New Holiday Traditions

wiggyslilsis · December 2013

Who is starting new traditions this year?

This year I made a felt tree and Ava Nichol loved it so that will definitely be a repeat for years to come. I also made a reusable advent calendar. This year will just be goodies but I look forward to doing an "activities" calendar in the future.

Ava Nichol gets a new ornament from my mom and one from us every year. I also want to start the Jammies on Christmas Eve tradition as well which will get more elaborate as she gets older like with a movie and popcorn. I also like to get her anew dish for each holiday.

Hmmm I think that is it...

lb1117 · December 2013

R and I need to figure this out. I am still doing the family traditions started with both sides of my family and his, so we haven't really thought through new ones. We really should consider what we want to start with Baby S.

Whippet8 · December 2013

We will do Christmas jammies and a math story book for St. Nicholas. Other than that, other traditions are what we've done with our own families. On Christmas Eve we will probably help at a local soup kitchen with my family, have zuppa de peche for dinner and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

brij2006 · December 2013

This is going to be the first year we don't have 5 Christmas' on Christmas day. This will likely continue from now on. So we want to start our own tradition just the 2 of us. Since each year we start at 6am with our families, and aren't alone until late.

We just have no ideas what tradition to start. We want to start something we could later do with kids.

wiggyslilsis · December 2013

@brij2006 I know it is December 1st already but you could definitely do an activities advent calendar for the two of you. It could be nice to take time to focus on the two of you each day. I also really like the idea of getting jammies on Christmas Eve with a movie and popcorn and snacks. We always watch Nightmare Before Christmas

I wish we could narrow down our Christmases and not run around all day. Did you guys just finally put your foot down and say no more? What made for the change?

LuckyAngel07 · December 2013

We didn't really do Christmas Eve pjs and all that, but every Christmas season we'd always watch a recording of The Nutcracker ballet, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the stop-animation Rudolph. I definitely want to keep watching all of those every year, especially when kids come along.

brij2006 · December 2013

@wiggylilsis We are finally down to only 1 get together on Christmas day. This is because our grandparents are starting to go south for the winter. So we do their Christmas earlier in the month. It is going to be so nice to not be running around, but we sort of don't know what to do. This is our 11th Christmas together, and we've been so used to running from one place to the next so that we can fit everyone in.

We still have Christmas at 6am at his grandpa's, but that normally goes till noon. This year it will be done by 10. We will likely still do things with our parents separately, but we've never spent time just the 2 of us on or around Christmas. I'm liking the idea of jammies, cocoa, and a Christmas movie or something.

Venti29 · December 2013

DH bought a gingerbread house to do with our 6 month olds, lol. So we will continue that yearly. New slipper socks, Christmas light show, tree the day after thanksgiving.

We had close to zero traditions in my family, I really want to make and keep these up. Not just at this time of year, but all throughout the year. I want them/us to always have a solid family structure and I think getting together to make these things happen are beautiful.

(Our family makes sausage yearly, it's something I look forward to and love. We also abalone dive in May.) this will continue with the kids.

AshleyMatt1215 · December 2013

Growing up we had a few traditions, but nothing out of the ordinary. We went to church Christmas Eve and then my Aunts for pie and cookies. We traveled all over to see family. My mom made dinner every few years and we always had ham and pineapples. Our dogs had stockings and would open gifts. I guess the biggest one was I was allowed to sleep on the couch, but always woke up in bed because they would wait for me to be asleep enough for my dad to move me to my bed, but claim Santa did it with his magic.

We don't travel to anyone's house and I cook a huge dinner for whoever wants to come over (friends, family.. literally anyone who wants to stop in can). We started that because our families are an hour way in opposite directions and we refuse to spend our day traveling. I had to travel every Christmas as a child and I hated it, I never got to play with my new toys and it was exhausting. We'll definitely continue this with our little family. Everyone has accepted it and they knew from the beginning it would continue when we had kids. My BIL and SIL do the same thing and only travel on Thanksgiving.

For our kids I want to do Christmas pajamas and a book Christmas Eve. We'll do cookies and milk for Santa with some carrots for the Reindeer.

The biggest one we'll do is how we'll give gifts - something to read, something to wear, and something to play with. We will do one extra gift from Santa, but everything from else will come from us and the biggest gift will be from us, not Santa. We're not rich and we don't want our kids to grow up thinking that gifts only come from Santa. Plus, we have a TON of family between Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, Great Grandparents this kid will have a ton of stuff. Of course there will be stocking stuffers, but nothing insane little toys, jewelry... gift cards for fast food when they're older.

Also, we will pick out a used toy to donate and go pick out a toy for the gift giving trees in the area. It's important for them to know that not everyone has a Christmas and some people need help to get through the holidays. As they get older we'll volunteer at a nursing home or a soup kitchen around the holidays.

KatieKim0815 · December 2013

This year I started the pre-Xmas cleanout and collected all the toys the boys had outgrown or don't play with and put them in a box to donate to a needy family. The woman who picked it up actually also donated some of the toys to kids at the local hospital.

On top of that I donated a bunch of the old clothes the boys have outgrown. Just feels good to do that winter cleaning before Xmas as well as have it help other families.

We also do the Xmas pj tradition. But I don't wait until Xmas eve. They wear them now but they will wear them on the day for sure.

smbenevides1989 · December 2013

The traditions in our family has always been setting up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, the 4:00pm children's Christmas Mass on Christmas Eve, head to my aunt's house to open gifts and enjoy snacks, then head to my other aunts house for the same, then end up at our house to open gifts. Christmas Day we would have a big dinner and relax the remainder of the day.

Since having Lexi, we changed how we did things. We still decorate the house/tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We set up the Elf on the shelf on Dec 1 with his book to read. We will be going to Christmas Eve Mass at 4, head back to our home to dress into comfy clothes, open presents at my aunts (if she doesn't work this year), then back to our house to open gifts.

Last year we started the gift from Santa. She knows that Mommy and Daddy gives gifts, but Santa also gives her a gift that she would like to have. After everyone leaves on Christmas Eve, we will have her set up the cookies, milk, and carrots, with her letter. She will wake up to the new gift. This will be my first year making Christmas Day dinner so we will be in comfy clothes all day too.

This year she is so curious about the Elf. We started the Elf on the Shelf last year, but she wasn't as interested like she is this year. She loves to walk up to Elf and say hi! This morning, Elf helped bring all the wrapped gifts under the tree. She found him sitting in the tree. It's so nice to see the happiness in her eyes.

wiggyslilsis · December 2013

That is another thing we will be doing. We are going to approach Santa the same way that my mom did which was not really encourage Santa and we just kind of knew the big present was from Santa and we left cookies and milk. Santa wasn't the focus...family was and I loved it.

We also stay Christmas Eve with my parent's and wake up and do Christmas morning there. We are super close and they have a spare room for DH and I and a room that is for Ava Nichol so it works

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