Good Holiday traditions to start with kids?

feed the homeless or go to a nursing home...I dont do these things but if I did I think my kids might be more gratefull for the gift they get...

We go through all of their toys and clothes after Thanksgiving and mark some items for donation, throw some away, and clean up the rest. While we are doing this we talk about the kids whose families can't buy them nice toys or clothes.

We have a holiday baking day. This year I am looking for healthier items to bake/make.

We make a gingerbread house. Everyone helps.

I started the Elf on a Shelf this year (my son loves it) and we are also going through the toys he doesn't want or play with and we are donating them to a local Shelter that has kids and the Ronald McDonald house. I want to teach him to give back in life.

We just have a couple things we do...

My parents come over for dinner and family time, and we do a small gift exchange with them. Then we have a game that I set up earlier in the day for each of the older kids-we do our own version of deal or no deal with envelopes taped and numbered on the wall. Each one has a value ranging from .01 to 50.00. I take my cell phone and use it to call my husband (I'm the banker, as usual lol) to give them the deal. It's really fun. :-D During the small gift exchange, the kids have opened their jammies from us, so the game is usually done with the kids in their jammies and ready for bed. If time permits, we may play a game or two while sipping coffee and hot chocolate. Then my parents leave, we get the cookies ready for Santa, and the kids go to bed.

Leading up to Christmas, my children go shopping for Toys for Tots and choose a toy that they would really love to have, and they put it in the T4T box for a child who would otherwise have no Christmas at all. This year, we bumped that up and actually "adopted" the children for Christmas-buying for two specific children, we picked out Christmas jammies, some new clothes, and toys that were on their wish list. That was fun too!!

I absolutely love Christmas. I LOVE giving presents and seeing delight in the eyes of the receiver. It's my favorite time of year.

We always "adopt" a child from the local foster home to buy christmas presents for. My kids really enjoy going & picking out all the stuff on their wish list.

We have also started running a Christmas themed 5k each year. We are running in the Reindeer Run this weekend & dressing up with reindeer antlers & we're doing the Jog'r Egg Nog'r 3 weeks from now. Egg nog at the finish line! Yum!:drinker:

We always decorate our tree as a familly, and each year my kids each make a new decoration for the tree. Then we watch a Christmas DVD with hot chocolate.

We do the christmas shoe box program through our church where we fill a shoe box with gifts and toiletries for kids who dont have much in life, i think it helps you to appreciate what you have. We also go to the christingle service on christmas eve at church, they are too small yet for midnight mass.

We also always make about half our gifts, i want my children to understand the value of the present is not as important as the care and thought put into it, that something handmade can be a much more thoughtful gift than soemthing that cost a lot.

Definitely a few drives around to look at lights.

Every year we all get new PJs on christmas eve. I've also started having the kids write letters to santa and we mail them. Santa gets them and writes back a week or so later... pretty exciting!

feed the homeless or go to a nursing home...I dont do these things but if I did I think my kids might be more gratefull for the gift they get...

I think mine might still be a tad too young for this, but it's a fantastic idea. I'm always trying to teach the kids to appreciate what they have.

oh crap you got little ones Im sorry!!!! How about "the elf on the shelf"????

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/

we go through toys and clothes about a month before Christmas and take them to donate.
We also always do some sort of angel tree deal. I pick one the same age as my 3 kids and they pick out a gift for them.
The years we go back home to Indiana for Christmas, we always go to the shelter and feed the homeless. Its a tradition my family has always had since I was little.
Im not catholic but my mom and I always go to a midnight candle light mass Christmas eve. Ive taken my oldest a couple of years now. Its just beautiful and its nice time to just slow down and be still during such a crazy time.

Elf on the shelf! I wish I had known about this one earlier but I just learned of it last year. I think my kids are a little too old to start it. It seems really fun though!