giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Dec 15, 2014 12:52:19 GMT -5
For us the tradition has always been decorate sugar cookies. Sometimes we will play a game, watch a movie, just hang out. Sometimes we have to use Christmas eve to prepare for Christmas day.
We are now including attending mass on Christmas eve. The kids want to stay home and enjoy their gifts Christmas morning.
That's all we really have time for, now. It's hard to remember life before the littlest. And, we don't have the freedoms that we used to have quite, yet.
We do other things as part of holiday tradition, but some of it is weather dependent. We go look at lights, go to specific holiday displays, etc.
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kittensaver
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Post by kittensaver on Dec 15, 2014 13:55:01 GMT -5
New jammies for everyone! ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/grin.png)
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Happy prose
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Post by Happy prose on Dec 15, 2014 14:47:35 GMT -5
We don't eat a regular dinner (I don't feel like cooking twice), we have appetizers. Mozzerella sticks, potato skins, etc. Friday's makes great frozen ones. We usually watch a Christmas special and play a game of cards or whatever they feel like. When my DD was smaller, we used to make personalized Christmas balls, bought at Walmart, with glue and glitter. We never opened any presents.
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Dec 15, 2014 14:48:10 GMT -5
Normally take the kids to Christingle.....A children's service at the Church Little Nativity play and singing Silent Night in the dark with a candle...... ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/smiley.png) The walk home, past all the houses with their lit trees in the window... is lovely. Then its tucked up in bed reading Christmas stories. The tradition in our house is also a takeaway dinner for the adults.....just relaxing a bit before all the formalities begin.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2014 14:58:42 GMT -5
Chinese food, a movie or game and one gift. That way you get each other's full attention before the craziness of all the family visits get going.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Dec 15, 2014 16:24:13 GMT -5
I always pick at least 3 things to do during the holiday season because there is a fine line between tradition and being stuck in a rut. When the kids get a little older, I'll print out a list and they get to choose. The list currently includes:
Pictures with Santa Tacky lights tour in a limo, Caroling with the neighborhood kids Baking several dozen cookies, decorating them and spreading the Christmas spirit by doing porch drop-offs Picking an angel off the tree and/or toys for tots Day trip to the local amusement park that reopens in December with lights for Christmas Fancy brunch at the fancy hotel The ice show at the Baltimore harbor Day trip to D.C. to see the Christmas lights at the White House Disney on Ice Christmas jammies, hot cocoa and holiday movies Creating a Winter themed mural Making a gingerbread house Making salt dough ornaments Having a Christmas party (mid-December) Christmas lights at the botanical gardens Destination Christmas skiing/snowboarding or Walt Disney World Tacky 6k run The nutcracker ballet Tacky light boat show on the River Christmas bed-time stories every night of December Sending personalized holiday cards Christmas parade Downtown Illumination
Decorating the house the Friday after Thanksgiving, snapping a quick family photo in Christmas hats, opening an annual ornament on Christmas eve and opening presents on Christmas day is a given. We also just got the elf on the shelf this year. We don't go to church, but if they wanted to go to a midnight mass or Christmas day service, I would take them.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Dec 15, 2014 17:14:55 GMT -5
I like all the cute ideas!
We've always just done dinner & then open gifts. They get to open everything under the tree. On Christmas day they will get santa gifts & we have a large get-together with extended family which means they will get another half dozen gifts. It just feel like too many gifts for just one day.
I feel like I need to add to the tradition, maybe do something fun during the day before dinner.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Dec 15, 2014 17:17:03 GMT -5
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Dec 15, 2014 17:18:18 GMT -5
Don't currently have one. You're on the east end of Lake Ontario. Christmas eve is in the winter. Break out the shovels and have a family driveway shoveling party. ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/grin.png)
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Dec 15, 2014 21:51:51 GMT -5
When you decorate the tree, with each ornament tell the story of it.
Collecting ornaments on family vacations every year for the tree would give a memory for both the trip and Xmas.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Dec 15, 2014 21:59:27 GMT -5
Then you end up with left-over Chinese take-out containers in your fridge on Christmas Day when you're trying to do the big turkey feast with even more left-overs.
We usually did Chinese take-out on NY Eve - if we didn't cook up our traditional seafood feast. Is there any comment I can make about any topic that you won't argue with me about? Lol!
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ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ
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Post by ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ on Dec 15, 2014 22:07:58 GMT -5
My DH was Ukrainian - so we got 2 Christmases. The one on Dec 25, then the second Orthodox (Ukrainian) Christmas on the 7th of Jan. It was all about the traditional foods though.
When we were kids growing up, stockings weren't opened until Christmas morning (after all, Santa had to fill them while we were sleeping on Christmas Eve). Then the "main" gifts weren't opened until after a big breakfast.
Our family was so huge, the giant turkey was usually placed into the oven the night before, or mom would get up about 5 am to get it started. ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/tongue.png)
When we "kids" became adults, we started putting themes into the gift-giving/exchanges. One year we had a specific "green" or "red" theme - and the gift had to be that color - then for a few years, we drew names for the gift exchange. We've always tried to switch it up and make it interesting & fun.
Now we do "Secret Santa/Gift Steal" game for the holiday.
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kristinkle
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Post by kristinkle on Dec 16, 2014 10:12:38 GMT -5
Everyone makes a Christmas ornament for the tree and then signs and dates the back. Some years we make the dough, cut them out and bake them them and then decorate them, other years we buy unfinished ornaments and paint them. The kids will get to take them with them when they are ready to establish their own Christmas trees. It is really fun to see how they have progressed over the years ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/smiley.png) We also open 1 gift (of the parents choosing) on Christmas eve. When the kids were little we would drive around and look at all the decorated houses and then choose a first place and second place "winner". This was fun because everyone got to debate on why they think that particular house should win. We would then leave a ribbon on the porch (you can get them at the dollar store).
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Dec 16, 2014 10:31:25 GMT -5
I've been toying with the idea of having an annual gingerbread house building contest. We made one together one year from a kit. But, to be authentic, I'll skip the kit and buy gingerbread crackers, candy, icing, sprinkles, etc. I'll set up all the supplies in bowls, give each person a baking sheet covered with wax paper and go to town. Christmas music will set the mood. I'm thinking the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas. Yikes, Christmas is next week!
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Pants
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Post by Pants on Dec 16, 2014 10:38:53 GMT -5
I've been toying with the idea of having an annual gingerbread house building contest. We made one together one year from a kit. But, to be authentic, I'll skip the kit and buy gingerbread crackers, candy, icing, sprinkles, etc. I'll set up all the supplies in bowls, give each person a baking sheet covered with wax paper and go to town. Christmas music will set the mood. I'm thinking the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas. Yikes, Christmas is next week! Your energy level exhausts me.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Dec 16, 2014 13:46:07 GMT -5
Gingerbread crackers? I have never heard of them. A few I picked up today. A couple started collecting the Hallmark ice cube ornaments the first year they were married. The have all 35 years of them. This is their anniversary year. This friend wrapped one gift - a gift card to target. She wrapped a second wrapping that had a clue in it like the person wearing red could remove that paper and on and on until she had it was wrapped many times. One clue was who had an 8 in the age. Another a number for their birth date. She said she had about 23 wrapping and clues. One friend with many snoopy kids wraps the door to the family room that has the tree and presents. The kids have to break through the wrapping paper to get to the gifts. The parents know the kids can't be snooping. I am reading a book called The Christmas Glass about how antique Christmas ornaments were made, protected and passed down. I now have melancholy about old ornaments of parents and grandparents. Maybe I can find them in storage in another state. ![](http://syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/pray.gif)
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genericname
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Post by genericname on Dec 16, 2014 13:59:45 GMT -5
We make a snowman on the front lawn every Christmas Eve. This is unique here, because there isn't usually enough snow yet to make a snowman, so we get about 3 trash cans full of zamboni snow and truck it over from the rink. We've become quite an attraction about town since we started doing it.
After the snowman, we go to the rink and have a 'family only' skate together. The rink is closed, so we can all bring out the hockey sticks and pucks and just pass them around for fun. I think our entire family skates (brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, etc), and most of us play hockey, so it's pretty fun. I don't know what I'm going to do with the baby this year. She's a year away from skating yet, and I can't just turn her loose to wander around the rink by herself.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Dec 16, 2014 14:39:34 GMT -5
I think we might try to make "reindeer food" again. I was trying to make puppy chow and apparently nuked my chocolate chips a tad too long. They seized up when I poured the bowl into the Chex Mix. It then proceeded to harden into a giant ball. We would have broken a tooth trying to eat it. Gwen was disappointed so I quickly came up with the idea that we made food for Santa's reindeer. I hacked off a piece and let her put it next to Santa's cookies. DH's eyeballs got wide and he whispers to me "That's not for Santa is it?" He was relieved it was for "Rudolph" which meant he didn't have to eat it. ![](http://syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/rofl.gif)
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Dec 16, 2014 14:42:31 GMT -5
Don't currently have one. You're on the east end of Lake Ontario. Christmas eve is in the winter. Break out the shovels and have a family driveway shoveling party. ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/grin.png) We did that this weekend. For some reason, the kids weren't very happy with it. ![](http://syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/idunno.gif)
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Dec 16, 2014 15:23:32 GMT -5
What tradition(s) have you picked Swamp?
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Dec 16, 2014 16:24:36 GMT -5
The Airing of Grievances.
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Dec 16, 2014 17:47:26 GMT -5
We don't eat a regular dinner (I don't feel like cooking twice), we have appetizers. Mozzerella sticks, potato skins, etc. Friday's makes great frozen ones. We usually watch a Christmas special and play a game of cards or whatever they feel like. When my DD was smaller, we used to make personalized Christmas balls, bought at Walmart, with glue and glitter. We never opened any presents. This is exactly what we do on New Year's Eve! Appetizers for dinner. (Don't forget the egg rolls!) ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/grin.png)
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Dec 16, 2014 18:50:42 GMT -5
You're on the east end of Lake Ontario. Christmas eve is in the winter. Break out the shovels and have a family driveway shoveling party. ![](http://images.proboards.com/new/grin.png) We did that this weekend. For some reason, the kids weren't very happy with it. ![](http://syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/idunno.gif) Is the mailbox buried yet? If you don't need a tunnel to get to the mailbox, you ain't got real snow yet.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Dec 16, 2014 22:19:27 GMT -5
We did that this weekend. For some reason, the kids weren't very happy with it. ![](http://syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/idunno.gif) Is the mailbox buried yet? If you don't need a tunnel to get to the mailbox, you ain't got real snow yet. The plow usually gets it first.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2014 15:30:10 GMT -5
I'm not suggesting this should be your only new tradition, but do you guys know the website "NORAD Tracks Santa"? Our "kids" still watched some of it last year (and they were 15-27 LOL).
It's very effective at getting younger kids into bed too. ;-) Every time Santa arrived in Italy, the three older kids would tell DS3 "you need to go to bed NOW!!!" and DS3 could not get into bed fast enough LOL.
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