, we got to open one gift (from one of our siblings) that would keep us occupied in the morning until we could wake our parents up. Over the years of course, this morphed into our parents waking us up but we kept the tradition.
Sara
I remember that toy from when I was younger too! My family wasn’t very religious, but we always went to the midnight Christmas eve service at my church. I loved it with the lights being turned off and seeing everyone’s candles being lit row by row. Once my two little ones are a little older and can handle being up that late (one’s 2 and the other is 5 months), I would love to start going back to that service.
Susan Samson
Our son’s first Christmas eve we had our cousin and their son, 8 days older then mine, over and exchanged gifts. Last year, it was just our little family trio and we let our son open one gift, a puzzle. He was so excited. It was special. We have the Christmas boxers that were my nephew’s, size 2T that our son will get to wear this year, over his diaper just like my nephew did. Christmas morning last year was a lot of excitment over his tricycle. We are trying to establish a good Christmas breakfast.
Susan Samson
My mother has also given us an ornament each Christmas. When she and my dad were married they had no Christmas ornaments and she didn’t want that to happen to us. We still at 30+ years old get a Christmas ornament each year from Mom. We do the same thing with our son.
Jordan Holmes
My favorite tradition from childhood is one that we still do every year. Every Christmas Eve, once everyone has gone to bed, my dad aka €œSanta €, hides envelopes in the tree for each of my siblings and myself. On Christmas morning, once everyone has opened their gifts, my dad will get a certain look on his face. We all know that look. It creates such excitement even still, at 25 years old, because I know that there is still one more gift left. He will say €œare you sure that is everything? Looks like there is something in the tree, hmmmmmm €. So we all get up and look into the tree, searching for that envelope. Once it is in our excited little hands we rip it open like Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory searching for the gold ticket. But ours is not a gold ticket, it is a clue, clue #1!!
My father is very creative and he would write little stories or hints to lead you to your next clue, but here is the catch, while walking to your next clue, you were instructed to sing a certain Christmas carol. You can imagine 4 kids of varying ages walking rapidly thru the house singing a variety of Christmas carols in search of that next clue. I am sure that it was a sight to be seen. Once everyone has found the €œfinal gift € we bring them back to where we were sitting and we get to open our gifts. My parents always saved the best for last.
This is a tradition that I will always cherish, and I hope to continue with my son who will be 8 months at Christmas this year.
andrea
i buy a new tree ornament every year, starting the year that my husband and i were engaged. and now the kids get new PJ’s that are opened on christmas eve so they can wear them to bed (i got to buy two sets this ear 🙂 every year since i was little christmas eve was spent with my moms family at my nana and pawpaw’s house (10 aunts and uncles, 15 grandkids, 8 great-grandkids (so far) and of course significant others), the only thing that has changed is that now my mom and I host it, and the number of people keeps growing!
but i actually wanted to post to say that Jenn is the greatest! We’ve been friends for years and you would be hard pressed to find a more giving, generous and caring person. I miss her so much, but she is actually part of another holiday tradition. it’s the one time every year that our group from school usually gets to see each other, i can’t wait!
Melissa Nunley
My favotire tradition is that we actually open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve, lol. My Dad has worked on rigs since he was a teenager, and as we got older he’d trade Christmas with a guy he worked with because his kids were small, so my Dad worked it. He’d be able to come home for about two hours and we’d all open gifts that night since he’d be at work for a few days. We still do it now, and Ilike it since we get to sleep in the next morning. *lol*
Jen D
My favorite holiday tradition has to deal with our Christmas ornaments. Its a subtle one, but very meaningful and I just love it. Everyone in my family has some ornament with their name on it. Grandparents, dogs, the whole clan has one. My parents had the very unfortunate experience of loosing a child when he was just several days old. That Christmas, his ornament went to the top part of the tree. His ornament now sits with some of our dogs and my grandparents and I just LOVE remembering all of these special people in our lives. We also started the “deployment” side of our tree also. My husband and brother’s ornaments live here when they are deployed at Christmas time. Luckly, hubby’s gets to be in the normal people section this year but my brother’s will reside in the “deployed, coming home soon” section. As tearful as it can make me sometimes, I think its an awesome way to honor the people in our family that we love most!
Mara
I love this post! When I was a kid, I was always allowed to open ONE present on Christmas eve. My parents would pick which gift they wanted me to open early, and they would put a shiny red bow on it. We saved the bow and reused it every year!
Jenn
I love the pajama tradition. My mother-in-law has done that with her boys ever since their very first Christmas. I knew I was part of the family when I received my very first pair of pajamas from her!
P.S. my name is Jenn Ford too!…how funny 🙂
Jenn
Oh my goodness, two people with the same name read the same blog? Nice. Is yours your original name, or did you marry a Ford? I married a Ford.
Jenn
oh and i forgot to mention the tradition my husband and i just started when we got married. each year we get each other a christmas ornament that has something to do with the previous year…something we did, celebrated, or really anything that reminds us of the year that is coming to a close. this way wee can collect sentimental ornaments for our tree 🙂
elizabeth
we started our own traditions when the kids were little. they WANTED to give gifts…but money didnt mean alot to them when they were little–pennies and bills were equivalent etc. and i wanted them to understand it was a gift from the ™¥ that was important. so…we saved photos from the previous year and cut out the ‘icky’ parts…pasted them to carboard and laminated them for cheap ‘photo’ placemats. we collected rocks in the summer that were wonderful shapes, and painted them for special ‘paper weights’. but the biggest one was ‘baking’. as the kids got older and better at working on the ktichen..they each had their own favourites christmas treats.
so now–even though they are all in their 20’s…we make lists of treats each of them wants to share with special friends. i spend a 1/2 day or so with each kid..and we bake and package home made treats for them to ‘gift’ friends with. it is a wonderful time of laughs, togetherness, special treats for friends…and i wouldnt give it up for anything. it becomes a gift for me too..to reconnect with my kids as adults, and remember their childhoods.
™¥
Shelley
1. We always watch the movie Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve and Home Alone on Christmas Day.
2. Presents are opened on Christmas Eve and stockings on Christmas Day.
3. Eggnog is the drink of choice for both Christmas Day.
Maggie
We eat lasagna on Christmas Eve. I’m not sure where that actually came from, but I sure do love it.
dave
A must read for all MAMAs
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940395-1,00.html
whitney
Big dinner, laughing, clean up, and then opening presents under the tree late Christmas Eve night. Perfect.
Kelley
My favorite tradition is putting up the tree with my family.
Joanie
Our family traditions (both as children and now as the parents) are the EXACT two that you said you’re implementing!
We always get new pyjamas…and that’s the one gift that we open on Christmas Eve so we can wear them to bed! 😉
cathy
Katie,
I am glad you are thinking of traditions for your young family. I do want to suggest you leave some room for some traditions that will just happen! Those are the best.
Abigail
You’ll be starting my family’s tradition! We always LOVED new pajamas on Christmas Eve. My mom also wrapped them, so we didn’t see what they looked like before, thus squelching our “can we open one present” pleadings. haha. My husband’s tradition, which we have yet to be able to afford to continue, is to have steaks on Christmas Eve and then for Christmas breakfast have the leftover steak with eggs. I prefer my grandma’s scones and ebelskievers for Christmas breakfast!
Toni S.
We have to share Christmases with my parents and my in-Laws. The only way to do that is one year, it’s my parents, and the next year it’s the in-Laws.So, wWe have a couple of traditions.
When we were growing up, my Dad would always hide our “big” present and made us do a scavanger hunt, with clues! He’d give us the first clue, we would have to figure it out, and go find the next clue, and so on, till we found the present. He still does that, and I am 33 now.
With my in-laws, it’s pajamas. We give the girls new jammies on Christmas eve. They wear them to bed, we get up on Christmas morning, and have our morning. Then, still in our jammies, we go to the in-Laws! The girls love it!
We are going to my parents this year, and I am doing the hiding for my Dad this year! I can’t wait, LOL
Mandy
My favorite Christmas tradition is that every Christmas Eve my dad makes a huge buffet dinner and we all sit in the family room eating in front of the fire and TV watching A White Christmas!
Leslie
My Hubby and I will have celebrated Christmas 5 times this holiday season and we have not one tradition in place yet. I am, however, planning on starting one. I want to make homemade Christmas tree ornaments every year, so that eventually when our kids grow up and leave us we can look at our tree an remember every year we had together. Not that we have ever had a Christmas tree before either. But this a good year to start things.
Michelle
My favorite tradition is drinking hot coco and sitting in our pj’s on Christmas Eve while we open one gift each! 🙂 Can’t wait to do it this year with our little guy Henry!!!
Trish
A few years ago we started a new tradition. I was a single mom for many years and my son was rapidly growing up and approaching college. I noticed that he had several Trans Siberian Orchesta cd’s. When I heard they were going to be in concert close by…I was SO excited. I knew this was something we could do together.
The morning the tickets were going on sale..I was up and on the computer and noticed that my kid was online too…way too early for him to be up and about on a Saturday morning. He finally asked what I was doing…when I told him…he started cracking up. He was trying to get tickets too!
We’ve gone to see TSO several years in a row. Then we moved to New Orleans and my child is still in college in Kentucky…so, Doug and I went to see TSO alone..it was a great show..but, I was so homesick for Caleb..I couldn’t stand it!
This year…Caleb is flying in for the concert ..then we will drive back to Kentucky for the family holidays. My nephew and his wife are expecting their first baby in early December..this is going to be a wonderful present for our family. Nothing like a new baby in the family..as you very well know.
Looking € oHeaven
When I was born, my grandparents started making me sets of Christmas ornaments each year. My grandpa was a wood worker and my grandmama was very crafty. They passed on when I was 13 and 15. When I left home I had my very own box of ornaments they made just for me. It is such a sentimental time when we decorate the tree with those ornaments. I broke one last year and nearly fell apart. They mean that much.
To carry on this tradition, I make each of my children an ornament each year so they will have their own box of memories every Christmas.
Katrina
my favorite is buying a new special ornament every year! =)
Sandy
Don €™t forget milk and cookies for Santa! We tried a new tradition when our son was born €¦throwing out food for the reindeer. We would mix in a little glitter (for effect) with some oatmeal and toss it out in the yard. The first year our son understood what we were doing he asked on Christmas morning why the food was still in the yard. So the next year we threw some out and after he went to bed we went out to pick it up. That was the last time we did that €¦have you ever tried to pick oatmeal out of grass?
Rosemary
We have a few starting with leaving the tree lights on all night. We always go to Midnight Mass-such a beautiful service and then came home and sang Happy Birthday to baby Jesus over a birthday cake a family member made for the occasion. It helps to keep the “reason for the season” in everyone’s heart and mind. Then it was the new Christmas “jammies” and off to bed so Santa could come.
Tina Clark
When I was young ,and even to this day, the Christmas tradition in my house was to go to Grandmas for Christmas Eve for her special homemade chili. It was at Grandmas that we got to open our singular christmas eve present. Then we would journey home and stay up late talking about everything we liked about christmas. As for stockings, you really were officially welcomed into my family when you got your own stocking, but since my mom loves well.. everyone.. she always had one on hand just in case. Also, with decorating the tree, it became tradiation for everyone to go and buy one special ornament for the tree. Each year we buy one ornament a piece and place it on the tree, that was always my favorite tradition..
Hilary
My mother’s family is Polish so every Christmas Eve we celebrated with some of the “old country” traditions. This is called Wigilia. My mother even pulls out her accordion (hard to imagine her as head cheerleader, lugging an accordion around to her private lessons, but that was my mom!) to play polkas and sing Polish carols. It is quite entertaining now, not so much as a teenager watching your middle-aged mother pounding away on the “squeeze box” singing at the top of her lungs. Did I mention that they always start drinking at about noon, too?
Kathy
Every year on December 1, I pull out all the candleholders that I own…pewter, crystal, silver, wood, everything. I make a display all across the fireplace mantle, mixing up the sizes and kinds of colors, aiming for some sort of symmetry, but not really caring. All the candles are either red, green, white, or gold, and they range from tea lights to big fat pillar candles, with approximately fifteen taper candles mixed in. Then I place fresh branches around the candles.
During the holidays, we usually just light three or four of the candles at a time, depending on our mood (and how closely we want to watch them). My kids have grown up with this tradition, and say that it isn’t Christmas until the mantle is decorated!
Kathy
Stephanie S.
My favorite family tradition is waking up early and gathering around the tree. Then my sister and I would pass out every single present to all our family members. We’d all have a pile of wrapped gifts in front of us and then go around the room and take turns opening our presents. It always took awhile, but was worth it!
Kate
I don’t know why but I got a little teary eyed reading about everyone’s family traditions! I’d have to say my favorite tradition is our stockings. My aunt and mom hand made stocking for everyone in our family, making them even more special! My mom would always have our stockings on our beds when we woke up Christmas morning, to give her and my dad more time to sleep in she said. My sisters and I loved waking up and going through our stockings together.
Just about every year since I was 7, my family would go to Mexico for Christmas. This actually is the best present/tradition I could ask for! There are several families around the country who do the same thing, so every year we get to reunite with friends from DC, Washington, and Canada. The past few years a lot of family friends and aunts and uncles have come too, so it’s just a big party for 2 weeks!
This year will be very different though, as we aren’t going to Mexico. Instead, my boyfriend and I are taking a trip to Seattle and Portland to visit friends. I’m trading in the sun and sand for the cold and snow, and I’m not sure how I’ll adjust! But the most important thing to me is spending time with loved ones so I’m sure it will be another great Christmas 🙂
Kelly H.
Growing up my family lived close to my grandparents (about a 10-15 minute drive). On Christmas morning, whoever woke up first had to call my grandparents to let them know we were ready to open presents. Then we would sit at the top of the steps and wait. We weren’t allowed to go down the steps to open presents or even see the presents until they arrived. Sometimes, it felt like an eternity waiting on those steps. Mom would take a picture of my brother and I in our pj’s on the top step and once the grandparents arrived we were free to head down. One year my brother was a little too anxious to get down the steps and someone got knocked over and slid down the entire flight of stairs…looking back it was pretty funny, but that morning I was very upset with my brother and his need to get to his Power Rangers. This tradition continued right up until the year I got married. I love looking at the pictures and seeing my brother, our dog and I over the years. We even have pictures of us with my now husband waiting on the steps.
At our house, Christmas morning comes a little later and is a little more laid back. When we have kids, I hope to continue the steps tradition (including the pictures and waiting an eternity for the grandparents to get here).
Kate
Oh my goodness, I have so many traditions it’s hard to pick a favorite. Putting up the Village with my Dad, getting new jammies on Christmas Eve, my dad waking us all up my BLARING Christmas music and yelling “SANTA’S BEEN HERE!” on Christmas morning, and baking cookies to set out for Santa. We always left baby carrots for the reindeer too. 🙂
Christina
We had those traditions growing up! And I loved it…the new jammies was our one present though. 🙂
I get our kids jammies every year, too, and what’s really fun is getting them matching Christmas jammies. They have cousins too. One day they are going to tell us,”No more matching jammies, please…we’re 16.”
Kristin
I love the PJ tradition! I have already decided to do that for my kids (ahem, they’re imaginary) b/c I think it’s awesome. Ryan and I started a new tradition last year (it was our first Christmas as a married couple) where we do a fondue extravaganza on Christmas Eve. That way we can eat what we want and it’s not the standard holiday food. It takes awhile to eat it so we get to spend some good time together! However, my favorite Christmas tradition growing up was the fact that we waited to open gifts until my grandparents came over – and we all ate a big breakfast together. I think that’s the only day of the year that I actually let myself eat cinnamon rolls. I made Ryan eat them with me on Christmas morning last year, too! 🙂
Amanda
This isn’t a cop-out…the same traditions you mentioned are the ones our family did! We always got new PJs and opened one gift Christmas Eve after the church service.
Hmmmmm….a new tradition other than that? Oh, I know. We always opened our stockings first. That’s not much of an exciting tradition, now is it? How about the tradition I started when I was in college – I always make barbecue smokies in the crock pot Christmas Eve and cinnamon rolls Christmas morning.
Jayme
My favorite tradition for Christmas is playing Dirty Santa with my husbands in-laws and some extended family!!! I couldn’t believe the stuff I was seeing the first Christmas I spent with them. It consists of a bunch of middle aged( or older) men and women buying the most perverted or grosses gifts and fighting over them! Its quite funny and I love it 🙂
And at my mom’s house on Christmas eve( all through out my childhood and on the years that we spend it with her) we open one gift that night….sometimes i can convince her to let me open a few more 😉
And I just love that Shape Sorter!!! I remember having one like that when I was little!! I would love for Nathan to have one!!!