I sing this with my best Russian accent. I thought I would take talk off of weight and find out about everyone’s traditions. What is a tradition that you may have this time of year? Now that we’ve moved here Jeff and I don’t have any traditions…well we never really had any I guess aside from going to one Grandmother’s house the Sat. before Christmas. I guess I’m more wondering about traditions that don’t mean involve going to Mom’s house on Christmas and eating until your hearts content. 
Since the kids are now 11 months and 22 months we are going to start the tradition of not bringing the gifts out until they go to bed on Christmas Eve. Believe me when I tell you I was a pro at opening the wrapping to sneak and see what I was getting and then concealing it again. I want my children to be in suspense.
So, in the words or our dearest Blest, “What say ye?”
Let’s see here…
We do Operation Christmas Child every year - each kid prepares a box and we do one in memory of my oldest, Bryan too.
We pile into the van in our PJs with blankets and drive around to look at Christmas lights (this was neater when we had a vehicle where all the windows rolled down).
The day after Thanksgiving is typically our “deck the halls” day where we spend the entire day decorating the house…inside and out. Of course, our decorations are currently in storage, so this year has felt really weird.
We technically don’t “do” Santa but the kids do set out cookies on Christmas Eve and Erik and I eat them while we get ready for Christmas Morning. They know there is no Santa but we “pretend” there is - they call it a game.
On Christmas Eve the kids open one gift (always pjs & slippers). They wear the pjs to bed that night.
Prior to Christmas all but one of their gifts is already under the tree. The one gift that we put out after they are in bed Christmas Eve is the “big one” and it is unwrapped (and out of the box, put together) with their now filled stocking lying next to it.
We read the Christmas Story from the Bible each year. Then the kids take turns passing out the gifts each year and then we open them in order from youngest to oldest until they are all gone.
For breakfast my husband makes his super french toast (or pancakes). Then we play with the new toys the rest of the day.
Comment by Blair — December 12, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Oh yes, our Christmas card tradition includes a family photo and a drawing on the front done by one of the kids (this year my 4 year old drew an angel). I typically write a poem for the card also (following the art theme).
Comment by Blair — December 12, 2006 @ 8:21 am
Like Blair we also deck the halls the day after Thanksgiving. We put an artificial tree up in the dining room that the kid’s decorate (paper chains, strung popcorn, ribbons, etc.) and then we get a live tree for our living room. For the past couple of years our tree is all red and white (like a giant candy cane). One of our big traditions is baking. Last year I made English Toffee, cashew brittle, peanut brittle, about 6 flavors of hard tack candy, sugar cookies, kolachi (a hungarian nut roll), kolaches (jam filled shortbread cookies), and whatever other cookies my hubby requests. I give away alot of it to my family and friends. I have not started cooking yet this year and am starting to get a bit nervous.
We used to go to my grandma’s house every year for x-mas eve but not any more. Her husband refuses to allow any more parties to be held out of his house b/c he doesn’t like the children touching his things. I’m sorta glad b/c we were miserable over there chasing the toddlers half afraid they would break something. We will be celebrating at my mom’s house this year. We will all open our gifts to one another (a new thing as well) because now that I have 4 and my sister has 3 it is just too hard for us to take our families over to my mom’s house on Christmas day. So now my parent’s will go to my sister’s house X-mas morning and my house X-mas evening. My husband’s dad will come over in the morning and watch the boys open their gifts.
I almost forgot! One of our favorite traditions is watching Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation while we put up the tree. We also watch it about 100 other times during the Christmas season….plus the umpteen other Christmas movies we have. My husband LOVES Christmas movies (especially the ones from his childhood - Emmett and Otter’s Jugband Christmas, The Year Without a Santa Claus, It’s a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Grinch, Frosty, etc.) So we watch these throughout December.
We used to do the Santa thing but told the kids last year what the deal was. We have decided not to continue Santa with our 2 youngest as we are trying to keep the focus on Christ more.
I guess like most families we will continue some traditions and usher in some new ones this year.
Comment by Mandi — December 12, 2006 @ 8:54 am
We (Jonathan and I) LOVE Emmit Otter’s Jug Band Christmas!!! That was my favorite as a child. I didn’t think many people knew what it was. How exciting!! I recieved the dvd of it a couple years ago. I had had such a hard time finding it.
Comment by Tami — December 12, 2006 @ 9:50 am
One of my favorite Christmas traditions were the gingerbread houses that my dad and I would always make on Thanksgiving day — they were one of my favorite Christmas decorations. We would use graham crackers and a recipe for icing that becomes practically as hard as concrete when it dries.(Thus eliminating the desire to ever eat the gingerbread house). We’d color the icing with food coloring and then use a variety of candy/cereal/pretzels to decorate the houses. We have a whole series of pictures of our gingerbread houses over a period of years which are fantastic! One day when I have kids, we’ll definitely make these!
Comment by anne — December 12, 2006 @ 10:05 am
See Tami how I totally butchered the spelling of that movie??!! My husband is 7 years older than me and I had never heard of it until we got married. He just got it on DVD this year (at Walmart) and he was SOOOO excited!
Comment by Mandi — December 12, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
LOL - Mandi - we have Christmas Vacation and watch it every year too. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is another we watch…as well as “A Christmas Story”…etc…etc…we love Christmas movies too
Comment by Blair — December 12, 2006 @ 8:55 pm
well, my comments won’t go through. I’ve tried twice to say something here, but it didn’t appear. hmmm.
and I tried to login and it didn’t work there either. asked it to send me my password, in case I had the wrong one, and nope. I give up!
Comment by Tracy — December 12, 2006 @ 9:06 pm
okay…. so now it appears? LOL
Comment by Tracy — December 12, 2006 @ 9:07 pm