Christmas Eve. John and I are still in the process of figuring out traditions that we would like to carry on as a family. It seems like each Christmas we have shared together has taken us by surprise or we have been in a transition period so we have not been able to give much attention to the holidays. This year we had intentions of making a tree to hang on the wall, but time inevitably got away from us. Here is our homemade tree from a couple of years ago.
We did not take any festive family photos, send Christmas cards, sit the kids on Santa's lap, or even buy presents for each other and the kids. Not buying gifts for the kids was intentional, since they are too young to understand gift-giving at Christmas. We figured we would save our money in that arena. One thing I did was decorate our mantle. That was an accomplishment.
A couple of nights ago John and I started brainstorming possible things we could incorporate as family traditions for Christmas. Every year my mom displays her Christmas village. It is always fun to see her display and it definitely adds to the holiday spirit. I am also trying to figure out meals that we could make as our traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas meals. Growing up my grandmother always made spinach dip on Christmas Eve. It was somewhat random but that was the only time of year she ever made it, so it was special.
Some fun and random holiday traditions friends have told me about:
- Baking dozens upon dozens of different kinds of cookies for the holidays.
- Everyone in the family getting new PJs to wear on Christmas.
- Opening one gift on Christmas Eve, or opening all the gifts on Christmas Eve. We opened all our gifts on Christmas Eve and then received some loot from Santa on Christmas.
- Each year my friend's parents hang their "First Christmas" ornament together on the tree. (I feel like that would make for some fun photos if a photo was taken of that moment each year).
What are some of your holiday traditions?
I loved reading this! My family has a very bizarre but amazing Christmas morning tradition - its a game called "Christmas gift."
ReplyDeleteThe idea is that you want to say "CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!" to every person before they can say it to you. This sounds simple, but it actually involves all-out warfare every Christmas morning with our entire family, including my grandmother. People have laid in waiting in closets, scaled walls, waited underwater in ponds with scuba gear for relatives to pass by, hid in trunks of cars, in Christmas trees, underneath beds, even snuck up on relatives in the shower, all for the bragging rights that come with being able to say for an entire year that they out-smarted their relations. It's insane but I really love it - and it also takes a lot of the focus off just making the whole day about presents.
Katie, this sounds amazing! I am so jealous. It sounds like something that would be in a movie. Maybe I can get my family on board for doing something like that. How did it get started?
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