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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Christmas traditions
For the last couple years DH and I have been lucky enough to get home for Christmas (once to Canada and once to Ireland) but this DH and I will be spending this Christmas here in Korea.
We have been here before for Christmas and it is always a little bit depressing as there is just not a real Christmas vibe around here. Plus DH always says that it just isn't the same so he really doesn't feel bothered to celebrate it.
I would like for us to start some of our own Christmas traditions that we could take anywhere with us. Do you have any traditions that you have started with your DH?
Re: Christmas traditions
We don't celebrate Christmas at our house since we decided to have a Jewish home, but we do help my parents/family "celebrate" at their houses. I love that my entire family and special invited friends play Dirty Santa (also called White Elephant or Thieving Santa) on Christmas Eve.
This year I can't travel home for Christmas because it is too close to my due date, so in honor of Christmas DH and I are delivering meals to the elderly.
My Israel Blog!
DH and I have been together 11 years and our traditions have changed throughout the years. When we first met we spent several years having a night where we had a fancy dinner and stayed at a fancy hotel, that way we had something that was "just the two of us" regardless of whose family we spent Christmas with.
Our first actual Christmas's spent alone were in Vancouver(away from both our families) and we got into having egg nog french toast for breakfast and roast beef for dinner - as a break from the turkey we had for Canadian and American Thanksgivings.
Now that we're back near my family and have DS we still have the egg nog french toast and are working on finding a meal worthy of keeping around for a just-the-3-of-us Christmas Eve dinner.
I've never spent a Christmas with my FI, something that makes me really sad.
When I was really young and my maternal Grandfather was still alive, we would go to from Georgia to New Orleans (where my mom is from) and visit her family. We would all go over to my rich aunts large house on Christmas Eve and have a lovely dinner with almost every holiday food you could imagine. Everyone would bring presents over. We have a very large family, and it was such a fun sight to see all the gifts. Some were under the tree, but it was pretty much wall to wall presents. After dinner we would all gather in their foyer. One of the men in the family would dress up in this Santa suit they had and pass out the presents. It was seriously awesome as a little kid to think that Santa made a special stop on Christmas Eve just to give us our presents.
It's been several years since we've traveled to New Orleans for Christmas, but we still open our presents on Christmas Eve : ). My FI says that he doesn't want to do that when we ARE together, but I think we should compromise and open at least one gift each on Christmas Eve!
Rambley Blog
We've been together 10 years now and married in 2009 so this is our third married Christmas. We never saw each other on Christmas Day prior to getting married - it was a family day.
But we would nearly always see each other on Christmas Eve in the pub near his parents house cos a lot of his friends would be home for Christmas and we'd catch up there. Its a fairly common tradition in Ireland as it would frequently be the only time of year that EVERYONE would be home at the same time.***
We've had 2 "married" christmases now and saw both our families on the same day and had dinner in my parents the first year and last year was with his parents. The joys of both being from the same city! This year we have N, so it will be different. I think we are going to his parents house in the morning and then my parents for dinner and fun and games!!
***Actually, the "tradition" of going to the pub on Christmas Eve is so common that around 15/20 years ago most of the churches changed midnight mass to 9pm or 10pm cos so many people were calling into the church at midnight on their way home from the pub... totally hammered!!! But its still called midnight mass!!!
My family traditions were that we'd open one gift on Christmas Eve, have pizza for dinner and watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", and then pass out. Then, Christmas morning, we'd open gifts and then have a huge lunch.
Since DH and I have been together, we've started our own traditions (especially since we've been here in the NL...we haven't gone home for Christmas yet since moving here). On Christmas eve, we watch "Polar Express" and hang out all day, then Christmas morning, I make baked french toast for breakfast, we open gifts, hang out, and then I make a roast for dinner. It's just the two of us (and a cat) and we have a great time!
We've always been home for Christmas and have spent Christmas with each other's families since we moved in together. This year will be our FIRST ever Christmas alone, and we are not going home. I would like to start some traditions of our own.
First, we are going to Christmas markets in December (this is an easy Europe thing) and I would like to have DH ice skate with me in our town's Grand Place (main square) bc really, who else can do that in their hometown? haha
Next, I have a long list of great Christmas movies we will watch. And I got Christmas cookie cutters. DH promised we could make sugar cookies from scratch and decorate them together. We have two other young couples living near by that I might invite over for this, drink wine and watch Xmas movies. Like a mini christmas party the week before or something.
We will be flying on Christmas eve, so no big dinner feast like I wanted. Maybe we will have a smaller version, just turkey breast, stuffing, and green bean casserole on the 23rd before we leave. We'll probably skype with family on the 23rd too.
I would like to open one present on Xmas morning. We booked a big trip to the Maldives for 12/25 - 1/4 so that's really our present to each other. I also got two Santa hats that say Merry Christmas so we can take our pictures in them and send it out to friends and family the day of. Cheesy but fun!
Xmas movies and cookies are the big things - easy to take anywhere
Enjoy your first Christmas away!
We're headed to the Maldives on Christmas Eve!
DH and I have always been away from family on Christmas since we have been married. Here are our traditions:
I highly suggest baking, it will put you in the mood. But if you do not have an oven, check out this blog www.ovenlesschef.blogspot.com This is a friend of my who lives in S. Korea and didn't have an oven her first year there and there are lots of good things.