Favorite Christmas traditions?

RunninTeach

RunninTeach

Cathlete
Though this topic may have been visited in the past, I'm curious to know:

What are your favorite old and new Christmas traditions?

Mine would be...

OK, really old:
Lighting my Räuchermännchen (these are German incense smokers I collect...when I was growing up, we always lit these with pine-scented incense cones...it is an essential part of Christmas for me!)
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Pretty old:
Watching Christmas Vacation (I’ll watch others...but this is the one I HAVE to see every year.)
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New:
Three years ago, I started a new tradition (inspired by a Catheite, and I’m sorry, I forget who it was, so I can’t give proper credit) to add one new ornament which represents the past year. This year’s ornament:
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A hot air balloon ride had been on my “life list” for a number of years, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity last spring. What an exhilarating experience it was! The ornament represents some of the out-of-my-comfort-zone adventures of the past year as well as the idea of “rising above” a couple of challenges that came my way.
 
I just started new traditions with my daughter last year, since it's only the 2 of us on Christmas and not as eventful as those with a big family. We go to dinner on Christmas Eve (probably Chinese or Mexican this year because she's a picky eater but loves both of those), drive around looking at decorated homes, then come home and watch a movie (this year will be Jim Carrey's "A Christmas Carol")

I do add a new ornament every year, but they don't have any special significance - just one that catches my eye. Usually it's a Hallmark Keepsake, but I didn't like this year's selection. I guess the one I chose could be reflective of my year - it's a silver grand piano, since I've made huge progress in my playing this year. I really do love that idea and may incorporate it for next year.

I love your incense burner. It looks a bit creepy to me, LOL, but I have a thing about statues of humans. I get the complete willies over dolls and clowns. Maybe I'll start a collection of gargoyle incense burners. For some reason, I love those things.

I'm glad you started this thread, because I don't come from a family of traditionalists. I 'm looking forward to seeing what I can steal from others so my daughter will remember her Christmases with me as something not so dull.
 
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Christmas Traditions

I have to start by saying we live for Christmas. It's our FAVORITE time of year. Christmas eve is usually Christmas movies, ending with It's a Wonderful Life, some wine and snacks. Christmas morning, the first one up gets everyone else up. Make coffee, brush teeth and we each take turns opening gifts. It usually ends up in a free for all but we want to go slow enough to see everyone's gifts and their reactions. I usually have a breakfast casserole premade too, to pop in the oven after the unwrapping. I put my tree up on Veteran's Day weekend. I can't wait much longer than that. This year I'm gonna make a cheese and sausage platter and some other finger foods to snack on all day. No cooking for this Santa!!

Not much in the way of traditions, but it's a great time of year from Thanksgiving to New Years.
 
I love your smoker. I have a santa smoker I purchased in Germany years ago, and a Christmas Pyramid as well. There both are among my favorite Christmas decorations.

Our big tradition is stockings. It started with my sister and I 28 years ago. We never had stockings as kids, not sure why. But we decided we would start filling each others, and we would spend Christmas eve opening stockings and drinking wine and having appetizers. We included boyfriends and guests through the years. Now this has grown into an evening of stockings with my family and hers with 10 of us taking turns opening stocking stuffers for hours. We always have some laughs, and all of us look forward to stocking night.
 
I love this thread! We also LOVE Christmas! On Christmas Eve, my boys (ages 9, 6 and 2) and I bake Christmas cookies (the cut-out kind) for Santa while we listen to Christmas music. When we get them to bed, we drink wine and/or egg nog and wrap Christmas presents while watching A Christmas Story (the best movie ever). The next morning, after getting up at dawn to open presents, we head to my mom's house for Christmas brunch with mimosas and lots of unhealthy, yummy food, and celebrate with my mom, sister and her family. Then we spend Christmas night at mom's with the kiddos camped out in sleeping bags in the den. It is SO much fun!!!
 
I Love this post!

A few of our favorites are:

We generally eat healthy-ly (??!!??) but on 2 special nights we eat only appetizers (unhealthy and very fun!) The 1st is the afternoon/evening that we decorate the Christmas tree and house (usually the weekend after Thanksgiving). The 2nd is Christmas Eve (usually after church and while watching a Christmas movie).

We have a "elf on the shelf" which is WONDERFUL for small children. My kids are now 11 and 15 and both still love looking for his new location every morning in December. He watches over them all day and reports to Santa every night. We have a great time with him and I recommend him to everyone with kids, especially youngsters.

We also have an advent calendar with large enough "cubbies" to fit a small treat in every night. The "elves" leave all sorts of things-dollar store treasures, ornaments for the tree, Christmas puzzles, stories, etc. We try not to make it candy too often. The "elves" get very creative. If the treat is too large to leave in the cubbie they leave a poem or a clue as to where to find the treat. Often there is a long, involved treasure hunt leading all over the house and yard! (they especially love those!) Sometimes they leave a "coupon" for an activity (often something that we were going to do that night anyway...) like making hot chocolate, smores, going to a movie, a special story, making cookies, etc.
Our advent calendar was made by Byers Choice (google it) and they make several beautiful varieties. (religious themed and not) We have even given many as gifts!

LOVE the Christmas stocking idea! We may have to adopt that one.
Thanks for the great post.


Merry Christmas!
 
I came from a big family, I am one of 7 children. Every Christmas we would re-enact the nativity scene. That probably sounds cheesy, but my family is so theatrical and looking back at old photos you could tell we really got into character. I was usually an angel, but I remember one year I really wanted to be the drummer boy...I went through a couple years of being hardcore tomboy.

Anyway, now that I am older and have children of my own, we still continue the tradition, but my kids do it with their cousins. I have 12 nieces and nephews and then 4 children of my own, so you can only imagine how many different parts are played. The first picture is when I was younger (I am the taller angel), the second one was taken last year.
 

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We always buy a Christmas ornament when we're on our summer family vacation, so we have lots of "remember when..." stories as we decorate our tree. We also go to see Christmas lights on New Year's Day night and then go out to eat. It's amazing how uncrowded the light displays are on that night! Have a joyful holiday!!
Paula
 
Christmas Eve is the big day/night for us. My parents always have a huge party at their house with lots of appetizers and wine ;) No one likes to eat all the fish we're "supposed" to have, so my mom got creative with some dishes; she makes this AMAZING clam dip that is made with bread crumbs, clams, and parmesean cheese & oregano, and baked in a little casserole dish. You eat it w Ritz crackers. YUM! She also makes homemade cheesecake. Christmas day we get up and have cinnamon buns and everyone opens their gifts. Then we lounge around all day in our PJs, playing with the gifts and watching Christmas movies.

Oh yeah and we also have an ornament that represents what happened during the year!
 
where did you find that hot air balloon ornament? I took my father for a hot air balloon ride for his birthday so I would love to be able to give him that ornament. It is a beautiful ornament.
 
I've enjoyed reading about all these traditions.

Might have to steal the stocking one as well. Sounds fun! I checked out the Byers Choice advent calendars...this would be perfect for my niece for next year. We always had chocolate advent calendars when we were growing up and put out our shoes for St. Nick on the 5th.

I forgot to mention another favorite and fairly "new" tradition...the wild gift swap we started doing as an extended family. This'll be the 4th year we've done it this way. I know I've posted about it before, but it's basically a co-ed swap where we select & open gifts; vote on the manliest, girliest, and worst gift; and then we sit in a circle and roll a die, which dictates how people have to swap (e.g. roll a one, force any two people to trade; roll a 2, take the worst gift, etc.) It's an absolute riot and something we look forward to (and talk about) throughout the year.
 
Steal away...the stocking idea is all yours. We have a ball with it. :rolleyes:

I just wrapped 12 more......only 72 left to go....
 
We just started this little tradition when my youngest was 3 and could handle a pair of scissors. We make snowflakes out of paper and have a contest of the most "interesting". We also follow Santa on the internet to see where he is. Then on Christmas eve, each of us pick a small present to find. We write a bunch a clues and have a scavenger hunt throughout the house and yard (weather permitting).
 
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