Growing up, my parents always let us open a gift on Christmas Eve. It was something we could use right away such as an electric blanket for a cold night, new pjs or a necklace to wear to church. Last year, we decided to give the kids new pj's to open and wear every Christmas Eve. I plan on continuing this tradition every year.
Here are a few ideas for your family to do together this holiday season:
* Sing Christmas songs while trimming the tree.
* Bake and decorate cookies.
* Drive around town looking at Christmas lights. you could even bring some hot cocoa with you!
* Make ornaments for the tree. They don't have to be fancy!
* Cuddle up and watch a favorite holiday movie.
* Write and mail a letter to Santa.
* Donate toys and food to a family in need.
We'd love to hear about your family traditions. Leave us a comment and share a bit about what your family does every year together. Tomorrow, I will share a family tradition that my grandma started years and years ago as well as some sites that will help you create beautiful holiday cookies.
4 comments:
I love Family traditions!! We have a few as well.
Every year we hang our name balls/bulbs on my mom's "Do not touch" tree - this tree is for show, Santa never left presents at this tree, LOL. My ball is from 1982. Its fun to do this every year.
Every year we buy our sponsered child a cow, a goat or a pig as well as other items for his community.
Every year, Jonah donates a lot of his toys to families in need.
And on CHristmas eve, we make cookies for Santa and then we all watch White Christmas with our hot chocolate. I cry every year! LOL.
The tradition i miss the most is my Dad reading me a story on Christmas Eve. Last time he did that I was 22!!! Sean and I were engaged and he thought it was cute that at 22 I was still getting a Christmas story. We now do this with Jonah.
I love traditions and cant wait to hear others!!
My family is Polish and traditionally, Christmas Eve consists of a big meal with the entire extended family, opening presents from family (only Santa presents in the morning) and shepherd's Mass late at night. We also bake Christmas cookies a couple weeks before Christmas - one of the recipies I make with my daughter, my grandmother made with my mom and my mom made with me. :)
The tradition that is most important to me is celebrating Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family. My parents always host and my mom makes her famous beef tenderloin. We all open gifts from our Secret Santa's and then the best part of the tradition is that we all gather in the family to watch George C. Scott in A Christmas Carol. Here's a layout I created documenting this part of our Christmas Eve...
http://www.scrapjazz.com/gallery/source/25881/Our_Family_Tradition.jpg
Christmas Eve before we go to bed, Daddy would always read the Christmas story from Luke 2 to us. We would all sit around and listen.
Every Christmas morning, we get our gifts from Santa and get to open our stocking. Then we have to eat breakfast before we can open the wrapped gifts under the tree. It Christmas is on a Sunday, we have to wait until after church to open the wrapped gifts. The kids pass them out (and yes, I'm still on of the kids on Christmas!)
Since my granddaughter's birth we started giving them one gift on Christmas Eve, it is always PJ and sometimes we add slippers. They way they are dressed decently on Christmas morning for pictures!
In the last couple of years we have started with the grandkids opening all of their gifts, and then we start with the youngest adult and they open one of their gift and then we go around to the next youngest adult until all the gifts are open.
I just love Christmas!
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