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!!

When I was a child, my dad always had to "work" Christmas Eve. He'd leave for work about 6 P.M. and Santa would arrive about 8. He'd then get back home right after Santa left, saying they shut down early for Christmas. I belived that line for many years. After we all married, Christmas eve was at my parent's home with all my siblings, their spouses, children, and grandchildren. There would be 26 of us. We'd meet at or after midnight mass. The living room would be almost wall to wall gifts. After the gifts were exchanged we'd all sit down for a really late night/early morning breakfast of homemade coffee cakes, waffles, sausages, bacon and eggs, and a ton of various cookies. We'd get home about 5:00 A.M. and go to bed, then get woken up at 7 as our children got up to see what Santa left for them at our house. Now, with my brother and parents dead, my wife and I spend our Christmas eves with our own family. As I get older, I'd just as soon spend the evening at home with my wife but, My children demand we visit each of them. When I was working, I'd decorate my bosses scooter as a sled and attach a pair of antlers and some bells to the front. I'd buy tiny candy canes, dress up as Santa, and spend the last day of work before the holiday break going around the plant on the scooter and pass out candy canes to every one. There were 1500 people working that shift at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant and I gave everyone of them a candy cane and wished them a Merry Christmas. That was my only job that day. The rest of the year I was a production supervisor.

Those are great ideas. I did not see this before Christmas (haven't been here in awhile), but I did do some of that buy purchasing gift certificates for locally owned restaurants. I'll have to remember the idea for the oil change thing next time I need to get a gift for someone and it doesn't have to be just for Christmas. Think about birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Really now, wouldn't you just love getting an oil change for your birthday? LOL! :D Probably!

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!