I just wanted to get some ideas about Christmas celebration as this is a relatively new tradition for us. Is Christmas celebrated only on the 25th and at dinner time, 4 or 5PM? Besides good food and conversations, is there anything else you do for Christmas? Do you go to church on Christmas Eve and do you have a Christmas Eve dinner, or simply the dinner on the 25th?
When do you open presents? If on the 25th in the morning, is it as soon as the children wake up? Last few years we opened up presents early in the Christmas morning which I thought it was fun but a little too early for me. Typically the kids can't wait until the Christmas morning comes, so they make sure to wake up as early as they can. Any other ideas on how you go about this at your home?
About stockings, aren’t they mostly for younger kids so you can fill them up with candies; for older children how would you use them?
Thanks so much everyone for the great ideas!
It all varies... culturally and regionally.
There is no one single "correct" way or time.
Some open presents on the Eve, some open on the day.
Its up to you and your immediate family.
Stockings are for kids and adults.
In our home.
We open presents on Christmas morning. Early as soon as the kids wake up.
I am of Scandinavian heritage (Norwegian and Swedish) and we do most everything on Christmas Eve.
We have Christmas Eve dinner early (starting sometime between 3-4pm). We do a Swedish dinner. (Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, lefsa, etc.) Presents after dinner and then Christmas Eve Candlelight Church service at around 11pm. Then we go home and finish opening presents if there are any left and then go to bed. Santa presents are waiting on Christmas morning and then we have a Christmas breakfast (Swedish pancakes or something). We have left over Christmas Eve dinner for lunch and usually end up going to the movies/renting a movie on Christmas Day. My siblings and I are all grown up and we still get Santa presents... :-) Santa usually brings our "big" present (the expensive, main present). RIght now I usually get some kind of kitchen gadget - food processor, juicer, etc. When I was younger it was the expensive toy. Merry Christmas!
Some of my favorite Christmas Traditions are happening before Christmas Day even comes. We do several things during the month of December that make Christmas special in our home.
1) Decorate a gingerbread house. You can buy kits at the grocery store with everything included or if you have older kids you can make them from scratch. Since I have a 3 and 6 year old we buy the kits. It's fun for the whole family to build and then we display it for the whole month of December.
2) We make Christmas Sugar Cookies. Again it's fun for us to do as a family. We Make the dough together, cut them out together and decorate them. With little ones this is usually a 3 day project. Mixing and chilling the first day, rolling and baking the second and decorating the third day. So give yourselves plenty of time. These also make great gifts for teachers and school staff as well as co-workers. (We freeze some too).
3) We go to the Christmas Parade. It's a great family fun event.
4) Christmas Crafts. When the kids are out of school I try to have fun crafts at home to do to pass the time. We make different ones each year, I check the internet sites. We are making popsicle stick sled ornaments this year and paper bag reindeer just to name a few.
5) We have a lot of Christmas picture books (which I add to every year as a Christmas gift) and we have Christmas stories at bedtime on the nights we don't watch movies (most nights). I love reading them "The Mitten" by Jan Brett, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" etc.
6) Some nights we snuggle up and watch Christmas movies together. My favorites include Miracle on 34th Street (the original one) The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman (cartoons) and It's a Wonderful Life.
On Christmas Eve for dinner we do a lighter meal with a fresh fruit and veggie tray, some sausage and cheese and crackers, etc. We take thermoses of hot cider and some Christmas Cookies in the car after dinner and drive around to look at lights. When we get home the kids open one present, I pick which one and let them open a new pair of pajamas. They put them on and we watch Christmas movies and tuck the kiddos into bed after they crash on the couch. The new jammies make for great photos in the morning! We also leave out some cookies we made for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.
On Christmas day we get up and open gifts which happens early because we have young kids. I set my alarm for 4:30 and get up and put out gifts from Santa and stuff stocking for everyone. Santa brings the kids special Christmas soap, shampoo and toothbrushes, some small toys like hot wheels and a little Christmas candy for their stockings. The grownups get chocolate covered cherries, scented soaps or cologne or other little gifts. For teenagers you could easily do the same thing or add gift cards for Itunes etc. A new ornament for the Christmas tree is a great stocking stuffer too. When the kids move out they have their own little set of meaningful Christmas decorations for their Christmas tree. The kids wake us up in the morning we make a rule that they cannot open anything without us. We give them their stockings to open while we make coffee and wake up a little. We also have muffins on hand for breakfast or pop some cinnamon buns in the oven. Something easy.
Christmas day we stay home and let the kids play and make our own special Christmas dinner. Our family is far away so we do our own thing. We make our family visit in November.
Every family seems to have their own traditions. Also, as the children and grandparents get older, those tradtions change. Many traditions are culturally based. We have a few Italian friends, and they all have big celebrations on Christmas Eve.
My hubby works on Christmas Eve until 7:00. So the girls and I have a nice dinner and watch a movie. When kids were little I wanted them to fully understand why we celebrated Christmas and would take them to early church services on Christmas Eve, where the Christmas pagent was performed. Now that they are older we no longer do that.
Some familes have a huge elaborate meal. My in-laws used to do this. IMO it was nice when there were all adults, but once we had kids it was miserable. I prefer to have a nice simple meal.
Most families I know with younger children are up very early on Christmas morning because the children are all excited to see what Santa left for them. Growing up, the tradition in our house was we could open our stockings while mom was waking up and making coffee. In my family we open the stockings first thing in the morning. After opening stockings, we have a light breakfast and get dressed and head over to my in-laws. There we have brunch, and open our presents to each other. We spend time visiting and then head home late afternoon. Then we open the presents at our home and have a nice dinner together.
Stockings - in our household and most that I know of, everyone adults and children get stockings. I even make a stocking for my daugther's best friend who comes over for Christmas dinner. I've never been big on candy, so the girls each get one candy item. In our house stockings have all kinds of goodies, most are inexpensive. Some of the goodies are practical - toothbrushes, hair ties, lip balm: other items are for fun - cd's, small toy, card game
Is this for a blog? A research paper? Consumer Survey?
Whatever works for YOUR family!
My son and I might join my Dad and StepMom for Christmas eve church or we might drive around looking at lights. We open presents Christmas morning. Last year he took most of the day to open presents--he'd wait until het got tired of playing with one thing to open the next, this year he seems more eager so we'll see.
Stockings are for candy--especially CHOCOLATE! , an apple, an orange, any gift cards and little PITA to wrap stuff-- I STILL get a stocking from my Dad!
We usually on Christmas Eve go out to church for the Christmas Eve service, then go driving looking at lights, then me and my kids go out for Indian food (we love it) then by the time we come home, look who showed up Santa ! Since my mom is German, we have always opened presents on Christmas Eve (much nicer for the adults, who can sleep in on Christmas day). That way the kids can open all their gifts, stay up late, be exhausted and maybe sleep in a bit on Christmas day too (if not, they can already play with all their new stuff).
Christmas day - we just get together with extended family (if in the area at the time) or just hang out together, usually have a nice dinner at home, very low key.
Stockings - always we have done candy - lots of german chocolate items (santas, marzipan (the best thing ever). Everyone gets a stocking, including adults - I have even seen pets get a stocking too. That is filled by Santa the same time the presents are there (christmas eve night).
Hi O.,
This holiday is a individual choice kinda thing. Everyone seems to celebrate differently - and that is okay and good.
In our family, we have dinner on the 24th - this includes just about everyone that can come. My hubby's family is split and each parent has another family so last year and this year we have combined the two (as the parents get along). In the past, we had dinner at one parents house on the Eve and one dinner at the other parent's house on the Day. I actually like that we have combined them now into one night (when you have little ones, it is hard to take them away from presents after they have opened them to go somewhere else). Now, we have a big family dinner on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts between eachother. We aren't really religious but we do have our beliefs and we do educate the kids about the meanings of Christmas. When I was little, I remember going to Mass with my Grandma.
After the kids go to bed, we bring out the main presents for them and wait until morn. I have to say that I am lucky since my kids do not wake up at 4 or 5 - they let us sleep until at least 7 or 8. Last year, they were so tired that we had to wake them up at 8am! It was like a feeding frenzy and then it was over and the kids wanted to just play. While they begin to get stuff sorted, I normally put the sweet rolls in the oven to cook while we open gifts. We eat breakfast and the kids continue to play...and the day goes on that way.
As for the stockings, yes, we do have candies in them but there are other things too - this year, my son is 6 and is just beginning to undertand addition and subtraction, so I got some flash cards to put in there. I also go to the dollar store and get other things like a hairclips, small books, jumprope, punchball, and small stuffed animals. I used to get comics in my stocking when i was little. Same things goes with the older kids - small inexpensive handheld games, playing cards, hair clips, novelty pens or pencils, etc. I don't give my kids much candy so I have found other things to give them.
As I mentioned, it is an individual choice - that is the fun thing about it, you can make your own tradition or take bits from others. There just is no wrong way to celebrate. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy!
I have a hard time with doing the gifts on Christmas morning. They are bombarded by the Santa gift then along with that they have all the stuff I got to for them. Sometimes it seems Santa gets all the attention and my gifts get none. I know Santa should be the smaller gift but it seems it is often a bike or something like that. Then everything else does not compare so I feel cheated. I don't know what to do about it because I also really like the idea of opening gifts on Christmas morning...a quandary for sure.
