Our Christmas Traditions

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I have been seeing a lot of and discussion on my message boards and things on pinterest recently about starting family traditions for the holidays (whichever ones your family celebrates) and with Christmas being my FAVORITE time of year, I have decided to blog about what our family traditions are. Some have carried on from our families of origin and some Ian and I have started together, or plan to start this year. I know this is early but 1) I start listening to Christmas music in October and 2) we always try to complete most of our Christmas "errands" before Thanksgiving/December so we can really enjoy the Advent season. That is the main reason, but it's also financial - if we buy a gift or two a month starting in April, our bank account takes less of a hit.

Current/Ongoing Family Traditions:

  • Black Friday - On the day after Thanksgiving, my little sister comes over. We decorate the tree, the house, watch Christmas movies, do Christmas crafts and eat leftovers from Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite days of the year now! We started this the year we got married. I hope Rebecca always wants to do it because we really enjoy having her.


  • Ornament Exchange - Ian and I buy one ornament together for our tree, and then we each buy the other a personal ornament every year and we exchange after Rebecca leaves on Black Friday. Now the ornament we buy together is one for Clara, and when we have more children we will buy them each one. When they leave the house, they can (sniff sniff) take these ornaments with them. This exchange has kind of turned into a comical event, because who knew it would be so hard to buy your wife a personalized ornament? The first year I bought Ian a "tool man" that said Ian on it. I was expecting something personal that said something about my interests and he bought me a snowman ornament. Ummm, thanks? LOL. Since our nickname is the S'more family, the following year I bought him a S'more ornament and in a store full of thousands of ornaments, somehow Ian also bought me a S'more ornament! Very sweet and thoughtful! WIN! So then the next year I bought him a guitar...and I got another S'more ornament. "It was such a win last year, I thought you'd want another?" I must have blocked out the fourth year because I can't remember WHAT we got each other! ;) This year I already know he has bought me two ornaments to "double his chances" of me liking one. Poor guy - but we are making memories! ;)



  • Christmas Eve - We have my family over for heavy appetizers every Christmas Eve, and since our family is growing now the guests are too. It's one of my favorite things to do. I make a ton of food and we just eat and sit in front of the tree.

  • Exchanging one gift - We each open one gift on Christmas Eve. This started with my family, and most of the time it was an item my parents had picked out for us for Christmas Eve especially - new pajamas, jewelry or new shoes to wear to church that night.
  • Christmas Eve Service - Pre-children, we always went to the late (11:00 p.m.) service, but now we are attending the Children's Service at 5:00 p.m. My absolute favorite thing about Christmas is singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. Incredible. Now that we are going to the earlier service, I hope Ian and I can enjoy watching a Christmas movie, drinking some hot chocolate (or hot buttered rum;)) and sitting by the tree after Clara goes to bed.
  • Christmas Cookies/Treats - Throughout December growing up, we'd decorate and bake sugar cookies. I am excited for the day that Clara is old enough to join in on this activity.
  • Christmas Day - We go over to my parent's on Christmas morning, still. Eventually we are going to have to re-think our Christmas day traditions because I want our children to be able to enjoy the day and their gifts, without us rushing all over the state. BUT, for now, going to my parent's in the morning is one of our favorite things to do on Christmas and I can't imagine it any other way. Despite Rebecca's preference to wake up at dawn, we have been able to slowly push back the time and this year we are pushing for 10:00 a.m. (!!!) We line up on the stairs for a picture, since my parents get one every year and then act shocked at the amount of gifts for another picture when we walk in. We open gifts all morning, but the best part of the day is my dad's famous Christmas bread. It's like one giant cinnamon roll. It would not be Christmas without Christmas bread. 




New Traditions:
  • Advent Calendar Activities - Instead of the typical chocolate candy Advent calendar, this year we are going to do a different random act of kindness every day of Advent. I hope to continue this with our children every year. I have thought of a few, but a lot of them involve money (paying for someone's coffee in the line behind me, for instance) and since we can't afford to do that every day of Advent, I am trying to come up with other ideas for non-monetary random acts of kindness. We have a few great ones but I am open to suggestions!
  • Pajamas - Instead of getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve as many children do, we'd like to start by giving Clara a pair of new pajamas on Thanksgiving night so she can wear them all season long.
  • Gifts - We are REALLY trying to keep it to a few gifts for Christmas. This is our plan:
    • One Santa gift - A  large Raggedy Ann Doll from Zulily for $19.99
    • Something You Want - A drawing toy from Zulily for $9.99
    • Something You Need - Plastic dish set from Amazon for $14.99
    • Something You'll Wear - A personalized Minnie Mouse apron from Etsy for $16.99
    • Something You'll Read - TBD
    • Stocking - Socks ($25 for a pack of 12 Trumpette socks from Amazon) and snacks
  • The Christmas Story - Before bed we will read to her The Christmas Story from her Children's Bible on Christmas Eve.
Well, you can't say you weren't warned - I LOVE Christmas. I am open to more Advent traditions and would love to hear your own family traditions as well! Some of my favorite childhood memories are from the traditions my parents started and I hope to be able to do the same with my own children.


Comments

  1. LisaNovember 14, 2012 at 11:50 AM

    Everything sounds so fun! Makes me a little more excited for the holidays this year too :) Love the idea of the new pajamas on Thanksgiving to get more use out of them!

    ReplyDelete

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