Holiday Giveaway
Just because it’s the holidays… and because I love ya all for dropping by and spending a little time here at Make it Do…
It’s a Pink Chandelier Jewelry Giveaway…
It comes with a lovely chain, a hand soldered, beveled glass pendant, a lovely red bead, a charm of Santa on his sleigh.
The back is a lovely glittery heart.
Because it’s TRADITIONS week here at Make it Do, I would love to hear about YOUR favorite tradition.
To enter leave a comment sharing your favorite holiday tradition.
And the giveaway rules are:
- One comment per person
- Comments will be closed Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:00 MST
- Winner will be chosen randomly
- Winner will be announced on Friday, December 17
staying in our pj’s all day while opening gifts and making breakfast.
Gee am I the first to comment – how lucky I am. My favorite tradition is midnight mass. The beauty of it is so awesome.
My younger child has always enjoyed “The Night Before Christmas”, well into the summer. So every year we seek out a different version to add to our collection. I’m not quite sure where we’ll get or what we’ll do with 18 copies of it, but the first 5 have been fun.
Ever since I was a child, a Christmas Eve trip out in the evening to see the lights is a must. Of course sitting in the darkened living room with nothing but the lights from the Christmas tree on, now that’s ~~~ magical!
My daughters and I like to go caroling and deliver goodies to friends.
We are kind of a traditionless family. :( But I’m trying to start some with my own daughter and future kids by having a Happy Birthday, Jesus party on Christmas Day. (We have the big family dinner on Christmas Eve.) Also, on day 25 of Advent she gets to open a beautiful Christopher Radko ornament so she’ll have her own lovely collection when she’s grown. I’ll do another brand with my next child.
My favorite Christmas tradition is our book of scriptures, stories and songs that we read from every night – but then all the traditions are my favorite!
one tradition is my husband and i always watch chevy chase christmas vacation
Every year when I was little I would read Silent Night. It’s just a book with the illustrated version of the song. But it sings! It has a little tab that you pull and then it sings a cheesy little version of that beautiful carol. I found it in my things at home this year, and I’m looking forward to rekindling the tradition of reading it with my husband on Christmas Eve. (c:
We give our kids new pj’s on Christmas Eve. Then, after we have new pj’s on, we cruise the neighborhoods in our city looking at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn. It is fun and messy, but the kids love it. We have some friends who go Grizwald for their lights and each year is a new definition of tacky, but it always ends up being our favorite house.
And as I’m writing this, I realize I haven’t gotten their jammies! Let me run make an online order now!! :)
I think my favorite tradition is gathering together with the whole family on Christmas eve. There are a lot of extended family that we only see once a year. We always go to my in laws for a big covered dish meal and sing Christmas carols and watch children open gifts. My in laws are in their 90’s now, so this tradition may not be for much longer. Thanks for such a lovely giveaway.
We have loads of traditions, but I think my favorite is our Christmas meal. We all pick two appetizers and a dessert, and we eat all day long on apps and sweets. Very fun!
When I was a kid, we watched Charlie Brown Christmas special & I always loved the “Charlie Brown” tree that is scraggly that no one would ever want…so my parents would let me bring 1 home & put it in my room. I’d decorate it with homemade ornaments, thinking I was giving this tree a chance to be “loved” (yup, I was a sappy kid)
My husband and I have continued this tradition….we get our tree the week before Christmas from a lot that is run by a charity group. The trees are pretty picked over by then. We always choose a “Charlie Brown” tree and cover it with decorations, always exclaiming “this is the most gorgeous one yet!”.
We’re off to get our tree today…
I just blogged yesterday about our tradition of goingot see the Mormon tabernacle choir sing for Music and the Spoken Word. I also make dresses for this event. last year I stayed up until 5:00am and then woke up at 6:30. The crazy things we do, or at least I do. Here is my link if you want to check it out. http://bolohead.blogspot.com/2010/12/mo-tab.html
Every year when my family gets together (we’re a HUGE family, too keep in mind) we play “the game” – everyone knows how to play “the game”, right?? Well, our own spin on it is that everyone’s gift has to be homemade! It’s so much fun to see what everyone comes up with – we have wordwork stuff, sewing stuff, crafty stuff, food stuff….just about anything!!! It’s always a blast!
We put the kids to bed. Then, we wake them up and take them on a pajama ride through town to look at the lights. Cocoa is involved as well.
Happy Christmas!
on December 13th we think of a friend or 2 that we want to ding dong ditch for the 12 days of Christmas. It’s fun to think of what to leave them and the kids love to ring the doorbell and run.
We always make muffins on Christmas morning and read the Christmas story before we open gifts. I love being with my family and partaking of the joy of the season together! :)
My favorite Christmas tradition is letting the kids open up one gift on Christmas eve (usually pjs). But I also love putting our shoes out for St. Nicholas day. And I love doing new holiday activities too!
Happy Christmas!
Beautiful necklace. My kids favorite tradition is their letter to Santa and leaving a plate of cookies, carrots and milk for santa and his reindeer.
We have a tradition of eating blueberry muffins and grapefruit slush on Christmas morn
WE enjoy our church service on Christmas eve. Keeps the reason fo Christmas in our hearts.
I love driving around with the family to look at Christmas lights! It’s even better when we are in our pjs with a sundae or hot cocoa in hand.
Stockings are a huge part of our Christmas!My mom made them special For us.I made each of my 9 children a special stocking!The gifts are carefully thought out,wrapped.Treats included that each person loves.Thaey are the piez de resistance at the end of opening all other gifts! I have helped make stockings for my almost 19 grandkids. Their moms and dads are now carrying on this same joy!!!
Well we love watching the movie Elf and, my husband and I drink a little champagne while wrapping Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. The necklace truly is beautiful. Thanks for the give-away chance. Happy Holidays!
Homemade cinnamon rolls(by my son) and eggnog on Christmas morning, opening up our gifts.
the kids-remembering running around like mad with my cousins and watching our kids do the same. Overnight together at Grandma’s and then all day together-so wonderful!
Every Christmas Eve my Mom’s side of the family gathers at my Aunt’s house for holiday bingo :)
Church on Christmas Eve. It’s always so beautiful.
We like to watch this old movie called A Dream for Christmas on Christmas Eve.
our tradition every year is for me to make lots of homemade carmel popcorn and watch christmas movies! Love popcorn and staying home with fam!
For at least 40 years now we go stay at my parents Chrismas Eve. Everyone except my mom and I go to bed around 11:00 or so. Then around 2:0 or 3:00 am Santa comes. The bells ring on the roof and up gets everyone! Even when the children were babies they were all woken up by Santa’s sleigh bells. We get up , open our gifts, have a little fun snack and then off to bed around 5:00 a.m.
It is such a great memory. Our children are all grown now and still insist on the same tradition each year. Merry Christmas Everyone!
We have a fun tradition of playing Bingo on Christmas night; we gather goofy prizes all year, and there’s something for all ages!
the candlelight service on christmas eve is one tradition i love. nothing more beautiful than the entire church aglow with candles….
What a great gift…maybe for me!
Our family loves to decorate the tree together and eat a box of chocolates while we do it. It’s very motivating for the kids who tend to get bored quickly.
We love to drive around and look at the different christmas displays, and i play santa to my cousins children by mailing them each a letter from Santa.
Every year my family goes to a Christmas Tree farm to get our tree. I love this tradition! I also enjoy making cookies for Santa with my children. They get so excited and sometimes they even hear his sleigh bells!
Favorite tradition is pj’s on christmas eve and omlets in the morning.
We love to make lots of sweet treats for our friends and family. We get the whole family involved and have lots of fun!
We love buying an picture frame ornament with the year on it. We then place a family picture taken that Christmas in the frame. We currently have 6 of these on our tree. I love seeing how our family has changed each year. We have a new baby in almost all of these. And our family is so big, we can no longer include mom and dad in the picture—it’s just the kiddos!
My husbands family has done a Christmas Breakfast for generations of Fin & Hattie (Smoked fish and scones). We love ALL the family gathering on Christmas morning to enjoy breakfast, share Santa stories and gifts!
My favorite holiday tradition is choosing a special, meaningful ornament for each of our 3 kids each year. I always add their names and the year on the ornament and it is so fun to unpack them each year and reminisce…
Once we put up the tree (so basically from the day after Thanksgiving to New Year’s), we take 5 minutes right before bed to turn out the lights and just pause to sit and look at the Christmas tree. I imagine that someday, once I have kids, we’ll use this as a moment to read a story before bedtime, but for now, it is just a little moment of peace and reflection during this busy season.
I have so many favorite traditions! I think the best is our family day-trip to get our Christmas tree. We travel about 80 miles to a nearby farming community, go to our favorite tree farm to pick out a tree and then we spend the afternoon poking about the different farms – making sure to get fudge and caramel apples before heading home. It is always a great day – and so nice to have a quiet day of togetherness in the middle of all the hubbub.
We don’t have any traditions yet, but since this is our daughter’s first Christmas, we are looking for a tradition to start. We do love to drive around and look at Christmas lights though!
Lots of holiday baking!
My favorite holiday tradition is we do a “Grab Bag” game on my side of the family. Basically you wrap up a fun or silly gift under $10 bucks and we pick numbers. Then we put all the gifts in the middle of the room and #1 gets to pick first & so on. The 2nd person can get or take the gift from #1 and so on. #1 can wait & trade with anyone at the end. It is a fun tradition we have been doing since I was little. It is always a great way to keep gift buying expenses down!
http://sustainablychicdesigns.blogspot.com/
What a pretty necklace! My favorite tradition is eating waffles with strawberries and whipped cream before we open presents. :)
Our tree is filled with handmade ornaments from when I was a child to now. We enjoy putting on Christmas Carols, singing as we decorate and reminisce about each ornament we hang.
Someday the kids will each have enough for their own trees with their family.
Thank you for the lovely giveaway!
Denise
Every year get a 5 X 7 photo of the kids with Santa (we go to the same Santa every year) and I buy a gold edged frame for the picture. I started doing this when my oldest daughter was 1 and now we have 8 gold frames with Santa pictures. It’s so fun to get out the Christmas decor every year and look back at how we went from 1 kiddo with Santa to 3 kids and how they’ve grown and see some of their favorite clothes throughout the years (the year of pink cowboy boots!) . I display them on our mantle and I constantly catch my husband, the kids, and even myself looking at them and thinking of all that has changed over the years!
We have a procelein baby Jesus and it’s tradition to rock him to sleep at midnight on Dec. 24th (technically Xmas Day). We lay baby Jesus on a tray filled with candy treats and have the younger children dress him in his baby clothes, rock him to sleep and kiss him before passing him to the next person. Each person gets a turn to rock him and kiss him before placing him on the manager with Mary and Joseph. I’m 41 and I remember doing this as a child. I carry this tradition with my family and my little ones. It’s such a magical moment for both adults and kids!
I think we are starting a new tradition this year – just presents for the kids. Money is tight this year so we are very lucky to even be with family from all of the country and just to reduce the stress, we are either doing no gifts for adults or you have to be creative and make it on the cheap!
My favorite is opening one gift on Christmas Eve. I always give and receive pajamas, so we can wear new jammies for our pictures on Christmas morning! =)
Our family has a lot of traditions, but my favorite tradition of all is that our children get the same amount of gifts that our Savior received from the wisemen, 3. So, we have incorporated the importance of the Savior with the joy of receiving gifts. And a great sidenote…by only doing three gifts, for five children, helps with the budget too! :)
We love gathering as a family on Christmas and opening presents. It’s so fun with everybody together. The cousins love playing with each other and their new toys.
My favorite tradition is making cookies and decorating them with the kids! They range in age from 2-18 so it makes for a fun and messy evening!
Everybody wakes up Christmas morning, opens 1 present and then we pause for a yummy, made-from-scratch pancake breakfast. Then, we dive in to open the rest of our gifts while sipping hot coffee. So cozy, comfortable, warm and fun!
My favorite Christmas tradition is our Hot Chocolate Throwdown between my dad and my Grandma…we all drink hot chocolate and play Skip-bo and eat Grandma’s Christmas cookies. It’s awesome!
We make Christmas decorations the week before Christmas and then decorate the tree with them on Christmas Eve.
At the age of 43, I have had lots of Christmas traditions that have made their way into my heart, but as a busy mom of 5 kids with their own crazy schedules, it is hard for a tradition to carryover each year. Two favorites that we always make time for: Christmas Morning Mass (to stop right in the middle of all the chaos and reflect upon the Christ child) and making Christmas mice (cherry with stems on, dipped in chocolate, hersheys kiss for a face, sliced almonds for ears).
One of my favorite traditions is our Jesus Dinner. We have a nice candlelit dinner with my whole family and then we write down what gift we will give to him in the coming year.
I remember my dad telling me on Christmas Eve, every year, how Santa Claus and his reindeer would come to our house during the night. He included my teddy bear and clown doll in the telling and even made the “ding ding” sounds of the reindeers’ bells. I told this story to my children when they were little, but I’m not sure I transferred the magic Dad gave it.
We put cookies and milk out for Santa, but my favorite offering was carrots in our wooden shoes for his reindeer. (Dad brought back wooden shoes for us from Holland.) We would set them outside and even scatter bits of carrot around to attract them. I gave my children the wooden shoes and they insisted each year that we feed the reindeer. (The reindeer left chocolate candy as a thank-you.)
Spoiler alert: small children, don’t read this. For several years, my parents made an enormous footprint out of ashes on our fireplace hearth. My brother and I were amazed and it cemented our belief in Santa Claus for several more years. It had just as big an effect on my children when we did this for them.
We love to go cut down our Christmas tree! Thanks for the chance to have something so pretty!
Making homemade candy cane ice-cream with my kids!
I love to read all the traditions that lives in other families. My favorite Christmas tradition is to spend time with the family and open our gift as we come back from the church at midnight! Thanks for the giveaway!
Such a pretty piece of jewelry! What a beautiful holiday treat :)
We love to do the cookies and milk thing for Santa! We bake Xmas Eve and make sure that Santa gets the best and biggest cookies!
Thanks for the chance!
hugs, margie
Turn out the lights, Gather around the tree, hold hands and sing Silent night. It makes me cry every year!
Our little family is just starting to make Christmas traditions. But we do a day of Christmas cookie decorating. We make a gingerbread house. And I have started making ooey gooey cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.
also a tradition of not doing anything or going anywhere on Christmas day.
Getting out our ornaments to decorate the tree. Most represent something special about each person in our family. I still hang my very first ornament I had as a baby. My mother saved it for me all these 40ish years. :)
Thanks for the opportunity to win something so beautiful!!
When we were little we’d go all over our little town light-seeing on Christmas Eve, and when we’d return Santa had come!
We love to drive around and look at the luminaries! This year my daughter and I hope to take pictures of them with a filter for heart shaped bokeh lights. Should be a fun challenge!
Every year, my mother would come up with different code names (often in some foreign language or other) for each of us to write on our presents so that nobody knew until Christmas morning which presents were for whom. The original intent was to discourage us from shaking and poking the packages in an attempt to figure out what we were getting, but we came to love it for its own sake.
I love spending the day relaxing with my family. We stay in our pj’s and play with the gifts for a while, and then go visit extended family members. I love the whole day.
The candlelight service on Christmas eve . . . so beautiful!
My favorite thing about Christmas….on Christmas Eve we have everyone from both sides of our family come over, and we all gather round and sing carols. Over the years, different people have come, but everyone sings, and everyone brings their (sometimes dusty) instruments to play. It’s become quite an event, relaxing and wonderful for all….
We love driving around and seeing all the wonderful holiday light displays. And we always open gifts on Christmas Eve and then Santa fills our stockings for more fun in the morning!
We always read the Christmas story every Christmas Eve from the family Bible. Now that we’re all grown up and living around the country, this traditions is truly missed. We do our best to recreate this memory each year. It continues to be a special event, even if it happens 2 or 3 days after Christmas and even if the entire family cannot be present. The important part is that the tradition lives on with the new generation. My sister and I have vowed to do what it takes to get the entire family together next Christmas Eve. I’ll keep you posted!
In New Mexico, luminarias are really popular. Each Christmas Eve, we take a driving tour of the neighborhoods that are known for putting them out at each house. The tour isn’t complete without being dressed in pj’s and drinking hot chocolate.
Christmas eve we have a family dinner, sing songs, santa comes and brings us new pajama’s
I just started a tradition this year that I will do every year. Decorating, listening to christmas music, and having a dance party with my 2 year old!
Growing up my sister and I were always allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. When my father was alive, I used to make him egg nog custard as his own special holiday dessert. I make homemade cinnamon buns for Christmas morning.
I enjoyed reading the other comments…so many different family traditions! Thanks for offering such a cute giveaway :)
I am a mom that loves doing the same fun things year after year.
When my children were young we trudged through the tundra to find a tree—with a new Christmas book and hot ovalteen -every year(our book stash is amazing).
My 4 children all slept in the double bed downstairs on Christmas Eve so they could come upstairs in the early morning- all together..youngest to oldest, of course!
We would make Sweet “Christmas tree” rolls with extended family and we always have breakfast at Grammy’s on Christmas day…so when my children married things needed to be reworked!
Now they come to my house- in their pajamas the Sunday night before Christmas. We eat breakfast for dinner, sing and exchange gifts. The pajama contest is a major thing to think about all year long.
This is a great way to have all my children around on (a pretend) Christmas morning.
Love your blog.
We adopted a new tradition about a decade ago, when Dear Daughter’s godmother came to visit the day we were decorating cookies- she piped bathing suits onto our gingerbread cookies, giving us an afternoon full of laughter and a new spin on an old routine. Every year since, we’ve made gingerbread bathing beauties instead of gingerbread boys and girls!
Each year as a family we make German cookies called Bratzles. They are made on an iron similar to a waffle iron.
i love reading the Christmas story on Christmas eve while the kiddos act it out – lovely!
Our favorite tradition is going out in the absolute worst frigid weather to retrieve/cut down our tree from a farm. We do not “settle” on one, we check every square inch of that farm to find the PERFECT tree. Then cider & muffins next to a bon fire before heading home.
My favorite holiday tradition is heading to Christmas Eve mass with my parents, then heading over to my best friends house for a Christmas Eve sleep over and present opening early Christmas morning, before we head to our next destinations. It doesn’t matter how old you are, a sleep over is always fun!
I love checking out all of the lights with my kids. They love seeing all of them!
When I was a little girl, we had the tradition of opening our gifts on Christmas Eve-my parents said that our house was one of the first that Santa visited on Christmas Eve.
Baking Christmas cookies, watching Christmas movies and having a huge slumber party with all my aunts and cousins
My favorite tradition is cutting down our christmas tree. it was one of the first traditions my husband and i started when we got married:)
Taking a trip to a church where they turn the whole parking lot into Bethleham, it’s very tender and sweet, and my 5 year old loves it dearly
Although many families gather together on Christmas Eve, ours has the unique custom of receiving new kazoos. You’ll find us with instruments at ready position…and then off to a humming good time!
As a doctor I have worked many Christmas Days – it is my tradition to wear a Santa Hat, tinsel earrings and go and visit all the elderly patients for a chat and a hug. This year I have Christmas Day off and will look forward to watching my 3 year old and 9 month old open their gifts and have a special breakfast!
Homemade advent calendar using baby socks. Filled with tiny toys and treats. I also love the Christmas Train and the local mountain that has a real Santa and outdoor skating and real reindeer!!
My girls are both married now, but I still hide the “Pickle Ornament and whoever finds it gets a special little gift. This year I bought both of them a pickle so they can start doing that tradition with their own children.
For the past 34 years we have celebrated the Twelve days of Christmas by anonymously sharing gifts with someone in need of a boost of holiday spirit. It has become our family’s favorite and has blessed our lives, as the giver, than any of the receivers. We have now have a second generation of 12-days Elves joining in the fun.
We always have luminaries light up our walkway on Christmas night. It is so festive and fun.
I love making Christmas cookies and building gingerbread houses! I listen to Christmas music from the day of Thanksgiving and on!
We do gingerbread cookies. (Used to be houses, then we paired down in an effort to simplify and have loved it even more since.) It is always fun, messy, and delicious.
All of us would sleep in the same room and we would try to stay up all night playing games and talking. It was the best! Now that we have all moved away we relive those times and have carried it over to our own children. Anytime any of us come home for Christmas we still all gather in the same room for the night:)
I make quilts for my kids every Christmas. They get it on Christmas Eve with their pjs. It is fun and they look forward to getting a new blanket every year.
My favorite tradition is staying in our PJ all day on Christmas and watching all the old Christmas movies after all the presents have been opened…
On Christmas Eve, we put a new set of jammies and a Christmas book into a special bag with our daughter’s name on it. The jammies are pre-washed and she wears them to bed. We read all her christmas books, starting with the new one and always finishing with The Night Before Christmas. I look forward to sharing this with her for many years to come!
I love going to the nutcracker with my daughter. Not sure how long she’ll want to go, but for now we really enjoy it!
Our family tradition is candlelight service at our church; when we arrive home, our children receive on gift. It is their christmas pj’s. We read the Night Before Christmas and feed the reindeer,and also santa. Off to bed awaiting Christmas Day.
Growing up, my Dad always read The Bird’s Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve. It is a wonderful story and perfect for a special night. Now, I try to read a Christmas book every night in December to my girls before they go to bed. We have a few special books set aside for Christmas Eve. Thanks for all you do Calli!!!
Christmas Eve Candlelight service with my parents who are now in their eighties is the most special of our traditions and more so every year. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
My favorite holiday traditions happen on Christmas Eve. My family goes to church, and then we come home and share fun appetizers- pigs in the blanket, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, etc- and we open stockings! It’s usually more fun than Christmas day!
Love the Pink Chandelier Jewelry!
I make Spritz cookies with an old fashioned cookie press like my mother used to make and my husband makes lefse like his mother used to make.
My favorite tradition is riding around the neighborhood with my family looking at all the Christmas lights sipping hot cocoa and listening to our local radio station that plays Christmas music 24/7.
Becoming Vegan changed some of our traditions, as far as food goes. Opening presents is another … we give one small gift to each other Christmas Eve, have dinner and then open it! It has to be something handmade and I’m always surprised and delighted at what I’ve received!
Love listening for the kids sneaking down to check out the stockings and gifts Christmas morning. Sadly they are getting older, teenagers tend to sleep as long as possible and only one is still interested in sneaking. The funny thing is, I don’t think my kids know this is a tradition.
The tradition that I enjoy the most is that my sister comes over and we decorate the tree together, like we did when we were young. Her husband doesn’t celebrate Christmas, so it is a treat for her, and it reminds me of our childhood – especially certain ornaments. She’s coming over tomorrow to do it, and I can’t wait.
The week of Christmas we pull out all our Christmas movies, and sit down and watch them over and over again. On Christmas Eve, we get in our pj’s with hot coco and popcorn and watch The Polar Express.
christmas caroling at a nursing home with our church- so fun!
It’s a toss-up between going to get our tree and the annual Christmas Eve caroling party… Merry Christmas!
Oooh! I just love Christmas jewelry!!! One of our favorite traditions is attending a production of “A Christmas Carol” at a small community theater. We love to support the local fine arts!
One of my favorite traditions is having “Christmas Casserole” and smoothies for breakfast on Christmas morning. I put the casserole in to bake early in the morning, so it smells yummy while we’re opening presents.
We open one present on Christmas Eve night…and it is always NEW PAJAMAS!!!! We love our new pjs and can hardly keep the kids from unwrapping them Christmas Eve morning.
Each year our family dresses up in old, old costumes and puts on a live nativity scene. Some years we’ve even had a “real” baby Jesus! We read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke and enjoy singing happy birthday to baby Jesus.
I didn’t grow up with many traditions but this year I decided that instead of going out the day after Thanksgiving to shop, we make cookies, eat left over food and decorate the Christmas tree. No pressure to shop for gifts and so much fun to be with my husband and daughter.
One of my favorites is having Christmas at my mother’s the evening of Dec. 24. Our menu is the same every year..and we each bring the same thing every year!
So cute! What a great giveaway. I’d love to have a little Christmas bling to wear :) A tradition huh… Well, on Christmas morning no one is allowed to go into the family room (where all the stockings and presents are) until we take a family photo on the stairs with everyone in their new Christmas pj’s that they opened on Christmas Eve. It’s a good way to document how the kids are growing and who was there (even though everyone usually has bed head and literally looks like they just rolled out of bed!)
Christmas Eve we gather in the kitchen to make individual homemade pizzas! The dough is purchased from a local pizza place. Add a spread of toppings and it’s easy, fun and doesn’t require mom to stay in the kitchen all night :0) After the yummy pizzas are eaten, everyone opens one gift which are always new Christmas-themed pajamas.
This year we started a new tradtion and had our 8 Grandsons over. We started the evening by taking them to an Italian resturant for dinner. They were all very good. (Ages ranged from 15 to 6 months old) Then we came back and made pine cone bird feeders and Grandpa read the story The Night Before Christmas. Each child choose a present that had be wrapped very festive and as the story was read they pasted the present left or right when Grandpa read the word. When the story was over they open the presents which are silly and fun gifts! A fun time with the grandchildren!
Appreciating all the special blessings we have by living in America. We love passing out homemade goodies to our neighbors and family. Visiting our family and eating lots of good food.
Waking up early to start our special Christmas Morning Breakfast (and I have to get up mighty early in order to be the first one up, but it’s worth it! Everyone loves waking up to the smell of Cinnamon Rolls baking in the oven)!
being a single mom, my kids leave for christmas to be with their dads. So we celebrate xmas on thanksgiving. our biggest tradition is Christmas Crackers. Opened and shared no thanksgiving! I have pictures of them, family and friends from years past all wearing paper hats and sitting at our big thanksgiving dinner feast!
Our family has lots of traditions at Christmas. One of my favorite traditions is our annual Christmas book. Each year my mom buys a Christmas book and we open it on Christmas Eve and she reads it to the whole family. She always writes a special message inside and includes the date. We have almost 30 Christmas books and I love looking at all of them each year when she pulls them out with the holiday decor.
Opening a new pair of jammies, and a special book to read on Christmas Ever.
We go to a local tree farm and cut our own tree every year. This is the first year that both of our little girls came with us. They have a lot of fun running around in the trees trying to help us find the right one.
It was becoming increasingly more difficult each year with in-laws and others to see all our family members on Christmas day, so my husband and I host an informal extended family after Christmas bash each year. We try to do it the Sunday after Christmas and keep the atmosphere light and casual. Everyone is in a great mood because we’re the only house they’ll need to travel to, there are no over-tired kiddies, presents are opened, a buffet of traditional Italian favorites are eaten and it’s so much more relaxed. It’s become a family favorite and we love hosting the party.
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking with my grandma!
Buying my daughter a new ornament and snow globe every year.
Every year we make Spritz cookies. My sons have had fun decorating them with colored sprinkles and a red hot on each one. We color the dough green or red. The secret is the almond in our recipe. (not vanilla!) Love that jewelery!
My family and I always play Pictionary on Christmas Day. It’s always girls against guys…and we laugh through the entire game! Now that all the kids are getting bigger, we are looking for a new game that we can include them in!
Each December we take our kids to SLC and stay in a hotel for one weekend. We get to play tourists and laugh and love it.
getting together with extended family to sing Christmas songs and eat good food!
A fairly new tradition in our family, (inherited from my hubby’s side) and now a favorite, is roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the fireplace on Christmas eve!
Going to my Hubby’s Grandparents house and eating pancakes, milk and hot ham. All made by his 87 yr old grandpa and the whole family comes. My favorite Christmas Day tradition by far!
A tradition we love is Christmas Eve. The in-laws and my brother-in-law come over for pizza. We order pizza, unwrap gifts, play games, watch whatever movie was given to the kiddos. It’s a lot of fun!!
Our children are grown, but we still try to get together for a time of movie watching – always “A Christmas Story”= you’ll shoot your eye out!!!!! Stranger in the Woods, The
Polar Express, Miracle on 34th St.And a cartoon of “Christmas comes but once a year” (cheesy, but a tradition, none the less). And of course, homemade fudge, and goodies to snack on. Wouldn’t be Christmas without these.
We enjoy getting together with family. Usually my in-laws on Christmas and my family at New Years. Also we always do a small Nativity pageant.
It’s hard to pick one thing I love about Christmas… I’ve always loved getting out tons of cookie cutters, baking sour cream sugar cookies, making homemade frosting in tons of colors and decorating the cookies for hours with family. It’s amazing how detailed a little cookie can get and then you get to eat them for days!