What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Reedern

I love this time of year and one of my favorite things about it is all the lights. When I was a kid, on Christmas Eve, my parents would load up a thermos of hot cocoa and take us for a drive to look at all the Christmas lights. We would sing and laugh and it was always so much fun. Then when we would go back home we would all get to open one present under the tree which was almost always new pjs.

What is your favorite tradition either old or new?

SonicDeathMonkey80

Getting Chinese food and seeing a movie (Jew)

Reedern

Getting Chinese food and seeing a movie (Jew)

If this is your tradition, then it counts! Happy Hanukkah!

cwolfman13

- going to pick up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Sometimes it's the weekend after if we were traveling for Thanksgiving but always either the weekend of Thanksgiving or the weekend after. As a kid I remember running through the lot trying to find the perfect tree...I always picked out one that was way too big and way too expensive...we usually ended up with a Charlie Brown special. We'd haul it home and dad would do the lights and then mom and I would start to decorating. I do the same with my family now that I'm the dad and have two boys of my own...seeing my eldest (almost 4) run through the lot brought back a lot of my own memories.

- Christmas eve was always just about as big of a deal as Christmas day was. When I was younger we would gather at my grandmother's house and she would have all manner of things laid out to eat...cheeses and crackers, summer sausages and other meats, egg nog and punch, etc. The kids would play and the grown ups would have a little too much Christmas cheer...we sat around singing songs and opening up the few presents under the tree (Santa's were of course hidden away for the morning).

The family is far more disbursed these days and my grandmother is too old to host big Christmas gatherings but my family has started somewhat of our own tradition (provided we're not traveling). We basically have an open house on Christmas Eve for all of our family and friends should they want to stop by. I make my homemade posole and buy some tamales at El Modelo here in town...plenty of beer, wine, and bourbon can be had as well. The boys get to open one Christmas present each...and once they are in bed we start putting out the Santa gifts for the next morning.

Reedern

- going to pick up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Sometimes it's the weekend after if we were traveling for Thanksgiving but always either the weekend of Thanksgiving or the weekend after. As a kid I remember running through the lot trying to find the perfect tree...I always picked out one that was way too big and way too expensive...we usually ended up with a Charlie Brown special. We'd haul it home and dad would do the lights and then mom and I would start to decorating. I do the same with my family now that I'm the dad and have two boys of my own...seeing my eldest (almost 4) run through the lot brought back a lot of my own memories.

- Christmas eve was always just about as big of a deal as Christmas day was. When I was younger we would gather at my grandmother's house and she would have all manner of things laid out to eat...cheeses and crackers, summer sausages and other meats, egg nog and punch, etc. The kids would play and the grown ups would have a little too much Christmas cheer...we sat around singing songs and opening up the few presents under the tree (Santa's were of course hidden away for the morning).

The family is far more disbursed these days and my grandmother is too old to host big Christmas gatherings but my family has started somewhat of our own tradition (provided we're not traveling). We basically have an open house on Christmas Eve for all of our family and friends should they want to stop by. I make my homemade posole and buy some tamales at El Modelo here in town...plenty of beer, wine, and bourbon can be had as well. The boys get to open one Christmas present each...and once they are in bed we start putting out the Santa gifts for the next morning.

Sounds perfect!

BlueBombers

Staying up until midnight on Christmas Eve and opening up our presents. I have a Portuguese family so this is a common tradition.

Now, my kids open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Eve and open Santa's gifts on Christmas morning.

PurpleStars73

Decorating the tree with my kids, they get so excited!

kaned_ferret

Eating, definitely eating.. I lurves me some christmas food!

sixout

Taking down the tree after Christmas and being happy that the dumb holiday is over.

in_the_stars

Singing the songs at church on Christmas eve, the food and gifts and family on Christmas Day, the lights!

Saucy_lil_Minx

Two Things:

*Every Year since we moved into our first house we go and buy a new ornament for our tree. My son, and I pick it out together.

*Christmas Eve the whole family is together, and we bake a new cookie recipe, and read "T'was the Night before Christmas", and my Father in law tells the "Rindacella, and the Sisters Uglers" ....that's "Cinderella, and the Two Ugly Sisters" backwards. It is hilarious listening to him recite the whole story backwards, something he apparently learned from a record as a little boy, and memorized. To sit there, and listen to everyone laugh as tells the story is priceless! I keep telling myself to get it on video so we have it always, but I never think about it until afterwards, because your caught up in the moment.

There are a lot of other things we do, but these are my two favorites.