[Syndee]

With Christmas just over a week away what are your favorite holiday traditions, and were they handed down from family or did you create your own?

[Bride]

Great topic, Syndee! We have several. One of our favorites is something DH and I started when the boys were little (they are grown and flown but still come home!) we would put up our nativity the first of December and then each day each son would put a piece of real straw into the manger. Sort of the same principal as an advent calendar - so that by December 24th there was enough straw for baby Jesus.

Another one we did when they were little, in an effort to teach them how to pray, after Christmas we gathered up all the greeting cards we received and placed them in a basket. Each week the boys took turns randomly drawing a card out of the basket and then all week long at supper time we would pray for the sender of that card. When they were little, their prayers would be so precious and simple, like one year 4 year old Kirk prayed that "grandma and grandpa's tires would not "pop" on their drive down to Florida"! Also, I would send a little note to the person(s) we were praying for on that particular week telling them their card was drawn and we were praying for them and often they wrote back saying the timing was perfect and they were in need of prayer for some reason or another that week. I shared those notes with the boys and it helped them really see the hand of God working through our little prayers.

[AngRoCamp]

We have a few in my family

On Christmas Eve the kids get to open one present, which is always new pajamas. This was something we had in my family growing up and we've carried on that tradition with our own kids. (All my siblings do it with their kids too!)

My mom made all us kids stockings with 24 tiny pockets on them. They get filled with treats and we got to have one treat each day leading up to Christmas. My mom made the same kind of stockings for ALL her grandchildren and the spouses of her children so we all have those same kind of advent stockings in our own homes now

We have 24 wrapped Christmas books. The kids take turns opening a book each night leading up to Christmas and we read the book as a family. This is one we started with our own little family 6 or 7 years ago and the kids look forward to it and love it every year.

Another thing we've started with our own little family is that our kids get just three gifts for Christmas. They get a want, a need and a surprise (plus a Santa gift and a few things in their stocking from Santa). This has really helped us control the desire to just keep buying and buying and buying gifts, and it's helped the kids know what to expect and to not be focused on quantity of gifts.

I love family and holiday traditions

[Belle]

Ang, this is lovely. I especially like the 'need, want and surprise'. I always just get a want. I think I should start this tradition in our family as well. Just think, I have been missing out all the years.
Lei, your tradition of praying for the people that sent a card is lovely. Great tradition.

[Sara Arell]

Ang, I love your "want, need, and a surprise" too! I immediately read that to Rich and we both think that's a wonderful idea! What a nice way to work around this "quantity" issue with the kids!

One of my favorite family traditions was taken away from us last year when our son's house burned down - our family "The Night Before Christmas Book" that Rich and I had read to our children since they were born was lost in the fire - it was a huge book and of course, we can still have the tradition of reading the story Christmas Even from another book, it's just not quite the same without that worn, old, beautiful book of ours.

We also do the "one gift on Christmas Eve" thingy here too - the kids are allowed to open just one and it is always their Christmas pj's.......I'm not even sure when we started that but I know it goes back to when I was a child and we've managed to keep it going for all these years.......

It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas! I love this thread! Fun reading about traditions.

[Sara Arell]

Bride, on 17 December 2011 - 05:01 AM, said:

Great topic, Syndee! We have several. One of our favorites is something DH and I started when the boys were little (they are grown and flown but still come home!) we would put up our nativity the first of December and then each day each son would put a piece of real straw into the manger. Sort of the same principal as an advent calendar - so that by December 24th there was enough straw for baby Jesus.

Another one we did when they were little, in an effort to teach them how to pray, after Christmas we gathered up all the greeting cards we received and placed them in a basket. Each week the boys took turns randomly drawing a card out of the basket and then all week long at supper time we would pray for the sender of that card. When they were little, their prayers would be so precious and simple, like one year 4 year old Kirk prayed that "grandma and grandpa's tires would not "pop" on their drive down to Florida"! Also, I would send a little note to the person(s) we were praying for on that particular week telling them their card was drawn and we were praying for them and often they wrote back saying the timing was perfect and they were in need of prayer for some reason or another that week. I shared those notes with the boys and it helped them really see the hand of God working through our little prayers.

I loved reading about your greeting card prayer tradition, Lei - what a special way to teach children how to pray for others......

[SandiC.]

Going back to my childhood, new Christmas PJs opened on Christmas Eve, worn to bed that night, then pictures of the family in the morning with the new stuff on. LOL. Not sure if my kids are still doing this for my grands, but when we all lived together, I made sure it happened. Of course, when the boys were little we put them in old PJ bottoms, just in case there was an accident and made them put on the new ones first thing in the morning.

[Sara Arell]

I just remembered another family tradition - we like to ride around Christmas Eve and see everyone's Christmas lights - my son has carried on this tradition with his young family too.......LOVE this thread, Syndee!

[LaLo1103]

You guys all have nice traditions! Ours is sort of nice, but more on the comical side.

Growing up, every year Santa somehow managed to forget to slip a present under the tree. When we little, my mother would suddenly say, "Oh Crap! I think Santa must have dropped a present and it wound up in the closet - let me go get it!" Then one (or several) of us would receive the unwrapped gift that Santa somehow forgot.

When we got older and were hip to the Santa conspiracy, my mother's skills had still not improved. Now instead of trying to say "Santa forgot this one" she'd just "Oh Crap! I forgot there's another present!" (the "Oh Crap!" part was key) and she'd run off and grab it. Whatever it was, it was always unwrapped and still in the plastic shopping bag. Since this happened so often, being the smart-alec kids were, each year after the presents were opened we'd say, "Oh Crap! Isn't there a plastic bag gift yet to come?"

So now, every year after the gifts are opened, we have the "Oh Crap! plastic bag gift" round. Everyone participates now - we all hold something back specifically for this round of gift opening. Many times it has given us all a chance to recover for forgetting to wrap something and put it under the tree! We've been doing it for years and while we all get a good laugh telling the story of how it came to be, I think my mother is STILL a little miffed that it was all because her Santa skills were sometimes lacking!

[mimes1]

One of our Christmas traditions is that something always "falls out of the sleigh" and is left up on the roof. It originated when Santa "forgot" the dogs and the kids were soooo upset. So we let it get good and stale, like a week later, and Mark "went up to clear the gutters" and voila! Big Surprise!!! There were presents on the roof!!!! Wrapped and everything! So now, every year, we leave something on the roof, and make a production of getting the ladder and seeing what fell out of the sleigh this year.

[LaLo1103]

mimes1, on 17 December 2011 - 12:03 PM, said:

One of our Christmas traditions is that something always "falls out of the sleigh" and is left up on the roof. It originated when Santa "forgot" the dogs and the kids were soooo upset. So we let it get good and stale, like a week later, and Mark "went up to clear the gutters" and voila! Big Surprise!!! There were presents on the roof!!!! Wrapped and everything! So now, every year, we leave something on the roof, and make a production of getting the ladder and seeing what fell out of the sleigh this year.

I love this idea! Maybe I'll have to work that into our "Oh Crap! plastic bag gift" tradition!

[Sara Arell]

My son and his wife have a tradition for their children that my daughter in law brought from her own childhood. They celebrate Saint Nicholas for a couple of weeks before Santa Claus comes by putting the kids shoes outside their bedroom doors and they wake up in the morning with a little surprise waiting for them in their shoes.

I like that they are combining our family traditions with my daughter-in-law's family traditions.

[Cheri T]

mimes1, on 17 December 2011 - 12:03 PM, said:

One of our Christmas traditions is that something always "falls out of the sleigh" and is left up on the roof. It originated when Santa "forgot" the dogs and the kids were soooo upset. So we let it get good and stale, like a week later, and Mark "went up to clear the gutters" and voila! Big Surprise!!! There were presents on the roof!!!! Wrapped and everything! So now, every year, we leave something on the roof, and make a production of getting the ladder and seeing what fell out of the sleigh this year.

LOL! I love it! Even in a snowy icy winter we could drop it out DS #3's window (the part of the roof above the porch is right there) and retrieve it safely.

[Cheri T]

We have at least one Advent calendar per child, my DH and I used to like opening our presents to each other at midnight on Christmas Eve (now we can't b/c we're usually busy wrapping presents and/or arranging Santa gifts under the tree), and when Dad was alive, he loved having both chili and oyster soups for dinner. I'd still love to do the chili thing, but DH isn't fond of it, so I save it for other days and try to find something everyone will eat for Christmas. We tend to do something different food-wise each year (that's our tradition, lol). I do like to make "red and green salad" each year with mixed greens, creamy poppyseed dressing, raspberries, green onions, kiwis, apple slices, etc in it.

[gophergirl]

I haven't kept up any traditions from childhood. My parents used to make peanut brittle, stollen and other gifts from the kitchen. I'm lucky if I can get a batch of Christmas cookies made. We have added a few of our own with the Elf on the Shelf, new PJs on Christmas eve, a theme Christmas tree, Christmas eve family dinner and a grandparent breakfast on Christmas morning. I love some of the ideas in this thread and we may have to institute a few of them! Thanks ladies!

[Syndee]

I LOVE this thread!! There are some awesome traditions going on!

[BarbaraC1977]

This is a "welcome to the family" and Christmas tradition. Sorry it's lengthy; hope you enjoy it! When Mark & I got married, we had a reception about 10 days later at my parents' home in Texas (the wedding was in Massachusetts.) One of my parents' friends gave us a recipe box. It was made of painted and textured sheet metal. It was white, on 1/2" high "legs" of curved metal, and the roof was lime green and yellow butterflies and flowers, all outlined solidly in black. Some of the butterflies were on wires to bounce above the roof. We all tried to be nice when it was opened, but afterwards, my mother and father, and Mark & I couldn't help just cackling about it--it was so awful. I really think the people who gave it to us thought it was a nice gift.

At some point, it turned into a different tradition. After my brother Pat was married to his lovely Karla, she was given this box at Christmas. You could tell her reaction was somewhere between politeness and horror. Then it became a joke, when she realized it was a "Now you're one of US" present. Then Marcy got married, and her husband got it. Same reaction. My mother died, and some years later my father remarried. SHE did not think it was very funny, even after being let it on the joke. (The marriage didn't last either.) My brother Mike married, and his wife Tracy received it, too. Just about a carbon copy of Karla. It turns up periodically. I'm not sure why, but it's back in Mark's & my possession again. We'll have to see who gets it one of these Christmases. Oh, the other thing--it lives, well-wrapped in tissue paper, inside an aqua Tiffany box--which makes it all the more fun to watch when opened!

[Smiles]

I love that, Barbara! My grandmother made a doll out of socks and bandanas when her children were little, and when they got older, that doll would turn up in gifts. Sometimes the one who had it would let it drop out of sight for a while, and the others couldn't figure out for sure who had it. She would turn up again, though, when least expected. My aunt is the last one now, but she still has that doll.

[PBarnes]

Oh my goodness! Such wonderful family traditions!

The one tradition that I have carried from my childhood is making cookies. My mom was a very good cookie baker and I like to think I've carried on that tradition. I always do several different types and usually end up with 15 or more dozen. I usually make up plates to give to a couple of our neighbors and to be taken to parties at work. I try to save making cut-out sugar cookies when I have grandkids on hand. This year we are adding the two boys of my daughter's significant other to the mix and I'm hoping they want to help me. They're 6 and 8. It should be interesting! Last year, the off year when my daughter and granddaughter don't come for Christmas, DH helped me. He's as much a kid as the little ones and he really enjoys it - especially the eating part. I've done a couple of layouts of the kids helping me but I haven't done the photos I took of DH yet.

Another tradition that has sort of gotten started over the last few years is going to the movies on Christmas Day afternoon. We do our big gathering on Christmas Eve so the actual day is kind of laid back. Last year it was just DH and me. With the younger kids this year, I'm not sure what we'll go to see - if anything.

[KayMitch]

I loved reading about the doll your Mum made out of a sock. My Mum made me one too over 60 years ago and I still have it. Mmmm must get it out and scrap it one day.

We have a few traditions in our family too. On Christmas eve we all sing carols then read the Night Before Christmas with all the Grand children. We have been reading it for over 40 years now and as the little ones grow we take it in turns to read a page. Christmas Breakfast is always ham and cheese croissants and a big fresh fruit platter, lunch is a roast of meats and vegies with all the trimmings followed by Plum pudding and custard. ( Cream & icecream too. If we are going to get fat then we'll do it in style.) December 1st we play the carols and have our first mince pie for the season as we decorate the tree. We all love christmas though it has changed so much since I was small. We used to hang up one of my Dad's socks. There was always an orange in it,a packet of jelly crystals, dried figs and a tin of sweetened condensed milk plus one or two tiny little toys. Money was scarce.

Our own children always received a new toothbrush and paste, undies and thongs. All things they would need through the year. We were on the land and money was also scarce then. Now our children carry on the toothbrush in their children's stocking tradition, although the stockings are about 10 times bigger than mine ever was. It is a wonderful time to share with family and friends but this year is the "Off" year when our children go to their In-Laws. We will be going to a restaurant with a number of friends, so no preparation for Dinner and , whoopee, no clean up.


Gosh I'm sorry this is so long. I just got carried away. Blessings, good health and happiness to all my Scrap Girl friends. Kay

[Sara Arell]

BarbaraC1977, on 17 December 2011 - 10:34 PM, said:

This is a "welcome to the family" and Christmas tradition. Sorry it's lengthy; hope you enjoy it! When Mark & I got married, we had a reception about 10 days later at my parents' home in Texas (the wedding was in Massachusetts.) One of my parents' friends gave us a recipe box. It was made of painted and textured sheet metal. It was white, on 1/2" high "legs" of curved metal, and the roof was lime green and yellow butterflies and flowers, all outlined solidly in black. Some of the butterflies were on wires to bounce above the roof. We all tried to be nice when it was opened, but afterwards, my mother and father, and Mark & I couldn't help just cackling about it--it was so awful. I really think the people who gave it to us thought it was a nice gift.

At some point, it turned into a different tradition. After my brother Pat was married to his lovely Karla, she was given this box at Christmas. You could tell her reaction was somewhere between politeness and horror. Then it became a joke, when she realized it was a "Now you're one of US" present. Then Marcy got married, and her husband got it. Same reaction. My mother died, and some years later my father remarried. SHE did not think it was very funny, even after being let it on the joke. (The marriage didn't last either.) My brother Mike married, and his wife Tracy received it, too. Just about a carbon copy of Karla. It turns up periodically. I'm not sure why, but it's back in Mark's & my possession again. We'll have to see who gets it one of these Christmases. Oh, the other thing--it lives, well-wrapped in tissue paper, inside an aqua Tiffany box--which makes it all the more fun to watch when opened!

Barbara, I loved reading about the recipe box! This is such a wonderful story!

[angleigh]

Reading these are so great...we don't have alot of tradition at Christmas. Growing up we were a "fly by the seat of your pants" type of group. My dad usually worked alot around then, and really he is the "Scrooge" at Christmas...LOL

The one thing we have done with the boys, and this will be our 4th year doing it, is we don't buy alot of gifts for Christmas. My kids, once they got past kindergarten have never really been into toys so it's been hard to buy for them. So we convinced them instead of asking Santa for a bunch of stuff, that would just sit around after the first week and never be touched again. Why don't they ask Santa for 1 big gift instead. That year it was their Wii and some games. Last year they each wanted an I Touch and also 1 other item. It's always so funny to see just a couple of gifts sitting under the tree, but we also always know it's something they really want and will use for a long time

[ArizonaAngel]

When I was growing up we went to both of my grandparents' houses where we had dinner and opened gifts (yes, 2 dinners and a VERY long night for little children). My husband's family NEVER opened gifts before Christmas morning. When we began our own family we were a military family and spent many Christmases away from extended family. We settled on our own family tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. For many years it was the gift from my parents that had arrived via the mail. That has changed and now we get to choose what gift we want to open (given some restrictions) but we still open a single gift on Christmas Eve.