Because of extended family situations and proximity, my little family will be alone for Christmas this year. We don't really have any "traditions". Some times we go to church; we always open a present and we leave cookies and milk for Santa. I want to make the evening fun for the kids and for hubby and I. What do you do? Where do you go?
Give me some ideas that I can start this year and continue on for years to come.
Have a game night or watch a Christmas movie and have hot chocolate. Or, you can bake special cookies together or assemble a gingerbread house(use up that leftover Halloween candy). The time spend together is the best part.
How old are your kids? One thing I did when my kids were littler and still do w/ daycare kids is make reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) and spread on the lawn so Santa can find your house. It's just a fun lil something!
Also, a new tradition we started last year was the "hide the pickle" ornament. We found the ornament at a Christmas store...it's a glass pickle ornament. And after everyone has gone to bed, I hide it somewhere in the house (it has been hanging on the tree this whole time) and whoever finds it, gets a prize...I may even do this w/ my inlaws when they come on Christmas Eve morning..
Since it's just your little family, maybe you could make it a fun movie, snacks night! Instead of a BIG dinner, have all of your favorite snacks, get everyone a new set of jammies, and just chill and watch a favorite Christmas movie...as much as I love my extended family, I would LOVE to have some quiet family time, too...we always want the opposite of what we have, huh? LOL!
Enjoy your time and Merry Christmas to you and yours!
We enjoy going Christmas caroling to give goodies to our neighbors/close friends. We all wear Santa hats, and sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then we enjoy hot chocolate afterwards (or sometimes wassail) and read the Christmas story from Luke in the Bible before opening ("giving") one gift and getting out the cookies/milk for Santa.
My family is always on our own on Christmas eve too. Our tradition is to go to Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. Merry Christmas.
You can put on some Christmas music and play board games, card games, or dice games. Or, watch a favorite family Christmas movie together and make it an indoor movie night with popcorn, candy, soda or tea, with blankets. Or make some Fudge and have the whole family join in with helping. Ooooh...don't forget the eggnog if you all like that. Yum-O!
We usually watch movies. This year we'll be by ourselves too, so I think we're going to do a family movie night and games, and make all kinds of goodies to snack on while we play. :-)
On Christmas Eve, we each open one present, attend Mass as a family, then go out to a nice dinner with the family we have in town. While we are at Mass, Santa's elves stop by our house and deliver new Christmas pajamas for all of us to wear. Once we change into our Christmas pjs, we leave cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer along with a note. Lastly, we go outside to look for Santa. While we are gazing, my husband or I ring some jingle bells in our pocket and make a big deal that Santa is getting close, so we better hurry up and get to bed. This usually gets my boys running up the stairs and into their beds since they know Santa won't come if they're awake :)
The most important thing is being together. We don't ever have time, but I know that ZooLights and Arizona Celebration of Lights are open on Christmas Eve, that might be a fun tradition to start. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
We have no family here so we pretty much always spend Christmas Eve by ourselves and sometimes Christmas too. We just started the tradition of opening 2 presents on Christmas Eve, and 1 of them is always new cozy pajamas. After we open them we all get to go put them on and wear them that night and Christmas morning. Watching Christmas movies is always a fun thing to do on Christmas eve too! You could go out and look at christmas lights on houses or at a special place like the zoo or a neighborhood that always goes all out with their lights for Christmas or something along those lines. In Yuma there was a neighborhood called Candy Cane Lane that did that. Here in Prescott Valley there is the Valley of Lights that is fun to go to. You could make gingerbread houses or some sort of Christmas craft.
Growing up, my family was too far away from extended family, so we always celebrated it just ourselves. I don't feel like we really missed out on anything; now that I'm married, we've had to do the "travel to celebrate Christmas" thing, and/or go to the home of one of our parents who lived close by, and let me tell ya, having experienced both, I much prefer the relaxed Christmas time of being at my own home without being dragged from pillar to post.
When we were younger, I don't really remember doing that much on Christmas Eve, but when we got older, we'd open our stockings on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we'd watch a Christmas movie, like "It's a Wonderful Life". One of my in-laws has a tradition of giving Christmas pajamas to the kids on Christmas Eve, so the kids open that one present, go to bed in them, and then are all cute and in clean PJs first thing in the morning for opening the rest of the presents.
