Holidays
Shepherdjel
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Favorite Christmas Traditions
in Holidays
What is everyone's favorite Christmas Traditions? I love Christmas traditions and can't wait to have a family of my own and start our own family traditions...DH & I have ours but i can't wait to add the kids to the mix!!!
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Re: Favorite Christmas Traditions
Hmmm let me see.
We see Santa with this kids at Bass Pro Shoppe since they have a free picture and they have a nice display with crafts, games and activities.
My husband usually makes about three batches of sugar cookies and has fun decorating them
We also love to drive around town and look at lights. There are two places we love to see. One is a local shrine that has a beautiful white light display. They also have a great Christmas village with a petting zoo, puppet show, carolers, and craft tables. Another light display we enjoy is a house in a neighboring town that synchronizes their lights to music
A local church has a great live interactive nativity display. It is quite hard to describe but you go on this "journey" where you walk through the church's grounds and meet characters from the nativity story. It really is amazing.
Then of course there is the usual of listening to Christmas music and watching movies. This year my sister is talking about going to see a Christmas concert at the Symphony Hall but we haven't decided if we are doing it yet.
I didn't do this growing up, but recently heard about it and can't wait to do this with my kids when I have them:
Putting oatmeal and glitter on the pathway to the house so Santa can see your house from the sky and the reindeer can eat the oats while waiting for Santa. How cute?
We have a lot of traditions that we try to encorporate. We always cut down at least one of our Christmas Trees at a local tree farm.
We decorate gingerbread houses. Back in the day when my kids were small...and I apparently had more time and energy (LOL) I used to make the gingerbread homemade and it was a whole big to-do. I enjoyed it but it WAS a lot of work. Now I buy the kits, usually the year before when they're 90% off. We never eat them, the kids just like decorating them, so it's a great way to save some $$$ on them. I get them for my kids and all the cousins, and we have a big day of sledding, decorating gingerbread houses and making cookies in December. It's a lot of fun.
I always give the kids advent calendars (the day after Thanksgiving so they're ready to go on Dec 1st).
We celebrate St Nicholas Day (Dec 6th)...my Mom used to have us put out our shoes outside our doors and the next morning you'd have a few little items/candy (kinda like stocking stuffers). I love doing it with my kids. They know the whole tradition/story behind it etc
We do set up a Nativity scene and the wise men travel throughout our house during December...to get the Nativity by Epiphany (Jan 7th).
We also incorporate helping others, being fortunate for what we have and sharing it with others. So we adopt-a-family thru a local organization and always participate at our church and thru the kids activities for Angel Tree and other charity opportunities.
Spending lots of time with family is something we all look forward to...I can't imagine the holidays without that!
My MIL always has a New Years Day Celebration with pork tenderloin (supposed to give good luck).
H and I typically go to the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati. They have a fun Christmas-themed display each year. We take an annual trip to Bass Pro Shops (his request) and to Jungle Jim's (it's a grocery store) to buy rare foods/wines that we can't buy in KY. We have started a new tradition of going to a Christmas-themed movie then to dinner (we NEVER go to see a movie so this is actually a fun thing for us).
H also requested that we (by we he means me and he'll help eat) marshmallows and caramels. He informed me that it was "fun." So, I guess this is now a new tradition....
I also love going to Christmas Eve mass but sometimes it just doesn't happen (logistics).
My family didn't celebrate Christmas the ways most people do. I never believed in Santa and we never had a Christmas tree at our house (our grandparents did, though, and my new husband and I will have one this year). We have really valued family togetherness and still have Christmas traditions that we love. We always watch Christmas movies: Home Alone 1&2, It's a Wonderful Life, Jingle all the Way, Dr, Seuss' How the Grench Stole Christmas, and more recently The Hog Father (very long, probably not for kids, but adults would love it esp. if they like literature). We always have a big dinner at my grandma's (and I feel completely gypped if I don't eat turkey for Christmas). My dad's side of the family gets the Sunday after any Holiday and my Mom's mom gets the day of - that's how we split it. We also all play instruments and sing so we've done a lot of holiday performances together - community choirs and orchestras, and we have also played Christmas programs for hire.
Thanksgiving is really a bigger holiday for us than Christmas, in a way. I have to say it's my favorite. There's no stress with trying to find presents and we still all have the same big family dinners (that's big dinners, small family! lol). My mother's birthday is New Year's eve, and my husband's is the day before that so New Year's is also big for us. Every year we get together and put together a huge puzzle on New Year's Day and watch the Rose Bowl Parade (and any holiday movies we didn't get to watch around Christmas).
So yeah, basically we eat and hang out from Thanksgiving all the way through New Year's.
I have got so many good ideas from here. This will be our second Christmas together (no kids yet) and we already have some traditions that we are looking forward to this year
- visit church bazaars to get decorations and baking
- My friend and I have a cookie baking day and share what we make. We also go to a craft fair thats held every year in Toronto (I think they have it in Vancouver, NYC and Chicago too (one of a kind show).
- Christmas morning we have Pilsbury crescents and champagne while we open our presents
- we get a new ornament every year based on our lives, last year was "our first Christmas" etc. I love the ideas people have of doing that with thier kids.
- We have Christmas shows we watch every year and of course all the cheesy movies.
- every year my extended family have a celebration on the 23rd dec but this year we can't make it so we are hosting our own dinner. We have bought ugly Christmas sweaters from goodwill to make it fun and my husband is going to dress up as Santa for our nephews and come down with presents after dinner.
We always bake Christmas cookies on 12/23 for our annual Christmas Eve party. This year, we're going to do a cookie exchange.
We always pick out a fresh tree from a tree farm. This year we'll have a mobile, active, and curious 11 month old so we're putting up a fake mini tree in the dining room. :-(
We always go to Zoolights and then pick out an ornament in the zoo's gift shop.
This is our first year with a kiddo but these are the traditions we want to start:
Breakfast with Santa - we did this last year with my nephew. A local hotel/restaurant chain puts on a big breakfast with Santa and his elves. No waiting in line, you just kind of visit with Santa at some point during the event. The elves wander around making balloon animals and handing out candy canes.
Ornament/Christmas book/PJs on Christmas Eve.
Stockings, Santa presents, and cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.
Donating a gift to the Giving Tree for a child the same age as our child(ren). When the kiddo is old enough to understand, he will help pick out the gift.
DH and I have a holiday party for our friends the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Our newest tradition is to go to a beautiful old theater about 20 minutes away to watch It's a Wonderful Life.
On Christmas Eve, I spend the day making homemade macaroni for Christmas dinner. Then, we go to my sister's house for Christmas Eve dinner. On Christmas Day, we have a nice breakfast for just the two of us and work out in the basement or go for a run. Then, we go to Church with my parents and spend the rest of the day at their house. All of my siblings and their kids (there are a lot of us) end up at my parents by the time we have dinner.
You don't have to wait to have kids to have traditions, even those that seem kid-centered. DH and I are thinking of doing the Polar Express train ride and we don't have kids.
Getting up early, bundling up and going somewhere with a view to watch the sunrise solstice morning. Bring a mug of hot chocolate. The day the hours start getting longer is always an important one to me. And while it kind of sucks getting up so early, the actually magic of watching the sun rise is always pretty powerful.
Going to a movie Christmas Day. Totally movie season for me, all the Oscar contenders start coming out. So there is usually something we are excited to see. We do gifts in the morning, and then go see a movie in the afternoon. I'm am always so sad for the people who have to work that day to make the theater be open, but we do appreciate and enjoy it!
One gift under the tree is usually a big jigsaw puzzle. It gets opened early and we work on it the few days we are together, playing music and drinking.
Somehow making empanadas has become a tradition for our Christmas Eve meal. We make a ton of them and the leftovers usually last through New Years.
I usually buy a ton of holiday themed scratch lottery tickets and wrap those up too (tape a shiny penny on the front) and throw them under the tree. So far, no one has won anything big, but we have all enjoyed the suspense. Fingers crossed that some day we have a somewhat big win to celebrate!
Every year I love decorating for Christmas. I used to have a couple of close friends over and we'd hang out while I'd decorate. When I got married, my husband's family joined in and helped us decorate. That was 3 years ago - and our "Annual Christmas Decorating Party" has grown exponentially!!! This year we're expecting anywhere from 30-40 people!!! Everyone lends a hand with one thing or another - we get done decorating in no-time and everyone enjoys some good food, beer & wine! Nothing better!! It's been a great tradition for us and one we look forward to year after year.
Just thought of another one we do. Our family does a "Christmas Cookie Baking Day" together. My nieces, especially, really enjoy it. Just a day together baking and decorating Christmas cookies! We make so many and then we share it with neighbors and friends.
Our neighborhood also does a Neighborhood Holiday Stroll where we have appetizers at one home, then have dinner at another, and finish up with dessert at another's home. Lots of fun - great friendships. Something we all look forward to each year.
This is the first time i have heard about this! This is awesome and so cute, when i have kids, i am def doing this!!! Thanks!
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That is awesome, i have always wanted to have a "Christmas Party" but i never knew what to do, so that would be a great idea, we can make it a Christmas Decorating Party!!! Thanks!
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