mommyoffive Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 What are your favorite holiday traditions? Or just things you are doing this year? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Favorites: Christmas Eve worship, homemade gingerbread cookies and eggnog, church choir concert (not happening, sadly), friends’ Christmas party (also not happening), reading Christmas books together, Christmas Eve dinner with Dh’s family. New favorites/this year: Lights display at the botanical garden, Christmas day worship with friends, both kids going to camp the week after Christmas 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LifeLovePassion Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 We celebrate with family the weekend before Christmas and so on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we stay in our pajamas at home. We watch movies, Cook some good food, attend Christmas Eve service (not sure if we will this year with COVID), eat cookies, play games, do a puzzle, hang out. Usually when we cook a meal it's on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is more brunch type foods in the morning and then snacks later in the day for the most part. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 (edited) My two favorite holiday things are hearing my older kid sing Christmas carols, and how ridiculously excited my younger kid gets about Santa. I am relatively certain that he does not exactly believe, but in 11 years he has never made any acknowledgement of the possibility that Santa might not be real. Last year, my SIL arranged for him to have a Zoom visit with Santa with his cousins*, and I think it was his favorite gift. He keeps asking if we are going to do it again. I need to get that set up. Our new Christmas tradition is that we are going to prepare Wigilia, a traditional Polish Christmas Eve feast. *ETA: Just to clarify these were DS's cousins. I do not know whether Santa has cousins or not. Edited December 13, 2021 by Baseballandhockey Because apparently I can't spell Christmas 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) This year may be weird for various reasons. One thing I have wanted to do for years is Jolabokaflod. So whether it works out for Christmas eve or Christmas day or just a day that week, I plan to surprise myself (ha!) with some random books that I haven't yet read pulled from my shelves, arranged nicely on the coffee table, then load up on some appealing snacks and drinks and spend the day and evening reading in front of the fire. My young adults may join in or not (whatever they want to do), but I suspect the cats will definitely want in on sitting in front of the fire (and maybe some of the snacks), lol. Edited December 13, 2021 by Stacia 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassia Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 6 minutes ago, Stacia said: This year may be weird for various reasons. One thing I have wanted to do for years is Jolabokaflod. So whether it works out for Christmas eve or Christmas day or just a day that week, I plan to surprise myself (ha!) with some random books that I haven't yet read pulled from my shelves, arranged nicely on the coffee table, then load up on some appealing snacks and drinks and spend the day and evening reading in front of the fire. My young adults may join in or not (whatever they want to do), but I suspect the cats will definitely want in on sitting in front of the fire (and maybe some of the snacks), lol. this sounds absolutely perfect! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Danish Smorrebrod, and this year adding several new recipes including Aebleskiver, as well as singing/dancing around the Christmas tree with each member having an LED candle to clip on the tree because DH refuses to let me do the truly traditional of putting real, lit candles on it! 😂.This is all for Christmas Eve. Oh, and we have new Icelandic Elf houses and the grandsons will be leaving gifts for the elves in the hopes that they will be good and not bring mischief to the house. I am sure my husband and son in law will enjoy scarfing down the cookies, candy, fruit, etc. that is put out. For trinkets, dd and I are having them put out a couple of LED flashlights that we both wanted anyway. 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebcoola Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 The 12 days of Christmas is our favorite tradition. We choose a family and leave them a gift ding dong ditch style each day from Christmas to Epiphany that matches the day. Just like the song the 1st day they get 1 thing the last 12 things. It's lots of fun. It's getting harder to pull of with all the ring doorbells. I also love Candle light Christmas eve service. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loowit Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Christmas baking week is a popular tradition in our home. The kids and I started this when they were little so I could "justify" an extra week off of school. We do a different cookie, candy, or whatever each day for a week. This year we are starting on Thursday after DD is home from college for break. I enjoy going to cut down our own tree each year. Last year we went and got a forest service tree, but this year we opted for a tree farm. We found one halfway between us and DD so she met us there and got to help pick out the tree. It is now up with lights and we will do the ornaments when she gets home. Each year I get everyone an ornament that reflects that year for them. I wrap them and give them out when we decorate the tree. Christmas eve will be our big fancy dinner this year. It will just be DH, the kids, and me. We will probably play board games or watch cheese Christmas movies together. Christmas morning we will do stockings and presents. Then we are hosting my family at our house this year. My parents were planning to do it at their house, but stuff came up so we offered our house. Everyone will bring a tray of treats (appetizers or desserts) to share. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Christmas Eve church service, Christmas baking, family games, and Jammie Day on the 26th. Jammie Day is a holdover from the first 45 years of my life when I had up to 4 separate Christmas family gatherings within 2-3 days. On Jammie Day I refuse to get dressed in regular clothes, leave the house, or do anything other than relax, read, craft, watch movies, drink mimosas, eat leftovers and truffles. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmyboys Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 We have several Christmas games we like to play. I’m not sure how many are still in print- Letters to Santa, 12 days of Christmas card game, Holiday Fluxx, llama drama holiday edition, and Christmas Uno. The last 3 years we have used stepbysteppainting.net to paint a Christmas canvas. This year we have listened to a chapter of Vanderbeekers of 141st each night. There are 24 chapters so it works out perfectly. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 I was never one to bake anything from scratch but one year I had a sudden urge to learn how to bake cookies**. Until then the extent of my cookie baking had been slice and bake. I wanted to do it with my 9yo niece so I had her spend the weekend and we baked our first batch of Christmas cookies. It became a tradition. She's now 33, married with 3 kids and we still do it. She, her husband, and their kids (14yo twins and a 4yo) are coming over next Sunday for our annual Christmas cookie baking session. Dh and her husband are both avid outdoor grilling fans so they'll be cooking dinner for us outside while we're baking cookies inside. Her 14yo son will probably play computer games with ds because he lost interest in baking a few years ago. Her 14yo daughter still enjoys it. The preschooler will just play. **A few weeks after that first baking session I found out I was pregnant with ds24. To this day I think it was hormones from my unknown pregnancy that gave me the uncontrollable urge to bake. 🙂 Our Christmas Eve tradition is to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Some years we've gone on our bicycles, some years in a car, depending on how far from home we decide to go. This year we'll be going in our golf cart through our neighborhood and some adjacent neighborhoods. There are some little things we do but the above are our "must do" traditions. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 We had twenty years of tradition. Christmas eve service complete with our kids in the pageant as the gospel reading. As they grew up they took over running and participating as needed with help from their friends returning from college for the holiday. After the service was a festive potluck dinner. The potluck has been going on for longer than we've been here. It's a lovely tradition, making a festive Christmas possible for everyone. This year dh has resigned from the church and will fill in at another local church. Ds is home from grad school in Canada and dd and dsil live local so that's fun. Our house is a wreck with getting ready to move. Christmas Day is with friends watching the Queen on television and having a hearty high tea and carol sing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Oh, I thought of another one. We watch A Christmas Story on a loop on Christmas Eve day. This seems to be a "love it" or "don't understand the love for it" movie. We're in the love it camp. We do watch other Christmas movies throughout the season (including, yes, Die Hard lol) but A Christmas Story is the one we run on Christmas Eve day. Christmas Day we usually have Christmas Vacation or Home Alone going. We don't actually sit down and watch any of the movies but they're our background to what we're doing as the day goes on. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 We do the usual sorts of things: decorate (DS 17 wraps the trees—so beautiful!); send cards; bake. We still do Lego advent calendars, even the grown up kids. I mailed one to the newlyweds. Movies and books—when they were little we wrapped the Christmas books and they opened one a night to read. When they were smaller we’d put them to bed one night to find golden tickets on their pillows, and then we would all get in the car with warm drinks and popcorn to drive around looking at lights. The tickets had to be punched with words (it’s a lot trickier to make a word with a hole punch than one would think!). We make gingerbread houses, some years from scratch, some from boxes. We still do Elf on a Shelf. (Embarrassing but true!) I have a love/hate relationship with that elf. We do the angel tree stuff some years. Other years we do different things, but always something for others. DH and I make kahlua to give as gifts. This involves some fun tastings! This year I’m trying to squeeze in a batch of chocolate liqueur, too, for a friend who doesn’t like coffee, and we’re making vanilla for our friends who don’t drink. We have friends over to wait for Santa to drive by one night, and there’s a game of tag in the dark with only Christmas lights on. Christmas Eve pre-Covid we’d have an open house, and make a giant vat of chili. People popped in and out. DD makes reindeer food to put in the yard, maybe a new ornament. Kids open a gift, and new pajamas. This year we will have a more limited number of households, and a heater on the decorated back deck. There are some great ideas in this thread, totally stealing some! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 10 minutes ago, Spryte said: We still do Lego advent calendars, even the grown up kids. I mailed one to the newlyweds. I bought Lego advent calendars for our 9 and 7 yo grandsons and ds 24 looked at them longingly. I jokingly asked if he wanted one and he said "Well, I wouldn't turn one down". I got him one. Apparently you never outgrow the Lego love. 10 minutes ago, Spryte said: DH and I make kahlua to give as gifts. This involves some fun tastings! This year I’m trying to squeeze in a batch of chocolate liqueur, too, for a friend who doesn’t like coffee, and we’re making vanilla for our friends who don’t drink. Oooh! I made Irish cream one year to give as gifts. That was fun. 10 minutes ago, Spryte said: We do the usual sorts of things: decorate (DS 17 wraps the trees—so beautiful!) Ds 24 has been doing both our Halloween and Christmas outdoor decorations since he was 13. We lived in the same house all but the first 2 years of his life. When we moved to this house last year he came with us due to Covid (lost his job) and he came up with the outdoor decoration plan here. This year I said that once he moves out all of our outdoor decorations will be ground level because he won't be here to get on a ladder and do the roof line. 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherNewName Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Making Christmas candy: chocolate dipped marshmallows (milk chocolate, chocolate mint, and hot chocolate toppers with peppermint), chocolate dipped pretzels, and peanut butter and chocolate candy (shaped with cookie cutters into trees, bells and wreaths with either a plain PB center, peanut butter pretzel, and peanut butter and toffee). We are traveling this year to see family. Lots of visiting with nieces and nephews we haven't seen enough of recently and big Christmas Eve dinner with both sides of our families. We will be also doing our traditional movie outing with our youngest nephews and our boys - this year I believe the plans are dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant and the new Spiderman movie. This is always followed by a drive to see Christmas lights. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 We are actually not doing several of our favorite traditions this year. Candy-making and cooky baking are not happening, because three adults are on three different schedules this year. The light show, that usually struggles to sell tickets during the week in a normal year, was completely sold out by October, so we missed that. Ds was in quarantine for the holiday parade... *sigh* The boys and I are still planning on spending Christmas eve with appetizers and nibblers, watching a dvd of the.worst.Christmas cartoons ever. 😂 I bought it on a whim from a bargain bin several years ago, and oldest ds and I have watched it ever since. It is a total train wreck, with Santa flying in an invisible rocket, a man bathing in a tub with his friends and all you see is the NRA tattoo on his chest, and a super weird story about orphans. Dh does not see the draw, so he is sleeping while we watch, and we'll have an evening with A Christmas Carol when he wakes up. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alysee Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 On Christmas Eve we watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas(original version with Boris Karloff) and eat grilled cheese. We have been doing that every year since we started dating and the kids always look forward to it so it continues. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) We have lots. We first listen to The Messiah the day after Thanksgiving, and that starts it. We listen to it fairly often throughout Advent. I always have to make pomanders first because the smell turns my mind to Christmas. I made my kids Advent calendars when they were young so we always have those up and going. It's fun to see how many things they still do or care about and which have fallen away. We carol to neighbors. We always hand-make some things so there is a fair amount of hiding and yelling "don't come in" when someone has taken over a space to work in our very small house. We watch Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and usually one other movie and drink eggnog early in December. We often dip candles. We always read The Tailor of Gloucester and A Child's Christmas in Wales, plus some other children's books. Christmas Eve morning we listen to Nine Lessons and Carols on the radio, then keep the radio on all day for more music. On Christmas Eve we light the candles on the tree and sing carols together. Christmas day we do stockings, then eat Dutch puffs, then open presents and go for a walk. Teenaged Ds once told me, very matter-of-fact, "I love that we do all our traditions, it never matters whether we have money for stuff or not." I felt like I had succeeded at something. Edited December 13, 2021 by Eos 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Tradition that we hope to repeat this year: Travel! If the fates allow.... Early Christmas at home. Small surprises to open on Christmas day wherever we are. Experiencing the holiday in a new way. Christmas lights! Christmas-themed horse event. Christmas cookies. Traditions that we will mostly miss this year: Christmas movies. Christmas on the day. Seeing family on the day. Church. My kids in Christmas performances ... these may be a thing of the past now, unless they join concert band or theater in the future. Live performances such as A Christmas Carol / Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I still plan to do Christmas cards, but it depends on how this week goes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Two of my love/hate traditions: My youngest still ADORES doing all of the cheap little Christmas crafts you can grab for a buck or two. It is so incredibly cute! But it means I have about 824 little $1 creations in my house. 😬 And gingerbread houses. Everyone wants to do their own. That includes big kids. This year, that means 4 gingerbread houses. In my small house that is always bursting at the seams, and even more so with Christmas throwing up everywhere. 4 gingerbread houses take up a lot of space!!! And look terrible as the kids immediately start picking at them, and continue to for ages. But it brings them an amount of joy I can’t even begin to relate to, so… Sometimes I worry about the amount of time we invest in Christmas movies, lol. But no one is satisfied until we’ve played everything that each person has on their mental list, even if we don’t *all sit through *everyone’s picks. Ds and dh had a 4 flick marathon on Saturday and it exhausted me watching them sit still for that long. The baking marathon kicks off tomorrow. I did already bake the gingerbread, but have to get serious about the rest. We all miss what used to be our annual Santa train trip. We’re not doing close quarters with covid, and the train didn’t run for a year or two before this, and I think we missed the last run before that because of weather. Fingers crossed for doing it up big next year! I love our Christmas Day, though it always starts a bit too early!!! Pajamas all day, presents, stuffing ourselves, taking naps, and just hanging out together. Also a lot of reminiscing now that the kids are older. ❤️ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1234 Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 While the dc are in college we have to cram our favorite holiday stuff into just a week (finals will be done the 18th here). So, we have a list of just the really important movies (White Christmas, Grinch, Peanuts, etc), and we’ll do cookies and hot chocolate. Christmas Eve we drive around with our favorite cookies and look at Christmas lights. Sometime that week we’ll put together the Lego gingerbread house. Both dc and ds’ fiance are staying over Christmas Eve so we’ll spend Christmas Day in our pjs, eat lots of food, and watch Christmas Story on a loop on tv. When we have more time we usually like to go see a Nutcracker performance and The Polar Express at IMAX. I love Christmas and I’m super excited both dc are still into everything and spending it with us. I know the time is coming they probably won’t so I’m soaking it all up while I can. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassia Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Thank you all for sharing! I love reading all of these and am going to use some of them for our Christmas this year. Seems like our holidays change every year due to family situations so we haven't had any traditions for a while and I'm trying to come up with things that will be fun for everyone this year and really appreciate this thread. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Christmas is the only holiday that my family does any real "traditions." This is our first year as empty-nesters so it seems especially important to do all of the things while dd is home from college. Luckily, almost none are impacted by the pandemic. Some of the things we do: Decorate the house to the gills. Boxes and boxes of decorations, inside and out. Get a real tree from the same lot we go to annually. Every kid gets a candy cane and they remember dd every year. She even came home for the night to go get the tree this year. And they did remember her. And she did get her candy cane! The tree has to be big and sturdy due to the next tradition..... Dh and I have all of our ornaments from our childhood, labeled with the year and who gave us the ornaments. Somehow this was a tradition in both of our families. We have done the same with dd's ornaments. We also have every ornament any of us made over our lifetimes. It is about 60 pounds of ornaments. Every single one MUST go on the tree, no matter what! When dd has established her own home enough to have a tree, we will separate hers out to continue the tradition (if she wants). We have a list of about 10 movies we watch some time over the course of the season. We watch the 1994 "Little Women" while making treats for the birds. We hang the treats on the trees outside our windows, both for the enjoyment of the birds and our cats. Dd has an elaborate collection of Playmobile Christmas scenes and has a special place in our home. Overnight, every night, somehow "baby badger" ends up hiding or doing something naughty. Dd's first thing to do each morning is find out what he has been up to and correct the situation. We don't do a whole lot of presents, but Santa does come with a single gift for dd and all of our stockings. Pulling this off in a tiny house is half the fun. We do a day of Christmas cookie baking. Then we wrap them up and deliver to friends and neighbors, usually by foot. We do a progressive with four other families, usually starting with coffee, then moving to brunch snacks, mid-day cocktails, afternoon snacks, and cocoa with cookies in the evening. We did this all outdoors at fires in yards last year and will likely do that again this year. We added breaks between each so everyone could go back to their homes to warm up and/or prepare to be the next hosts. We all live within walking distance. These are our "found family" so we also exchange small gifts during this day. We always keep a large puzzle going to do while watching movies or just to sit and chat. We deliver meals on Christmas morning for our local organization that support the elderly. Midnight walk/ski/snowshoe on Christmas Eve. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.