Favorite Christmas traditions?

[PamE]

What are your favorite family Christmas traditions? I love the opening of stockings first thing Christmas morning and Christmas caroling with the church.

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by PamE
I love the opening of stockings first thing Christmas morning and Christmas caroling with the church.

Ditto for me! :)

We do the same routine every year - go to my dad's Christmas Eve morning. Spend the day with him, have chili, oyster soup and munchies. From there meet my mom at church, back to her house for dinner, clean up, then we read "I'll Love You Forever" before opening presents. We all have a copy of the book and we all take a turn reading a page - even the kids. :) After presents we hang out and do a puzzle together. I look forward to all of that every year - just LOVE Christmas and being together!! :*

[BevJ]

Christmas Eve at my Dad's. When my mom was alive, all my sisters and brother and spouses and children would gather at my parents place after dinner on C-mas Eve. It was such a merry time. Since my mom passed away almost 15 years ago it's not the same. Some sisters and my brother go, while others don't. Some of my sister's children go, while other other's don't. I still like going to my Dad's on Christmas Eve and I will continue to do that until he's no longer with us either.

[MaryL]

We go to mass on Christmas eve...and then just the four of us (dh, dks, and I) come home and have our "junk food" supper (cheese/crackers...chips...etc). We open up gifts from each other, and any that were mailed to us. It's a really comfortable and cozy time for us...and we really enjoy it. We don't travel on Christmas eve/day...(we do on Thanksgiving and Easter, though), and we don't have family in town...so this suites us just fine.

[darlene]

My mom comes over for breakfast....pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream! :drool: Usually supper at mil place.

Christmas eve all the kids get new pj's and a photo around the tree.

:)

[bizymum]

We do Christmas eve at DH's parents house. have a Christmas dinner with them, then and after all the dishes are doen we do presents. Then visit for a bit.

Afterwards we come home,put on jammies, leave a letter and cookies and juice for Santa and leave "reindeer food" on the deck. Then before bed we read "The Night Before Christmas"

Get up Christmas Morning have stockings and then open presents from each other and Santa and others....Then after everyone has had a sleep or relaxed..(manly DS#3 napping) we got to my Parents for the afternoon and evening and have Christmas dinner, my Grnadparents are there, my Aunts and Uncles, cousins and my sister...Lots of fun and tiring....LOL

I love Christmas

[RCT]

Christmas day, I baked muffins, have been doing that since ds was born....love it, ds helps we do Blueberry and Chocolate chip....real whipped butter, coffee and hot chocolate....

Christmas Eve, dh and I roll stuffed grape leaves, ds has become quite skilled at this, these past few years....always fun to watch them get excited about helping...

Dh rings santa's sleigh bells too around 2:00 am....yes, we are still usually up....dh and I enjoy the alone time Christmas Eve...

DD and I set the Christmas table, which I enjoy very much...she is really into the place settings, we long discussions of how things should be placed, and what candles to use....

I adopted someone's Stocking tradition a couple of years back, from this board, the large Hersey bar in the stocking...they love that.....

[littlesista06]

Hot chocolate and popcorn in the car and look at lights at least once a week....
Visit Santa, of course...
This year, my mom and I are starting a tradition of taking dd to The Nutcracker - I can't wait!
Christmas Eve brunch @ bil's house, 5:00 church service, new jammies for dd, cookies for Santa and read my mom's old
copy of The Night Before Christmas.
THE DAY, stockings, homemade cinnamon rolls, gifts and then hit the road to the parent's homes.

[Diane]

When the girls were younger we'd always get up early on Christmas Eve morning and we'd open up our gifts. The girls would then spend the better part of the morning playing with whatever they had gotten, and then around noon we'd take off for my father and mother in-law's house. There we'd eat dinner... do the dishes and then it was gift opening time. After all of that was done/over with we'd all sit down to play several games of Bingo. Everyone who wanted to play was required to bring as many wrapped item's as they could... (anything that was laying around the house that you no longer liked/wanted... and wanted to get rid of. Someone would always wrap a roll of toilet paper... LOL) that would become the prizes to whoever won. It was always a lot of fun.

On Christmas Day all of our families would gather together over at my mom and dad's for Christmas dinner. After we had eaten and all of the dishes were done... we'd all gather together in the living room and my dad would play santa by handing out all of the gifts that were under the Christmas tree. After the mess was all picked up we'd all gather together in the family room where we'd all sit around and sing Christmas carols while my dad played his concertina. We always had such of a good time doing that. :) After a few hours some people are starting to feel a little hungry again so they start making sandwiches from the left over turkey.... or they're digging into the pumpkin pie. :licklips: or start snacking on some of the cookies/bar's that someone baked for Christmas. After that were all so tired/exhausted that we go home... fall into bed and sleep until noon the next day. :)