Christmas Traditions - Dracut,MA

I have two boys and on christmas eve night, we read the christmas story and i let them open i present each

we always got pj's on christmas eve. I do this with my kids now.. they know it's coming, they get to open something on christmas eve and they love it. we spent the evening with family so they get to change into their pj's there and go home all ready in their new jammies for bed.

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we always got pj's on christmas eve. I do this with my kids now.. they know it's coming, they get to open something on christmas eve and they love it. we spent the evening with family so they get to change into their pj's there and go home all ready in their new jammies for bed.

We go to the movies on Christmas day while the turkey is roasting.

We've done this almost 25 yrs. Daughter is almost 16 and loves it.

My sister-in-law heard of some tradition where you hang a pickle ornament on the tree - it's dark green and blends in. Not sure where she found it. Anyway, the person who finds the pickle gets to open the first present.

Get them involved in baking cookies - it teaches math and is hands-on, and it gets boys in the kitchen. Get a cookie press with different disks for making different shaped cookies. The little guy can help put the sprinkles on the cookies even if he can't operate the press.

If you're really ambitious, you could make a gingerbread house. They aren't easy but there are kits available now. Kids can help decorate once the thing is assembled. The older boy can probably help with assembly.

You can buy plain aprons at the craft store and then decorate them with fabric paints and fabric markers. These could be used year-round, but you could also have a set you put away in the Christmas box, and out them come every year.

Make or buy an ornament each year for each child. Have them help make them. I did this with my stepdaughters. Then, when they were old enough to have their own homes and trees, I gave them each a set of ornaments that we had made together or that I had bought for them.

Take pictures and make a scrapbook of holiday preparations and celebrations.

On December 1st, we put up an Advent Calendar http://www.amazon.com/Adler-24-Inch-Peanuts-Advent-Calend... and the kids take turns taking a treat, the youngest goes first. On December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, we hang our stockings with care in the hopes that St. Nick soon will be there, and put our shoes in front of the fireplace http://holidays.kaboose.com/christmas/traditions/st-nicho.... We also make an event of getting our tree, the best we have locally is the Christmas Tree Adventure where we ride a train to a town that has a tree farm, they even pack up the trees and put them on the train! We spend the day in town, really fun. Or find a farm where you get to cut your own, some have fireplaces, hot chocolate. On the night before Christmas, lol, we put out cookies and milk for Santa and reindeer food (1/2 cup of oatmeal and a 1/2 a cup of sugar in a ziplock, some recipes call for glitter but my kids would ask "can reindeer eat glitter?"). We also read a Christmas story each night.

I let my girls pick out an ornament every year to put on the christmas tree. Any one they want. They look forward to this every year, we also do edible christmas scene. Last year it was an igloo and penguin, the year before that was a christmas tree farm. We used sugar cones and iced them and used nerds, red hots, skittles any kind of candy for the decorations. We used coconut for the snow...I can go on and on...I think I look forward to it each year. We havent done a ginger bread house so thats probably what we will do this year.

Good Luck!!

We bake cookies - (don't have to be fancy) and walk around the neighborhood to homes that we know are where older people live. We knock on the door and deliver the cookies. Lots of them are widows or widowers and really appreciate the visit. Be prepared that you may have to visit for a few minutes as some are really lonely.

If you don't belong to a church or house of worship go check a few out. Our church has a few traidtions - one is the sunday school pageant of the little kids from age 2 - 10. It's precious and we still enjoy seeing it even though our kids are teens now. They also do a drama production - the story line usually includes a modern family and resoration of family ties & the real meaning of Christmas - and finally there's a Christmas eve service that involves lighting candles and signing Christmas caroles that is just awesome in a quiet lovely way. My kids always look forward to that.

WE decorate the house together on Thanksgiving weekend - we unpack the bins & memories from previous years. Handmade stuff from preschool and forward. Even though their decorating ability isn't great they really enjoy it.

Bake cranberry breads or brownies with broken candy canes baked on top as gifts - let the kids bake, package and give as gifts.

Use photos to make Christmas tree ornaments to give to family - glue, contruction paper, dry pasta, glitter and yarn (be prepared for the mess this can't be done neatly).

The Christmas Eve Book

I am starting this tradition this year with my two boys. It is a wonderful ideas of opening one present on Christmas Eve and having that be a new Holiday book. Check out the full article of this tradition below:

http://www.ittakesavillagedallas.com/It_takes_a_village/B...

VillageMom
www.ittakesavillagedallas.com

We also do an advent calendar. We make lots of candy around the holiday season. Have a special dinner on Christmas eve and let the kids open one gift. They also get new pj's on Christmas eve. I was given a book with christmas stories that we read one a night for the month of December.

We started a couple years back collecting a christmas ornament from our family vacations that we have during the year. Almost every gift shops has them. So when we hang our ornaments on the tree it brings back fun memories.

Another ornament thing we've done is make cinnamon ornaments. We make these new every year so the house smells so good with cinnamon. The smell lasts all month. http://www.mevsthehouse.com/how-to-make-cinnamon-applesau...

My mother comes up and makes cookies with my kids and lets them have fun decorating them. we then take them to neighbors.

Have fun making memories.

We put our platform & trains up the day after Thanksgiving.
We also do the "reindeer glitter food" on Christmas Eve.
Also, putting out cookies, milk & carrots for Santa & Rudolph.
I'd like to start cutting down our own tree.
Love the suggestion about taking cookies to the elderly neighbors on C. Eve or even doing a nursing home visit.
Sometimes we open O. present on Christmas Eve.
Also, we visit my mom's on that night and sometimes go to church.

Here's a cute, easy to make Hershey Kiss advent calendar. My son got O. in Kindergarten and I might make them for his class this year:
http://singleparents.about.com/od/holidays/tp/advent_cale...

Every year we made frosted Christmas cookies. Your 9 year old could even help to roll the dough, if you choose to make them from stratch, but if not, make the frosting from scratch (if you've not done it, the recipe is on the back of the powdered sugar bag) and make lots of colors, and use sprinkles too. We always had fun 'designing' our own snowman or gingerbread boy (I have 4 brothers and 1 sister and the 6 of us all remember doing it and having a blast). We'd even make/decorate a special cookie for Grandma and Grandpa, etc. that was fun to share. It is definitely something to look forward to! Have fun!!

Every year we do a cookie decorating party where our kids invite friends over. I bake the sugar cookies (and cut out into festive shapes) and their friends bring frosting or sprinkles. It's messy but they have so much fun! Each kid goes home with a plate of cookies they've decorated.

We always have a day of holiday decorating after thanksgiving...we turn on holiday musice, get the tree and all decor from the attic, bake cookies, have hot chocolate and start watching christmas movies.
You may have the kids to make/decorate their own ornaments for the tree. Always take lots of pictures! Happy Holidays!

My mom always read "The Night Before Christmas" as the last thing before we went to bed. In the morning, she always had cinnamon buns that we ate early before any kind of real breakfast since we were so excited to open presents. I have used pillsbury grands, something nice about hot cinnamon and coffee wafting through the house, makes getting up on xmas easier.

This is too late to start for you now, but Santa always decorated the tree. We would go to bed with a bare tree and would wake up and have it fully decorated with presents. It made it much more magical, and you'd actually spend time looking at the tree, wondering where Santa put your favorite ornament.

Good luck!