Merry Christmas!

[craftytam]

Merry Christmas to you and yours!
What are your favorite traditions for Christmas day (or season)?

[craftytam]

My favorite Christmas tradition is our breakfast together. It became a tradition as our kids got older and had other things to do during the day/evening. I think this tradition will probably change next year since we will only have one at home (and he's probably moving out soon, as well).

One other tradition that always makes me smile: I put the same small (the plastic bag size) Lego set in each boys' stocking. They race putting it together. It's always fun to watch and see who wins. (Our boys are 24 & 22 now. lol! They still enjoy it)

[Route66]

Merry Christmas everyone! Our tradition is to wear Santa Hats when opening our gifts. We have kept the tradition going strong ever since the kids were born. They happily play along still, even in their 30's

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by Route66

Merry Christmas everyone! Our tradition is to wear Santa Hats when opening our gifts. We have kept the tradition going strong ever since the kids were born. They happily play along still, even in their 30's

What a fun tradition! I love that they still play along!

[3BluEyedBabi]

My kids (19, 16, & 13) have to find a pickle hidden in the tree to determine who opens the first gift. They each open one gift at a time instead of everyone at once. I started doing that when they were babies and I didn't realize a lot of families open all at once. It takes longer to open and we take lots of pictures! We also make lots of appetizers instead of a big sit-down meal.

I hope you are all enjoying time with family and/or friends. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

[3BluEyedBabi]

Originally Posted by craftytam

My favorite Christmas tradition is our breakfast together. It became a tradition as our kids got older and had other things to do during the day/evening. I think this tradition will probably change next year since we will only have one at home (and he's probably moving out soon, as well).

One other tradition that always makes me smile: I put the same small (the plastic bag size) Lego set in each boys' stocking. They race putting it together. It's always fun to watch and see who wins. (Our boys are 24 & 22 now. lol! They still enjoy it)

That's a fun tradition!

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by 3BluEyedBabi

My kids (19, 16, & 13) have to find a pickle hidden in the tree to determine who opens the first gift. They each open one gift at a time instead of everyone at once. I started doing that when they were babies and I didn't realize a lot of families open all at once. It takes longer to open and we take lots of pictures! We also make lots of appetizers instead of a big sit-down meal.

I hope you are all enjoying time with family and/or friends. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Someone gave us a pickle ornament recently, but we haven't incorporated it into our tradition. That sounds so fun! We start with the youngest (lol! He's 22) We do one person/present at a time as well. It's more fun to be able to see the reaction.
Yum! Appetizers are such a great way to go.

[lizziej]

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a great day with family and/ or friends. One tradition we have is the candy I put in the stockings of my son and husband: Hershey's kisses in the plastic candy cane, Hershey's Santas, Whoppers that come in a little milk carton, and M&Ms in a small seasonal package. There can be more candy and other stuff, though. I usually put a different plastic cane in mine and, as much as I love M&Ms, I sometimes don't get any for me -- to try to save a few calories. Lol!

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by lizziej

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a great day with family and/ or friends. One tradition we have is the candy I put in the stockings of my son and husband: Hershey's kisses in the plastic candy cane, Hershey's Santas, Whoppers that come in a little milk carton, and M&Ms in a small seasonal package. There can be more candy and other stuff, though. I usually put a different plastic cane in mine and, as much as I love M&Ms, I sometimes don't get any for me -- to try to save a few calories. Lol!

Yum! That's a sweet tradition!

[lovely1m]

We always watch The Santa Clause when we open presents. The past few years we have gotten sushi for Christmas supper but yesterday we had an ice storm so we will go for New Years instead this year.

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

We always watch The Santa Clause when we open presents. The past few years we have gotten sushi for Christmas supper but yesterday we had an ice storm so we will go for New Years instead this year.

Oh my goodness! The Santa Clause and sushi! Two of my favorite things!

[Kimberly27]

Merry Christmas all!! We make a cake or dessert with the kids and sing Happy Birthday Jesus on Christmas eve. We also make monster cookies for Santa.
Christmas eve we watch National Lampoons Christmas vacation...we have done this together since hubby and I were 17yrs old. <3
The last several years we have spent Christmas in Virginia with our family. We stay at my in laws house. We didn't think it would happen this year but my son was able to get off and we are here for a week or so.

[aussiegirl]

Merry Christmas! We also do one gift at a time instead of all at one time! It is easier to get pictures that way, and you can see everyone's reactions to their gifts!

I feel the whole day is full of our own traditions! We give the girls a time they can wake up (no earlier than 8am). They can open their stockings first (small gifts like socks, nail polish, chapstick, hair ties, and candy). After breakfast (usually cinnnamon rolls) and everyone getting dressed (my mom never let any of us open gifts in our pjs. She said she didn't want photos of us in our jammies!) the girls pass out all the gifts. This year we didn't put gift tags on our gifts to the girls, they each had different wrapping paper and they found a small piece in the bottom of their stocking. The girls open their gifts to each other first- guessing who had them (We call is Secret Sister) and then move around the circle with one person opening a gift at a time. We do Something they want, need, wear, read for gifts, plus a couple extra and a few family gifts too.

This year, one of the girls had to go on a scavenger hunt to find her last minute gift. After all the gifts are open, it's trying on new clothes, putting things away and playing with new games! Lunch was snack foods and supper was Chicken and appeteasers. We spent the evening watching a new movie one of the girls got.

[tjscraps]

Merry Christmas! I can't think of any traditions either than turkey, and opening PJ's on Christmas Eve lol

[Kimberly27]

We do three gifts from us to our boys (the three gifts wisemen took to Jesus)....Something to read/learn, clothes and then an experience or fun. My youngest got an interaction with the penguins at Sea World we will do over spring break. My oldest is 19 so we did a vinyl for him. We do stockings and a few items from Santa as well.

We go youngest to oldest in opening gifts usually.
I like the idea of special paper for each kid. My husband uses a number system for the gifts that only he knows.

[LeeAndra]

The kiddos are allowed to get up at 7 am. We do stockings first & then gifts. They take turns opening gifts, and then Hubby & I open ours. We always have coordinating jammies. The stockings and one gift come from Santa and are unwrapped. Everything else is from Hubby & me, and everyone has their own wrapping paper. The kids do get each other a gift as well. My cousin makes the kids a custom ornament each year; this year was a baseball-themed one for my son & a spooky diamond art-themed one for my enby. We write down something we are grateful for on a small slip of paper each night of December and then place it in the wooden manger under the tree so they can be read aloud Christmas morning after gift-opening. I save them in a binder that lives with the living room decorations most of the year.

We don't have breakfast as we head over my parents' at 10 am for more gift opening where my mom has a cookie buffet & homemade Chex Mix to munch on. After gift opening there, we eat lunch & eventually cheesecake.

In previous years, I dropped the kids off at their dad's house after the celebration at my parents' and then Hubby & I would change into comfies and hang out until bedtime. This year, their dad is out of the country visiting his wife's family so we came home from my parents' house, had tacos, and then the kids went off to use their new gifts while Hubby & I played Hallmark Movie Bingo before bed.

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by Kimberly27

Merry Christmas all!! We make a cake or dessert with the kids and sing Happy Birthday Jesus on Christmas eve. We also make monster cookies for Santa.
Christmas eve we watch National Lampoons Christmas vacation...we have done this together since hubby and I were 17yrs old. <3
The last several years we have spent Christmas in Virginia with our family. We stay at my in laws house. We didn't think it would happen this year but my son was able to get off and we are here for a week or so.

That's such a precious tradition!
LOL! We haven't watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation in ages. It's on my to-do list.
Enjoy your time in VA!

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by aussiegirl

Merry Christmas! We also do one gift at a time instead of all at one time! It is easier to get pictures that way, and you can see everyone's reactions to their gifts!

I feel the whole day is full of our own traditions! We give the girls a time they can wake up (no earlier than 8am). They can open their stockings first (small gifts like socks, nail polish, chapstick, hair ties, and candy). After breakfast (usually cinnnamon rolls) and everyone getting dressed (my mom never let any of us open gifts in our pjs. She said she didn't want photos of us in our jammies!) the girls pass out all the gifts. This year we didn't put gift tags on our gifts to the girls, they each had different wrapping paper and they found a small piece in the bottom of their stocking. The girls open their gifts to each other first- guessing who had them (We call is Secret Sister) and then move around the circle with one person opening a gift at a time. We do Something they want, need, wear, read for gifts, plus a couple extra and a few family gifts too.

This year, one of the girls had to go on a scavenger hunt to find her last minute gift. After all the gifts are open, it's trying on new clothes, putting things away and playing with new games! Lunch was snack foods and supper was Chicken and appeteasers. We spent the evening watching a new movie one of the girls got.

That's so funny that your mom didn't want pictures in pjs! I love having the "unprepped" photos of the kids having just woken up

What movie did you watch?

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by Kimberly27

We do three gifts from us to our boys (the three gifts wisemen took to Jesus)....Something to read/learn, clothes and then an experience or fun. My youngest got an interaction with the penguins at Sea World we will do over spring break. My oldest is 19 so we did a vinyl for him. We do stockings and a few items from Santa as well.

We go youngest to oldest in opening gifts usually.
I like the idea of special paper for each kid. My husband uses a number system for the gifts that only he knows.

Oh! I can't wait to see the photos of the penguin interaction! How fun!

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by LeeAndra

The kiddos are allowed to get up at 7 am. We do stockings first & then gifts. They take turns opening gifts, and then Hubby & I open ours. We always have coordinating jammies. The stockings and one gift come from Santa and are unwrapped. Everything else is from Hubby & me, and everyone has their own wrapping paper. The kids do get each other a gift as well. My cousin makes the kids a custom ornament each year; this year was a baseball-themed one for my son & a spooky diamond art-themed one for my enby. We write down something we are grateful for on a small slip of paper each night of December and then place it in the wooden manger under the tree so they can be read aloud Christmas morning after gift-opening. I save them in a binder that lives with the living room decorations most of the year.

We don't have breakfast as we head over my parents' at 10 am for more gift opening where my mom has a cookie buffet & homemade Chex Mix to munch on. After gift opening there, we eat lunch & eventually cheesecake.

In previous years, I dropped the kids off at their dad's house after the celebration at my parents' and then Hubby & I would change into comfies and hang out until bedtime. This year, their dad is out of the country visiting his wife's family so we came home from my parents' house, had tacos, and then the kids went off to use their new gifts while Hubby & I played Hallmark Movie Bingo before bed.

We had to negotiate what time we would start "Christmas morning" this year. Our youngest just graduated from college and is sleeping in waaaay late because he starts his new job right after the beginning of the year. We settled on 11am.

I love the idea of writing down something you are thankful for!

[bcgal00]

Hope you all had a wonderful Xmas. Our's was quiet, no gifts exchanged but we are going to get the yearly pass for the 3 of us (Discovery Pass) so we can visit the large Alberta parks. We'll all go to an Escape Room in Feb (never done that before).

We started a new tradition this year (take out dinner was ordered from the local smoked BBQ restaurant), it was so good, only a bit of cleanup. I don't think I ever want to cook another big turkey dinner again.

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by bcgal00

Hope you all had a wonderful Xmas. Our's was quiet, no gifts exchanged but we are going to get the yearly pass for the 3 of us (Discovery Pass) so we can visit the large Alberta parks. We'll all go to an Escape Room in Feb (never done that before).

We started a new tradition this year (take out dinner was ordered from the local smoked BBQ restaurant), it was so good, only a bit of cleanup. I don't think I ever want to cook another big turkey dinner again.

Quiet can be good We did take out from a BBQ restaurant for a number of years. It was so nice not to have to cook and have clean-up be so easy!

[knittingbec]

Originally Posted by craftytam

One other tradition that always makes me smile: I put the same small (the plastic bag size) Lego set in each boys' stocking. They race putting it together. It's always fun to watch and see who wins. (Our boys are 24 & 22 now. lol! They still enjoy it)

This is super fun!!

[knittingbec]

For the past 3 or 4 years, I have chosen a movie, show or book we've enjoyed and assigned everyone character names. I use the character names to label the presents and nobody (but me) knows who's who until it's time to open presents. This year, we did Harry Potter characters. The kids have so much fun trying to figure it out! Now that they're doing more buying/wrapping of their own gifts, I give them a list of "leftover names" and they assigned their own names for gifts they're giving too. After the first year, I learned that I needed to assign separate names to group/partner gifts instead of labeling them ____ and ____ because that made it too easy to narrow down who's who! This year, there were 6 of us but 14 names

Originally Posted by 3BluEyedBabi

My kids (19, 16, & 13) have to find a pickle hidden in the tree to determine who opens the first gift. They each open one gift at a time instead of everyone at once

We also hide a pickle ornament and the person who finds it gets to open the envelope that has the list of names for presents and open the first gift. We also take turns and watch as everyone opens.

[craftytam]

Originally Posted by knittingbec

For the past 3 or 4 years, I have chosen a movie, show or book we've enjoyed and assigned everyone character names. I use the character names to label the presents and nobody (but me) knows who's who until it's time to open presents. This year, we did Harry Potter characters. The kids have so much fun trying to figure it out! Now that they're doing more buying/wrapping of their own gifts, I give them a list of "leftover names" and they assigned their own names for gifts they're giving too. After the first year, I learned that I needed to assign separate names to group/partner gifts instead of labeling them ____ and ____ because that made it too easy to narrow down who's who! This year, there were 6 of us but 14 names

Wow! This is so creative! How fun!!