since we've had kids we always stay home for christmas day. my mom and mil were big on this. mil- always had to travel across Ma. to her grandparents for the day. they got to be there for about 2-3 hrs and then return home. no presents from her grand parents and no chance to open them at home before they left. no turkey dinner either. pretty sad tale of woe, she didn't wish that sort of xmas on any one. my mom said it was important for us to have our own traditions. so we stay home. usually our family gets together sometime over the holidays, but no matter whose house we're at everyone has a 300-400 mile drive-- so we usually have to commit to a weekend of guests. my wife and i have always giving everyone in both our families an ornament for christmas. we try to stay under $5. for these, but are on the look-out whenever we travel during the year or pay attention to what people are interested in, or some significant event in their life that year. for the kids, it gives them a collection so when they leave home they have something for their own tree. for the adults it avoids having to buy a fan-tab-u-lous present. since we live the farthest away from all our relatives, ornaments are easy to ship. when kids were little we usually send their moms & dads a check so they could do the shopping for us, now we send the ornament and a gift card. we've tried a gift exchange where we draw names, but my youngest brother whose kids are 10-15 years younger than the rest of our kids thinks that his kids get gypted (everyone still gets his all kids presents, because they still get a big thrill out of opening them, and no one else has kids under 10 anymore)with this method--so we all get everyone a present-- an ornament works nicely there too. at home because my kids are autistic and don't deal with their routines being changed, we eat xmas dinner at dinnertime. so we have plenty of time in the morning to get up and open, play, watch tv, before we have to cook. we usually let the boys open their stocking(usually all the goodies are consumed for breakfast) as soon as they get up, but they wait until we get up to open presents under the tree. We we join the land of the living-- about 8am, we get out the cranberry bread, stollen and panetone the coffee and hot chocolate and start unwrapping: kids first, then mom and dad. about 11, we'll make 'brunch'-- eggs and sausage, toast and juice. then we get started at dinner. about 4pm we put out a relish tray and cheese and crackers so we can make it until dinner time. since my wife and i arew both in food service, and the week before christmas is the busiest time of the year. we usually have a tradition of doing laundry all day long every holiday while watching football games. on christmas eve we usually have seafood for dinner about 10:30 PM after finishing wrapping and then go to service at the church, so that when we get home we can go to bed!!!! sometimes we'll exchange a special present when we get home from church. diggerb

I always decorated our tree in a theme. Always had it planned well in advance. Then we started having kids. I still tried to decorate the tree in a theme. It worked for awhile. Then the kids started going to preschool and bringing home all of their crafts. Each one I cherish and keep. They started putting them on the Christmas tree. I moved them to other places. They kept bringing home more. And more. And more. Year after year. And year after year I kept giving each one a special ornament that they might like on Christmas Day. I never really thought about why. It just seemed like what you do. Their 'bought' ornaments would go on their trees in their rooms the following year - preserving my perfect tree. So we found a work around. We would decorate the tree my way and as each day went by they would add their stuff until Christmas Day our tree would be an explosion of kid craft. Well our kids are now 11, 8 & 6 and last Christmas while we were decorating the tree it finally hit me. I watched as they pulled their ornaments out of boxes and recounted the stories of how and when they got them to each other and to me. It was perfect for me. We saved all of the Christmas craft ornaments for the end. I take a few pictures and then they put all of their stuff from years past on the tree. And It Really Is Perfectly Perfect ! A perfect mess of all of our likes and memories.

Start of the season...when 101.9 (Baltimore) and 97.1 (Washington) start their all-Christmas music around the middle of November...I never tire of Christmas music and love every minute of it! I just wish they played it until January 6...or at least through New Years Day! If we're home for Thanksgiving, we usually put up our outside decorations - lights, wreaths, garland. Sometime b/w Thanksgiving and December 6, we start decorating the inside - starting with our fireplace mantle. December 5/6 is "St. Nicholas Day", the children hang their stockings the night of Dec 5 with a letter to Santa. Santa stops by that night to pick up the letter and leave a small gift along with some fruit & candy to "tide them over" until Christmas. A week or so before Christmas, we all go out to cut our tree. We like to keep our tree up until well into January, so getting it little later means it lasts longer. (The tree in January helps lighten the drab days of post-Christmas winter.) On Christmas Eve, if our church has a service, we attend the service and then have my brother and his girl friend & her son over that evening. That night my DH and I wrap presents...well, I do most of them. I actually enjoy wrapping gifts, my DH not so much! We'll have a fire, watch "The Christmas Story" until my DH bails & goes to bed, and then I listen to Christmas music! I then "artfully" arrange the gifts under the tree and fill the stockings (more fruit & candy), turn off all the lights except the tree, and gaze at if for a while (I love it!) Christmas Day, is a quiet day spent at home...lounging around in our PJs most of the day! Back when our DS & DD still believed, they would be up at dawn. Once they were older, we had a rule that they could not wake us until 9am. They were free to check out their stockings, but they couldn't open gifts. Now that they no longer believe...well it's the same rule...not before 9am! We unwrap gifts and then I make blueberry muffins. That night, we have lasagna for dinner. The next day, we pack up and that night head north (western NY) to visit my mom and one of my sisters and other brother until around New Years Day. We decided when we had kids that we would always spend Christmas Eve & Day at home...no traveling until after Christmas! We wanted to spend it in our home with our kids. It's worked out very well. Christmas Day ends up being very relaxed!

I think it depends on what region of Germany you live in. In my area, we had "Knecht Ruprecht" who would put coal in your stocking if you were bad. But there was no registry of good or bad children. And yes, December 6th is St. Nikolaus day where boots are filled with nuts and chocolate and oranges and other goodies. :o)