What Are Your Christmas Traditions?? - North Anson,ME

We don't actually celebrate Christmas, we celebrate Yule, which is a week long celebration traditionally starting on the Solstice. We start on the 21st and celebrate until the 25th, doing a gift a day. We also try to do something for others each day, whether that is bringing new coats down to the homeless shelters, food to the local soup kitchen, or donating toys, time, or money, to other charities.

Mostly doing holiday things together is what makes for fond memories.
You decorate the house together, you bake cookies and other holiday treats together, you go get the tree together, decorate it together, and when the season is over - EVERYONE helps put things away and cleans up together.
One of the things we do is take hot chocolate or warm cider in (car safe) mugs and drive around to see neighborhood decorations together on Christmas Eve.
We use a Santa Key (hang it on the back door) and Santa uses it to get in, and he hangs it on the tree before he leaves (we find it in the morning).

We don't put presents under the tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas eve (we still do this even though our kids are much older, and they still enjoy it). Instead, we put books under the tree. We bought soft cloth books at first, then moved on to board books, picture books, then stories. We've got quite a collection: "Santa's Favorite Christmas Story", "A Small Miracle" by Peter Collington (my favorite), funny books, touching stories, fiction and non-fiction, religious and non-religious, but all Christmas or winter themed. We still put out the Little Golden Books from when they were young, and all the baby books! That way we didn't have to tell the kids not to touch stuff under the tree. Instead, we could let them lie near the tree on the rug, reading and enjoying the lights and the scent of the fir branches. We always put the books away on Christmas eve, and don't bring them out again until the next Christmas. And we have added to the collection from time to time. We scatter them around the base of the tree and it's wonderful to see how the kids recall them and have memorized some of them. Last year, my son dropped by with two pals - all of them young men in their mid-twenties. They all plopped on the floor next to the tree and read books! They would crack up laughing at the silly books, or read the baby books in comical voices, and for awhile, they were all quiet as they read some of the other stories. It was a nice moment. Then, of course, they all got a beer and played Cards Against Humanity. Oh well! Nice while it lasted, right? It just shows, books never get old.

When my kids were younger (before we got insanely busy with their activities) we hosted a Toys for Tots party. We rented the local movie theater and everyone who wanted to come got free admission/popcorn/drink for bringing a toy to donate. It was awesome.

What we have always done is taco's for Christmas Eve. That's a tradition from my childhood. Now my parents come to my house on Christmas Eve and we all open our gifts from them - and they open their gifts from us. Sometimes we go to their house, but with animal hair and allergies it's always a bad idea. Any of my siblings in town come to my house as well for the evening. We do Christmas Day together too at my house.

Our kids get new PJ's every year on Christmas Eve from Santa. He puts them under the tree while everyone is saying goodbye at the front door. That way they look nice and fresh for Christmas morning pictures!

We do a handful of things, and since we don't live close to any family, we've had to be creative - we are within a day's driving distance, but it would be impossible to see our families on Christmas eve/Christmas day itself. So, this is what we have come up with. It involves a lot of plans with other people, because to me, the joy of the season is sharing it with the people we love, not getting stuff.

- The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we go to a tree farm, go to the field, and cut down a tree. It's fun, and includes a hayride to the field, hot chocolate in the shop, etc.
- The first weekend in December, we have a particular friend and her kids over for the day, and we all decorate the house/tree together, and then watch Rudolf.
- Two weekends before Christmas, we have my 2 best friends and their families over for dinner. The kids love to play together while the adults chat.
- We get together with my extended family the weekend before Christmas and each kid makes a gingerbread house (actually a graham cracker house, to make it more simple since there are 9 kids).
- On Christmas eve, we have dinner at home, go to church, and then drive around some neighborhoods looking at all the lights. Then put out milk, cookies, and carrots for Santa and reindeer.
- Christmas day, we open presents, then have a big breakfast, and hang out for the day as a family. We play board games, play outside especially if there is snow, etc. Then have an early dinner. For presents, each person gets 1 present from Santa, Santa fills the stockings with some candy, and we each buy each other a present - so parents buy something for each kid, and kids also buy for parents and each other.
- The weekend after Christmas, we go to my in-laws to celebrate with them.
- We make sure we are back for New Year's Eve, because a good friend always has a family party.

Then, I collapse on the couch, exhausted but happy.

We have a ton that have developed over the years...

Annual wreath making party with friends
Christmas Eve-open new PJ's to wear that night
Christmas day or Eve walk on the beach
Head to local mountains to cut tree
Bake cookies as gift for impossible-to-buy-for Uncle
Reading of "Night Before Christmas" before bedtime Christmas Eve
Visit local Candycane Lane
Adopt-a-family from Salvation Army
Watch Peanuts Christmas Special & Grinch
Lobster dinner Christmas Eve
My personal favorite-Draw names and make handmade ornament to exchange. Rules are: 1. It's a secret 2. You must use only things from our craft box, nature or what we have around the house no buying stuff. Some of the sweetest ornaments we have came from this tradition!

Wow, we have a lot I guess

We bake Christmas cookies (yes, I have two boys and they love it!)

We "adopt" a family that is needy - and my children help pick out a present and a complete outfit for the children - parents get gift cards to WalMart or a grocery story.

We attend a local Christmas concert - sometimes at a church, sometimes other locations. But we look for a place to listen to Christmas music and attend.

We watch the Holiday Boat Parade - used to be Christmas until the Seminole Indians bought it.

We all attend Christmas Eve mass together and then go to my grandmothers for Christmas Eve cookies:)

We have Christmas Brunch at my house - everyone - brings their own stockings and we open together.

We do stockings - and Santa is real to everyone from my 5 year old to my 93 year old Grandma.

We have Christmas dinner at my mom's house. And keep eating those cookies. We bake more if needed - we need to have them for New Years Eve also!

i really like your tradition, and your lovely response to your daughter!
cookie baking was a biggie. the boys loved it, and we all got in on it. i'm terrible at rolling out dough, so that was my husband's job, and the boys got to go hogwild with 'decorating.'
cutting down the tree was always a fun day. we'd get a big bucket of takeout chicken and blare christmas music while we decorated. it was so much fun that my husband and i still do it even if no boys make it home for 'tree day' now that they're grown and busy.
for many years we went to see the TSO when they were in town. last year their schedule was so off it didn't work out, and i think our boys are too busy with other stuff this year. but it was an awesome tradition while it lasted.
i still put christmas paper over the entrance to the living room once i've got the presents set out, and the stockings filled. from the time my boys were tiny they had to ninja-punch and kick the paper down to get in. they roll their eyes at me, but i still do it today even though they're both towering over us both!
we save the stockings for last. after the christmas morning festivities my brothers who live nearby come over for dinner, then when it's all been cleared away and everyone else goes home, we finally do our stockings on christmas night.
:) khairete
S.

We make christmas cookies every year...the kids love decorating them with colored icing. We make gingerbread houses. We go to see the Nutcracker usually at a little local community theater. We get a permit for an area the forest service needs to thin and we wear our snowshoes or cross country skis and have an outside day trekking in the snow to find a tree. It's fun to saw down your own tree and bring it home...the kids LOVE doing this. We bring cookies or homemade candy or homemade jam to some good friends and neighbors. We always do a giving tree each year. The kids both pick out another child on the tree and we get them their wish list. We also do Operation Christmas Child and make two shoe boxes to be sent overseas. We always go do the local pancake breakfast with Santa each year. It raises money for charity. After breakfast the kids get their photo taken with Santa and tell him what they want.

We shop for a live tree together as a family every year. Bring it home and set it up. I do the lights (takes a few days) and then enlist the kids' help to add ornaments. We hang stockings, including one for the dog, put lights on the house and decorate out front, and the rest of the interior of the house (garland, candles, various themed items, rugs, guest towels, etc). We attend as many Advent services as we can and look forward to the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

We bake. Daughter helps with the decorated sugar cookies. I make 2 batches of fudge usually. Chocolate chip/M&M cookies (using holiday colored candies) are made. And usually sausage/cheese biscuits are made, too. We get together with friends and have dinner, usually exchanging small gifts. The kids do a gift swap at church at some point with the youth, or with friends of their own also.

Christmas Eve, after we get home from the candlelight service, everyone goes to bed, and I stay up and stuff stockings, and put out the last gifts (wrapped in different paper, since they come from "Santa".. even though our kids are WAY old enough to know it's made up). We've done it that way since they were small. Christmas morning, we get up (not too crazy early, maybe 7:00) and open gifts and have coffee and a bite of something to eat. Usually done in time to get quick showers and off to church at 11:00. Then back home to relax and have a ham dinner (or leftovers if we did that for Christmas Eve). Since my husband works shift work in the FAA, we have lots of holidays that he is at work, so sometimes we have "Christmas Dinner" as "Christmas Eve Dinner" instead, and so on. Sometimes it's just me and the kids going to the service. But we always and only open gifts as a family. When the kids were small, they opened their stockings, and if Dad was at work, we waited until he got home to open everything else.

We also try to watch the Christmas specials on TV. The Grinch (classic with Boris Karloff voicing the narrator) is my favorite, but also the Year Without a Santa, with the Heat and Snow Misers. Plus Rudolph, of course. The rest are ok, but those three are the big ones.
Since daughter has become a bit more accomplished, I usually will try to get over to the local Hospice and she will set up in the lobby area and play piano for about an hour. Both holiday music and other stuff... the residents, visitors and staff all seem to appreciate it.

We always "try" to go drive around looking at Christmas lights, but several years the weather hasn't cooperated well (just rainy and not very pleasant for being on the roads), but we do try to squeeze that in. If we manage to get out of town family in to visit, we put on some wassail to enjoy as well.

When Girl Child was little, she got one big gift from Santa and a stocking full of her favorite edibles - nuts, olives, dried fruit. Yes, she preferred those to most candies.

From me, she got what I could afford off of her wish list.

Now that she is grown, she gets one gift from me. Other adults in the family get baked goods, usually pan de jamon.

We have certain movies that are must-watch - Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original narrated by Boris Karloff), The Nightmare before Christmas, and Bad Santa.

1. We participate in a 'giving tree' [not hard to find during the holiday season at church or city hall. Tags are put on a tree listing kids' age, size, likes and you take the tag and purchase a gift and leave it under the tree with the tag on it. It is given to the child by the organization running the event]. My son chooses the tag of a child who is his age and we shop together to find his choice of the perfect gift. He carries it up to the tree when it is time. 2. We always watch our favorite video while decorating the tree. 3. Every year, I buy an ornament for him when we travel. He hangs it on the tree and when he leaves home as a young adult he will have them all to take with him to begin his own Christmas traditions. We have only ever bought him one or two gifts for Christmas. He gets plenty from all the family members!

We celebrate from the beginning of Advent through Epiphany. Our tree stay up the whole season. We have many activities including church Advent, Carol and Christmas eve services, the Santa Claus parade, sleigh ride, drive through Christmas light display, tobogganing, skating, attend the symphony, multiple parties and dinners, levee, fireworks, tree festival, carolling and more. The kids each get their stockings and one gift from Santa. We buy them more practical gifts and experience type gifts. We always open one gift Christmas eve (usually pj's) and we save a gift for Epiphany. I love the season and love to spread out the fun and make it last.

Sometime during November or December we plant paperwhites in a big glass bowl of colorful stones, plastic animals and knick-knacks and watch them grow. When they bloom, they go out to the front porch. It's a tradition and I like to see something growing in winter and we just keep track of it over the days.

We have a street here in Portland that lights up all their houses for Christmas, so we always have at least one visit and love to drive around the neighborhoods, looking at lights at night.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is always watched as well as the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I myself always make a hot toddy and curl up to "The Shop Around the Corner" around this time, my favorite Christmas movie.

There's always the trek out to get the tree and the annual "why can't we get this damn thing straight" wrestling with the stand. Then the winding of the lights and the donning of ornaments. Kiddo does the more durable ones and we do the more fragile ones up near the top. I also put up my Angel Chimes and light candles to make them spin.

A few days before Christmas, Kiddo writes Santa a letter and we go mail it in the big post box down the hill, then go for pizza just up the street. We've been doing this since he was three and while he knows Santa is really us, I expect we'll still at least go get the pizza. ;)

Baking cookies

Give toys to Toys for Tots (or something similar) and the last couple of years we have picked an ornament off a tree for homebound senior citizens. My kids love to do that one even more than the toys.

We do an advent calendar every year that is a throw back to when I was a kid. I buy little things to wrap for each day from Dec 1-24. I do things like fun pencils, chocolate, a cookie cutter for a weekend day when we have time to bake, a gift card to our favorite ice cream shop, a date to go look at Christmas lights, a date to watch our favorite Christmas movie and popcorn to pop, a new ornament, fun hot chocolate mix, etc. Nothing very big and as they get older I do more of the experience type things.

Thanksgiving weekend we go to the local festival of trees.

We always do shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Box.

We gather up all of our Christmas books, cuddle on Mom and Dad's bed and read them all.

Pick out a Christmas tree together and decorate it-usually Thanksgiving weekend.

Church Christmas program and if we are in town the Christmas Eve service at church. We try to go to the one where my friend's son, who is a professional opera singer, sings Oh Holy Night.

We still get out the Fisher Price Nativity set that I bought when our daughter was 2. We also set up my Willow Tree nativity set, one my uncle made for me, and one that my brother got for us in Haiti.

We grab some hot cider or hot chocolate and then drive around to different neighborhoods known for great Christmas light displays... All the while, we are sipping something warm in our car. It's simple but fun...
We also go down to our local pier and walk around.. it's fun to be out with all the tourists who are here for Christmas... It's the simplest things that have meant the most to us...

Holidays are what you make of it. We do stockings and one or maybe two biggish gifts from Santa (but sometimes Mom and Dad want the credit so Santa brings something else). We usually do a Garden of Lights locally (which can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those celebrating Christmas, and DD enjoys learning about other people's traditions) and see the indoor train display. We do a visit to Santa (at the same place every year - I pray he won't retire til DD is no longer interested). We put up the tree while playing TSO. We put up the nativity set. We hang stockings. We string lights on the house. We make gifts for teachers. We help her make or buy gifts for important friends and family and she's my big helper when deciding what to buy for all the little girl cousins. We also do one or two Giving Tree gifts and she's usually involved in some way with that. Last year I got her input on a jacket. We do secular and religious Advent calendars. Bake cookies for Santa. Go to the Christmas Eve candle light service (she has her own battery operated candle).

I wouldn't say we have specific traditions except to donate toys for kids in need (preschool, elementary and teen aged). My daughter has always enjoyed giving more then receiving. She also bakes Christmas cookies with grandma if we're not traveling.

My kid, 5 is largely uninterested in presents and has to be convinced to come up with a few. This year he wants a remote controlled helicopter, a skateboard, and a hot wheels race track. Apart from milk and cookies and carrots, and a Christmas brunch where my parents and brother come over to open presents, we don't have any special traditions.

Best
F. B.