What are your family holiday traditions??

Please share your family holiday traditions...I'd love to hear them!

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 10, 2008 at 11:54am: Wow...traveling during the holidays eh? Its beautiful to celebrate all your yearly blessings. Thank you for sharing Anya!
Anya Clowers, RN said:
We travel every year in Europe over Thanksgiving. We celebrate that the year was a good one - and we are blessed with the gift of travel!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Miranda on October 10, 2008 at 1:45pm: We always made Christmas cookies 1-2 days before christmas and opened our stockings on Christmas Eve. My mother did that so that it would help ease the nagging about opening presents. It kept us occupied.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 10, 2008 at 5:36pm: Yummy...Christmas cookies sounds delicious:) Thank you for sharing Miranda!

Miranda said:
We always made Christmas cookies 1-2 days before christmas and opened our stockings on Christmas Eve. My mother did that so that it would help ease the nagging about opening presents. It kept us occupied.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 10, 2008 at 5:38pm: Christmas fries...what a brilliant idea! I love McDonald's french fries too:) Thank you for sharing Jennifer!
Jennifer DeFronzo said:
It's crazy, but our tradition started when my husband and I were dating, and sans kids. One night, a week or so before Christmas, we would pop a holiday CD in the car, get a couple of medium fries at McDonald's and drive around looking at the Christmas lights. I tried popcorn one year when I was on a health kick, but it wasn't the same. So - for us, Christmas fries! (And the kids love it.) We have other more "normal" traditions (homemade stuffed mushrooms for Thanksgiving, special Christmas ornaments for the kids that they'll get to keep when they have thier own place), but this one is my favorite.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Colleen Felz on October 11, 2008 at 11:11am: We make Christmas cookie ornaments. The kids love the baking, and we avoid all of the extra calories! This year I think the kids will give some of these cookies as gifts to friends and family.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 11, 2008 at 12:15pm: Good idea Colleen! Thank you for sharing:)
Colleen Felz said:
We make Christmas cookie ornaments. The kids love the baking, and we avoid all of the extra calories! This year I think the kids will give some of these cookies as gifts to friends and family.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 11, 2008 at 12:17pm: Its all about the delicious meals!!! Thank you sharing Cystal!

Crystal Unrau said:
Two years ago we started our own family tradition of a waffle breakfast Christmas morning before the kids open gifts. I love it! We get some family time before the presents take over, and everyone pitches in so they can get to the presents sooner lol.

On my side of the family, we always had a traditional British cheese & crackers feast on Christmas eve, and Dave's family gets together for a unique supper (steak, mexican, fondue etc - something new every year) and a sleigh ride every year.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Heather Tallman on October 11, 2008 at 12:30pm: Oooh! We have tons. My favorite is that all of the kids (4 of them 12-5 yrs old) get brand new Christmas-y pj's on Christmas Eve night. After a great dinner, we go over to the living room and they open them up. Of course, they've already been through the washer/dryer so they smell yummy. This was a tradition when I was a little one, so I love carrying it on. In fact, when my little brother (he's 30 and I'm 40) and his wife spend the holiday with us (which is almost every year!) I get them new pj's, too! (oh yeah... my hub and I also get them!)

We live in Vermont & grew up in Massachusetts, so Thanksgiving is all about a "true" Yankee day. We cook way too much, my hub's family descends from all over New England and we play/watch football, eat for hours, go for a walk and come back in for dessert. My MIL is a FABULOUS pie~maker!!!! She's been known to bring up to 10 different kinds of pie for 22 people!! (I LOVE that!!)

Hope everyone has blessed & beautiful holidays!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on October 11, 2008 at 4:12pm: Awesome tradition Heather! Thank you for sharing:)

Heather said:
Oooh! We have tons. My favorite is that all of the kids (4 of them 12-5 yrs old) get brand new Christmas-y pj's on Christmas Eve night. After a great dinner, we go over to the living room and they open them up. Of course, they've already been through the washer/dryer so they smell yummy. This was a tradition when I was a little one, so I love carrying it on. In fact, when my little brother (he's 30 and I'm 40) and his wife spend the holiday with us (which is almost every year!) I get them new pj's, too! (oh yeah... my hub and I also get them!)

We live in Vermont & grew up in Massachusetts, so Thanksgiving is all about a "true" Yankee day. We cook way too much, my hub's family descends from all over New England and we play/watch football, eat for hours, go for a walk and come back in for dessert. My MIL is a FABULOUS pie~maker!!!! She's been known to bring up to 10 different kinds of pie for 22 people!! (I LOVE that!!)

Hope everyone has blessed & beautiful holidays!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kerry Beck on October 11, 2008 at 6:18pm: We have so many family traditions. I'll share a few.

A few years ago, we kept a list of all the things we were thankful for...on the refrigerator. It was a great way for all the family to be reminded of what we are thankful for.

At Christmas we always make "gingerbread houses" with graham crackers glued with icing to milk cartons. We go to the candy bar at the local grocery store and come home with 20-30 bowls of candy to use.

We also spend Christmas Eve going to our church service and then come home for a full table of food to sit & enjoy together.

Kerry
Advent Calendar; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on October 11, 2008 at 6:40pm: okay
Christmas Eve a feast of
herring salad, various German delicacies a huge spread,duck,eel,etc.
Twinkling candles with mobiles...champagne. huge real tree-carrols but a marathon of the Trilogy.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tammy Munson on October 11, 2008 at 9:39pm: We are a military family so we are hardly ever at our home or with the same side of the family each year. The one thing that is our tradition no matter where we are is to make a big batch of brownies, and hot cocoa and watch the Polar Express every Christmas eve.; ▶ Reply to This

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