We always went to my aunts on Christmas Eve. Now the location has been changed to my brothers. It just wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't.

Mom always made oyster stew (ick) and chili for Christmas day, when my aunts and uncles and cousins came over.
Leslie

We'd still be doing this if we still did presents- we always opened one gift on Christmas Eve, Mom got to pick it and it was always a new pair of pajamas for the boys and a new flannel granny gown for me. It would always be too big on Christmas Eve but as the year went on, it would become too small. Ah, what a great memory, Sandy, thanks!

Oh yah, we did that too Flamey. Gramma (on dad's side) always bought us new soft flannel pj's/gowns for Christmas, and we got to open them on Christmas Eve. Thanks for the memory jogger.
Leslie

Not so much a tradition as something you just have to have or it's just not Christmas. Those Dutch chocolate letters. Everyone get's the first letter of their name. Mom and dad always bought them for us kids and I've always bought them for mine and their SO's. It's usually the first thing I buy when it comes to treats because they sell out so fast.

We always opened presents on Christmas Eve and still do.

We love our stockings! The more stuffed the better, and we'd forego 'gifts' rather than give up our stockings. Every Christmas morning we grab our hot cocoa and stockings, get comfie in our PJ's and take turns opening the goodies in our stockings until they're empty. It's the best part of Christmas morning.
We also open our yearly Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. That way we have them for the morning ;o)

Holiday music is played while we decorate the tree. That's the only tradition I kept from my parents' days. Ohhhh yes, and I make Italian Knot cookies just like my paternal grandmother did.

We open our stockings on Christmas Eve, little gifts and candies, socks, nothing costs more than a dollar.

No, I don't.

When we were children, Santa would leave our stockings at the foot of our beds so we had something to unwrap when we woke up so early. We had to stay in bed until "the little hand was on the 7" before we woke Mom and Dad. We didn't know it then but they had been up probably until 4 a.m. putting up and decorating the tree. It wasn't there when we went to bed and we didn't see any presents until Christmas morning. We were not allowed in the living room until Dad switched on the tree lights. So Christmas morning was magical for us.

Each person would open one gift in turn while the rest watched - that way Mom and Dad knew who sent what so we could write our thank you notes (Dad wrote everything down as each present was opened). After all the gifts were opened he cooked breakfast - sausage patties, fried eggs, toast, juice.

We still do it this way - with the exception of stockings on the bed and the 7 o'clock get-up time. It's the only time during the year that I eat sausage patties and fried eggs. Of course, the tree is now decorated beforehand too.

oyster soup on Christmas Eve! Hated it when I was little, I would only sip alittle of the soup making sure there was no oyster on the spoon. I look forward to it now, oysters and juices.

Not many traditions have survived from back then. We were a small family in those days - just Mom, Dad, my two brothers and one sister and myself. One aunt, Mom's sister. Mom's brother immigrated here from Ireland when I was about 7 with his family but we weren't that close. No grandparents.

When we were very small we would go to bed and there would be no decorations up at all. Mom & Dad put up the tree, the train platform (two 4 x 8 sheets of plywood!) and the trains, cars, farm animals and houses that went with it after we went to sleep. This on top of the 'assembly required' gifts we received.

We saw Dad take everything down after New Years every year, but gradually HE would start putting the train platform up instead of SANTA!!!

'Hey Mom, how come Dad's putting the trains up instead of Santa Clause?'
"Well, it's because every year there are more & more children born into the world, and we have to give Santa a hand."

Made absolutely perfect sense to me!

My own traditions:

Watching an old episode of Jack Benny doing his Christmas shopping. I have it on tape but PBS shows it here every year. I literally have seen it nearly 100 times and it's still funny.

Dragging out and watching all the old VHS tapes of the kids opening their gifts on Christmas mornings, and blowing out birthday candles. The look in their eyes is the greatest thing to behold. I really miss those days! This year I'm hoping Santa brings me DVD burning equipment. It was on my list......

We usually go to midnight mass but I may do one of those 4:30 PM matinee's on the 24th this year.

In the afternoon the whole family (MUCH bigger these days) will gather at my sister's house to compare notes and just get together. The holidays is one of the few times that we are all together at the same time.

When I was a kid, we had a sun room that could be closed off from the rest of the house by French doors. The doors closed early in December and we kids could not go in. Cjristmas day the doors were open, and inside was a gorgeous tree, Lionel trains, and all our gifts. I no longer have a special room for Christmas. My kids are grown, now, 19 and 20.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, my father couldn't wait any longer and would let my sister and me open a gift. It was usually a game, which the three of us would play while mom was busy in the kitchen. So fun to play a brand new Monopoly or Clue game! So I always let my children open an "early" gift, usually something to keep them busy for awhile.

Dee, would you share that recipe for Italian knot cookies??