Christmas traditions?

[DeChRi]

What are yours? In the last year I have gotten married, moved, had DD2 and have a wonderful new family in a wonderful new home. When I got married and moved into DH's home, the house was pretty steril. It's a gorgeous home, and we did some painting, etc, but still pretty bachelor pad-ish.

So we have our first family XMas, and tonight we are decorating the tree, etc. It made me think about family traditions, XMas traditions, and such. I'm having this huge need to start some specific to this family unit.

What are your family traditions?

[GinaRae]

We take something from each baby and put it on the tree. So I have little shoes, mittens, binkies, first birthday candles, and this year we'll use a hat of Lachlan's.

Plus we have a moose puppet for the tree topper instead of a star or angel and my husband runs that darn moose around the house all excited each time he gets pulled out for the season. It's fun for the kids. We'll probably put Lach's 49'ers jersey on the moose when he outgrows it.

The rest of the tree is a mix of regular bulbs, crafts, photos, etc..

We make our own Christmas candy each year which is insanely easy. Done in one day, you just melt down chocolate and dip peanut butter balls in, etc. We make turtles, choc covered raisins, haystacks, PB balls, etc...

Oh and opening one small gift for each on Christmas Eve.

The last couple of years we've scaled back on how much they get and put more into traditions and what they get. I am looking for more great traditions that would work for us.

[FillingMyQuiver]

We started an advent calendar this year. Each day has an activity or a special "gift" for the kiddos. Some of the activities/ gifts include:
baking cookies
putting up and decorating the tree
walking in the neighborhood to look at the lights
our church's Christmas cantata
a trip to the Christmas village put on by the neighboring historic town
new books about the advent season/ Christmas/ winter
making birdseed pinecone feeders to hang outside on solstice
making salt dough ornaments
individual pieces to our nativity to slowly put together
a few special seasonal movies
going to the local Waldorf school's winter bazaar
making our wrapping paper

We also go to my parents house on Christmas Eve for our "Italian feast" (my dad is Italian so we do the 7 fishes and what not on Christmas Eve) and to open gifts with the extended family.

[Momma Aimee]

we do a photo of the kids each year -- usally goes in card, but this year i am not doing cards, still doing photos though.

first year the baby is IN its stocking .... so Charles will be IN his stocking this year.

(I think Brother will wear a santa hat and hold him ???? sit by him ???? point to him ????)

My long range plan is to frame them all and put them up int he same place, so we can watch the family gorw . and in the future ... the 70's photos of me are sure a hoot .. who knows what we will think in 20 years of the soooooooooo cute stuff now.

we also read the night before christmas before bed, and put out food for stana and put food outside for the reindeer .....

Aimee

[adon]

well the last couple years we were doing a christmas eve "thing" at our house. lots of food, cookies and christmas music and movies. anyone that wanted to stop in could. we wanted the tradition for DS like i had growing up. but this year we may go up to my parents. my bro is back on the east coast and my sis and nephew are going thru rough times (her DH is sleeping with someone else:, they are going thru a seperation). and with a new LO it would be A LOT for me to do christmas eve here this year.....i DID already cook thanksgiving dinner for 10 while i was in labor!!!: and then didn't get any of it that's ok i got mabel instead

anyways, santa comes to the house on christmas eve and throws candy or treats in the door and yells HO HO HO. we never get to see him, but we know it's time for bed because he's in the area. this happened EVERY year when i was little, and now it happens for our little ones. we have many more traditions, but mabel is waking up....

[*Lindsey*]

We're Catholic so we do St. Nick's Day on the 6th (he comes on the evening before and puts goodies in stockings). We also do an advent calendar and wreath. We bake a plate of cookies for godparents.

Each kiddo gets an ornament every Christmas, 3 presents (b/c that's what Jesus got) on Christmas Day from us. We go to Mass and great-grandpa's on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning here, Christmas afternoon at my ILs, and the evening at my grandmas.

And Gina, those peanut butter balls dipped in melted chocolate are called Buckeyes here in Ohio!

[sorteep]

I bake cookies and pound cake (with the kids)

I always made decorated sugar cookies with my mom and as the boys get older will do same but for now it is a drop cookie that I sort of made up the recipe for (loosely based on toll house,, very loosely).. They are fondly referred to as "floor sweepings cookies" since they are chock full of millet/ flax and oatmeal

We usually cut a live tree but will skip this yr and go to the tree stand this weekend

My MIL comes over and helps decorate

we also do a gingerbread house (the kit ... I'm not MArtha!)

We also host xmas open house brunch come one come all.. it is fun

our tree also contains some very unconventional ornaments made from things from each kid.. I think the oddest is a pen bent in the shape of the profile of a PG lady form Evan's PG.. one of my pts was a nurse and brought it to our office.. it was an ad pen for a prenatal vitamin....

[Momma Aimee]

soon the kids, theo at least, will get to start making cookies and candy with Aunt Candy -- she used to make them with Grandpa and me, and Grandpa is gone, she is looking forward to her great-newphes joining her int eh kitchen. a lot of the candy and cookies have stores

like this one --

Magic Reindeer Food


Make this simple recipe a few days ahead so that it is ready for Christmas Eve. Remember that reindeer have very small appetites and many homes to visit,
so you only need to put about a cup out on the front lawn for them to eat.
Share the remainder of the recipe with your family and friends.

In a very large bowl and with very clean hands, stir together
2 big handfuls of mini-pretzels, 1 cup of cocktail peanuts, 2 cups of toasted
oat O-shaped cereal, 2 cups of crisp rice cereal squares, and 1 cup of red
cinnamon candies. Your Mom or Dad can help with the measuring.

In a glass bowl, place 1 package of white chocolate candy coating
(usually 8 squares). Can you count to eight all by yourself?
With Mom or Dad helping, heat the chocolate in the microwave
for 90 seconds. Stir until it is smooth.


Pour the melted chocolate over the other ingredients and stir just to cover. (Mixture will be lightly covered and not coated.) Spread the mixture onto waxed paper. Then sprinkle with red and green sugars.


When completing cool, break the mixture into pieces and store in
an airtight container until you are ready to feed the reindeer!



Note to Mom or Dad: You can use any combination of cereals and nuts for the dry mixture and leave out the candies all together if you wish. The white chocolate coating is also sometimes called almond bark in grocery or discount stores. You can also use white chocolate candy pieces.

i want to start advent wreath and calanaders too

each year we get a family ornament with all our names -- this year in a BED since we co-sleep the whole lot of us ...

each year each child get an ornament -- as they grow the ornament will reflect something about that year ... for now they are just cute. Name and year on them.

----------- I am 35 and Dh 41 but i feel we are a really yonge family, jsut establishing our traditions .. we have a lot of things we want to do ... but with a 5 wk old and a 2 yo .... some of it will have to wait -----

eventually we will spend Dec making ginderbreasd houses, and i hope the kids get into it and we can make really cool stuff .... and cut out decorated cookies and fudge and so on.

decorations go up Thanskging evening, or at least get started (I am STILL looking for a box that is missing that has our stockings in it).........

[Curlita]

wE HAVE an ADVENT CALENDER (PURCHASED, ALTHOUGH i MIGHT MAKE ONE NEXT YEAR) - crap, sorry, NAK. We usually have fondue on Christmas Eve. We leave cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. And there is one small present hidden in the tree for each person to open late on Christmas, after everything else is winding down.

I love the idea of putting something of each child's on the tree...

And we go visit Santa each year, usually at the museum where I work. Here is this year's pic:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...a/JB2G7024.jpg

[brooklyn_warbler]

Originally Posted by Curlita

wE HAVE an ADVENT CALENDER (PURCHASED, ALTHOUGH i MIGHT MAKE ONE NEXT YEAR) - crap, sorry, NAK. We usually have fondue on Christmas Eve. We leave cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. And there is one small present hidden in the tree for each person to open late on Christmas, after everything else is winding down.

I love the idea of putting something of each child's on the tree...

And we go visit Santa each year, usually at the museum where I work. Here is this year's pic:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...a/JB2G7024.jpg

totally OT but erica! conrad's hair! so cute. and also, a lot like wren's. i guess 11/11 was the birthday for hairy beebs. i am still wondering how she came out of the womb with an ironic mullet (i guess she did after all respond best to 'hipster' music, as my husband would call it, in the womb ):

check it out...

[Curlita]

Originally Posted by robina_josephine

totally OT but erica! conrad's hair! so cute. and also, a lot like wren's. i guess 11/11 was the birthday for hairy beebs. i am still wondering how she came out of the womb with an ironic mullet (i guess she did after all respond best to 'hipster' music, as my husband would call it, in the womb ):

check it out...

Wow! She does have a lotta hair!

I keep waiting for Conrad's to get long enough to lay down instead of poofing up in this Muppet-do. Last night my husband and I were trying to decide if he more strongly resembles Ric Ocasek or Roy Orbison with the hair...

</end thread hijack>

[chrysalis]

Originally Posted by FillingMyQuiver

making salt dough ornaments

ohhhhh i feel sad about this-but glad you mentioned salt dough ornaments cuz last year megh and i made some together and they were so pretty...she glued on buttons and feathers...made angel wings out of those and put a button on the very tip top of the head, looked like a halo...my idea. anyway, we had to leave behind stuff in MN when we left and that included christmas ornaments, etc. that i've had for years and accumulated from last year incl salt dough ornaments. : i haven't so far received a shipment of any of this from tom, my ex.....shows how much he cares eh. i figured you know, these are just things and the making of them is what counts for megh but it still makes me feel sad i forgot to at least grab those and my grandma's bells she gave my mother years ago...megh and i will make new salt dough's...thanks fillingmyquiver for reminding me of these. as bittersweet as it is for my heart.

our traditions kind of got interrupted now that we've moved from tom in MN...last year we cut our own tree. ahhh but THIS yr we won't have to worry 'bout some j*rk throwing our ree out of the truck due to his fit of rage-this year we are very broke and don't think it is gonna happen. don't want a big one anyway-too much to deal w/ right now-just gonna buy a small one someplace-maybe i'll buy a potted evergreen... omg sheamas just peed for like the 6th time today-diaper got warm under my left hand..........

lets see-what else...pondering-will come back to this.

[chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Curlita

Wow! She does have a lotta hair!

I keep waiting for Conrad's to get long enough to lay down instead of poofing up in this Muppet-do. Last night my husband and I were trying to decide if he more strongly resembles Ric Ocasek or Roy Orbison with the hair...

</end thread hijack>

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! beautiful. :

[chrysalis]

last year in MN we also drove to the nearest train station to see this:

http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/English/Gener...in/default.htm

this was VERY cool. unfortunately, it doesn't come to oregon...so that won't be a part of our tradition anymore either...

its so worth it if you are anywhere near its route!!!

[oskie]

We're still establishing traditions, but one from our dating years was to spend New Year's Eve as just the two of us (now the three of us!) making all sorts of appetizers to eat throughout the night. After traveling to family and spending so much time in crowds, it was nice to wrap up the season alone.

Oh, and last year we started the tradition to drink champagne and read David Sedaris' story "Six to Eight Black Men" (about Christmas in Holland) on the night we decorate the tree. Not quite as spiritually uplifting as some that have been listed, but fun nonetheless.

[sorteep]

ohh i forgot, we also drive around and look at lights with xmas music playing.. also play xmas cd's 24/7 tg thru xmas...

also we read twas night b4 xmas on eve.. now older kids read to younger kids

[GinaRae]

Oh! I keep various Christmas themed children's books in the decorations box and we pull them out to read during December. Sometimes we pick out a new book at the store.

[brooklyn_warbler]

Originally Posted by GinaRae

Oh! I keep various Christmas themed children's books in the decorations box and we pull them out to read during December. Sometimes we pick out a new book at the store.

ooo i love this -- how cute.

i am really liking this thread so far.

[GinaRae]

Maybe because I am a writer, but children's books just make me SO happy and I think they'e so important! I remember books from my childhood, you know??

[brooklyn_warbler]

Originally Posted by GinaRae

Maybe because I am a writer, but children's books just make me SO happy and I think they'e so important! I remember books from my childhood, you know??

well, i'm an english prof and fancy myself a writer too, so i TOTALLY get that. most of my favourite memories from childhood are from going to the library every friday and i can't wait to do that with wrenna. i actually even have illustrations from a children's book tattooed on my tum because it reminds me of my grandmother!

for our baby shower, my sisters asked everyone to bring their favourite children's book and gave everyone a sticker to write a little something for wren and then put their little messages in the books. we have this awesome, meaningful little library set up already. i love it. and wren is already so intent on looking at the books when we're reading them!

okay i am really hijacking this thread like nobody's business. sorry!