What traditions do your....

[KC but no sunshine band]

families practice over the Christmas and holiday season? I think it would be interesting to hear different stories.

Our family has a tradition of purchasing a new ornament each year for the tree. It is usually one that is symbolic of things we have experienced that year. (One year we flew to Ireland for a vacation so the ornament was an airplane.) We have a very unique looking Christmas tree with lots of stories behind it.

When it comes to the food, there is a dish that I started making a few years ago that they won't let me stop making now. It is called Sweet Potato Bake and it makes a real yummy dish out of yams.(more like a dessert) :spaghetti:

Ok, now I made myself hungry. I think I had better go have a snack. I hope everyone is having a nice Monday. :sled:

Kathy

P.S. I almost forgot my husband's famous home-made poppycock. Mmmmmm......

 

[hearts and roses]

:xmasdancers:

Besides having to make certain dishes and treats, we have one that is similar to your ornament tradition.

Each year I buy a new holiday pin to put on our Christmas Stockings :miseltoe:. easy child will have 20 and difficult child will have 18 this year. They have such a wide and cute variety, from santa trolls, to snowmen/snowwomen, santas, Christmas trees, miniature snowglobes, wreaths, :rudolph: etc. I love looking at them and have such fun choosing a new one for each of us each year!

Another tradition is that our girls start the day off with stockings only. :miseltoe: They run out, grab their stockings and then sit on our bed to look through them. They love the stockings best because it's filled with all sorts of cool things. By the time they are done oohing and aahing, H has made the coffee, the dogs :cool-dog: have releived themselves out back and we can open up the bigger gifts :xgift:. And then we have a HUGE breakfast, chill, maybe nap a bit, and then get dressed around 1 PM and head off to the movies to see the latest blockbuster release! Afterwards, we head home and have a nice dinner. :spaghetti:

 

[Scent of Cedar II]

Italian family (husband) so we do The Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. I only recently learned that it was called that.

(I saw it on the Cooking Channel!)

But we do that every year.

Salted cod, pasta with shrimp, oysters, and cod, anchovies and clams and mussels. husband's mom will sometimes do stuffed squid :faint: or even worse, fried eels.

On Christmas Day when we can eat meat again, we do that but have a champagne toast first. We gather everyone around the coffee table before dinner, light white candles and toast one another with champagne. (It can be sparkling cider.) Everyone, from the smallest child present to the oldest grandma, must look into everyone else's eyes as they click glasses.

You would be surprised how often the less strong-natured among us do not get to make eye contact, so this part is really important.

Then, the youngest child present gets to blow out the candles.

We used to serve oysters rockefeller with the champagne. That is good, and if anyone wants the recipe I will be happy to share.

But the most important part is that eye contact, the white candles, and the clink of glasses.

It's my favorite part of the holiday.

husband and I always toast one another at dinner, too.

Know what we say after we click glasses?

LET'S FEAST!

:smile:

Barbara

 

[Hound dog]

Jo I like your calm approach to xmas morning. It's similar to ours.

From the time our kids could toddle I've made it a big deal that they buy everyone in the family a gift. It didn't have to be a big deal, but something they really thought the person would like based on their budget that year. Their yearly budget consisted of how much money they saved up or worked extra for around the house. Usually their gift lists consisted of both sets of grandparents, Mom and Dad, each other, and our pets, sometimes a teacher or two if they had extra money and one they liked really well.

Santa's Secret Shop at school really was a big help to this idea for several years. Then we moved and I had to search for another source of their gifts and found the Dollar Store and Dollar Tree (everything for a buck). We'd set a kids shopping day and head out. husband would be with one, me with the other, then once gifts were hidden in the car, I'd take the last child. And if you're thinking sometimes this wasn't the MOST fun it could be, you'd be right. lol Afterall, we were shopping with two difficult children.

Then back home again. I'd give each of them a roll of paper, tape, and sissors. Then they'd wrap their presents and put them under the tree.

Now after all this effort I wasn't going to have the presents they bought each other lost in the shuffle of xmas morning from Santa. So on xmas eve after dinner the kids sat around the tree and one at a time opened the gifts to each other. They'd appropriately Ohhhh and Ahhhh, then run off to enjoy their haul.

Since they're all grown it has been told to me over and over how this simple thing was one of their most favorite traditions growing up. They actually pouted when as they became adults they outgrew it.

It's only as Nichole's boyfriend and easy child's husband have joined the family that I realize the impact this tradition had on my kids. Both my girls were appalled when the men in their lives felt no desire to buy their family presents. easy child and Nichole took charge and that changed abruptly. lol

I caught Nichole telling her boyfriend this year that he was too old to be going halvsies with his brother (a stock broker) to buy his parents each a gift for xmas. (usually something cheap) That this year he was going to buy each of his parents a REAL gift. *snort* :rofl:

 

[meowbunny]

We're trying to find a way to continue old traditions but they have to wait until next Christmas. We open our gifts to each other Christmas Eve, saving one for the next day. Christmas Eve menu is cold cuts, spinach dip, cheese fondue and fruit. We snack all evening and watch every Christmas movie we can find on TV and that we have.

Santa's gifts (yes, Santa still comes) and the stockings are opened Christmas morning. Then, we pick up a special friend at the retirement home. This friend is someone who is mobile and has faculties but has no family to be with at Christmas. We invite that person to have Christmas with us. We take that person to church and then bring them home where we open our final gift and give him/her their gift. Then it is time to fix dinner (we try to fix what our guest would like and can eat, so that menu varies every year). After dinner, we take a drive and look at the Christmas lights. Back home for hot chocolate and dessert and then take our friend back to his/her home.

We do try to do this with the same person every year until it is no longer possible. So long as our friend is alive, we find a way to celebrate Christmas with that friend even if we have found a new friend to join us in our home. Quite honestly, some of these people are ones I honestly wish I would never see again and, if that's the case, it is Christmas and one or two holidays only. Others have become a treasured part of our lives and we would see that person at least once a month and every major holiday was spent with us.

This year we will not be doing it, but I am going to do everything in my power to see that our tradition is started up again next year.

 

[tinamarie1]

awww Jo I like what you guys do. we have no set code in our house, and this year will be completely different than anything we have ever done. we have to do everything we would normally do on Christmas day, on Christmas Eve, since we are flying out early Christmas day to Louisiana.
I think we might get take out chinese food for a change that night...Im trying to think of something creative we can do as well.