My girls are going to come down stairs Christmas Morning and FREAK

[jessie75]

because there will be no presents and no stockings. At the suggestion of a friend we are doing a scavenger hunt this year to make it fun and mess with their heads.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

[smurray]

because there will be no presents and no stockings. At the suggestion of a friend we are doing a scavenger hunt this year to make it fun and mess with their heads.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

HAHAHAHA that will be awesome. My girls, 4 and 6, already act as teenagers and I have to drag them out of bed to get the morning started. We usually open gifts, take disheveled pictures of each other, and I fix breakfast while the kids play with their toys and my wife falls back to sleep. But the newest tradition I have started is after I have set up all the gifts on Christmas Eve, I take a box of baked goods to our neighborhood 24 hrs pharmacy after midnight. I know those folks have to be at work all night and then have to celebrate when they get home. I just like to let them know I appreciate them for being there whenever I have that "must get a light bulb at 3 am" emergency.

[Shortkaik]

My mom set up a sort of scavenger hunt for my birthday once, it started with a clue, and each clue lead to another clue and a small present, and then the final clue led to the big present... a bike, I think. I love that idea! Makes it so much more fun than just ripping open wrapping paper.

One of the traditions we had when I was a kid was that "Santa" would leave one present outside each of the kids' bedroom doors - it was always a nice new pair of Christmas pajamas. This was my mom's way of getting us to stay in bed. If we got up and looked outside our door and didn't see the package of pajamas, we weren't allowed to wake mom up yet because clearly Santa had not come yet! And then when the present did finally come we were allowed to open it alone, put them on and try them out (by going back to bed), it kept us occupied for a bit longer so mom could get a little bit more sleep. What a clever lady!

[jessie75]

Smurray~ That is an awesome tradition. At one point I was one of those people so I KNOW they appreciate it.

Shortkaik~ your mom is smart!! I get the girls new PJs every year I wish I had thought of something like that years ago, maybe to late to change it now LOL

[scarletleavy]

Our only real Christmas tradition is one I don't really partake in anyway, but it's hamburgers on Christmas Eve. My family's been doing it since my mother was a little girl, back in the 1950s. They had a Christmas Eve kitchen disaster one year and all the food was ruined so my grandfather took my mother and my aunt to pick up some hamburgers from a local drive-in place and there was only one person working there that night, a young pregnant woman. It really struck a nerve with them so ever since then, hamburgers on Christmas eve. As for me, I don't like ground meat and I don't eat bread so hamburgers are definitely a no-go, but it's a nice sentiment I guess?

In general our family is the worst with Christmas though. Gifts are never a surprise, we basically just submit a list of what we want and people buy off the list. We're not really a holiday celebrating kind of family. The Santa surprise was spoiled pretty early on when I was 7 years old and found my "santa" gifts hidden in the shed. Oh well.

['Roos]

@Scarlet - it's funny - the reason I think our family is awesome at presents is 'cause we give each other lists/ideas way beforehand. Otherwise we get the most random, crazy shit from each other (see my mother giving my boyfriend a modern-art-designed trash can - wtf mom?). We usually get up, make a fancy breakfast and eat that before presents. Since I can remember I've been the MC of presents, surveying all of them and doling them out so people open them one by one and we can all ooh and aah, or laugh at the utter inpropriety.

[Shortkaik]

This Christmas will be especially interesting for me - I've just moved in with my boyfriend and his two young daughters (7/9). They've been around long enough to have their own family traditions, so I'm finding it difficult to weave my own into the mix. There are some I would really like to carry on, but it's hard to butt in and change things on people. Quite a challenge!

[jessie75]

We do the list thing too between the adults. That way we get things we really want and or need. Though I am NOT picky. Though the best gifts I ever got were for my past birthday when my girls (at my BF's instigation) made donations to my favorite charities. Totally rocked! And not just because I couldn't think of anything I wanted for my birthday other than getting my kitchen knives sharpened... still waiting for that one.

[smurray]

Last night I took my girls out to my parents' house to help decorate their tree and to get them out of their mother's hair for a bit. When my oldest daughter was little and just starting to talk she started to say "Ooooo, Christmas Lights!" every time she saw a house decorated in lights. So on our journey out and back, I made sure to take different routes to give us all the chance to see as many lights as possible and say, "Ooooo, Christmas Lights!"

My neighborhood over the past few years have really gotten into the outdoor displays to the point that one of my Jewish neighbors puts out blue lights for Hanukkah. So the girls make sure to say "Ooooo Hanukkah Lights!" for Miss Lisa's house.

[Mama T]

This Christmas will be especially interesting for me - I've just moved in with my boyfriend and his two young daughters (7/9). They've been around long enough to have their own family traditions, so I'm finding it difficult to weave my own into the mix. There are some I would really like to carry on, but it's hard to butt in and change things on people. Quite a challenge!

that does sound like a challenge. but very exciting that you guys can hopefully start some together this year!

[jessie75]

This Christmas will be especially interesting for me - I've just moved in with my boyfriend and his two young daughters (7/9). They've been around long enough to have their own family traditions, so I'm finding it difficult to weave my own into the mix. There are some I would really like to carry on, but it's hard to butt in and change things on people. Quite a challenge!

have you talked to your BF about it? To find a good melding, introduce something new?

[Pat G]

@ShortKaik Bringing a new tradition for you and the girls would be an awesome way to get close with your boyfriend's kids.

@Smurray & jessie75, those are both awesome ways to celebrate Christmas.

With quite a large extended family. Christmas is a long 72 hours for us. Xmas eve is with my wife's family, stay up late for santa to come for all the kids. Xmas morning, church, Xmas afternoon My relatively immediate family has a bbq gathering at my parents and then Boxing Day (Australian Remember) My extended family have our annual tennis tournament.

Talking about Santa, While i'm fairly sure that they know he's not a fully real person, i'm trying to break it to my 5 year old twins that "Santa" is just a nice story. I want them to know it was mum and Dad who (thought about, argued over,saved up for and went and) made or bought their presents, rather than some big bloke from the North Pole.

[Grosby]

My kids simply have a stocking which is filled by santa and the awesome presents are from the parents - I grew up with EVERYTHING being from Santa, but my husband doesn't get why the fat guy should get the credit when it's us who's awesome. *insert eye roll*

Clearly we grew up in different families - My family were lower-income and thus my parents couldn't POSSIBLY have afforded to give me a keyboard and my bro and sis bikes, I mean if I knew they could, I'd just ask all year.. and his family were middle-income and yet Santa gave him school books. (Yeah, I wouldn't want the credit for that either) he challenged his dad about it recently and his dad admitted they had no idea what else to get him - hah. His 3 sisters weren't treated to school books - but they did get stuff like fruit loops, bottles of coke etc. haha.

Anyway, so that's our tradition. We leave out something dodgy for Santa to eat, carrot for the reindeer, stockings are hung on the bedroom doors and they get filled!

[smurray]

We have friends who struggle with what to do about Santa. One family didn't want to lie to their child so they told her that Santa was not real, but the tooth fairy still comes and gives her coins for a recently lost tooth. Really? Another family's four year old told Santa during our neighborhood Christmas event that she was told not to believe in him because he was only pretend, but it was great seeing her really wanting to believe in him and be as excited as they rest of the kids there.

We tell our kids the story of Santa, we do the personalized video message from Santa, leave out milk and cookies on Christmas Eve, and we have a blast making a big deal out of this tradition that St. Nicholas has started "way back when" for sharing the love of God with all. Now if our girls sees Santa in the store and they decide he is not really Santa, we will agree that he is a "Santa helper" because Santa is so busy during this time of the year that he needs all the help he can get. When they are old enough, I am sure they will discover that "Santa" only exists when we believe that his tradition is important to continue and they can help in carrying on the tradition.

At our house, Santa fills the stockings and he also gives each child one home made gifts. Our girls love dolls and my wife is a seamstress, so we get together some scrap fabrics we think would make some great dolls and we mail them to Mrs. Claus to help with the making of the dolls. After the packaged is "mailed" to the North Pole, my wife will make little simple plush dolls or animals out of the material. It makes the gift a little extra special since they got to help Santa and the elves by sending the fabric.

I say have fun with it and let kids be kids.

[jessie75]

Those are some wonderful traditions!!

In our house Santa brings the stockings full of fun things and some things mom would NEVER buy (like practical joke shocking gum) and the parents get the presents. I don't want Santa getting credit for how awesome I am and the sacrifice I go through to give them an awesome Christmas. I love the Best Buy commercials this year!! I feel that way sometimes.

My youngest is 11 this year, she'll be 12 over the summer, and is pretty sure Santa doesn't exist but she isn't sure yet. I just tell her that if she doesn't believe he doesn't come, and once she is past it we are going to talk more about how he is the Spirit of Christmas, the embodiment of all the good things that bring people together over the Christmas season. My eldest (16 this week EEK) is long past it, but she doesn't spoil it for her sister. We love leaving cookies out for him though.

I agree! Have fun and let Kids be kids!!

[smurray]

How did everyone's Christmas morning turn out? We did pretty good considering our tight schedule having it on Sunday and having church service.

I let everyone sleep till almost seven and then I started dragging kids out of the bed. They stayed up a little late putting out cookies and milk for Santa, reindeer food on the front sidewalk, and watching for Santa on NORAD's Santa tracking site. I finally started yelling, "You better go to sleep, Santa's in Haiti right now!", or "He's getting closer, he is in New York City!".

After getting them up in the morning we did the usual checking out the stockings, making sure the cookies and milk were consumed, and reindeer food scattered. I whipped up a quick breakfast after gifts were opened and my wife threw them into clothes and then we raced off to church. After church we went to my parents and ate leftovers from our Christmas Eve dinner we had with my brother and his wife. After dinner, we took naps and recovered from the craziness of the holiday. All in all it was a fun time with the family.

[Grosby]

How good is NORAD? Bed time is about the same that Santa takes off from the north pole here - so it's handy.. "HEY LOOK, HE'S TAKING OFF!! GO TO BED!!" and my 5 year old hot-foots it down the hallway, no questions asked (Not even a goodnight kiss, he REALLY HAD TO GO TO BED NOW!"

[jessie75]

It was brilliant, though I discovered I need to hide things better, my youngest, HALF ASLEEP no less, managed to circumvent and find the final prize at the end before we even got started. She had to wait until we found the rest of them with the clues. It was awesome. They were like "why are we doing it this way?" though I didn't get to reaction I was hoping for. Its going on youtube as soon as I edit the video a little

[Briguy]

I am going to resurect an old thread . . .

I don't have kids, but my sister adopted three and has two more through marriage (I don't count the two older ones, since they are on their own)

Since she adpoted them and got a house it has been our tradition to go over and be there while they open presents... thats the only one that I can think of that we have and would like to find my own traditions that Ican start and add to my life.

As the youngest child I would wake up early, look through anything not wrapped, go wake up my sister to tell her what we got and then my parents to open the rest of the presents. That changed to waking up, checking things out, waking up Angie when she said I could about the same time my parents said Icould getthem up (this still happened when I staying with them after I moved out)

As far as Santa, I am not sure how old I was but looked over at the tree and asked " Mom, you said Aunt B is coming over right? Is she bringing the kids?, Do they still believe in Santa?" Then proceeded to take a present from Santa and place it to the back of the tree and cover it with some others. Another time, I think I was 16 or so, I found some coal junks when helping take down a shed in the fall. Christmas morning before I woke them I dumped both their stocking on the couch and placed a big lump of coal in each.

Please add any tradions you have, there are some of us that don't have kids and have to go places with them, or are new that may not have traditions, your stuff may inspire us to start a new one.