S/O from Childhood Christmases thread: What are your traditions for Christmas? Stockings, meals, movies, etc.

[Angie in VA]

S/O from this thread, I was curious about what some folks here put in your kids' stockings every year, but feel free to include all traditions: meals for Christmas Eve, Christmas morn, a movie you watch as you decorate the tree, when you open your gifts, etc. 

 

Here is a thread about stocking stuffers which I will go study to see if I want to add traditions.

 

We always include a chocolate orange, a plastic candy cane that sticks out over the top, and a toothbrush. (Yeah, you know what a toothbrush looks like, but I was having fun posting images, lol.)

  

PIX REMOVED 9-11-14

 

 

Please share your holiday traditions. :)

[Angie in VA]

Responding to my own post, lol. 

 

We seem to go through ear buds here, so when I find some on sale, I stock up. Those would be good stocking stuffers. 

 

And I know a gal who gives each child (or maybe Mom and Dad too) their own box of their favorite cereal. I don't know if that's what they eat for breakfast that morning, but it's a fun idea. We did that once. The kids loved it. 

[Lizzie in Ma]

Christmas Eve is always a huge family thing at Mom's, I treasure it and always hated the years we had to go to dh's family for Christmas.

We always do Cookie Day where we all get together at Mom's and bake and decorate cookies, it is one of my favorite photo ops of the year.

Chinese food is always obtained on Tree Day with our favorite Christmas albums on, we do the house and the tree at the same time.

Stockings have chocolate of various kinds, shaving cream and nice razors, hair accessories, little gifts that are hard to wrap and a magazine or comic.

Quiver's Cinnamon Buns are always on for Christmas morning.  I make extra at Thanksgiving and freeze a roll of them to thaw, cut and bake.

 

[Angie in VA]

I need to find Quiver's recipe! [ETA: I posted the link in post #20, but here it is.]

I love the photo opp on cookie day. :)

[Crimson Wife]

We always put a real orange or tangerine in the toe of the stocking and a bag of geldt (sp?). My parents always did that for my brothers and me growing up.

 

The kids get a pair of special Christmas pajamas that they wear on Christmas Eve. These are the ones I got for my girls this year as they're big fans of that song "What Does the Fox Say?" by Ylvis. http://www.sears.com/joe-boxer-girl-s-long-sleeve-pajamas-fox-snowflakes/p-029VA66528512P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3

[MomtoCandJ]

Christmas Eve we opened pjs, I have kind of expanded that and added a book for dd :)

[Farrar]

Toooooo many traditions.  But that's what makes the holidays, I guess.

 

New Christmas pajamas for Christmas Eve.

Ornaments have to be hung in a certain order on the tree (this stems from my childhood).

Everyone must prepare a performance for Christmas Eve.

Standing Rib Roast for Christmas dinner.

Advent doors with treats and treasure hunts.

Furiously making Christmas calendars.

Doctor Who episode watching...  that counts, right?

 

[FaithManor]

My parents did not do stockings with us. We went to the Advent Service closest to the holiday, spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents - the grandkids drew names every year, and gma and gpa gave small gifts to each one of the grands. Gpa read from Luke 2, gma cooked up a veritable storm, there was a cookie exchange, and my dad, his brother, and dad's brother-in-laws always pitched in to do something major for grandma and grandpa such as home repair or something. They would sit around discussing what needed to be done and then making plans on when to get together and who was bringing what supply or tool so that every year some sort of very needed maintenance to the old house was accomplished over the holiday break.

 

Christmas Day we stayed home and opened gifts with mom and dad. At dinner time, usually a ham dinner, an elderly couple who lived down the road and were raising their grandson who had severe neurological damage from a stroke suffered in his infancy, came. They were extremely poor and really struggled to have enough food. Mom and dad gave them groceries every month, but at Christmas they would do a lot more...usually they were sent home with a ham, a turkey, some venison, bags of potatoes, apples, and citrus, several lbs. of butter, home canned veggies and fruits, and baked items plus new hats, gloves, scarves, and wool socks since they only used heat sparingly. Those dinners with that family are some of my fondest memories from my teen years.

 

As far as what we do with our own kids, we have advent devotions as many evenings as possible. This year we are reading letters from Dietrich Bonnhofer. These are from a collection of his letters during the Advents he was in prison awaiting his execution for taking part in the plot to assassinate Hitler and many of them are directed to his fiancé. They are so poignant and really tug at the heart strings. We'll spend Christmas Eve at my parents in the afternoon. We do a big brunch, sing Christmas carols, play games, and watch the younger kids exchange gifts. In the evening, we'll head to a local Methodist Church for their Christmas Eve service. They put on an absolutely lovely service and this is something our own church doesn't do. Christmas morning the kids will open stockings and their main gift.

 

Every year we volunteer as a family...some years it's taking groceries to families that are struggling, or visiting at the nursing home, or at the hospital, or...lots of opportunities we are just waiting to here from the coordinator so we know what they'd like us to do this year.

 

Faith

[WinsomeCreek]

For many years we couldn't afford to buy gifts. It started as a cheer up joke: we cut out things from magazines and put pictures under the table top tree. Then when we had kids and dh was still in school, I cut out magazine pictures for the kids. To this day, even though we are fairly comfortable now, when one of us wants to get an out of reach gift for another we cut out a picture or print out the grand gift idea and put it under the tree. Dorky tradition, but it makes us happy.

[BakersDozen]

Stockings: flashlights (especially head lamps which are a huge hit), ornament, gum (which is usually not allowed by me so it's a huge treat), gold coins (kids were appalled last year when there were no coins in their stockings!), fun socks, Ticonderoga pencils (silver), etc.  Some useful stuff, some fun. Stockings are always done on St. Nicholaus Day.

 

Gifts:  We don't do traditional Xmas gifts rather we have a family gift: membership to zoo, Wii, ping-pong table, air hockey table, trampoline, etc.  This year we will get the Wii fixed and buy a small trampoline for the "littles".

 

The tradition our kids love the most is the "gift" of the World Vision catalog.  After breakfast on Xmas morning they sit down at the dining room table and wait for us to write the $ amount they have to spend on the white board.  They then work together to spend the $ and make the shopping list.  They see the catalog arrive in November and bug me to no end to do it early.  :)  

 

We have a Jesse Tree that the dc love doing along with a devotional book I found on Amazon.

[Cindy in FL.]

We watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on Christmas Eve and we have Eggs Benedict on Christmas morning.

[cjzimmer1]

My dad hates shopping however the one thing he hates more than shopping was the mad dash around the house of cleaning, cooking and wrapping presents on Christmas Eve so he would go to the local farm/hardware store.  Every year for Christmas we got food items from him.  Things like black olives, pistachio pudding, red licorice, cashews etc.  Basically it was food items we liked but we never got during the year because my parents didn't have money for extras but was something greatly enjoyed by recipient.  We all still talk about those food packages we received as kids.  Not traditional presents but things we greatly enjoyed nonetheless.

 

For my own kids I've done a bit of a spin off of that and stockings (which we don't do).  I got fiestaware dish sets as a presents for Christmas one year and had saved the boxes.  We all know that with kids it's important to keep things the same or at least similiar.  So every year each of my 5 (well now 6 but baby won't get a box this year) get a box of dishes filled with things like black olives, grapefruits, oranges, bananas, pomegranates, candy and other small trinkets I have picked up for them through the year but are a pain to wrap.  Since everyone is opening their box at the same time they don't notice the descrepancies that they all aren't exactly the same.  But yes they all expect "dishes" every year for Christmas now.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

Agents open gifts Xmas 'eve...kids get to open 1-2small gifts....usually have bread pudding for breakfast Xmas morning....used to go to relative's house for Xmas day lunch/gifts but that got to be soooo stressful after I got married and had kid that we stay home and do our own thing and stay home Xmas now it is much less stressful.

 

[JustEm]

We will be doing stockings this Friday on St. Nicholas Day.   The kids get an ornament, gold chocolate coins/or a chocolate orange, a toothbrush, and probably a small coloring book.   We also make and Advent chain out of construction paper.  On the inside of each link is a small act of kindness for the kids to try to accomplish.  We do Elf on the Shelf but only cause the kids like finding him every morning.  

 

On Christmas Eve we go to my sil's house to exchange gifts with my fil, then we head to dh's grandmother's house for dinner with his family.  After that we head to midnight Mass and afterwards dh and I exchange gifts.  In the morning the kid's open their gifts from us(and Santa) then we head to my mil's house for brunch and exchanging presents with her and dh's 2 siblings.  In the afternoon we head to my parents' house to exchange gifts with cousins and siblings and have dinner (which I help my dad make  homemade raviolis a few days before hand and freeze them.)  I think this year we'll just spend the night at my parents' since we end up staying till super late anyway.  Luckily all of our destinations are in a nice 20 minute triangle!

[Word Nerd]

We don't have any particular items that go in the stockings every year, but we do have a traditional treasure hunt. I write rhyming clues and hide them early Christmas morning. If the weather permits, I bundle up and go hide the clues outside. The final clue leads them to where their stockings are hiding. 

[Angie in VA]

As far as what we do with our own kids, we have advent devotions as many evenings as possible. This year we are reading letters from Dietrich Bonnhofer. These are from a collection of his letters during the Advents he was in prison awaiting his execution for taking part in the plot to assassinate Hitler and many of them are directed to his fiancé. They are so poignant and really tug at the heart strings. 

 

Faith

 

 

Merely hitting "Like" isn't enough. Wow. Thank you for sharing this. 

[PrairieSong]

Kids always get an orange, peanuts in the shell, and candy in their stockings, as well as a couple small gifts like fuzzy socks or a card game. Stockings are opened first on Christmas morning, and then presents. The kids draw each other's names and will open those all at once and then each one tries to guess who gave the gift.

 

On Christmas Eve we watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and then go to midnight Mass. Sometimes dh and and I will go to the earlier Mass. For breakfast I make homemade cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole. I make a big dinner, and have also been making mil's famous peanut brittle since she isn't around to make it anymore.

[Ripley]

 

And I know a gal who gives each child (or maybe Mom and Dad too) their own box of their favorite cereal. I don't know if that's what they eat for breakfast that morning, but it's a fun idea. We did that once. The kids loved it. 

 

This is one of those duh/lightbulb moments for me.

 

I have always worked Christmas morning, so breakfast was always my Mom's gig.  I retired this year, and she let me know that she's ready to retire (from breakfast) also.  I've been trying to figure out what to do, since our family tradition is to attend Midnight Mass.

 

I kept hearing about Quiver's buns, so I copied the recipe down.  But secretly dreaded the work to do it. LOL  Now I worry no more. Everyone gets sugary cereal in their stockings. Bam. Done.

 

I could kiss you.

[Angie in VA]

This is one of those duh/lightbulb moments for me.

 

I have always worked Christmas morning, so breakfast was always my Mom's gig.  I retired this year, and she let me know that she's ready to retire (from breakfast) also.  I've been trying to figure out what to do, since our family tradition is to attend Midnight Mass.

 

I kept hearing about Quiver's buns, so I copied the recipe down.  But secretly dreaded the work to do it. LOL  Now I worry no more. Everyone gets sugary cereal in their stockings. Bam. Done.

 

I could kiss you.

 

Not so fast, there! Don't blame me for the dentist's bill. ;)

 

Do they still make those little boxes? I try to stay away from the cereal aisle, so I haven't looked in years, but that would be fun. The gal I mentioned gets a big box (she's very wise w/ money, so she does it w/ coupons and sales, I'm betting) and wraps those boxes. Looks like a shirt box. Don't forget to have plenty of milk!

 

So, want to direct me to Quiver's recipe? Wait, don't yet. I'm being lazy. I'll go search for it.

 

Enjoy being home this Christmas morning! :D

[Angie in VA]

Found it!

 

Quiver's Legendary Cinnamon Roll Recipe

 

And in my search I saw this thread on holiday traditions. Apologies to the OP of that thread. I really did do a search for this topic before starting this thread. 

[Angie in VA]

Toooooo many traditions.  But that's what makes the holidays, I guess.

 

New Christmas pajamas for Christmas Eve.

Ornaments have to be hung in a certain order on the tree (this stems from my childhood).

Everyone must prepare a performance for Christmas Eve.

Standing Rib Roast for Christmas dinner.

Advent doors with treats and treasure hunts.

Furiously making Christmas calendars.

Doctor Who episode watching...  that counts, right?

 

Certain order of putting on the ornaments? Not just certain places on the tree? Interesting! I'm sure I'd fail.

 

You can't mention Christmas Eve performances and then NOT tell us what you did. Spill. Please?

 

I miss Advent calendars! What's a Christmas calendar? 

 

And about Dr. Who, I'm sure my dd would agree. I tease her that she's minoring in Dr. Who in college.

[Michelle My Bell]

The traditions here are: 

 

I wrap each kids present in their "own" wrapping paper but only "I" know which paper belongs to which kid. On Christmas Eve, I place a piece of the wrapping paper in the toe of their stocking for them to discover on Christmas Day. They love the mystery of not knowing which gift (big or small) belongs to them and I love that they can't guess what I've gotten them. 

 

Stocking stuffers - Chocolate Orange here also. I also include fruit roll ups because they never get then any other time of the year. My oldest said she always thought they were only for rich kids as she was growing up so it was always really special to get them. I also include pop tarts (another thing I never buy), toothbrushes and nail polish for the girls, matchbox car for the boy. Sometimes Chapstick also. 

 

Also want to add that Christmas here is really done on Christmas Eve. I like to spend the whole day at home so we started having Christmas a day early a few years back. It gives us a chance to eat a relaxing breakfast and our own yummy dinner, play games and watch movies. Then on Christmas day, we prepare whatever we are taking to our extended family Christmas without the stress of just opened gifts that beg to be played with. 

 

[GSOchristie]

Aawww, I always had those chocolate oranges :). My kids always get a new fun toothbrush, Chapstick, miniatures of their fave candy, fun socks (Target had TMNT and Hello Kitty in their dollar bins, yea!), a new book, new crayons or markers, a coloring book and mittens/gloves. They get a small toy, too, A is getting Legos, J is getting tMNT, and P is getting the Sofia the First family.

[GSOchristie]

We, too, do Christmas on Christmas Eve. We give them their stockings and I pop the cinnamon rolls in while they explore. We read the Christmas Story together while we eat breakfast, we make gingerbread houses and watch the Nativity. We got to church that evening. We go to family events on Christmas day, so I feel like my kids are blessed with two full days of Christmas :).

[Catherine]

WE have many traditions, but one that we've loved is a yearly free showing of It's A Wonderful Life at a beautiful local movie theater. It's a restored 1940's theater and the movie is a food drive for a food bank-you just bring non-perishable food items to donate and then watch the film. We love this movie so much.