What are your favorite holiday traditions? (Marble Falls: house, buying, movies)

[Septgirl75]

I'm just curious to know what your favorite holiday traditions are?

[Septgirl75]

O.k. I'll go first.
I have each of my children pick out a few things that they really want and they give the gifts to a needy child that is the same age and gender. They write them a letter and draw a picture and send a picture of themselves.
Putting up the tree and lights the day after Thanksgiving (this is the only thing we buy, nothing else.) Letting my kids decorate the tree. Decorating a small jesse tree and reading the devotionals each night that go along with the ornaments. Setting out the nativity. Hiding a pickle ornament in the tree, whoever finds it gets a little gift.
I really enjoy eating tamales! We open one gift on Christmas eve, I don't know why, just do. Going to a candlelight Christmas eve service. Driving around looking at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. Visiting Santa and getting a picture. Walking through the light display in Marble Falls. Writing a letter to santa. Taking my daughter to see the Nutcracker. Watching all the old Christmas cartoons and movies on t.v. Making cookies and going to a cookie exchange. White elephant gift exchange. I have to have certain types of candy; candy canes, chocolate cordial cherries, lindor milk chocolate truffles, and red and green sour balls. Taking a picture of my kids in their Christmas p.j.'s by the tree. Exchanging an ornament with my sister in law each year. Having cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Reading the Christmas story.
I'm in the process of change. My kids are young, so I'm trying to incorporate some traditions that I had growing up with trying to create our own new family traditions. I do have a good one though this year that I'm going to start doing. I'm going to write a letter to my kids on some unique things that I have seen change in them over the past year, how they have grown, things I love about them, and put the letter in their stocking. Another one that I am going to start this year is have each child pick out one new ornament from Hallmark, so they will have a nice little collection to put on their tree when they start their own families. So I'd like to know about some of your favorite traditions, and see if I could incorporate them to be our new traditions. Come on, don't be shy.

[stoneoak]

Originally Posted by rarichie75

O.k. I'll go first.
I do have a good one though this year that I'm going to start doing. I'm going to write a letter to my kids on some unique things that I have seen change in them over the past year, how they have grown, things I love about them, and put the letter in their stocking. Another one that I am going to start this year is have each child pick out one new ornament from Hallmark, so they will have a nice little collection to put on their tree when they start their own families. So I'd like to know about some of your favorite traditions, and see if I could incorporate them to be our new traditions. Come on, don't be shy.

Love the idea about writing the stocking letter...may steal that from you. Will also have to start new traditions. In the past, our Christmas tradition was listening to the husband swear up a storm as he struggled to put up the Christmas tree, followed by us being awoken at 2 a.m. that night by the sound of said Christmas tree crashing to the floor. Ahhh....memories.

Would encourage the Hallmark ornament tradition -- we have ornaments dating back 30 - plus years and some are worth a pretty penny now in both monetary and sentimental value. The ones that have survived The Great Christmas Tree disaster of '09...and '08...and '06 and '05, that is.

And of course, we bake cookies every year and the kiddos love having a "party" which is basically us eating chips and dip, shrimp cocktails and veggie platters on the living room floor. Nothing beats a day of munchies and Christmas movies.

[pzilla]

My family always "adopts a vet". They have a list of items they need whether it be t-shirts or pjs and we gift it to them.

[blizzrd]

For the last 3 years we've been having a Christmas Eve dinner/white elephant exchange for my and my wife's family. One year we did a turkey and ham, the next we made a Tuscan style lasagne and last year we did a rib roast. This year I was going to do the lasagne again but I'm gonna have to work Christmas Eve so we may do it the week before, I'm not sure. Growing up, we used to go to my grandmother's house and make tamales and hojarascas which we would divide between us all and take home. Those would be the cookies we'd set out for Santa and we'd have them Christmas morning while opening up gifts. I'm kind of in the same boat with trying to preserve some of the things I used to do with some things I'd like to start with my wife and daughter. We haven't done the tamales since my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago so that's definitely something I want to bring back and keep doing along with the cookies, checking out lights, buying a tree etc etc.

[Septgirl75]

I like the idea of giving back to a vet, for all they have done for us. To teach your kids to give to someone else instead of get all the time, it's a very important lesson that I think so few parents teach anymore. Kids are very self centered naturallly, so sometimes you need to push them to think of others.

I like the white elephant gift exchange and dinner with family. It encourages spending time together and not focusing on the gifts.

I definitely need to learn to make tamales, I want to pass that tradition on and teach my daughter how to make them.