What's new

Share Your Christmas Traditions Here!

LeeAndra

LeeAndra

A total Betty.
Joined
Oct 29, 2010
Messages
3,892
I love hearing abt other families' Christmas traditions and am always open to adding new ones to our routine.

Please share what you do to celebrate this season. :beat
 
We do jammies for the kids christmas eve and find the pickle. This year we also got an elf on the shelf and we are planning on doing Elf Grams for some of the neighbors. Our biggest tradition is actually done by my MIL.

She does 25 days of Christmas for eack of the grand kids...she even did it for Seth they Christmas I was pregnant with him. Days 1-24 are usually just a small gift like a book, candy, small toy or coloring book. Day 25 is their "big" gift. Did I mention we have 3 kids. Thanksgiving weekend we had to drive from Georgia to Mississippi with 75+ presents in the back of the car. It looks like Santa's workshop exploded under my tree.
 
Ooh we have a quite a few. The two we have the most fun with are our Elf Magic (I blogged a bit about it here: elf magic) and our Jesse Tree (thanks Jacque!!!) which I blogged here: jesse tree

Then we do things like baking and make a gingerbread house. Last year I set this up for Bugga and she looved it. It was a neat little touch to the holiday: Portable North Pole. This year we are going to take her to see The Nutcracker too. Excited about that!
 
Last year we tracked Santa on Christmas Eve - the kids LOVED it! They kept coming back to see where he was and DD got her atlas out to try and work out where he was going next.
 
Kate said:
Ok, I have to ask - what's 'find the pickle'?!
Click to expand...

lol… I should have elaborated huh. The name kinda sounds dirty!

People say it’s a German tradition, but I lived in Germany and not one German that I knew did it. But none the less it’s still fun. Christmas eve after the kids go to bed I pull out a special ornament that I have that is shaped like a pickle. Then Christmas morning before we open gifts the kids get to carefully look for the pickle. Whoever finds it gets an extra gift. To be fair this year, I am thinking about doing a customized pickle for each kid and then they have to find their own pickle. Then they all get an extra gift but maybe whoever finds their pickle first gets to open their present first.
 
sound interesting that pickle does,we also track santa,we always take the kids to the childrens church service christingle i have to admit this is the only time of year we go to church but we do enjoy that one,we also take them to a place for christmas thats donme up especially for christmas this year were going to The Traditional christmas Evening Here which im looking forward to,Id like to go to the german market too but i think im just to big and exhausted at the moment for the hustle and bustle of it but we really enjoyed that last year
 
Find the pickle does sound a bit dirty.....:whistle But that is a really cool idea.

We have christmas pajamas that we open on Christmas eve and everyone wears for a family photo in the morning (including parents and grandparents).

We started Elf on the shelf this year and it is going well (except for the night DH forgot to move the Elf and we had to make up an elaborate story for why Redi didn't move).

We also have santa send personalized e-mails to each girl.
 
Here are some of the things we do every year:

Lego Advent Calendars (this year there are two kinds, which I was so happy about - one for each of my kids)
Making a Gingerbread House with the Grandparents every second weekend of December
Singing/Acting in the Church Children's Christmas Program
The Polar Express (wearing PJs on our local commuter train and visiting Santa at the end of the line)
Attending Christmas Eve service and then going out to dinner
Getting PJs on Christmas Eve for Christmas morning
Baking Cookies for Santa and leaving him a note

I've never heard of 'find the pickle' but I saw a pickle ornament at Hallmark the other day that said "Where am I?" or something like that. I was wondering what the heck that was. :)
 
i started doing jammies a couple years ago and we decorate cookies, thats about it, i will have to steal some ideas from here!!
 
LOL Carolee...I was looking at the Hallmark website today, trying to find my kids' age ornaments and saw that too!

Our pickle is from Pier 1 and is pretty plain...I don't know about that talking pickle...my son might like it but I think it might get annoying fast.
 
What a great idea! I love hearing about different traditions.

Advent Calendars - We have two this year. A lego one and a house that I fill with cards with either things to do or directing him to a present under the tree. A few years ago my mom gave me a basket of gifts as an advent type thing. And then the next year I made one for her. We have been alternating years ever since. Had to put that tradition on hold this year since we are so far apart. It was one of my favorites!

Ornaments - each year we buy DS a special ornament, and he will also make some for each grandparent and for our tree. He was really excited this year to see all his ornaments and loved putting them on the tree. When he gets married I am planning on giving him all his ornaments.

Tracking Santa - usually DH brings home a projector for it, although this year he will just be on the TV screen.

Then we also do the usual': bake cookies, watch Christmas movies, and read Christmas books (I pack them all away during the year so we only read them during December).
 
I've seen a lovely idea on a few blogs lately for a book advent calendar, where a different Christmas book is opened and read every day. I am planning on doing this at bedtime for the last week before Christmas Day.
 
Kate said:
I've seen a lovely idea on a few blogs lately for a book advent calendar, where a different Christmas book is opened and read every day. I am planning on doing this at bedtime for the last week before Christmas Day.
Click to expand...

Love this idea!!
 
That's an awesome idea Kate!!

We have also started giving Seth a quarter everytime we go shopping and we let him put it in the red cross buckets.
 
wowww, it´s cute...
I thought about organizing a doodle for my son to paint every day, always things related to Christmas ... but still did nothing :no2
 
Thanks for sharing, ladies! :yesss

There are always so many good ideas in threads like this that I wish December could be two months long so that I could fit them all in! :giggle
 
we really don't do anything.. I feel like a slacker in that department LOL. I think this year, kid and I def need to start our own lil christmas tradition.
 
LOL I grew up finding the pickle! :)

We have a light dinner on Christmas eve and open presents.... Christmas morning we open stockings and off to grandmas!!!
 
well, we do open one present on Christmas Eve. It's usually a book of some sort. One year we got them a big box of books to share. Last year they each got their own age-appropriate Bible. Sometimes it deviates from books, but it's always something simple, not overly complex.

we also do Christmas Eve church service. for the past 5 years we have also gone out to dinner on Christmas Eve, but I'm not sure if we'll keep that going since we've moved and can no longer go to our traditional spot :(

On the 23rd or December, we keep the tree on all night and let the kids sleep in front of the tree lights. They fall asleep to Christmas movies and get to sleep under the twinkling lights.

Christmas morning at our house. I know that sounds like such an obvious thing, but it is REALLY quite difficult to stick to it. Family is always pulling in every direction, but we really do all that we can to get up and open gifts at our own house first thing Christmas morning.

We always read the Christmas story from the Bible at some point before gift-opening - either Christmas Eve night or Christmas morning. So easy for the kids to lose track of why we are celebrating, and we want to make sure it is an integral part of our season.

I LOVE the pickle idea... maybe whoever finds the pickle gets to open the first gift. :)
 
Back
Top