For many years, my family did the following: - My children and I went as a family to choose our tree on the first weekend in December and brought it home and decorated it. I did lights and tinsel and then the kids hung up the ornaments. Each child hung any ornaments that had been given to them or made by them in previous years and they shared hanging the "family" ones. I also hung a couple ornaments myself that were particular favorites and had been gifts. (In the earliest years, I also "re-dispersed" the ornaments hung by the children so that there were at least a few near the top!!) - Christmas Eve was spent with extended family (usually 60+ strong) at someone's home or eventually a clubhouse we rented due to the growth of our family. We had a pot-luck dinner and exchanged gifts from names drawn earlier. Lately, with economic times being tougher, we started doing smaller token gifts like ornaments. - After the extended family Christmas Eve, we went to the Candlelight Sevice at church. - Presents were opened on Christmas morning as soon as daylight appeared ("dawn" rule was made because Mom is a procrastinator and tended to wrap until the wee hours of Christmas Eve and I needed some sleep!). I always did stockings for each child - even when the were grown and those were opened first (each item individually wrapped to draw it out a bit!!). We tried to open the gifts one at a time, but were not always successful! So Santa's gifts were always wrapped in solid red paper with white bows and the kids were allowed to "tear into" them and we slowed it down a bit when it came to the others. - After presents, Mom cooked a big breakfast and then everyone tended to drift back to their beds to catch up on missed sleep. When my parents were alive, we went to their house Christmas afternoon. My children are now grown, and there are many pulls for their time on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. So I have changed my traditions accordingly. So for the past few years: - Any of us who can will go to the extended family celebration on Christmas Eve (some of the children have spouses or significant others with similar family events, so they are alternating years with ours). - Afterward, anyone who is available goes together to the Candlelight Church Service. - Christmas morning is left to be celebrated at each individual home if desired. When my children eventually have their own kids, they will have this time to celebrate at home with them so that Santa can come to the children's own home and they will be tucked up in their own beds. This allows the parents to come up with their own traditions, ie cookies for Santa, reading of books, etc. For now, with no grandbabies, my children can still come to our house Christmas Eve night and be there for the morning if they choose... but we are doing it differently! - We are no longer doing the dawn rush for presents as there are no small children waiting eagerly for Santa. Instead, we allow everyone to sleep alittle later and I still do the big Christmas breakfast about 9am for anyone staying here or joining us. - In years past, Christmas evening tended to be somewhat of a "let-down" with the presents already opened and all the holiday merry-making coming to an end...and I was so exhausted from getting up at dawn and wrapping till whenever that I did not do a real "Christmas Dinner". So now Christmas evening is when we have our family Christmas celebration. In late afternoon (3p-4p) we have a big Christmas dinner with the best china and all the trimmings. This time-frame allows time for anyone needing to be other places in the morning or midday for other celebrations. Anyone staying home can help decorate cookies or assist with dinner or just watch football etc! I have asked the children to dress up for our Christmas Dinner and make it a bit more formal now that they are grown and I think they actually enjoy it! I asked for "nicer clothes" but now I see even suits and party dresses... and I love it since we rarely have dressy occassions and it makes for wonderful photos!! - After dinner, we open some wine, snack on desserts and goodies, take photos, talk, and play games...just be together till about 8pm. I like to wait till dark because the tree and lights and candles are so much more beautiful. Where my focus used to be on piles of morning gifts, I now spend my energy on the food and decorations...making it a warm, loving evening with lots of old fashioned, traditional charm. Tons of candles, a fire in the fireplace, soft Christmas music, and way too many sweets (I love to bake!) - Finally, we exchange gifts. Having changed the focus of our Christmas celebration, and also the "quantity" of gifts we give, we open them one at a time with everyone watching to make each one more special. I feel it returns us to the days when people selected one or two gifts for a person and they were very special with alot of thought put into each gift and maybe even doing some special wrapping...rather than the flood of gifts I gave the kids each year. We sat down a few years ago and discussed it as a family, so no one was disappointed on Christmas(well not too much!!). It was at first an economic decision, but I think it has challenged everyone to make more of an effort to choose special gifts with real meaning for each other. - After gifts, we continue the wine and goodies and games until people need to go home (only if they skipped the wine!) or retire here for the night. - The other side of our family celebrates the first Sunday AFTER Christmas, so this allows the holiday to flow alittle smoother! I am please with the new changes we have made and hope that it allows my children (and eventually their families) to celebrate Christmas together yet not feel stressed by being pulled in so many directions at the same time! Merry Christmas!!

Here you go! Date Pinwheels -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Baker's Catalogue editor P.J. Hamel reports that this is her all-time favorite Christmas cookie. She writes: "My own memories include the soft brown dough, the dates bubbling on the stove, the tricky process of rolling the filling inside the dough, and the magical way the refrigerator would make the sticky mass solid and sliceable. And the taste! Waiting till just the right moment, the cookies hot out of the oven but the filling cool enough not to burn, my sister and I would greedily eat date pinwheels till Mom made us stop. No, date pinwheels aren't beautiful; in fact, they're usually kind of plain-looking, the spiral of dates often a bit out of whack. But these homely little gems strike just the right note on my Christmas cookie spread. "Remember to share this recipe with a younger friend; it's up to all of us to pass along this type of old and trusted recipe to the next generation of bakers." Dough 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter 2 cups (15 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar, packed 3 large eggs 4 cups (17 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda Filling* 1 3/4 cups (9 1/4 ounces) chopped dates 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar 3/4 cup (6 ounces) water 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) finely diced pecans or walnuts *Though this filling is easy enough to make, if you want to use purchased date (or fig) filling, go ahead. You'll need about 2 cups (24 ounces) of filling. Dough: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour, salt, and baking soda. Chill the dough till it's firm enough to roll out, at least 1 hour. Filling: While the dough is chilling, make the filling. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, combine the dates, sugar, water, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and boil the dates gently for 10 to 15 minutes, or until thickened to about the consistency of very soft jam. Stir in the finely diced nuts, and set aside. Assembly: Divide the dough in half; each half will weigh about 21 ounces. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough into a 9" x 12", 1/4"-thick rectangle. Spread half the filling (about 11 ounces) over the entire surface of the dough; the filling is sticky and stiff, but if you keep wetting your fingers, you can push and spread it around without too much trouble. Roll the dough up, lengthwise, to make a log. It's somewhat delicate, but a baker's bench knife or spatula helps the job along. Wrap each log in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for several hours, or overnight. If you have a double baguette pan, slip the wrapped dough into the wells to help preserve their round shape. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and if it's flattened out at all roll it till it's round again; the log may lengthen a bit, and that's OK. Cut the log into 1/3" slices, and place the slices 1 1/2" apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Baking: Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, or until they're a very light brown, reversing the baking sheets (top to bottom, and front to back) midway through the baking time. Remove the cookies from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool. Yield: about 8 dozen pinwheels. ©2007 The King Arthur Flour Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Moccassin- I would love to see your swarovski stars tree! Since our wedding colors were blue and silver, I've always gotten ornaments in those colors. In the past few years, I've really fallen in love with crystal ornaments. I didn't even realize until I was putting up my tree and looking at the date written on each ornament, that the past 3 years have been crystal. This years is the Waterford snowflake, lasts years was a teardrop shaped crystal and a swarovski snowflake, the year before was a swarovski bird. All of the ornaments on the family tree in the living room are durable, nonbreakable ornaments. Hopefully, when my kids move out they will be like I was, and have a tree full of ornaments. Terri- beautiful tree but you do have to bring Rudy back! As we have all agreed on, its about the memories! I have so many ornaments and I love this time of year so much that I'm thinking I will snag a tall narrow tree after Christmas on clearance and put it in my dining room next year. I will keep my wedding tree in my room where it currently resides, my "elegant" tree in the living room and the brightly colored, all other ornaments, in the dining room. I already have a miniature tree for each of the girls that is 4 ft tall for them to have in their rooms but they are still young enough that they mess with ornaments so I haven't put them up in a few years. I can just see though, in 10 years I'm going to practically have a tree in every room!! As much as I admire my tree every year, I think I enjoy putting it up and taking it down the most. As I grab the seashell ornament and pack it away, I'm reminded of my trip to San Diego. When I grab my cute little snowman ornament, I'm instantly transported back to our weekend trip to San Antonio and the Macy's store I picked him up at. Every ornament is a little vessel of memories. I see them, touch them, and I'm right back at the moment in time and my life that I was when I got them. I think the fact that we only see/hold them once a year is part of what makes them so magical. That cheap, one dollar globe from the dollar store? We were flat broke, college kids but I still insisted on getting an ornament for the tree and that means just as much to me as the 75 dollar swarovski crystal does. It tells a story, specifically, our history. Where we once were and where we are now. That Pyrex I received as a wedding gift? I use it still, every single day but when I grab a loaf pan, I'm not flooded with memories of my wedding day, despite the fact that I received it on that day. I think only seeing and touching these special items for a short period of time each year makes them all the more special. This post was edited by Texas_Gem on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 23:31

Yum to everything mentioned! I am waiting for my husband to get home with takeout, and this thread it not helping my patience! My comfort food is usually something warm and soft. Soup. Mashed potatoes. No specific recipe -- I think I tended to eat things that were warm and easy on the throat when I was sick, and that temperature/texture is what defined comfort food for me. I'm not sure that this is quite the same thing as comfort food, but I also get a warm, family sort of feeling from sharing fresh fruit. Stems from my father's immense delight at purchasing fruit/hearing that we enjoyed eating it. His family was quite poor growing up and could not afford much fresh food, so my whole life, my dad's always been immensely pleased to see his family eat well. Drives my mom bananas (pun intended) because she thinks he spends to much on food, but it makes him SO happy. The fruit basket at my parents' house is probably the best stocked in the country. Since that was normal for me growing up, I also always have fresh fruit in my house, and my husband is usually so delighted to help me eat anything I've washed/cut up. It's all very homey.