Jumping off the other post...Christmas traditions

[s_gosney]

I've been thinking about this lately, and I really want to figure out some traditions to start with dd. My family has usually always gotten together on Christmas Eve, had dinner, went to a concert by a fabulous Black Gospel choir, and then came back to my mom's house to open gifts and play board games until the wee hours. Last year, we had to opt out of the concert b/c of dd, and we will probably have to do the same this year. So, I'm trying to think of some new traditions for my family as well as my family :)(dh, dd, and I). I'd love to hear what everyone else does and maybe something will inspire me. Thanks!

[brittone2]

I really like the site www.organizedchristmas.com. There are a few ideas I'd like to implement from there, one is wrapping up 24 (or however many books you choose) Christmas/Holiday/Winter themed books and doing a countdown to Christmas that way. You could do some that are library books to save $, and we have found a LOT of holiday books at yardsales, etc. that I'm including in our stack. I'm buying an Advent calendar this year and I might integrate it with the book-a-night idea by numbering the wrapped books, and placing a numbered slip of paper in each door of the Advent calendar. DS will pick out the number and we'll find the wrapped book that corresponds to that number. He won't really get it yet at 22 months (at Christmas) but I think it would be a fun tradition.

Another idea I got from that site that I want to do when he gets older is a "jingle bell run." When DC is/are older, you put them to bed like everything is a normal night. About 10-15 mins after they are in bed, you run around the house shaking jingle bells and get everyone into the car where all sorts of fun snacks, hot cocoa to go, whatever floats your boat is waiting and you drive around with them looking at lights. It is always a surprise when it will happen every year. Several people said their teens still enjoy this tradition :) I thought it sounded like fun.

An idea I never did but I still think about is to trace DS's hands on felt each year and sew that to a tree skirt.

This year at Thanksgiving, after our dinner is finished, I want to decorate some sort of ornament by writing on it what we are thankful for from the past year. You can write on glass christmas balls with a paint marker (we did this as a wedding favor when we got married actually), but I fear the breakage factor because I think I'd be sad if our creation was destroyed down the road. So I'm going to try to find a way to do this on a plastic or other non breakable Christmas ornament. I'd like to have that be the first ornament we hang on the tree each year :)

Oh, and we started this last year...DS's Pop Pop reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to him on Christmas EVe. They both loved it last year even though he was only 10 months old. It made for cute pictures and it is a tradition I know my dad enjoyed. His own grandfather did this with him :)


Edited to fix a typo

[icunurse]

We read "Night Before Christmas" and I just bought DS a nativity and will go to Hallmark, as they have a countdown display that also tells the story of the nativity day-by-day. (I'm not overly religious, but I want DS to grow up knowing the "real" meaning of Christmas, not just focusing on the gifts).
http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10001&partNumber=QKG1562_DK&rank=P1R2S

Otherwise, we all get a new set of pajamas on Christmas Eve and take a picture with everyone first thing in the morning on Christmas Day (not my best look, but it's for the memories!)

Traci
~Connor's Mom 02/2004~
Agency paperwork completed - waiting for #2!

[Judegirl]

My mom always gave us one present on Christmas eve - and it was always Christmas pajamas to wear to bed that night. I plan to start that with dd this year.

We also always opened our stockings last; they hung there the whole time we opened our gifts, and by the time we were finished, we'd pretty much forgotten abotu them. But there was always at least one "major" gift in the stocking, so it was a nice way to avoid the anti-climactic present-opening crash. LOL.

Each year, we'd all learn a Christmas song to play on some electronic keyboard that was always lying aorund, and we'd each have it ready by Christmas Eve so we could sing it together. I daresay it'd be nicer with a piano, but ya got what ya got. ;)


We also had some pretty rigid traditions around tree-decorating - ornaments that particular people hung, and there were two things that went on last - the last ornament and the star. I thought that was all a bit much, but it remains very important to my brother to this day.

Looking forward to ideas, and I'll check out that site too!

Jude

[Moneypenny]

Christma Eve we'd have dinner (whatever was requested which might be spaghetti and meatballs or pizza or something really fancy), put out cookies and milk for Santa then drive around and look at the Christmas lights. When we got home Santa had arrived, drunk the milk, eaten the cookies, and left our presents, so we'd open them. Christmas morning we'd go bowling (yes, bowling! My nuclear family wasn't church-going) then go to my grandparents for a traditional Christmas Day.

In DH's family we all get a personalized ornament with our name, the year, and the city of whichever sister is hosting that year. We can almost fill a whole tree just with those ornaments now!

ETA: Also, in my family as you unwrap your presents who have to attach the bows and ribbons to yourself (i.e. stick the bows to your head, put the ribbons around your neck). The kids especially like to see the adults sitting around with big fancy bows stuck to their noses.

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif[/img][/url]
We made it to a year!