Holiday Traditions?

[gret the great]

Any neat ideas for celebrating? Although we aren't religious, we celebrate christmas, but I am really not thrilled about the consumerism. I want to start some traditions that aren't gift centered. Any ideas?

[Sagesgirl]

How about the classics?

By this, I mean charity. Collect things for a food drive. See about getting hooked up with a poor family to help them out (heck, maintain the connection year round), volunteer of a weekend at a homeless shelter. That's all I can think of that isn't religious.

[m&m]

In our family we have a tree decorating party for all our family and friends with a big potluck supper. Everyone brings a decoration for the tree so that we have a little bit of them there for the next year. It began because my mom had a 20 foot tree and not enough decorations.

We also add a decoration for each of our children with a theme of what they accomplished that year - for example my 2 year old made her first snowman all by herself - so the decoration is a snowman.

The tree then becomes a tree of memories.

We also give one gift to a family in need - instead of doing the Santa thing.

[snugglemama]

traditions

Instead of exchanging gifts with each other, one side of my family adopts a less fortunate family and we split up their wish list and buy presents for them. A friend of mine does something I think is kind of neat. They exchange names and have to make one thing for that person, instead of buying a gift. It could be cross-stitch, a picture collage, anything. Her family had a lot of creative people in it, though. I suggested this to my family and got some weird looks! (we're not so creative!). I'm trying now to come up with some traditions my husband and I can have of our own, so I'm glad you started this thread! Looking forward to reading more posts!

[Moon Stander]

In my family, we exchange hand-made things. Some of us prefer to make christmas related gifts, or others just anything. I love it, and am always so proud when my son comes away with this idea. Its great that he thinks of Christmas more along the lines of making things for grandma more than about what he is going to get

[SoHappy]

We live in California, so this outdoor idea may not help many people...
We participate in our Christmas parade. A big group of us decorates bicycles with lights and other things and have a giant entry in the parade. Last year, somebody had an actual fully decorated, lit tree on her trailer. Other people really do up the costumes. Some of the kids ride their own bikes, others are in trailers and bike seats. It's a blast.
We also pick a night to go on a Christmas Light Tour on our bikes. We pick a neighborhood, bundle up and ride around looking at the lights, then go home and drink hot chocolate, eat cookies, and listen to Christmas music.

[jordmoder]

DS will be 26 months on Christmas, and I've really started to think how to interpret this season as a family.

I'm trying to focus on the spirit of Christmas - which to me is the gift of life itself, and of loving as much as you can, as best as you can. So, giving of ourselves to others is the best gift we can ever have.

I also like celebrating the Solstice - living here in Portland, OR it gets pretty dark, pretty early and the fact that the days *will* be getting longer is so comforting! And I like the image of the return of the light, or the light in the darkness. So, on the solstice I plan to have a warm evening at home, with good soup, bake some cookies, and tell stories to watch through the night.

And Santa ... I just don't know yet!