What are your holiday traditions?

12 years ago

We have never lived close to either of our families, so we developed a tradition of going out to a "fancy" restaurant for dinner on Christmas Eve. My kids always look forward to dressing up and going out. This year my oldest will not be here, as he is teaching English overseas, but my 25 year old daughter and my 23 year old son and his girlfriend will be with us.

On Christmas Eve we always give them Christmas PJs and an ornament for the tree. When the kids were little I would read The Polar Express after they changed into their Christmas jammies and hung up their ornaments.

On Christmas morning the kids would have to wait until my dh or I checked to see if Santa had been there before going to look at the tree. Then we would follow the "procedure" that I grew up with for opening gifts. First the stockings, then the youngest child would choose a gift and give it to the proper recipient. Then the next youngest and so on. We did change one "rule" from when I was growing up. When I was a kid we got to open our stockings, but then we had to eat breakfast before we opened any more gifts.

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Comments (19)

neetsiepie
12 years ago
Our main tradition is that everyone gets a stocking, Mom & Dad and even guests get one. I use mine from when I was small, and have kept the kids' stockings...they're getting pretty ratty as we use them every year. In a way it's a little sad to see the stockings from their past girlfriends/boyfriends, but still a nice memory.

Even tho they're adults, they still enjoy their stockings, and every year they get a clementine or an orange in their stocking along with whatever goodies Santa leaves in them. They always roll their eyes at some of the goofy things in there and I always say "what are you looking at me for? That's from Santa". Oh, yes, stocking stuffers and presents are always from Santa. We still believe in our household!
anele_gw
12 years ago
I need this thread! I would love to start more traditions.

We started giving PJs on Christmas Eve a few years ago, too. My friend gave me the idea to make pillowcases, so I'll put the PJs in the pillowcases if I manage to finish sewing them.

We open everything else on Christmas morning . . . other than that, no traditions. Would like to do something like make an ornament every year, too.

Santa fills the stockings here, too, though this year I am making only the one big present everyone gets from Santa, otherwise it's too hard to keep track in conversations throughout the year.
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We have some family traditions that came from my family when I was a child, and new ones that we created. We opened one present on Christmas eve, and it was usually the kids "care package" of smoked oysters, smokehouse almonds, and dried apricots (This was always one of their favorite presents) Christmas presents were opened on Christmas morning, but could NOT be opened until Mom (me) had her coffee, so the kids always got up early and made a pot of coffee, and delivered a cup to me in bed. Then we opened presents. Since when I was a kid my mother always passed out the presents, I now always pass out the presents, although in the last few years, I have given relinquished that job to oldest daughter, and then oldest granddaughter. My kids do not come on Christmas day, because that want to stay home and create their own traditions. I think this is wonderful, cause I hated having to get up early, open presents, then go to two sets of parents. The kids never had time to play with their stuff, and we were just rushing around all day. Now we decide at Thanksgiving when we will celebrate Christmas together. This year it is Saturday, Dec. 22. Because the kids get sick of all the turkey type dinners at the holidays, we would have a fancy Christmas evening dinner of standing rib roast, with fresh seafood flown from the coast, or Crown roast pork and fancy canapes. The kids and grandkids always liked getting dressed up in fancy-pants clothes for this. Bear in mind that the "Christmas evening" was actually our designated Christmas evening, not the real one. We would not open presents until after the fancy dinner. When presents are opened, it is one at a time from youngest to oldest (I always made sure everybody got the same number of presents). Noboby can open theirs until we all see what the opener before us got. In my husbands family, people just went in and started ripping things open, and we never knew who got who what, or instructions would have been ripped away and discarded, and I found the entire thing to be a disorganized disaster that stressed me out. My kids do the same things now with their kids: one at a time and the proper thank yous passed on. Now, with all the kids grown up, and nobody coming here for the real Christmas day, we stay up late watching movies on Christmas eve then sleep in on Christmas day, open our gifts to each other, and then go visit his family for a traditional Christmas dinner. For the past several years, however, we have decided to set a new tradition: a little trip at Christmas. Two years ago: New Orleans, last year, a Caribbean cruise, and this year, San Antonio, Texas. We have found it kind of fun to start new traditions and watch our kids start their own. One other thing, whatever day we all decide to be our Christmas together, the following morning we always have a sausage and cheese and egg casserole for breakfast. My kids all do the same thing: they serve this casserole every Christmas morning at their own homes. It has been fun reading everybody's traditions! Sherry
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runninginplace
12 years ago
The holiday starts with us getting the tree during Thanksgiving weekend, often the day AFTER T'giving but always by Sunday. I decorate it right away so it is up from then till I take everything down, usually before New Year's.

In our family in addition to wrapped gifts, Santa always leaves a stack of the most desirable presents unwrapped, next to each child's stocking which has a bunch of little goodies inside. So on Christmas morning there are two sets of gifts sitting right out, along with fun stuff to dump out of the stockings next to each pile.

In fact, as far as gifts go my kids are lucky--both sides of the extended family live here and through a true Christmas miracle my in-laws and my own family always split the holidays naturally: in-laws do their thing on Christmas Eve, my family gathers on Christmas Day. So from the time they were tiny my two got gifts on Christmas Eve, Santa at home then MORE gifts on Christmas Day!

Now that they are young adults, the Santa gifts are not as plentiful. There are still some special treats though; this year Santa is giving my daughter a GPS. My son, finishing his last term of college and trying to balance work and school (he gets no money from us, just room/board/school), is getting the equivalent cash value of the GPS from Santa. Santa figures he will find that a more useful and welcome surprise :).

Ann
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12 years ago
Well, when my daughter was little, on Christmas Eve, we would eat pizza and then go walking through a specific Fountain Valley, Ca neighborhood that is famous locally for its super duper light show. Afterwards, we'd come home and make hot chocolate and popcorn, open 1 present and I'd read her the story Twas the Night Before Christmas. The next day, after opening presents and playing all day, we'd get dressed up and head over to Grandma's house for dinner.

Now we celebrate Christmas as a family on Christmas Eve and since we always hated having to dress up, we have a pajama day instead. Everyone wears their pajamas and does whatever they want like play games, watch movies, arts and crafts or even bake cookies. After dinner, we open presents and relax and eventually, the kids go home.
kellyeng
12 years ago
Chinese buffet on Christmas Eve.

One year we forgot to plan something and that was the only place open. We laughed and had a great time so decided to make it a tradition. Very "A Christmas story" -esque.
bestyears
12 years ago
Each of my kids (now 20 and 16) gets a new ornament which we present to them when we begin the tree decorating. The ornament is reminiscent of something momentous that year. Each of them has a nice box to store their ornament collection, and they really, really love going through and hanging their collection year after year.

They each get to open one gift of their choice (although mom and dad can veto the choice) on Christmas Eve.

My daughter and I and a couple of friends make gingerbread houses each year.

I have a set of Christmas dishes. We eat on them for the whole month of December.
sheesh
12 years ago
Between the 20th and 28th we also have four birthdays: my mother, me, my dtr, and a gdtr! Then it's the New Year and another dtr's birthday! We always celebrate each day separately. The last few years we have had to be flexible in order to accommodate all the in-laws families, but the birthdays are always special and celebrated with us together as a (big!) group.

For Christmas I have always sewn pjs for all 6 of my kids; now I also
make them for the spouses and my 7 grands, plus Very Fancy Party Dresses for the five girls. I am very busy from mid-October!
sheesh
12 years ago
Yikes, I just saw my mistake. It should be "in-laws'" families. Oops.
lynninnewmexico
12 years ago
Such nice traditions. I love reading all of yours!
We, unfortunately, live far from both our families. Too far to travel during the holidays so we have our special traditions here.

Christmas Eve, we have our traditional-but-crazy "Favorites Dinner", just DH, DD and myself, as DS is serving in Afghanistan now. "Crazy" because it's so disjointed, but we love it: tamales with my red chile sauce (very traditional out here, BTW), smoked oysters appetizers, green chile roll-ups, Caesar salad, a nice bottle of wine and Italian cannolis for dessert. See what I mean (LOL)? We then like to take a walk through our small mountain development to see the Christmas luminarias all aglow, lighting the way for the Christ Child this special night. Luminarias are a HUGE and very beloved New Mexico tradition. Afterwards, we open up gifts from the our far away families and then read aloud the story of the first Christmas from the Bible. It's a quiet, special family time for us. Oh, and we do the new pj gifts then, too.

Christmas morning we open gifts, have our special Christmas breakfast and then get ready for our New Mexico family (longtime dear friends) who arrive in late afternoon for a big sit-down feast. Afterwards we just enjoy our time together talking and playing crazy group games like "Catch Phrase" and "Apples to Apples". There's always close to a dozen of us with more stopping by after dinner. It's a very happy, festive time!

The Day After Christmas is also very dear to us. After our fun-but-busy Christmas Day, this next day is just for us. We laze around on the living room sofas in front of the tree all day. We have a fire going in the fireplace there and Christmas music, too. We read, call family members who live out of state, nap, play with our new "toys", chat and eat leftover yummy Christmas foods for every meal. No company allowed this special day, just us.

One more beloved tradition is the making of our Christmas coffee cakes, a delicious recipe handed down through my family. It takes two days to make them but they're definitely worth the effort! I started them last night and am now off to finish them. It snowed again most of yesterday and I'll, happily, have picture perfect mountain views out my windows as I bake. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Lynn
HIWTHI
12 years ago
Is that what we'll get now people who are not sure about their grammar or catching themselves afterward, posting a second, third, forth, etc. message to correct themselves?

Shermann, you didn't need to make any correction. Your post was just fine and very legible. I was so amazed by all you do I didn't notice a thing wrong with your grammar. I am someone envious of your many talents and energy level.
natal
12 years ago
Sherrmann, I'm confused. Your correction is the same as the original.
golddust
12 years ago
Christmas is always at my house because I have the largest house and like to cook.

The sauce for my Lasagna Alla Bolognese is simmering as I type. I make it with a couple varieties of Chicken sausage that I buy from a great meat market who makes their own. I prep and cook for three days before Christmas dinner for 30+ people. I have a dining table that can squeeze in 13 people and set up another 8' table next to it for the remainder.

I set my old, Harvest Gold double ovens up in the basement. That is where I cook the turkey and Ham. I save my kitchen ovens for menu items that require closer attention.

We open our pasture and turn it into a parking lot and try to give token gifts to all who come. Generally there are a few people attending that have no other place to go. Often we don't even know them but they have ties with someone on the guest list and it's always fun to open our home to others.

My 89 year old MIL is here. Max and his wife will be arriving a day late for Christmas this year as Max has to work at the homeless shelter where he serves as a Counselor. (A well paid one, at that!)

Aimee will be here but we will miss Derek this year. We usually offer to buy him airfare but this year he needed the money for other necessities. So we sent it to him without regret.

I love hosting Christmas, though it costs a fortune. I'm a great host because I don't get stressed. I never do dishes until everyone leaves and I don't let anyone else pitch in. My house does not have an open floor plan and if I cleaned up while everyone was there, I'd feel like I missed my own party!
lynninnewmexico
12 years ago
It sounds lovely, Golddust (and so does your sauce)! I can see why everyone loves to come to your home for Christmas. You're the kind of hostess everyone enjoys being around. Merry Christmas!
Lynn
Sueb20
12 years ago
We have some variations from year to year, but my dad (twice widowed) comes for Christmas from about two hours away. He's here now and will stay til Monday. I don't have siblings and extended family lives very far away. I am grateful that he is a very youthful 76 and has no problems making the drive! This afternoon, as always, we let the kids open their present from us -- always 2 or 3 books for each. Then they open gifts from each other, which is a tradition they started on their own and I find it very sweet.

Tonight we will go to a "fancy" restaurant like terriks, and then to our neighbor's house across the street for a couple of hours. Even though my kids are 10, 16, and 19, even the older ones like to go to bed early on Christmas Eve so they can get to Christmas morning!

Ssnta always leaves the kids' stockings outside their bedroom doors. I'm considering stopping that tradition this year, because DS, age 19, has some kind of interior alarm that wakes him at something like 4 am every Christmas and I can hear him grabbing the stocking and dumping it on his floor. He is like a little kid every Christmas. Santa puts the rest of the presents in the basement playroom (the tree is upstairs in the family room) -- a great idea Santa came up with many years ago because that's where the toys belong, after all.

We'll have a huge breakfast (egg/hash brown casserole, fruit salad, chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls) and then snack-ish food throughout the day -- cheeses and crackers, fruit, pigs in blankets, etc. My SIL and BIL will stop by in the afternoon, and family friends will stop by for dessert. And I will probably be in bed by 9 pm!
awm03
12 years ago
We really have more fun on Christmas Eve with all the excitement in the air, so we make a party of it: smoked salmon, ham, delicious cheeses, fancy crackers, artisanal breads, Christmas cookies, chocolates galore, and much champagne (which I'm drinking now).

At some point (2nd or 3rd bottle) we'll watch It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sim version), though in recent years, the boys have chosen some cheesy movie to which they supply a hilarious running dialog. Great fun.
jterrilynn
12 years ago
Since the kids are grown our traditions have changed. Now every Christmas Eve my husband and I go to a popular but pricey seafood restaurant near us. We get the large platter with three different raw oyster selections. Then we get mussels with extra garlic and bread for dipping, next comes salads and next we share the homemade pasta jambalaya. At the end comes the delicious homemade coconut cake with homemade ice cream to share. Oh and we also drink nice wine while we a gorging ourselves. We just love our new tradition, it's so relaxing and the service is always fantastic.
golddust
12 years ago
It's 9:30ish here and Christmas is over. I discovered my December calender was FaceBooked with comments. At one point, we had a spontaneous pocket gift exchange. We met a new boyfriend and celebrated each other.

I saw our young people holding our old people's hands, engaging deep in conversation. My family made fun of me with their great joy and my appreciation.

I am the most blessed person on Earth! I wish I could reproduce and box each and every one of them.
golddust
12 years ago
Seriously, they make me laugh until I cry and worry about peeing my pants (I warn them to stop but they have no mercy.) I love Christmas. Hosting it is my gift to myself. I don't need gifts under the tree when I have diamonds as family.
lynninnewmexico
12 years ago
You are a very special lady, Golddust. I know exactly what you mean, too.

What are your holiday traditions?

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