One of the traditions during the holiday season in my house growing up was that we'd each open one present on Christmas Eve. Other Christmas Eve activities included building a fire in our fireplace (something we rarely did) as long as my brother or sister would do it. And after Justin was born, my dad would read Twas the Night Before Christmas to us on Christmas Eve. Those are special memories of mine.
A holiday tradition for Channing's family was everyone getting together for a gift exchange and yummy food. Everyone included Channing's mom, his dad, two sisters and their families, and three brothers and their families. He also remembers making Christmas candy and cookies with his mom. He always helped decorate the cookies each year.
We have our own traditions in the Channing household. We continue traditions that we grew up with and have borrowed traditions from other loved ones. One of my favorites is borrowed from a Harding friend. Her family would all get new pajamas on Christmas Eve and wear them that night and Christmas morning. I thought that was a fun holiday tradition, so we do it in our house now.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions from your childhood? What are some traditions that you have with your family now?
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Christmas Traditions
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We used to open up pajamas on Christmas Eve too. But my husband is dead-set against opening up stuff on Christmas Eve (he acts like it's cheating), so we don't carry that on. I really like how we've done the present-opening the past few years. It's just been our immediate family, & we take our time giving a present to each child, opening one at a time. It takes the whole morning! We just hang out & have a good time. Dan & I might open one or two while the kids are opening theirs, but mostly we just enjoy watching the kids & then when they're done, we enjoy opening our presents for each other. Last year we had to get up extra early to be able to have enough time to get to church.
i have to say i love the pajama idea... may have to be something we start when we get back home just because there aren't alot of clothing store options here... but who knows. in my family every year we got a new ornament and the christmas tree was a big production that we were all there for the day after thanksgiving to put up. i remember baking was always a big deal in our family like in Channings. and one thing that i really liked that Gary did with our nieces and nephews one year was did a reading of the birth of Christ and then almost did like a quiz bowl. he had gone to the bank and gotten silver dollars and the kids got one with every question they answered correctly. i ramble, but one thing that i think we're going to start doing here (it's simple, but i think it'll be fun for our kids) is right after thanksgiving we'll make a huge green and red paper chain for the tree or somewhere in the house, but every link will have the name of someone in our family or our friends back home that we miss and are going to be praying for throughout the holidays. i thought that might keep our kids a little more connected to home during the hoidays. we'll see. and gary wants to start stringing our own popcorn for the tree, could be messy, but so much fun :) sorry this was so long... i love christmas!
Steak on Christmas is a big tradition in my family and since we spend the holidays with my side right now we carry that on! Cinnamon rolls also to start the day off.
We also open one present on Christmas Eve. Also, a more recent tradition has been reading the birth story of Christ which I love.
In Jonathan's family they always watched "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve and we have done that several times.
We continue many traditions of our families and probably will begin our own once we actually stay home for Christmas, which may be next year! We'll have to see.
On my side of the family we use to decorate the tree and then after it got dark, turn all the lights off and drink hot chocolate (even if it was 70% outside) and tell our fanorite memories. Mom and I would bake Christmas cookies for our entore family and then send them out in neat tins we had picked out. We would also watch all the christmas movies leading up to Christmas. Matts family opens up presents on Christmas eve with immediate family and thenon Christmas day gets together with all the rest of the family and eats and opens gifts. His parents would turn all the clocks ahead by several hours and then waited till the kids got in bed and then stomped around on the roof and shook jingle bells and put all the gifts under the tree. Then they all got up and opened their gifts.
Now the kids help me decorate the tree and we make cookies for santa. Last year we were at home for Christmas and so we had the kids go to bed and then put all the presents under the tree for the morning. I love the pajama idea and might have to start that one.
Sorry so long winded- Christmas time is my favorite time of year!
We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve as well in my family growing up. Another thing we did was attend a Christmas Eve church service, usually at 11:00pm which would end around midnight (or Christmas morning). I loved this tradition because we always went right to sleep once we got home because we were so tired! We have been to all different denominations of churches for this service, which is also neat, as we got to see the different things that each church celebrated. Another tradition my mom started was to bake a birthday cake for baby Jesus that we had with Christmas Eve dinner. We would read the story of the birth of Christ after dinner and celebrate with cake! Watching the movie "You've got Mail" has also become a tradition since high school or so in my family. Im just looking forward to being able to spend a Christmas at home and not have to travel!! Hopefully that happens sooner than later.
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