What are your family holiday traditions??
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Please share your family holiday traditions...I'd love to hear them!
Tags: family, holidays, traditions
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on -
For my family, during Thanksgiving I spend them with my boys on Molokai. We have a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, cranberries, salad, pumpkin pie and baked ham with all the trimming. My daughter usually flies in or we take turns spending holidays with their father. During Christmas my family join me here on Maui at my place. We have a Christmas tree which I usually decorate. We hang stockings from the start of December, and throughout the weeks we put little gifts inside. On Christmas eve we stay up until 11pm and open one gift. Than off to bed. Each year though the gifts have lessen...hehehe!!but the fun & laughter live on! New year's eve we have a nice dinner together. Spend all night doing fun things, talk story, laughing and having some nice champagne. The children plays fireworks and we watch all the aerial fireworks from our home. These are a few of my family traditions:)
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Permalink Reply by Ashley on -
We have Thanksgiving at my parents house every year. My uncle always brings a movie so all 30 of us grab a pillow and collapse in the den floor to watch it. We watch football all throughout the day though.
Christmas Eve is the BIG event for us. We have a huge Mexican meal but we're German. Weird right? My great grandma started it a long time ago, and it's held on this long. That's the night we are all together so we open presents. It's probably my favorite night of the year!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on -
Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday. I like Thanksgiving, I like going shopping better. All day on Thanksgiving I plan my shopping day. Thank goodness my husbands family cooks so good. Ha Ha! Christmas is just magical to me. love to decorate, make cookies, and my most favorite is seeing how everyone likes the gifts we give them. I try really hard to listen to what people really want.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on -
When my husband and I got married, we decided that no matter what, we'd spend Thanksgiving at home. We have an open door policy for any family member who wants to show up. When the kids came along, we began putting up our Christmas tree after dessert on Thanksgiving.
"Christmas Eve Eve" (the 23rd for those of you that I confused) is when we start our family Christmas celebration. My 5 brothers and sisters and I, and all of our familes go to Seattle and ride the Holiday Carousel, finish up our shopping, and drink copious amounts of Starbucks hot chocolate. Then on Christmas Eve, we get together in the evening at my sister's house eat, and open presents, and wait for Santa (one of my brothers) to get on the roof and talk to the little kids down the chimney. That's always magical. I have a cuuuuute movie of it from last year that I'm willing to share :) Christmas day is spent at home! We have a good breakfast, say a few prayers, then we dig into the pile under the tree. And then we spend the rest of the day watching A Christmas Story..lol.
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Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on
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Sounds so much FUN Ashley! Thank you for sharing your family traditions:)
Ashley said:We have Thanksgiving at my parents house every year. My uncle always brings a movie so all 30 of us grab a pillow and collapse in the den floor to watch it. We watch football all throughout the day though.
Christmas Eve is the BIG event for us. We have a huge Mexican meal but we're German. Weird right? My great grandma started it a long time ago, and it's held on this long. That's the night we are all together so we open presents. It's probably my favorite night of the year!
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Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on
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I like the open door policy tradition...similar to the Hawaiian culture. Our doors remain open throughout the year...hehehehe! Thank you for sharing Julie!
Julie said:When my husband and I got married, we decided that no matter what, we'd spend Thanksgiving at home. We have an open door policy for any family member who wants to show up. When the kids came along, we began putting up our Christmas tree after dessert on Thanksgiving.
"Christmas Eve Eve" (the 23rd for those of you that I confused) is when we start our family Christmas celebration. My 5 brothers and sisters and I, and all of our familes go to Seattle and ride the Holiday Carousel, finish up our shopping, and drink copious amounts of Starbucks hot chocolate. Then on Christmas Eve, we get together in the evening at my sister's house eat, and open presents, and wait for Santa (one of my brothers) to get on the roof and talk to the little kids down the chimney. That's always magical. I have a cuuuuute movie of it from last year that I'm willing to share :) Christmas day is spent at home! We have a good breakfast, say a few prayers, then we dig into the pile under the tree. And then we spend the rest of the day watching A Christmas Story..lol.
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Permalink Reply by Cindy O'Farrell on
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Christmas is my favorite time of the year as well Beth! The best part is watching the children open their gifts and see their face light up when they get what they requested from Santa.
Every year I ask my children to write a short letter to Santa and name at least 3 things they really really like and that is how I shop for them. I start shopping for their gifts at the end of October since I do mostly all my shopping online. This year...may be a little tough, but we'll celebrate to the fullest!!!
Thank you Beth for sharing your family tradition:)
Beth said:Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday. I like Thanksgiving, I like going shopping better. All day on Thanksgiving I plan my shopping day. Thank goodness my husbands family cooks so good. Ha Ha! Christmas is just magical to me. love to decorate, make cookies, and my most favorite is seeing how everyone likes the gifts we give them. I try really hard to listen to what people really want.
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Permalink Reply by Louise on -
Last year was our first year with Zoe now we have Miles too. So we read the story about Christmas and then we open one present. When we get up, we turn on the video camera and take the babies opening their stockings. Then we have breakfast and open presents. Last year it took five hours. Not because we had that much to open, but because we let Zoe open everything and we had to take a break or two for naps. It was just the three of us so it was a lot of fun.
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Permalink Reply by Megan Calhoun on -
We cut the cord last year and decided to make the holidays our own affair. Here's what we've started as far as family traditions. Prepare to be nauseous:
1) The day after Thanksgiving, we head to the Frosty Mountain Tree Farm in Sonoma County. We enjoy the festivities (hayrides, petting zoo, pony rides) and chop down a tree. Hubby lashes tree to roof.
2) We go for a snack at the Twin Hill Apple Ranch. Insane apple pies and great area for the kids to play around in.
3) Hit the road for a little trip down to Occidental, CA. It's a cool, bohemian logging town that does very little logging. We get dinner at an impossibly old Italian supper club that makes guests eat at communal tables. Sounds aweful, I know, but it's awesome. Complete mayhem, but it's warm and inviting and smiles abound.
4) Back to Marin County -- kids snooze all the way home. Video of this part is available here:
5) We bring out the Elf on the Shelf. If you have kids under five, do the Christmas thing, and don't know what this is -- you need to lean in on this one. It's the GREATEST CONTROL MECHANISM KNOWN TO MAN when it comes to toddlers.
Time passes, and it's the weekend before Christmas. Where do we take the kids? You guessed it: straight to Novato, CA to visit some of the most over the top lighting excesses ever witnessed in suburbia. Don't believe me? Stay tuned for the video below.
Christmas eve, we head into the city to grab an early dinner in a very old but very good restaurant in Chinatown. Nothing fancy. Bellies filled, we head to our little church in the city -- which was built in 1884 and is a registered national historic landmark (it's an early example of the arts & crafts movement). The fireplace roars during the small service. I told you it's nauseating!!
Back at the house -- it's time for notes and beer for Santa. Kids off to bed. Typical morning mayhem followed by a late-afternoon feast with other transplanted midwesterners. I can't wait!! Last year's video is here, complete with a Jackson 5 soundtrack:
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Permalink Reply by Barbara Forbes-Lyons on -
We started a new tradition last night (Kol Nidre, the night when Yom Kippur starts). We went around the table and everyone apologized for any hurt caused in the last year and we said one thing that we are going to improve over the next year.
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth on -
I've had the same tradtions for as long as I can remember though things have changed a little since getting married.
We have our big family get together on Thanksgiving. We switch homes so no one has to host every year, though since my aunt opened a restaurant we now do it there. My mom is one of 6 kids so between all of my aunt/uncles and cousins, and now spouses and their kids we end up with 30-45 people. Everyone brings something so no one has to do the cooking. Its great.This is also when we do our gift exchange so we don't have to buy for a zillion people! The adults draw names seperately from the kids. It works out great.
On Christmas Eve we always have seafood. We always Mussell Stew and Scallop Chowder. Being here in Maine the seafood is always fresh and easy to get. After drive around surrounding towns to look at all the lights. Everyone has their lights on, on Christmas Eve. When we get home we open one gift. Christmas morning we get up and open our stocking and then have breakfast. This keeps the anticipation going a little bit longer. We have crabmeat quiche and sticky buns for breakfast every year. Though I'm the only one who has it now so I just make a small one. Then we sit and someone gets to play Santa and hand everyone a gift. We open our gifts one at a time so we can all enjoy the joy of each person as they open their present. It's really a lovely day.
The only other thing we really do is have all of our thank you notes done before New Year's eve. Then New Year's Eve we play games and stay up to watch the ball drop. We usually have sparkling cider in champagne glasses and a really yummy chocolate dessert. The kids think its great to have sweets that night.
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Permalink Reply by Bad Cat on -
What a nice discussion. We move all over the place since we're military. We have an open door policy year round at our house. For thanksgiving, it depends on how close we are geographically to our family. The same for Christmas, but people usually travel to see us. I make fondue Christmas Eve and then we open presents the next day, eat Xmas dinner, nap, etc.
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