christmas traditions

Christmas Present: Family Traditions

christmas traditions

Family Christmas traditions sent in by site visitors from 1999-2003.

Judy from Virginia
October 27, 2003
We always made applesauce or fresh coconut cake, gingerbread cookies, eggnog, jet candy and used ribbon from packages to make a paper chain (just circles intertwined) to add to the tree. Each year the chain gets longer and everyone remembers their special ribbons from the years before.

Momof5 from SC.
September 30, 2003
Sometimes we wrap small 1.00 gifts for each child and have the 12 days of Christmas. (Using different colored ribbons for each different person) Letting them open one each, each passing day until the Big Day. On Christmas Eve we usually have A Jesus Birthday Party by candlelight. We pray for friends and relatives and those we don’t know. We sing Christmas songs and church songs. We thank God for our blessings and remember his love for us .We enjoy Cake and Ice Cream and the fellowship with each other. Sometimes we then have Christmas after that usually at midnight and sleep in on Christmas day then get up to a feast of Ham/Turkey and all the trimmings.

Jessica from Massachusetts
November 21, 2002
Every year when we were little we would go to my Grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve and plant candy canes. When we got to her house all the kids were given a round starlight mint (looks like a round candy cane). She then took us outside, and we “planted” our mints in the snow or earth, and she gave us each a little handful of her special “magic Christmas snow” given to her directly from Santa (it was actually just clear or silver glitter). We then sprinkled it on the “seeds” and waited to the next morning. When we woke, we would go outside to find that our candy cane “seeds” had grown into full size candy canes overnight! (She would exchange them when we were sleeping) Mind you she always reminded us that this could only happen on Christmas Eve, and you had to have the special “magic snow” for it to work. And though my Grandmother is no longer with us, I still think of her as being magical!

KYMM from Texas
October 15, 2002
Every year, my family would go out on the day after Thanksgiving and hunt down the perfect Christmas tree. It was always fun trying to find that one special tree. One year we had an added bonus of a white Christmas tree hunt. I will always remember my mom kissing the stump after dad cut the tree down. Then we would go in for hot chocolate or coffee to warm us up. I have tried to keep this tradition up with my kids, but with these days of artificial everything, it’s hard to get kids into anything REAL!

Taryn
December 04, 2001
Some time during the month of December we have a snowball fight. Since Southern CA is short on snow I made snowballs out of new socks stuffed with batting. My friend’s family uses marshmallows. Merry Christmas!

Bernie-Manitoba Canada
November 29, 2001
When I was a Child, we would put out cookies and milk for Santa before going to bed. After we fell asleep my parents worked hard rapping all the gifts. When we woke up Christmas morning, the cookies were eaten, milk was drunk, and there were gifts under the tree! We woke up early, but mom and Dad wanted to sleep for a few more hours. So we watched Cartoon until they got up, and got the camera ready. Now, my husband and I open our stockings on Christmas Eve. We open our gifts on Christmas day. And we visit family on Christmas Day. We even have stocking for our cats!

Dennis in Salt Lake
November 28, 2001
A night or two before Christmas, when the kids are all wound up for the BIG day, our power seemed to go out. The lanterns were lit and the flashlights came out. We would tell the kids to go get their pillows and blankets off their beds and bring them in by the fireplace to stay warm. I had placed the Christmas storybooks close by to read. To remember the looks on their faces as we told stories by firelight, the sparkle in their eyes, wrapped in their blankets. We have a wood-burning stove so we heated a pot of water as we read and soon we had a cup of hot chocolate to go with the stories, we spent all night out there by the fireplace. My wife and I and our kids would have a sleep over on the floor, then after the kids went to sleep, I would go outside and turn the power back on. They never seemed to notice that all the other houses had power when we didn’t, and that the Christmas story books just happened to be in by the fire place, and that mom just happened to have hot chocolate close by. We have done this for several years now and our kids start questioning if the power will go out this year again. They look forward to the stories by the fireplace, hot cocoa, and our family sleep over on the floor. We played games, romped around and watched their glow of the fire; it is the best of times. Soon we can start the tradition with our grandkids.

lysh
November 23, 2001
My family always eats split pea soup after the Christmas Eve service at church. Then we read the Christmas story and open one gift. It is required to be small. Then in the morning we always get an ornament in our stocking and a family ornament that somehow represents how we have grown or things we have done during that year. We always draw names from a hat for who does whose stocking so that we all get to share in the fun!

Lenora
November 17, 2001
On Christmas Eve we open one gift, P.J.’s wearing those to bed. And on Christmas morning .I make sure the beds are made breakfast is cooked and ate and cleaned up. (My son actually likes this, even though it is hard to wait) My Son and I pray for those that don’t have as much as we do (third world countries) Then we open presents.

Mary Ellen
November 14, 2001
In Europe, on Dec. 6 the kids wake up to find that their shoes that they have placed by the fireplace the night before have been filled with treats and little presents. We do this at my house and each year my brother and I get a new ornament in our shoe to hang on the tree and admire for the rest of the Christmas season.

Adrienne
November 09, 2001
Every Christmas Eve my family and I get all dressed up and go to the Christmas Eve service and after that we go to Arby’s to eat dinner. After that we come home and sit in front of the warm fire and each of us open one gift, pajamas, we wear those p.j.’s to bed and then the next morning we open all of the gifts and go to my grandmothers house for a wonderful Christmas day.

Pat Wenger
February 24, 2001
I have just started a Christmas tradition. This past Christmas our finances were pretty low so I thought about how I could give my little great nieces and nephews a present that they would remember. I invited all of them (15) over to my house for a gingerbread house party. I made all the little houses and had them set up for the children to decorate. Each child had to bring a different candy to share with others and a parent to help out. They also had to bring an item for the food bank so that they would learn about giving too. We were so pleased when the children created unique and special houses of their very own with very little help. We all had a great time and the parents helped to clean up afterwards. We are going to do this every year to get the little ones together for a day at Auntie’s Panties house. They are all looking forward to next year.

Kathy
December 22, 2000
Every year my husband and I get both our children an ornament and a family game. On Christmas Eve they get to open their ornament and add it to the tree. Then we open our family game and play it that evening, giving us some great family time together. My children love their ornaments and I will truly miss them all hanging on our tree when they grow up and take their ornaments for their own family tree!

Natalie– Christmas in Toronto Canada
December 18, 2000
On Christmas eve our family opens all our gifts, then we visit relatives on Christmas day, eat, eat and eat again. When we were small (when Santa was real) my mother would wake us by jingling bells and claiming that she saw Santa leaving from the roof. We would wake up suddenly to find Christmas music, eggnog, treats and a ton of gifts for the entire family. Now that my siblings and I have grown up, we sleep in on Christmas day instead, then we journey for the day and spend valuable time with cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandparents.

Beth
December 17, 2000
My favorite Christmas tradition when I was a child was to go over to my Grandmothers house the week before Christmas while all my Aunts and Cousins were there and make crustella, an Italian Christmas confection that is deep fried and filled with honey and almonds. It took the whole family to make one batch of 100 cookies! Each of us had a job according to our age. I was the youngest, so for the longest time I was in charge of shelling the almonds. We would have the best time catching up on the family news, singing and having fun. As most of my family lived out of state, this was the only time of year we could all be together. Christmas a day we would all gather together at Nana’s house again to exchange gifts. There were always surprise visitors that would drop by, and they always left with Crustella!

The New August Family
November 29, 2000
Me an my husband always open one present on Christmas Eve at midnight, later at night I fill our stockings with goodies, even the kitten has a little stocking with treats. Then on Christmas morning we get our cup of eggnog and go over to the Christmas tree and start opening presents while we listen to Christmas music, The kitten gets a special gift too.

Maryanne
November 14, 2000
On Christmas Eve we attend 4:30 children’s Mass as a family. We then go home, have fondue, the only time of the year we have it, and watch, Christmas Vacation. our two daughters are allowed to open one gift, it’s always new pajamas, to wear to bed. On one is allowed downstairs until 8:00 a.m.! We gather around the tree, they open their stocking first while I make coffee and put the turkey in the oven. Then we open all the other presents, eat a big breakfast of omelets and bacon and spend the rest of the day relaxing and eating.

Holly
January 12, 2000
When I was a child, the most unusually tradition I remember is the “New Year’s Ball”. I think my mother got the I idea from a Chinese holiday. She would wrap small trinkets in streamers of various colors. Once completed, she would decorate the ball to look like a reindeer, snowman, elf, etc. They would arrive on Christmas and my siblings and I had to wait until New Year’s Day to open them. It was always fun to open them and play in the steamers afterwards.

Morgan and Yulia
January 05, 2000
Morgan: For Christmas I went to Arkansas. I spent the night on my dad’s land. On Christmas Eve I spent the night at our friends house in Oklahoma. Yulia: I spent Christmas at home. I had a big dinner.

sara
December 25, 1999
Well, I have two very different households. My mom and I are non-traditional Jews, while my dad and step-dad were raised catholic and Lutheran. S/d practices the religion of intellect, while my dad is in his funky mid-life eastern tantrum and motorcycle fase. I spend the eve at my father’s. He used to love dress up as Santa so much I couldn’t get him to stop ’til I was 17. He’s a psychologist to boot, with some very quirky patients. One of my favorite rituals is the bags and bags of gifts from one in particular. Every gift has “meaning” from the limb less Barbie to an old newspaper. Each carefully wrapped. I have more fun with her gifts than with my own. At my mom’s, we always open gifts in the morning by own tree and menorah, then later mom, my step-dad, any guests, and I go see a Woody Allen flick. Has anyone ever noticed that one comes out every Xmas time?

Sara
December 25, 1999
A sense of anticipation permeates the air as everyone (well…the girls, anyway 🙂 puts last-minute touches on our Christmas Eve (CE) attire; then it’s off to CE service. After the service – with a traditional candle lighting, of course! – We take family pictures in front of the parlor fireplace. Gifts are loaded into baskets and we take the short drive to Grandpapa’s for our Christmas celebration there, with includes gift-opening, homemade cocoa, and an hors d’oeuvres supper. Christmas morning stockings are opened before CDay service; after church, family gifts are opened. 🙂

Sara
December 25, 1999
‘Tis I again. 🙂 I thought I’d share some traditions I hope to start when I’ve a family of my own. 🙂 “Santa Claus” is a …fun…tradition – but I think it turns a very sacred holiday into something that “anyone” can celebrate. I hope to teach my children of St. Nicholas, the kind and generous man. As December 6 is his “saint’s day”, I hope to fill my little ones’ socks that day or evening. 🙂 Christmas Eve/Day services will certainly remain a part of my celebration!…as will Christmas Day stockings or shoes – but the gifts (blessings) will be from Jesus! 🙂 I also hope to celebrate the Magi’s gift-giving by celebrating with small gifts on Epiphany, January 6, the traditional date of their arrival at the Christ-child’s manger. P.S. FYI, I’m a twenty-year old college student from central IL.

Melissa H.
December 14, 1999
On Christmas morning, my father wakes up my sister and I, and we sit on our parents’ bed as my dad walks the dogs and my mom makes coffee. When the coffee is all made, my dad calls my sister and I downstairs. We open our stockings first, then my dad sits on the floor and passes out all of the presents. After we’re done, my dad makes omelets to order while mom cleans up and my sister and put on a new holiday outfit. We then prepare for the extended family to come visit. After opening those presents, we sit down to a buffet dinner. We finish the day off by watching “The Ten Commandments” and I read “Little Women” to myself. I love Christmas.

DDEE
December 14, 1999
On Christmas Eve my parents always buy us a new pair of Christmas pajamas, then we watch Christmas Vacation. We get up the next morning, get dressed then open presents. Then we sit around and watch old movies all day and look at all our stuff. (Some times we re-decorate the house) then we go to the Green Wood Inn and eat. Then we rent movies and stay up late. And right before we go to bed we read ‘Twas the Night before Christmas.

Lynne Quinn
December 13, 1999
On Christmas Eve my family and I (me, mom, dad, brothers and sisters) would always open the gifts from each other. We would then all have hot chocolate from special mugs we used only on that night. My dad would read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to us and we would reluctantly go to bed. That night my sister and I who shared a room would make the solemn pact that whoever woke up first would wake the other one. On Christmas morning we would wake mom and dad, then all go down together. We would dump our stockings which had fruit, candy and small presents in them. Then dad would pass out the presents left by Santa to each of us. Now that I’m grown and have a daughter of my own I’ve tried to keep some of my old family traditions going, like reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, but I also am trying to start some new traditions for our family. Santa has left a special ornament on the tree for my little girl (she’s 5) for two years in a row now, and she seems to have a lot of fun looking for it.

Tara McClellan
December 13, 1999
On Christmas Eve we get the whole family together and have fondue (yummy). It is our favorite time, after dinner we read the Christmas story and open one gift. The past few years we’ve had Santa Claus come visit the house and pass out candy canes. The kids are so excited and they remind Santa of what they wanted. If the roads are good we will also load up and go look at the Christmas lights around the town.

DIANE
December 13, 1999
ON CHRISTMAS EVE, OUR PARENTS ALWAYS LET US OPEN A GIFT. WE ALWAYS LET OUR CHILDREN OPEN A GIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND I HOPE OUR CHILDREN LET OUR GRANDCHILDREN DO THE SAME.

Edna Earle McClusky
December 09, 1999
I was raised as an only child. Then I had an only child. Then he married an only child. But now their family is grown and bringing lovely new members into the family and it just makes Christmas better and better. We have a large tree and presents at my son and daughter-in-law-s house which is so nice as I am old now and am so ready to turn over the family traditions to the next generation. Of course it is not as much fun as when I was doing all of the shopping for everyone and cooking the meal. My husband always carved the turkey, and when my son married he has always had the honor and it was so wonderful at Thanksgiving to see my newly married grandson assume the role.

Sheryl Ruffino
December 09, 1999
Our families are spread throughout Texas and Louisiana. But no matter which city or whose house we are in, we always say a prayer of thanksgiving before sitting down to a wonderful dinner lovingly prepared. Then, we allow the kids to grab their gifts and “let ‘er rip”! We have so much fun watching them that, sometimes, we neglect to open our own–but not for long! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Amie
December 05, 1999
My parents had a rule on Christmas Eve. As long as we truly went to sleep, whenever we woke up we were allowed to wake everyone up & open presents, no matter what time it was. Many of our Christmases were celebrated at 2:00 a.m.! In fact, my first Christmas away from home, I had woke my husband, opened our gifts and was knocking on my parents door waking them up at 2:15 a.m. The tradition continues with my own children, except I have to wake THEM up!!!!

Tiffany Lenning
November 29, 1999
On Christmas Eve we would gather by the tree, and my dad would read to us from the Bible about Christ’s birth. We would then open one gift each. Then we would read (or quote) ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. On Christmas morning “Santa” would have come, and we would wake up our parents and open gifts. After the clean up of wrapping paper, around noon, we would eat, clean up, nap, and then eat again. Isn’t Christmas wonderful?!

Trudy (New Year’s Blessing)
November 25, 1999
When I was a child and further on until my Grandpa passed away, the custom in our family was for all the children and their families to drive (usually in sleigh drawn by horses, but later cars came in to the picture) to our grandparents house for an individual blessing by my Grandpa. Each family knelt before my grandpa and he would bless us all as he touched each one of us on the head and prayed for us all. We then were handed a small bag of goodies by my Grandma and later on breakfast was served to all. At approximately 10:00 a.m., everyone bundled up and attended New Year Day church service. Afterwards, everyone proceeded to their homes. Dinner was served in one of the family homes and with everyone once more gathered together, we celebrated the New Year together.

Brit & Brittany
November 23, 1999
We give presents and get presents and enjoy our family!

Brandon R.
November 23, 1999
My mom makes spice tea, then we eat our Christmas dinner. When we’re done with that we go to our Christmas tree and open presents.

Don
November 20, 1999
When young we wore long stockings, so we hung them up by the register.

Geertrui
November 11, 1999
Every house we went to on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we made hand made ornaments and we hung one on each tree before we left.

JanJan
October 31, 1999
We always hung our children’s stockings on their bedroom door. That way we would hear them when they got up (and get a chance to wake up). It always included a snack so “maybe” they would eat a little something before coming to the front room. There were little packs of raisins, a banana and an orange in the toe and sometimes cereal. My parents always put an orange in the toes. Of course, there were also little gifts to open. God Bless you all.

Joan
October 01, 1999
Every year for the past 30 years I have saved one or two decorations from our gift boxes to be added to the tree decorations. Needless to say our tree is full of memories from Christmas past.

Susan
September 20, 1999
Well I don’t know if this is a tradition or just strange luck. When I was a kid every year a day or two before Christmas our tree was demolished. One year, someone with a wee too much to drink fell on it. Then my baby sister pulled it over (she was okay). Of course, the cats victimized the tree several years, and so on… So, each year we bought new ornaments!

Manuel
June 01, 1999
During the holiday family gatherings, coins would be thrown up into the air and all us kids would scramble to get them. I think it’s a Mexican tradition, at least our grandparents were from Mexico and they started the tradition.

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⇴ image from Pixabay.com

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