Holiday Traditions - Gilbert,AZ

Hi F., A chinese gift exchange is alot of fun. Each person comes to a Christmas gathering with a recycled gift to exchange. It is wrapped in a brown grocery bag or in FANCY paper and bows. You decide. All gifts are set in the center of the room. Each guest is given a number.
Start with 1 and go to however many numbers you need. The person with number 1 goes first.
They take a gift from the center, open it and show it to everyone. Then it is number 2. They can steal the gift already opened or go for a new gift. They open it, share it with the group.
Then it is number 3. They can still one of the first 2 gifts or go for a new one from the center.
If someone steals a gift you have, you get to pick a new one from the center. It continues in this way until all the gifts are gone. It's great fun as guests try to convince others to steal their gift or try to keep it hidden because they don't want it stolen. It's lively and fun.

Congratulations!

One family tradition that I grew up with and now have for my family at Christmas is called "Dip in the Kettle". It's an old Swedish tradition, but it's also sort of fun for kids.

You just take a piece of beef and a piece of pork (I usually use a small beef and pork roast) and boil them for a couple of hours. You want them to just be fall-apart tender. Take them out and put them on a platter. Then, take slices of white bread (or wheat bread, but white's better) and dip them in the broth. The goal is to leave it in the broth long enough to soak it, but to get it out before it falls apart. If you get the bread out in one piece, you'll have good luck all year! Like I said, it's definitely more fun for the kids - but it's delicious!! I know, I know - it sounds a bit strange, but it's really good. I serve the meat with just a relish tray (pickles, olives, sliced cheeses) - it's super simple! And since we traditionally have this on Christmas Eve, you're not working on a big clean up that takes you away from family festivities!

I too have a blended family. I think it is great to start new traditions especially for your "new" family. But be sure to continue some of the former traditions from the original families as that brings security and a feeling of not too much change to the children. One of our 1st Christmas' I made matching PJ's for the whole family. When we took our picture we looked like one big quilt with heads sticking out! It has been a fun memory for us.

My family has a tradition of the same meal each Christmas eve. Chimmichungas (SP???) It's fun to have a fancy meal christmas eve, and then you have left overs for christmas day, and you don't have to work as hard or make as big of a mess, so you have more time for family.
One other, I don't know if you would call it a tradition, but something I love about christmas, my dad always gave us presents from Santa or Rudolph or Comit and he still does it. I'm the youngest (28) and it is still fun to say, "who's that one from?" "SANTA" now my brother and I are giving our kids gifts from Santa and random reindeer.
Good luck!