Hi Mamas! Can you share your family Christmas traditions? Last year I started baking Christmas cookies with my children. I let them do the dough and cut out their own cookie shapes on Christmas Eve. We'll continue to do that. This year, we'll be doing gingerbread houses over the Christmas break. I would like to get other ideas on things to do as a family each year.
Next year I'm thinking of going all out on their birthdays and then lessening their Christmas gifts and doing more for other families and children in need during the holidays.
Thanks for sharing!
tamara
We got to Santa's Village in Richardson. It's free and FUN!
http://www.cor.net/SantasVillage.aspx?id=7956
Last year we went to Six Flags Holiday in the Park with my daughter, she loved it so much we plan to go every year. Our trip this year is next Saturday.
We also do Santa's Village in Richardson, it's free and really cute.
We also drive around to look at Christmas lights with Christmas music playing.
We alway adopt a child and buy Christmas presents. I think this year will be the first year our oldest can begin to understand why, and we plan to continue doing this.
We also have a day of baking and candy making.
We do tons of stuff, but our favorite is going light looking. On week nights, after their baths, they'll bundle up in blankets with their slippers with their bedtime snacks and we'll drive through our neighborhood looking at lights and singing Christmas music. When there isn't school the next day, we like to try out other neighborhoods (or what the kids call "Major Light Looking." We do this almost every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
We always go to the movies on Christmas Day while dinner is cooking in the oven.
We always do the light looking also, but we do it on Christmas Eve before they go to bed. We also have a day of baking and candy making about 1 week before Christmas. This year we are starting a new tradition, we are going to have a big meal on Christmas eve and then on Christmas Day we are going to make breakfast as a family and have soup, maybe ham and beans, or chili (Something that can be thrown in the crock-pot). I was thinking I spend all day each Christmas cooking and not getting to really enjoy the presents and time with my family. So, this way we still get the full meal, but with more family time included.
We have a party every Christmas Eve. It started when they were very young and it was just immediate family. We don't eat an official dinner....we serve everyone's favorite snacky treats, like taquitos, bbq lil smokies, egg rolls, chips and homemade queso, etc...and christmas candy ofcourse. During the party, we decorate christmas cookies and build gingerbread houses. Christmas movies and Christmas music play through out the house that night. Over the years, as they got older, they starting inviting friends to come over. Now that they are 12 & 16 years old it has grown into lots of friends and parents stopping by at Christmas Eve. It's a tradition that is known by all of their friends and family every year. It's kinda an open door party where people just stop by and don't feel obligated to stay long, unless they just want to. The kids just incorporated a white elephant gift giving game into the tradition a couple of years ago, but I put a $5.00 limit on it so that everyone can participate.
Once the party ends and the last person leaves, the kids get to open one present under the tree. (usually pajamas and slippers so that they are ready for cute pics the next morning).
Mexican Food on Christmas Eve is our tradition.
We sometimes order out a big plate of enchiladas or tamales from a local restaurant and maybe chips and salsa while we try to make the other stuff like queso and TX Caviar and refried or "Drunken" beans. Just depends on our mood as to what we make or what we order in.
We are just getting started on our family traditions and still travel so much between our families but so far, I love this tradition!
We bake cookies and i cook a ham for our neighborhood fire station. We deliver the items together (with several neighbors) on Christmas Day. The firemen all really appreciate it and the kids get the VIP tour of the Fire Station and the fire trucks. We only stay about 30 minutes or less, then we're back to family fun!
We are starting to make Christmas ornaments for family this year.
We adopt angels at Christmas - but I don't go all out on their birthday either. I'm trying to grow nice human beings, not the materialistic little consumers I see in my classroom.
S.
