We do buy a new Christmas themed book every year, but loved a previous post suggesting to give it on Christmas Eve and read it before bed.
Our traditions are as follows: after enjoying Thanksgiving day, we take all the Christmas stuff down before bedtime. We have a pilgrim hat that we made out of felt that has different countries in it where we know a missionary, and we draw the name out of the hat on which country/missionary we will be learning about this year. Instead of buying friends around here gifts, when they don't really need much of anything, we use the money to make a care package, from money, to little gifts, to real American toilet paper and things someone might miss (like my friend loves peanut butter, or whatever) and we write notes to let them know that their work is remembered and they are loved even though they are far away. We learn about the country whoever we are sponsoring is in throughout the Christmas season, and they can email us recipes or holiday traditions from that country that I print on Christmas paper. I go out at night when everyone goes to bed and do Black Friday shopping, but am home by the time everyone is waking up. Day after Thanksgiving is the day we begin putting up decorations and the tree. We get ONE new ornament a year, each, something to do with an interest, hobby, or vacation of the year, or to remind us of a joke between the family, etc. So while decorating we can remember and laugh about previous years and plan for this year as well. I like the idea of doing Christmas crafts during the season, together, but my oldest is JUST getting to the age where he could do things like that with me. We do tie a green string across the kitchen bar (a central location) and hang Christmas cards that we receive on it. When decorations are up, we sit back and relax and enjoy what we've done, then get ready for the parade downtown. We bring a thermos of "kids hot chocolate" (something cheap like swiss miss is fine for them) and then another thermos of "grownup hot chocolate" (Ghiradelli spiked with peppermint schnapps and Godiva liqueur). After the parade and kids are in bed, we watch It's a Wonderful Life and rest. During the season, we have different charity projects, and enjoy all the seasonal activities we can (tree lighting ceremony and caroling in the community, a hockey game or something that involves us seeing ice and/or snow, our neighborhood Christmas festival, an event we put on at the Children's hospital, etc), and of course the kids take pictures with Santa, and we drive through neighborhoods looking at lights. We watch a Christmas movie every Friday evening (take turns picking them out), and while the movie is on we play games, or fill out cards, or whatever. On Christmas Eve, I try to make it "Australia night" or "Tanzania night" (or wherever the location is for the year) where I make at least one dish native to that country, and we read the Christmas story from the Bible, and talk about how God so loved the WORLD.....it's our way of keeping a little more of a world view in mind, even while we have fun with our own stuff. Then we lay out Christmas cookies that my son helps me make on a special Santa plate, and carrots too. I give the boys a bubble bath (to help them relax) and this year we will incorporate reading the new Christmas book (as suggested from a previous post) at bedtime. In the morning there are gifts and the stockings are filled. I just do orange sweet rolls (pillsbury) for breakfast because it's something that we can do quickly while everyone is checking out gifts. We go to the movies in town square and out to eat late afternoon/early evening, just to get out and about, after a day of hanging out together and playing with toys and calling or skyping loved ones all over the world. We take the tree and decorations down January 1 after NYE celebrations. This may seem long, but all these things are tradition to us!
