We have some that come from my childhood, some that have started with my own family. Since I was little, we've always watched The Grinch (the original) before we open presents. We recite lines together, and as we've become adults, we've added in mimosas, and... cheesesticks? (None of us can remember when or why the cheesesticks came into play.) It's so fun to have my kids involved in this tradition with my family now as well.
With my own husband and kids, on December 1st we watch Elf to kick of the season. When we decorate for Christmas, we blast Christmas music through the house while the kids and I decorate inside and my husband decorates outside before we all come together to decorate our tree. Christmas Eve we drive around and look at lights and watch the original Rudolph before the kids go to bed. Once they're in bed, my husband and I watch Love, Actually.
When our 4 daughters were very young, we would have them secretly draw each other's names to see which sister they would buy a Christmas ornament for. They are now 27 and the tradition has continued every year with them putting great effort into picking out ornaments that represent something about a sister's life for that year. Now that they are starting to have their own homes, they have a whole bunch of ornaments to put on their own trees.
We also have a bunch of tealight candles on our table for our special Christmas meal and we go around the table and name someone who we want to light a candle in remembrance of who we lost that year.
This year is our 13th year of themed Christmas dinners. We’ve done brunch, English pub food, French, Italian, seafood. One year the menu was three sandwiches, three soups and three salads (so much better than it sounds). This year the theme is Chinese food. The menu is planned, fingers crossed!
My mother is Swedish American and my father has Cornish ancestry, so we eat Swedish pancakes for breakfast on Christmas morning and Cornish pasties for dinner that evening. Now that the kids are adults with significant others, the times they come to our house vary on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but they know they’ll always get pancakes and pasties!
Putting a big juicy navel orange in everyone’s stocking. Why? Because my mother and her mother and all the mothers in my family have done the same. It’s a nod to the simple things - the things that make our heart smile … and a deep bow to the great women before me.
My Christmas traditions have been set in stone my entire life. I'm 51. I want to break the mold. Yet I know life is breaking the mold for me and doesn't need my help. My dad passed a few years ago, and my mom who is the glue of my family will be 80 next year. So my unstated, internal, unnoticed-by-others Christmas tradition is to honor my past, accept and enjoy my present, and be open to the future.
We started the tradition of reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” with our kids every Christmas Eve many years ago. Now they are grown, some years I get lucky and it’s still read in person but other years it’s read over FaceTime. It’s my favorite part of the season. ❤️
Growing up I always enjoyed putting up and having our Christmas tree. We're not religious so it was more of a secularized personal tradition, with so many ornaments retelling stories of our childhoods, travels and interests.
Now that my children are grown and I have 6 grandchildren we have a tradition that I go to my one daughters for Christmas dinner. After dinner the whole family comes to her house, including my ex-hubsand and his hew wife, who I actually get along with very well (both of them), and his brother, and we exchange gifts. We have fun, the kids play games, they sing songs for us and we all bring different desserts to eat. Before everone leaves we take a family photo. And this photo is sent to everyone so we all have a memory from every year to cherish of our whole family together. We are a crazy, fun bunch to be around!! Lot's of laughing and fun!!
Hi Shannon, what a great question... there are so many different traditions people develop.
When my sweety and I moved into our 1905-built home in 2003, I realized the similarly-aged garage's low, flattish, added-on section was perfect for me standing on a step ladder and using cross-country skis to make ski marks, and would explain to my boys (8 and 6 at the time) that Santa had tried to land on the roof but, on his first pass, missed because the roof (and "chimbly") is so high and steep, and his sleigh bounced off the garage. They were saucer-eyed on Christmas morning when I opened the back door, showed them and explained! Although the four boys in our blended family are all grown and married, some with children, I continue to do this every year. Partly it's for me, remember the magic of their childhood memories of family gatherings at Christmas.
A later tradition has been a way to honour our dear friends' daughter Ana's murder at Sandy Hook school. I chose a picture of her to place among the branches of our Christmas tree and then added pics of our departed family members to bring their memories into the beauty of the decorated tree. It's a poignant reminder of those we loved, lost, and still love and yearn to have as part of our celebration. Sadly, there are now more photos than when I started, yet there's a comfort in seeing their faces lit up by the lights.
With gratitude for your service, I wish you the best of the season, with peace and contentment in the new year.
When my daughter was little, I started a tradition of getting everyone in the house a new Christmas ornament that represented something they did or especially enjoyed from that year. It's fun to take a little walk back in time each year when we decorate the tree, remembering why we got each ornament as the tradition has grown. My daughter is now 21, so it's become quite a collection; one day it will become the foundation of their own Christmas decorations in their own home.
Watching family favorite holiday films/tv (Albert Finney's Scrooged, The Snowman, Love Actually, Muppets Christmas Carol, The Great British Baking episodes...), picking one new ornement each year to add to the tree, decorating the tree, baking goodies for friends and family, making yule/ solstice- celtic/nordic/pagan protection decorations for folks, driving and walking around to look at holiday lights, snuggling with the cats as we stare at the tree at night, and touching base with friends and feeling grateful for them (now more than ever).
We have a tradition of filling one another’s stockings with the most wonderful little things we can find, so that taking apart the stocking is usually the most exciting part of the gift exchange. Sometimes there’s a tradition within the tradition, such as always putting a Toberlone in my daughter’s stocking. The stocking stuff is all lagniappe and there’s no stress involved in doing it, no worries if it will be just what someone wanted, or the right size. Sometimes there is an expensive gift like jewelry included, but usually not. We look at the stockings last after the other gift giving is done. Everyone can sit back and pull out their funny surprises one after the other. Why is it so exciting to find lumpy surprises stuffed in a big sock? I don’t know but at my house we love it.
Since 2016 we began decorating for Christmas a bit early, but when Covid hit we decorated for Christmas ON Thanksgiving Day and now that is the new tradition. I have inside/outside timers set. I can lounge by the twinkling therapy tree with the cats early mornings or evenings and just not have to worry that everything is going to turn itself on or off. For some reason that brings me great comfort. Hoping my teen will remember all this Christmas stuff as nice and good as he heads into his last year of high school.
We have some that come from my childhood, some that have started with my own family. Since I was little, we've always watched The Grinch (the original) before we open presents. We recite lines together, and as we've become adults, we've added in mimosas, and... cheesesticks? (None of us can remember when or why the cheesesticks came into play.) It's so fun to have my kids involved in this tradition with my family now as well.
With my own husband and kids, on December 1st we watch Elf to kick of the season. When we decorate for Christmas, we blast Christmas music through the house while the kids and I decorate inside and my husband decorates outside before we all come together to decorate our tree. Christmas Eve we drive around and look at lights and watch the original Rudolph before the kids go to bed. Once they're in bed, my husband and I watch Love, Actually.
It all sounds so great, Sarah.
When our 4 daughters were very young, we would have them secretly draw each other's names to see which sister they would buy a Christmas ornament for. They are now 27 and the tradition has continued every year with them putting great effort into picking out ornaments that represent something about a sister's life for that year. Now that they are starting to have their own homes, they have a whole bunch of ornaments to put on their own trees.
We also have a bunch of tealight candles on our table for our special Christmas meal and we go around the table and name someone who we want to light a candle in remembrance of who we lost that year.
This is all so special, Susie.
This year is our 13th year of themed Christmas dinners. We’ve done brunch, English pub food, French, Italian, seafood. One year the menu was three sandwiches, three soups and three salads (so much better than it sounds). This year the theme is Chinese food. The menu is planned, fingers crossed!
This sounds so fun, Sharon!
My mother is Swedish American and my father has Cornish ancestry, so we eat Swedish pancakes for breakfast on Christmas morning and Cornish pasties for dinner that evening. Now that the kids are adults with significant others, the times they come to our house vary on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but they know they’ll always get pancakes and pasties!
What a fun tradition to bring to the next generation!
Putting a big juicy navel orange in everyone’s stocking. Why? Because my mother and her mother and all the mothers in my family have done the same. It’s a nod to the simple things - the things that make our heart smile … and a deep bow to the great women before me.
What a wonderful tradition.
My Christmas traditions have been set in stone my entire life. I'm 51. I want to break the mold. Yet I know life is breaking the mold for me and doesn't need my help. My dad passed a few years ago, and my mom who is the glue of my family will be 80 next year. So my unstated, internal, unnoticed-by-others Christmas tradition is to honor my past, accept and enjoy my present, and be open to the future.
What a great way to go into the holidays - and into the new year, really.
We started the tradition of reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” with our kids every Christmas Eve many years ago. Now they are grown, some years I get lucky and it’s still read in person but other years it’s read over FaceTime. It’s my favorite part of the season. ❤️
I love that you continue it, even if it's not in person.
Growing up I always enjoyed putting up and having our Christmas tree. We're not religious so it was more of a secularized personal tradition, with so many ornaments retelling stories of our childhoods, travels and interests.
The trees with the personal ornaments are so special.
Now that my children are grown and I have 6 grandchildren we have a tradition that I go to my one daughters for Christmas dinner. After dinner the whole family comes to her house, including my ex-hubsand and his hew wife, who I actually get along with very well (both of them), and his brother, and we exchange gifts. We have fun, the kids play games, they sing songs for us and we all bring different desserts to eat. Before everone leaves we take a family photo. And this photo is sent to everyone so we all have a memory from every year to cherish of our whole family together. We are a crazy, fun bunch to be around!! Lot's of laughing and fun!!
Wow, this is so great, Roseann! It sounds like everyone really cherishes your time together.
Hi Shannon, what a great question... there are so many different traditions people develop.
When my sweety and I moved into our 1905-built home in 2003, I realized the similarly-aged garage's low, flattish, added-on section was perfect for me standing on a step ladder and using cross-country skis to make ski marks, and would explain to my boys (8 and 6 at the time) that Santa had tried to land on the roof but, on his first pass, missed because the roof (and "chimbly") is so high and steep, and his sleigh bounced off the garage. They were saucer-eyed on Christmas morning when I opened the back door, showed them and explained! Although the four boys in our blended family are all grown and married, some with children, I continue to do this every year. Partly it's for me, remember the magic of their childhood memories of family gatherings at Christmas.
A later tradition has been a way to honour our dear friends' daughter Ana's murder at Sandy Hook school. I chose a picture of her to place among the branches of our Christmas tree and then added pics of our departed family members to bring their memories into the beauty of the decorated tree. It's a poignant reminder of those we loved, lost, and still love and yearn to have as part of our celebration. Sadly, there are now more photos than when I started, yet there's a comfort in seeing their faces lit up by the lights.
With gratitude for your service, I wish you the best of the season, with peace and contentment in the new year.
When my daughter was little, I started a tradition of getting everyone in the house a new Christmas ornament that represented something they did or especially enjoyed from that year. It's fun to take a little walk back in time each year when we decorate the tree, remembering why we got each ornament as the tradition has grown. My daughter is now 21, so it's become quite a collection; one day it will become the foundation of their own Christmas decorations in their own home.
Watching family favorite holiday films/tv (Albert Finney's Scrooged, The Snowman, Love Actually, Muppets Christmas Carol, The Great British Baking episodes...), picking one new ornement each year to add to the tree, decorating the tree, baking goodies for friends and family, making yule/ solstice- celtic/nordic/pagan protection decorations for folks, driving and walking around to look at holiday lights, snuggling with the cats as we stare at the tree at night, and touching base with friends and feeling grateful for them (now more than ever).
We have a tradition of filling one another’s stockings with the most wonderful little things we can find, so that taking apart the stocking is usually the most exciting part of the gift exchange. Sometimes there’s a tradition within the tradition, such as always putting a Toberlone in my daughter’s stocking. The stocking stuff is all lagniappe and there’s no stress involved in doing it, no worries if it will be just what someone wanted, or the right size. Sometimes there is an expensive gift like jewelry included, but usually not. We look at the stockings last after the other gift giving is done. Everyone can sit back and pull out their funny surprises one after the other. Why is it so exciting to find lumpy surprises stuffed in a big sock? I don’t know but at my house we love it.
Since 2016 we began decorating for Christmas a bit early, but when Covid hit we decorated for Christmas ON Thanksgiving Day and now that is the new tradition. I have inside/outside timers set. I can lounge by the twinkling therapy tree with the cats early mornings or evenings and just not have to worry that everything is going to turn itself on or off. For some reason that brings me great comfort. Hoping my teen will remember all this Christmas stuff as nice and good as he heads into his last year of high school.
A great way to keep that connection.