Christmas Traditions

Instead of a tree skirt growing up we had a plain white sheet and every year my mom would trace my hands and my sister's hands on the sheet. Now we have this great record of us growing up through the Christmases.

J.,

I've been wondering the same thing. I have a 3 year old boy and I would love to have Christmas traditions that he can remember.
My sisters always buy new PJs for their kids that the 'elves' drop off on Christmas Eve.

Thanks for asking a great question. I hope to see some really neat ideas that maybe I can adopt.

A. K

hey J. ...

pick an angel off of the angel tree ...usually banks and department stores have them ...then let your child pick out a gift to give to the child (i know she's young now)
i did this with my kids ..i explained to them that they would each give up one gift to be able to give another child a gift ...it may be the only one that they get ...
it's a valuable lesson ...and it teaches them compassion ....my 7yr old son wanted a nintendo one yr it was all he wanted .....when we picked his angel he said i know what little boy gift i want to but ....yep ...he said nintendo ...i said if we get this then santa may not be able to get yours ...i don't care mom ..it may be the only thing he gets....so i bought it and he wrapped it .....when i told my mom what he had done she bought him one ....i just thought it was so awesome he was willing to give up something he wanted badly to give to another child ....
the angel tree is still a tradition with my kids ...he graduates this yr and is just a wonderful person as well as my two daughters ...
we're struggling to get his ring cap gown senior photos and he even took a job to help out with that and then his sister was going to her first homecoming ...he spent what he was saving on her dress , and taking her out to dinner before the dance ...he wanted it to be special ....

so our tradition has taught him values ....i'm glad we started it !

well i hope i wasn't rambling ...i just thought that it would be a great gift to your child

hope your holidays are blessed with peace , love and laughter ..and that you will have many memories that you will cherish for yrs to come !
k.

J.,

Here are some traditions we started with our family (and our kids ask about these every year so I think they enjoy them)...

1. My daughter and I attend the Nutcracker every year on a mother / daughter date and go out for ice cream or hot cocoa afterwards. (The first year I took her she was 4 and she fell asleep after the sugar plum fairy. I would recommend your child be at least this age before trying this.)

2. We decorate a gingerbread house as a family and it becomes the table centerpiece until New Years when we devour anything edible on it. I believe in convenience - especially at busy holiday time - so we get the kit from Walmart or Hobby Lobby for less than $10.

3. Everyone in the family gets a calendar for a Christmas present (my kids asked about this one today at Walmart.) Mom's goes in the kitchen, dad's goes to work and the kid's goes in their bedrooms. We write down when family vacations, birthdays, etc. are and the kids love to see how long until the day comes. This has also helped them learn to read and better understand time concepts.

4. We make goodie plates and deliver them to the neighbors. It has really helped us develop friendships with our neighbors and the kids love to ring the doorbell and hold the goodies.

5. We watch all the OLD Christmas cartoons – the ones that have aired since the 60’s or 70’s. It is fun to watch the same shows my husband and I watched when we were little.

6. Funny story: Presents from Santa at our house all fit in the stocking and are mostly practical – toothbrushes, shampoo, socks and underwear with the favorite Disney character of the year. When my daughter was 3, she sat on Santa’s lap at the church Christmas party. Santa asked her what she wanted, she replied, “Dora panties, of course! And a bag of MnM’s.” She is 5 now and her brothers are 3 and 1. They are still completely thrilled on Christmas morning by new toothbrushes and underwear. I don’t know how long it will last, but I am glad we didn’t “overdue” the first Christmases and set up expectations for numerous elaborate and expensive gifts every Christmas.

7. We always give Jesus a birthday gift for Christmas. We decide as a family what it will be and usually involves helping out a family in need or spending time with those who need a friend and setting a goal to be more like Jesus in how we treat each other in the upcoming year. If anything gets passed on to the next generation, I hope it is this one.

Merry Christmas,
S.

We put our tree up right after Thanksgiving, and each year I splurge on one personallized ornament. My oldest has been making an ornament each year at her school, and I helped my youngest last year and will again this year.

A week or two before Christmas, our church takes blankets and jackets to the streets of Houston to give out to the homeless. I wasn't too sure about it the first year we did it, but it was an experience I will always cherish so my husband and I go every year. When the girls are a little older, I will be including them in it too.

One tradition with my family is that we don't ever eat a "traditional" Christmas meal. One year may be gumbo, the next may be fajitas, the next may be sandwiches and finger foods. We've usually all had more than enough turkey for Thanksgiving so we look forward to something different.

Since we usually have Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, the kiddos have enough presents for that night. We decorate cookies to leave for Santa and wake up extra early Christmas Day to see what Santa brought. We put on some carols and talk about the real meaning of Christmas before opening the rest of our presents.

One thing that I will always treasure and miss was dressing up in all black with my little brother. We would stay up all night until after our parents went to bed then sneak to see what Santa left. (We had to be incognito - we even put socks on our hands so we didn't make noises crawling down the tile hallway.) Then at 5:00am, we woke our parents up with coffee in bed. We would turn on Christmas music and open all our presents before going to show my grandmother what Santa brought. This was a tradition that continued up until I was married and out of the house.

Those are great traditions! I have a 3-yr-old too, so we haven't really been doing it very long, either.

One thing we'll start this year is reading a Christmas story on Christmas Eve. Naturally, The Night Before Christmas is the easiest to get your hands on, but there are lots of others. We have a book called Room for a Little one, which tells about the animals in the stable where Jesus was born. When I was little, we had a book called Flora McFlimsey's Christmas Eve - it's out of print but you can find it online (ex., Amazon, $18 and up) - it is a really sweet story.

Don't know what your religious preference is, but you could have an Advent in your home and light a new candle each week. Read scripture pertaining to Jesus' birth.

Baking! That is a great holiday tradition that I remember from my childhood. Wrap them up to give to others. Special recipes that you only pull out at christmastime.

You could do some volunteer work to remember those less fortunate during the holidays. Of course, with a 3yo you don't want to put them to work in a soup kitchen, lol! But you could go visit people in a nursing home or hospital - take some of the goodies that you baked or any other little "happy". And kids cheer everyone up. :)

Music! I try to buy at least 1 new Christmas CD each year (this year I want Sarah McLachlan's). As soon as Thanksgiving's over I turn on the holiday radio station on our satellite (low maintenance), or toss in a CD. Growing up, we had some music books with Christmas songs that we'd flip through and sing what we felt like.

Open 1 present on Christmas Eve.

One last thing, I have a Christmas memory book where you can fill in what happened each year and add a picture. You could start doing that and then as the years progress you could make a tradition of looking back at the pics in your book!

Wearing the same color pj every year. Having Dad play Santa and pass out the present on Christmas morning. Having only one kind of wrapping for present from Santa. Leaving at least one present unwrap with a gaint bow. Buying toys for the toy drive at the church. Singing happy birthday to Jesus and making him a cake. Making a wish list(cutting outs from magazines) and sending it to Santa at the north pole. Making cookies. Putting baby power one year to see Santa's "footprint" by an open window. The best one reading the 12 days of Christmas and other Christmas stories. Hope it gives you some ideas.

I guess I do have some traditions that I didn't even realize.

Leti

One of our traditions (and my favorite, I think) is that every year, we get a new ornament and put our name and the year on it. My mother always did this for us when we were growing up and now I have ornaments dating back to 1973! Sometimes we used the ornaments that we made (like in scouts or in school) but just some little thing that catches your eye that year...I started this with my son when he was born. Our tree is just full of wonderful, old ornaments every year and I just LOVE it! Also, the memories that come up while decorating the tree is wonderful! We start reminescing about what happened that particular Christmas or that year in general...it makes decorating the tree really special and a good family bonding experience. I have a box that I keep them all in and they are wrapped with tissue, etc. Just sharing this one tradition that is special to me!

I take my daughter to the store and let her pick out baby items, ex: blanket, toy, clothes, and take it to a local hospital birthing center. We ask the nurses to give it to the most needy family/mom in the unit. I am teaching my daughter about 'giving' (and not always recieving). One year our gift went to a baby whose mom and dad who were both deaf. I was touched.

Another thing we do is stocking stuffers within our family.

Another thing is at Thanksgiving. We all write on a piece of paper what we are thankful for and put it away to read the next year. So, each year we reflect on the year before.

Hi J.. We always allow one present to be opened after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. We always have EggNog (which is a tradition for many). What else? Really...that was our main tradition. I have a six year old son and he has started making is LIST AND OF course we write Santa a letter. Not much in terms of tradition..but I absolutely LOVE decorating the home...Take care.

S.

In our family, December 1st starts the Christmas decoration extravaganza!! hehe...So we decorate the tree with Christmas music playing (we try to play different types of Christmas music, other than the standard ones...last year we had a Celtic Christmas cd, which was neat) and drink eggnog and decorate the rest of the house, too. (our daughter will be 6 yrs old soon and she loves helping out with the decor!) On Christmas eve we bake cookies for Santa to leave out with a note (signed by our daughter) and some eggnog instead of milk sometimes. (santa always leave a thank-you response on her note for her.) we let her open something small on Christmas eve but basically I do all of the wrapping after she goes to sleep so it's a huge surprise when she wakes up. Also, every year we splurge on a special book that is from Santa, which he writes a personal note on the inside to her and leaves in her bed while she sleeps. She always wakes up to a great gift and feels special that Santa actually came into her room, etc. Last year we bought her the Polar Express book, which she loved! Christmas morning we get up, cook breakfast and open presents and wait for the grandparents to arrive with more presents!! We would have all immediate family over, but most of mine lives in oklahoma now, so we celebrate with them after the first of the year. that's about it!! happy holidays!!

I was raised in a religion that didn't observe Christmas so developing traditions was difficult for me! Here is what I have going with my kids.

1) I don't pretend about Santa, but I don't discourage it either. Both my boys worked Santa into their own Christmas beautifully without my encouragement. I didn't label presents as from Santa, but if they talked alot about Santa I would include simple presents they had never seen before (gloves scarves hats etc practical gifts) and did not wrap them. I just laid them under the tree. They created the Santa magic on their own and I think thats great!

Last year my youngest asked me about Santa and why Santa only left a few small simple presents for them not lots like on TV. I suggested to him that perhaps there were other families that couldn't afford to buy lots of their own presents and Santa gave more to them, but less to us because we didn't really need more. He thinks that makes lots of sense and he was very happy to think Santa made someone else's Christmas as good as his. I was so proud of him!

2) I make sure the kids think about the less fortunate at Christmas. I get them to clean out their old or unused toys just before Christmas and we donate them to various shelters. We also try to do some other good charity work or just discuss and remind each other how truely blessed we are and that not everyone is as fortunate.

3) I have been encouraging them to save allowance and plan and purchase small gifts for their dad and each other. This year they are getting older (9 and 11) so I encouraged them to buy gifts for one friend as well. This gives them money and planning skills but also encourages giving, not just recieving.

4) We go pick out the tree together and decorate it together a couple days later (after branches fall).

We have one black glass ball with a black ribbon. We put that ornament on the tree every year to remember loved ones or others that have died this past year. As we put it up I explain what it stands for and we list the people we miss. Last year I listed all the soldiers dying in Iraq when it was my turn and took the opportunity to discuss the sacrifice of a soldiers life and why I was so thankful and wanted to remember them on Christmas especially. Thier sacrifice in some ways leads to the sacrifice Jesus made for us so it tied in beautifully.

5) We eat Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We usually eat glazed ham, stuffing and mashed potatoes with fresh vegetables (maybe even salad or fruit salad) not all the casseroles and other things many people do. We eat so much prepared and processed foods all the time that this is a really special and different meal.

Having dinner on Christmas Eve is really relaxing for me cause I do all the cooking and stuff that day
and it keeps the kids focused not driving me nuts waiting for presents and events the next day. We discuss our year and everyone and everything that stands out that we did. Then we play a board game or something before bed.

6) Only presents the kids purchase or gifts we buy for extended family and friends go under the tree before Christmas morning. After the kids are asleep the adults go downstairs and listen to Christmas music drink some holiday spiked drinks *wink*, wrap last minute gifts, stuff stockings and put all the presents under the tree.

7) Each year for the last 4 or 5 years we make ornaments for our tree together. I buy wooden ornaments or other materials and we work on them together.

Examples: One year we decorated pine cones with gems, shiny gold thread, pearls, glitter etc and used them as ornaments (I have an old fashioned themed tree). Another year we bought the letters that make a train and we all painted them and made a train spelling the kids names for the mantle. Last year we made wooden ornaments, each of us painted one or more. A few years ago we made glass ornaments with stained glass paint. One year we discovered that everyone in the house for Christmas had a name starting with A or J and so we bought wooden letters and we all decorated our letter differently with paint, glitter, gems etc. Another year we wrapped ribbon around grapevine shaped tiny wreaths and hearts to use as ornaments.

Merry Christmas!

Hi, J., we always went to pick out the tree and decorated it together while some Christmas music is playing in the background. We left out cookies for Santa and my husband and I usually opened a special gift on Christmas eve after the children went to sleep. I usually cook Turkey and Dressing, green peas,buttered rolls, ambrosia with real whipped cream, chocolate, pumpkin and pecan pies. We always included our parents or tried to go see our parents and grandparents Christmas or Christmas eve. It is just not the same without the love of family and they are where you get your traditions. We read the Christmas story from the Bible to the children on Christmas eve. At Thanksgiving is a good time to ask what everyone hopes Santa may bring them and get sizes, etc. The most important thing is to enjoy each other and be thankful that you are all together and blessed. Oh, I make or buy a pretty wreath for the front door and and put out the nativety scene in the front window. We also watch the old Christmas classics on t.v.

One thing I have done with my kids is each year I make them an ornament special and I put it away for when they have their own tree. My daughter cried when I presented her with her ornaments. She had no idea that I had secretly done this over the years. Each one was painted with the year, and her age. I also tucked a picture from each year into the box so it was full of memories as well. When she got married and had her first tree she had 22 ornaments as a suprise each one made by mom. If you are not crafty, it is easy to buy something, take a paint marker or sharpie and write the year on it. I also write a letter to my kids and grandkids on their birthdays. I decided to give them to my daughter when she was 20. I put them into a book like a photo album along with pictures and once she was in school I put a few things she did in school in as well. Each letter talked about what she had been through that year. Some were better years than others and though I tried hard to be really positive when you kid is a teenager and act like they are in charge of the world then that is somehow reflected in letters....lol. Many happy memories though.
I got sidetracked off Christmas though. We chose a family through our church and we do a "comando christmas". We do the meal, the presents, whatever we know their needs are that we can meet. Then we work with someone through the church and find a way to get them to them without them knowing who did it. I don't do it for the glory, I do it so the kids will know that God provided for them even if it was through me. It does my heart good to see a little girl prance around in her new christmas shoes at church and tell everyone that God had them delivered for her especially. My 9 year old has loved doing this every year. Sometimes we do a doorbell drop and run (my son's personal favorite) and sometimes we get others to drop things off. Even during the summer my son will see something and say "Mom, can we get this for our comando christmas?" If I remind him we haven't picked out our family yet he reminds me that not one year has anything we bought trusting Him to show us the right family has anything been left ungiven. Everything has found a recipient that perfectly matched a gift, even ones bought during the summer. A couple of months ago I bought a set of pans and decided I really did not need them. I put them in the closet with the intention of taking them back to get my money back. We picked out our family last week and one of the things they need is some pans to cook in. This family of 4 has 1 small skillet and two sauce pans. I won't be getting my money back on that deal, however I will be getting the warmth of knowing that I didn't pass up that sweet deal on a set of pans and though I originally bought them for myself in August and have not been back to that side of town to get my money back, I realized they were for this family! How awesome was that?

Find something that you enjoy doing with your daughter and make it a tradition.
Enjoy your holiday!
C.

We always got to pick out our own ornament every year (mom would write the names and years on them) and decorate the tree together. When each one of us moved out, we already had enough ornaments for our own tree.
Now that I am grown and my kids are little, none of the presents for the kids show up until after they go to bed on Christmas Eve, and we leave one unwrapped and set up with a bow on it.

we always made cinnamon rolls and left them unbaked in the fridge to have first thing christmas morning. oh and my husband's family used to leave hay and carrots out for the reindeer.

You have a pretty good start! Putting up the tree, looking at lights, and baking cookies all sound good. I always buy a new ornament each year for my kids, we go make Christmas ornaments at our church (which is also her preschool), we sing Christmas songs while putting up the tree, and also about once a week before bed, of course they have their picture taken with Santa, and we also bake cookies and look at lights. On Christmas Eve when I was a kid, we were always allowed to open ONE small gift each, we went to NAM or the Salvation Army, etc and either donated toys or our time to hand out gifts to the less fortunate. One of my best memories was watching the Christmas cartoon classics as a family such as Rudolph, Yogi bears Christmas, the Grinch, etc. I'm starting this with my kids too.

Making ornaments is really fun. Do a google search for homemade ornaments and lots will come up. Here's one: http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfea...