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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.
Share your Xmas traditions...
I love to read posts about Christmas Tradition especially right now that we have Allie. What are the special things you do to make your Xmas more memorable and special for your kids and love ones.
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Re: Share your Xmas traditions...
We are starting traditions with DD, even though she is only 3 months old. DD has Christmas PJ's that she wore when we went to look at Christmas lights with friends. All the kiddos wore new Christmas PJ's, I made cocoa, and we caravaned around looking at lights. It was so much fun!
We also will be doing a book-on-every-bed. It's a grassroots literacy campaign to have Santa leave a wrapped book on every child's bed on Christmas morning. This year DD is getting The Polar Express.
We've got some other family traditiona, but those are my favorites.
We dont have any kid-related traditions yet but I am excited to do the Elf on a Shelf when Lizzie is older.
My great uncle always said that Santa was filled up on milk by the time he reached our house, so in his tradition, Santa gets beer and cookies.
We have a breakfast casserole every Christmas morning and my mom hides an almond. Whoever finds it gets to open the first present. I am currently headed into my 39th Christmas and not ONCE have I found the almond. Seriously.
We always make sure there are the tops of carrots in the back yard that show the reindeer came and ate treats.
My oldest brother (31) still writes a letter to Santa, and Santa always writes back (suspicously, it looks like my Dad's handwriting...). Also, Santa knows where the beer fridge is and always leaves a crushed, empty beer can with the letter.
We have Birthday Cake and sing Happy Birthday after dinner (DH's family has Birthday Grapefruit for breakfast).
DH's family has a Christmas Elf come while we're at Christmas Eve service and bring a pair of pajamas for everyone (I LOVE this)
We have started the tradition of having DD make gifts for everyone. Last year she painted ornaments, this year she painted picture frames.
She gets a new pair of Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve (although so far we have not wrapped them for her, just given them to her. I am debating wrapping them in the future).
-When I was a child, my uncle (who had no children) would come over while we were sleeping on X-mas eve, get up on our roof (he and my dad arranged this year after year) and he would jingle really loud sleigh bells (to sound like Santa). It was awesome b/c my brother & I would wake up & run into my parents room and my parents would say it was Santa.
-We also sprinkled "reindeer food" which was oatmeal & glitter in our grass for the reindeer to eat while Santa visited.
-We decorated a gingerbread house every year and decorated sugar cookies that we gave out to neighbors, military police/gate guards and crossing guards & teachers aides.
-We always drove around and looked at Christmas lights on the big houses in the nice part of town after church services on Christmas Eve
I'll probably do a lot of the traditions I grew up with like we always got to open one gift that was already under the tree before bed on Christmas Eve. We open stockings first on Christmas morning. We would drive around and look at Christmas lights on houses.
I also loved decorating cookies with her this year and also have been doing crafts for the grandparents as gifts. And will be doing the new santa pjs each year too.
Growing Up Olson
We do Elf on the Shelf with the boys. On Christmas Eve, we eat HIckory Farms cheese and beef stick, crackers and wine, the boys have grape juice and we watch Rudolph and the classics. The boys get to open one present, usually a book or plush animal. They wear their Christmas pj's. We leave out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.
When they go to bed, we drink more wine and put together the Santa stuff and put out all the presents that are stashed away. This usually takes a long time...
Christmas morning, we open the rest of the presents, have coffee, cinnamon rolls and casserole in our Christmas pj's. Then we usually go somewhere for Christmas Dinner. (somebody's house)
We do "PJs and Lights" which a lot of other people have mentioned. Honestly it is no big deal, but it is "our" family tradition and the boys love that they remember it. Everyone gets new pjs and we drink cocoa or cider and have cookies, listen to Christmas music, and drive around. We always start out saying what we hope to see (a star, candy cane, nativity scene, santa, ect.) and the boys love spotting their things.
I've been doing photo calendars since 2006; I can't believe I just did our 7th!
I also try to buy the boys their own personalized ornament every year from either the Hallmark Store or Kohls, etc. I write the year on the bottom of the ornament just so that we can keep track of them throughout the years. NZC got such a kick out of their ornaments this year I couldn't believe it.
We also do Elf on the Shelf (Buddy).
Oh, I also bought the 3 pack of DVDs of Charlie Brown Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas and the 3 pack of DVDs of Frosty/Rudolph/Santa Claus so that they can enjoy the same holiday shows I did growing up.
I forgot, I do this too. Although I'm pretty sure I bought her 2 or 3 this year already. lol
I LOVE this! Thanks for sharing!
I love the Xmas ornament idea
We started Elf on the Shelf this year and so far DD1 has loves it. While we put up the tree, we watch Elf and The Grinch She gets to pick 1 new ornament each year and we write the year on it, then her first year away from home ( or when she wants to have a tree), I plan to give her all of her ornaments from growing up. She gets open one present Christmas Eve and it's always pjs. Then she puts them on and we drive around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music. On Christmas morning, she has to come wake us up, then one of us will go down stairs and set up the video camera and oh and ah over the stuff Santa left, while she has to wait at the top of the stairs until we say it is ok to come down. Sana always leaves a littlw chocolate Santa on the cookie plates for her to eat. After opening presents, DH bakes his grandmother's cinnamon rolls and we eat them for breakfast. I think that is all...
DH, his brother and his cousin have a family tradition of passing around a sock filled with coal. It started with their dads. The sock is hidden in some way and the other has to get it out without damaging the sock. Then the one that gets the sock out makes a funny video about how easy it was to get out. This is the first year the sons are doing it, so it's pretty tame but the dads have done some crazy stuff from locked safes left in the front yard to encasing it in cement.