Family traditions

[curlygirl]

Do you have any? Now that I have my own little family, I would love to start some traditions that will continue for years. I know when I was little, we always wore new pajamas on Christmas Eve and left milk and cookies out for Santa. My mother always made corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick''''s Day even though we''''re not Irish! I''''d love to have some family traditions, not just for the holidays but for all the time so my little girl will have things to look forward to and pass down to her children. So what kind of traditions do all of you have? I need some ideas!!

 

[jewelerman]

Our family did the same thing on christmas eve.we did tamales on new years even though we are not of that culture.We would always put out a nativity scene on chritmas eve and as we built it we would read the story of the birth of Christ and the wisemen from the bible.we had one special gift to be opened onChristmas eve.Since the age of twelve i was always gifted with a gift of jewelry in the toe of my christmas stocking on christmas morning.On the 4th of july we always had a huge fruit plate as we watched fireworks (my mother was vegatarian).Birthdays are huge in my family and plans were made that my twin and i could stay home from school if needed to go to a movie,to lunch,or whatever with our parents.

 

[somethingshiny]

Our Christmas traditions:

Christmas Eve at my mom''s house. No lunch or supper, only yummy snacks! ALWAYS chips and salsa, usually some sort of a cheesy bread, and tons of cookies.

Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. (homemade)

Game Day, Dec 26 we all go to my mom''s with all of our new games and play all day long. Most wear pajamas and we try to eat all the leftovers. This started as far back as I can remember. Now we still go and bring our spouses and children.

 

[Pandora II]

I love all the crafty things about Christmas, I always make marzipan fruit every year and my mother and I make crackers.

I keep a look out for things to go in them all year. Last year I did tiny antique sterling silver pincushions, another year I did netsuke with people''s chinese horoscope signs. Another year mixed presents - a real flint arrowhead, a tiny penknife that was an inch long... I try to match them to people''s interests.

A few years ago I dried hundreds of orange slices and then strung them together with 3 bay leaves in between each slice. It stretchs from one side of the sitting room to the other. My parent''s house is 500 years old, so loads of beams to pin it to in swags.

My father and brother go to the woods to get holly and ivy to make wreaths and decorations and mistletoe for the hallway - my mother has been trying to grow it on their apple-trees for years without success.


On Christmas eve we always have fish and eat in the kitchen. My mother reads "The Night before Christmas" and we all hang out my father''s enormous kilt socks, and Father Christmas (we don''t have Santa Claus here!) gets a glass of sherry or ginger wine (basically whatever my mother wants to drink later on!), a mince pie and a big carrot for the reindeer!

I love Christmas!

I bought a beautiful terracotta nativity set in Tuscany and painted them with acrylics for my mother - she got the family one year (I dropped Jesus and smashed him twice by mistake!), the wise men another, then all the shepherds, angels, sheep, donkeys, camels etc - 46 pieces in all.

I bought another set out there this year, so FMIL (who is married to a vicar) is getting the first set this year - odd gift from an atheist, but I like painting them and she will love them!

 

[iwannaprettyone]

Christmas eve we get mega dressed up for dads b'day and then get completely smashed

Christmas day, it is forbidden to wear anything but PJ's and OUTLAWED to wear make up, hair of the dog by 9am, 10am light breakfast, snacks snacks and more snacks, huge christmas lunch (with the famous bacon sausage rolls)and then hours of Scrabble, which becomes drunk cursing scrabble. hahaha Yikes

.

FI and I always watch all of the godfather movies, untouchables and scarface on Boxing day, mattress on the living room floor kinda thing (with both fur babies of course).

 

[OUpearlgirl]

The 23rd we always make cookies for Santa at my Aunt''s house. The oldest cousin is 27 and the youngest is 12, but we still put on aprons every year. She always has a groovy new Christmas CD blaring and it''s a great time.

Christmas Eve we go to our church for the service.. I love singing the Christmas hymns with candles. That''s when it truly does feel like Christmas. After church we go to a family friends house for "communion." The party has grown through the years, and it''s getting much more expensive for the people who throw the party, because all of the children are growing up and able to drink.

On Christmas day we wake up around 10 or 11.. Us kids are not allowed to go downstairs until everyone is awake and Dad has the camera. We finally get the official "go!" and we run downstairs clad in pajamas. Each of us has a chair from "Santa." Our stocking is there along with major presents which are NEVER wrapped. After seeing everything from Santa, we open gifts to and from each other. Once we''ve opened presents, we have coffee cake and our annual burping contest. That''s right.. we stand on our very formal dining room chairs in pajamas and take turns burping. We lay around for a few hours, then my cousins come over and we all dress up for a huge dinner. Then we trade cousins/aunt/grandparent gifts. I can''t wait!

And of course on the 26th we ALWAYS go shopping with the girl cousins and the boys always go to Lowe''s and Home Depot for some male bonding!

 

[Elmorton]

Our traditions:

Christmas:
I''m not sure when Christmas Eve became "Christmas" for me- sometime in my early teens I told my parents that I loved Christmas Eve and wanted to open presents before mass instead of in the morning when we were all tired. Nobody complained about that! So now, we take it easy on Christmas eve, and then around 5 or 7pm have have soup (either potato or clam chowder) and a pretty substantial array of appetizers. After dinner, we watch Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean (this is SO key...we''ve been watching it every year for the last 10 years and it never becomes less hysterical). Then we open gifts, clean up, and head to church for midnight mass. We arrive home around 1:30-2am. I love how relaxing and calm our Christmas is. In the (real) morning, we open stockings, have breakfast (coffee and cinnamon rolls usually) and then a bigger dinner later in the day....but, haven''t done the nice, relaxing Xmas day in awhile since DH joined our family - now, it''s the Christmas eve tradition with my parents, followed by waking up at 7am and driving to DH''s parents''. It''s more exhausting (can''t wait to have kids, then everyone is coming to us!), but still fun and special.

Advent:
We have an advent wreath on our table, which we light and say prayers together before dinner on Sunday and randomly at other times during the week if we feel like it.

Growing up, my parents and I used to put up our tree on Rose Sunday (3rd Sunday in advent). This is a tradition that DH and I are trying to reclaim, but I can''t WAIT to get our tree!! It may happen this weekend, but if it doesn''t, then I suppose we''ll be waiting for Rose Sunday, huh?

Advent Calendars - this year, DH and I got one with little doors and each day we''ve been giving each other gifts and notes etc. For Dec 1, DH put a note inside the door that said "go downstairs" - in the basement, he''d hidden a huge vase full of red lilies and white irises. That''s a tradition I hope he keeps up!

Nativity - My father calls it the "Rock Concert." My mother started a looong time ago with the Fontanini nativity set. Hers is a little crazy- there are a LOT of people present for the birth of Christ. Ours is a little bit more "chill" of a concert since it''s a smaller scale. Anyway, the Christ Child is hidden (right now, he''s in the sugar bowl) until we leave for church on the 24th. Then we place him in the manger. The Wise Men likewise do not enter the scene until Epiphany. They always sit on a ledge "in the East" and inch closer as advent/Christmas continues. It''s a little goofy I suppose, but DH and I are both little kids about it.

Epiphany:
ALL DECORATIONS STAY UP UNTIL JANUARY 6th!!!!!

January 5th - we leave our shoes out for the Three Wise Men. My mother teaches Spanish, and so she started this when I was very little. I used to get 3 gifts (usually religious) from Gaspar, Baltazar and Melchior (I know I spelled those horribly wrong). I think last year DH and I gave eachother something small (like a candy bar).

Okay, I think that''s it!

 

[blueyes157]

One tradition my mom started, and we still do to this day (even though I am now 23, and my brothers are 25 and 18!) is we have special Christmas day outfits. My FI and brother''s GF are now included in the tradition!

When were younger she would buy the whole family matching sweatsuits (cheap ones like you would get at walmart) and a few days before Christmas we would all decorate them with puff paints, iron ons, sparkles, etc. As we got older the outfits turned into matching flannel PJs, green sweaters, christmas sweaters, etc. This year the guys are wearing green shirts and the girls are getting a long christmas pj shirt. It is so much fun, especially to look back at each year''s christmas pictures and our outfits!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Growing up, my family always opened presents on Christmas Eve that were to and from one another, in rounds (youngest opens one, then next youngest, and on and on), and it would take FOREVER and I *loved* it that way. Then on Christmas morning, we would open "Santa" presents. Santa presents you can tear into with craziness, no rounds required. I loved that, too!!

Since meeting Paul, we have started our own tradition of "the 12 Days of Christmas" where we stuff one another''s stockings with little gifts, nothings (usually) and each day, starting on the 14th, we get to choose one and open it. It''s a fun way to count down to Christmas, and we plan on doing this with our children, as well. We''re still debating as to whether or not we''ll do the Santa thing, so it''s a least a fun tradition they''ll have if "santa" isn''t part of their Christmas.

This year I sort of cheated and one of Paul''s big presents is in his stocking. He''s not opened it yet, though. It''s small, so I stuffed it in. I''m hoping some year he''ll do the same for me, in the way of something sparkly!

A tradition we still do with the family is to make Christmas cookies on the Eve of Christmas Eve. I look forward to it every year, and now Paul does, too. My neices and nephew adore it and it''s a FULL kitchen for hours. What fun!!!