If you follow along here, you might not know we have a private Facebook group where you can share your decorating successes and ask for advice. It’s a fabulous group, so supportive and encouraging. You can join here if you like. INTERIOR DESIGN FORUM
I recently asked the group what their favorite Christmas traditions are. (I did mention I would be sharing them here.)
So if you are looking for a new holiday tradition, or you just want to know how other people spend Christmas, here we go.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TRADITION?
Linda:
Christmas morning with my kids and grandchildren and husband…not in that order. But I put the baked french toast in the oven, my husband puts on the coffee and we gather around our fireplace, put on Christmas music and open our stocking gifts. My favorite two hours of the year.
Holly:
Christmas Eve candlelight service. It makes me cry every year! Holly @ Style from the Sticks
Lynda:
Traditions change. When I was small, going to my grandparents on Christmas eve. All us young kids got to do sparklers! So much fun. Then as we grew and had families of our own, going to my grandparents on Christmas eve and carrying on the tradition of family together and sparklers! And now my grandparents are gone. So my children are grown and have traditions of their own. I now spend Christmas eve with my husband of 38 years. We see the kids and grandkids at my mom and dad’s on Christmas day. I think I like that traditions change. And love spending that special time with my husband. and the seasons they go round and round. And the painted ponies go up and down
Kathy:
The Christmas stocking, I love the excitement of such a simple thing. Ours are usually very simple, but all my children always ( one still does) looked forward to opening them early Christmas mornings, they would gather together on one bed and forage for treats, small inexpensive gifts a new toothbrush and an orange in the toe.
Vanessa:
On Christmas Eve, my family comes over to our house, and we feast on tamales, homemade chili, and beans. The kids get to open one gift. The egg nog flows, and then we have my mother’s special cranberry bars for dessert, and watch the Christmas tree lights while the kids play. Pretty low key
Kathy:
Christmas with family is the best tradition…but usually when we are done opening or while we are opening gifts we ball up the paper and throw it at each other we open one gift at a time so everyone gets to see what everyone gets and it makes it last a long time
Annette:
Candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church. We line up around the perimeter holding candles and sing Silent Night. So beautiful!
Rachel:
We open our Christmas presents Christmas morning while snacking on warm cinnamon cream cheese bars and mimosas.
Melody:
For the past 3 years in a row I’ve taken my four granddaughters to see their uncle (my youngest) perform in The Nutcracker. He’s a professional dancer/teacher who has toured Europe extensively while performing with a renowned dance troupe of men. They love getting to see Uncle Drew on stage! I gift them each with a sparkly new dress for the show and a new nutcracker doll to add to their collection. We all look forward to it very much.
Denise:
Exchanging gifts with family and friends on Christmas Eve and spending Christmas day with my husband and kids. After we open presents from Santa we have a huge breakfast and relax the rest of the day.
Jayne:
Oh there are so many! Tinsel has to be on the tree, watching It’s A Wonderful Life, shopping date with my husband, Christmas cards are hung on the banister, attending the Christmas eve service, but my favorite is reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 before opening presents.
Judith:
From my days as a single adult working at my first job in Washington, D.C., I began going to the movie on Christmas afternoon. Far away from home and missing Christmas with my family for the first time, I saw Funny Girl in a theater with about five other people. Since then, a movie at the theater sometime on Christmas Day is part of our family’s traditions. Sometimes there have been only two of us, but most years there are many of our extended family members who join us. There are many more than five others in the theater now. Seems like this has become part of many family’s traditions.
Kelly :
I have two favorite traditions. The first is midnight mass on Christmas Eve- I cry every year as I look around at my family, hear the beautiful music and hold hands and pray with friends and strangers alike -:). One of our biggest traditions is adopting families for Christmas. When we started having grandchildren, we decided that we wanted Christmas to be about giving. So, each year my family of eight adopts 3-4 families in need. We buy coats, gloves, shoes, clothes, toiletries, groceries and of course TOYS for their children! I get so much joy thinking about “our” families opening their gifts on Christmas morning! These little traditions are priceless, and ones that I hope my children and grandchildren will continue, long after I’m gone.Oh yeah, and the bourbon slush. Don’t forget the bourbon slush !
Kathy:
We adopt a family as well. It is very rewarding. This year my family also did the christmas shoeboxes for other countries. We were about to make 33 of them! My SIL was born in Italy so we have a huge Italian feast and we all bring everything and make the boxes.
Sandy :
We have a “Feast of the Seven Fried Foods!” Not Italian, so everyone gets their favorite munchies, wings, shrimp, onion rings, etc., then my children open their gifts for each other and we open their gifts to us, then a glorious candlelight church service at midnight!
Cheryl:
Taking my kids (now it’s grandkids) for a visit with Santa, and then to the Hallmark store, where they pick out an ornament. My daughter called me the week before my outing with my granddaughter, and said that she wanted to know when Grandma was taking her for her ornament, since she’d been talking about it constantly. I also continue the tradition of buying my grown children an ornament each year. I never knew how much it meant to them until a few years ago, when I asked my son to help me haul up a box of decorations. His girlfriend was present, and she remarked upon how she’d finally be able to see Nick’s special ornaments that he’d told her about. This year, I told my kids that this year, I was only going to be able to buy for the grandchildren. They were okay with that, but when my son came over and saw the stockings displayed and commented on them, I told him that I didn’t think I’d be doing stockings for the older “kids”, which typically include that year’s ornament; he said that while he didn’t mind not getting a gift, he drew the line at no stockings. I know my traditions mean a lot to me, but I was surprised and touched to learn how much they mean to my family as well.
Me:
We attend Handel’s Messiah every year. Christmas morning we enjoy a big breakfast with wassail, pancakes, and breakfast tacos. Some other favorite activites include watching Christmas movies, and driving around looking at the Christmas lights. This year we also went caroling in our neighborhood.
Thank you to everyone who shared her special family traditions with me. This list has inspired me, and I’ve got lots of ideas for next year. I LOVE these. With all of the bad things happening in the world, it makes me happy to see families making memories together.
So now I have to ask… what is YOUR Christmas Tradition?
I loved reading these traditions. As a Jewish person, I never celebrated Christmas in the traditional sense. We have a bit of an amusing custom in the Jewish community to have Chinese food and go to the movies on Christmas Day because those are the only things that are open during the holiday. Yet as the years have passed and some family members have married Christians, I’m delighted to be invited to extended family gatherings to celebrate their holiday. In recent years, we’ve even joined the ranks of people who have more than one place to go for Christmas!
We are a French family. My favorite tradition. Was we always celebrated Christmas eve . We did a party at Grandmas. Sometimes if their was snow we would hitch the horses to sleds and go to mass at midnight, come back and have a wonderful Reveillion. The holidays to me was always about the food.
I love reading all the different traditions! We are a large, extended, blended family, Christian and Jewish, We get together with one group on Christmas Eve, open presents and have pizza, then Christmas Day we see another group for presents and dinner, and then my husband and I host an open house on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, usually a casual buffet. We include both Christian and Jewish traditions and food. So it’s three days of celebration for us, and very festive!
I love when my family comes,we eat, then open gifts,my grandchildren have to pick who will put the Santa Claus hat on to hand the gifts,they have fun.When i was young on Christmas my father would set and read the birth of Jesus to us,now he is with Him in Heaven with my mom. I love everything about Christmas.