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We go home to NY until we can move back which might be around christmas time this year were not sure yet. All of my family comes over to my parents and we have a family christmas party. Usually if we are home in NY for thanksgiving we will decorate the tree the day after as well as the rest of the house. I allow my youngest sister take Calleigh out to go get presents for my fiance and I every christmas. Christmas Eve we have lobster and crab legs and Christmas we have turkey! My moms a big cooker and we have a huge family!
We have very few traditions anymore but I do put up and decorate a skinny "cat tree" covered in nothing but cat ornaments. Sometimes we have a regular tree too but it all depends on how ambitious I get.
Big get togethers and traveling to see relatives have come to an end, and dinner with my two adult kids, my parents, and my brother is how we celebrate now. There are a couple of holiday videos we like to watch, and peppermint hot chocolate is a must!
So it is once again the Christmas holiday approaching, and obviousley all of the people posting their traditions enjoy Christmas as much as I do. Yes, I have already started the obsession of the holidays.
For me I think the time, and the effort that goes into decorating for Christmas should be enjoyed longer than just December. So yes, my Christmas really starts after Halloween is over. I actually usually spend Halloween checking lights, and making sure that things are in working order so I know what needs to be replaced. I cant wait for all of the Halloween stuff to be gone from the stores so that the Christmas items can be stocked on the shelves.
I am usually the one to decorate the house. But I have put my foot down this year, and told my family that they will participate in all activities surrounding Christmas and not just the opening of the gifts. Or they can expect nothing from me under the tree this year. So suprisingly they seem to be willing and as impatient as I am for Halloween to be over with. Now me I love snowmen, clear lights, and the smell of Christmas. My daughter thinks I am crazy because I have been asking her the last couple of days if she smells the holidays in the air.
here are a couple of recommendations (and I hope to hear yours) on great places for gifts and decorations:
Of course everyone knows ebay: last year I ordered a collection of all the great old Christmas cartoons Frosty, Rudolph, ect. I found some great Christmas CDs
Rite Aid- has the leg lamp from the movie A Christmas Story, and on ABC distributing I also found a throw with a picture of the same leg lamp. Great additions to my collection
Ross/Marshalls/TJ Maxx- has great signs to hang up around the house. I got a cute one that says "Santa, I can explian" for $4.00.
JC Penneys- On JC Penneys website they have a lot of clothes that have been marked down. Levi's, Southpole, ect. shirts that usually go for $20 or more or on sale for 7.99, you really can not beat that
I have already put my order in for sausage, and cheese trays. This year I decided to do twelve days of Christmas. And the last twelve days leading up to Christmas will be a different activity. Whether its going to see lights, watching White Christmas, or baking holiday cookies it will be something different each time.
Last weekend I was with my in-laws and since it is hard for us to get together, we already drew names for this years gift exchange. If you have big families this really helps when it comes to the adults. We each have one person where are responsible to buy a gift for with a minimum purchase price of $20.00. It really helps you not having to buy gifts for 20 other people.
We are already reminding the kids that the ELF will be here soon to visit and start reporting back to Santa....it got the 4 yr old to listen and behave the other night very quickly!!!!
Well, we don't have any traditions in my family. Since my parents were divorced, I went to both sides of the family (my mom's side and my dad's side) houses for Christmas. On my mom's side, we would go to my Grandpa's church for Christmas Eve Midnight service. The next morning, I would wake up in the morning and wake my mom up and we would open gifts and call everyone and say Merry Christmas, etc. After my mom and I finished opening our gifts, we would go to my grandparents (my mom's parents) house and open more gifts there. My grandpa would take literally hundreds of pictures and make a home video of all of us. Then all that was done by noon and afterward my mom would take me to my Nana's house (my dad's mom). All the family would be there and we'd open gifts and eat a DELICIOUS Christmas lunch/dinner my uncle always made. I would play around in the yard with my cousins playing with our new toys. Ahh, it was fun, good memories too.
But in the past few years, a lot of my relatives have moved away. My mom's dad passed away from cancer three years ago and my grandma has Alzheimer's and Dementia. My mom and my uncle (her brother) no longer get along with one another. So now, my mom and I go up to see my grandma for Christmas and her assisted living facility place holds a Christmas party so we spend time with my grandma. So my mom and I stay at a friends house close to my Grandma and we spend Christmas with my mom's friends and her 2 kids. Now we go to midnight Christmas Eve church service and open gifts in the morning and have a nice lunch/dinner. But this year, my Nana is going to my aunt's house for Christmas and my Dad's dad lives close to my Grandma now, I guess I'll go there for Christmas for a few hours or so. (My dad's parents are divorced.) And my dad's dad is slowly dying from cancer so I want to spend time with him this year, in case this would be his last Christmas.
So, my Christmases aren't as "big" as they used to be. It's kind of sad though, I miss all the special family memories and fun times we used to have. And it came and went literally in a blink of an eye. I really wish I had appreciated my childhood more when I younger, I wish I could go back to being a little kid again. It's like, whoa, where did those days go to? But I'm 17 now, and turning 18 in December and I'm not really a little kid anymore. I don't really care for the gifts or Christmas trees anymore, and I don't believe in Santa Claus anymore. I'm just glad to still have a few of my grandparents alive and be able to see them for Christmas because in a few year, they're not going to be around anymore. It's helped to realize the real meaning of Christmas.
But when I marry and have kids of my own, I want to have a big Christmas celebration for them. Buy them all kinds of gifts and take them to Church and make home videos and bake cookies with them, start our own sets of Christmas tradition.
Well we light the yule log,make ice bucket candles for outside,hang cuttings of evergreen all over the house,and open some gifts, and generally have a good time with family .
We have a silly tradition. We have this horrible Christmas scarf with an electronic music box that goes off every time it moves. Every year someone wraps it up and gives it to another family member as a gag gift! Everyone waits to see who is going to get the scarf!
From when I was about 12, in Australia, we would open our presents and then gave breakfast of ham and eggs with a glass of bubbly. Then we'd go down and feed my horse and give him a beer, which he would drink straight out of the can.
Now neither my husband nor I drink, and I don't have a horse. Guess I'll have to start some new Christmas traditions!
We always look forward to Christmas Eve. That is a BIG deal here for our family. My mom and I spend an entire week, sometimes, if adventurous, TWO weeks and we bake, nonstop cookies, make candies, etc... We make up plates for our elderly neighbors and widows/ singles at our church and deliver, visit and pray with them. Then, my family gets together and we have a BIG Christmas Eve party where we let the kids open one special gift we get just for that occasion. We always have a big spread, invite more and more people each year and my mother makes her traditional Hot Cider in the crock pot....
The year before last that was when I announced I was expecting. This year my son can walk and really enjoy the holiday!!!
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