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Cointest - What do you do for Christmas Eve and Christmas?


hollora

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;) Well, I have been the lucky winner of many cointests, blessed with some mystery coins - soooo, it is only fair, I now sponsor a cointest. My cointest, my rules, my game.............right???!!!

 

Starting now, anyone may post their Christmas eve and Christmas Day traditions. What do you do, which is a treasured memory or tradition for either Christmas eve, Christmas day or both?

 

My hubby, Ralph, has always said, "it's about the memories".........so what memories are you making and/or have your family and friends made? Or maybe even some new ones you are creating this year...........

 

I can't be bothered to monitor who posted when....and will use a randon number generator to select which post will be the winner. Enter now, as often as you like but PLEASE make your post meaningful, until 11:59PM on 12/24/08 (Christmas eve). The last post closest to that time will determine the number of posts and on Christmas morning (sometime), I will use the generator to pick the winner. I will post the winner around our family schedule for the day.

 

Now, what will you win? .............I am from Maine, love this state and the local economy needs folks to buy MAINE LOBSTER - so ............although not edible, or produced/developed/conceived - well you get it, in Maine...........you will win one of the RED CHRISTMAS LOBSTER COINS, which Dorkfish sold out of so quickly! (yes, I have it in hand and if I get your addy on Christmas day - or already have it - it will be mailed on 12/26/08).

 

Merry Christmas and I am looking forward to enjoying your stories and traditions! :D

Edited by hollora
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Thank You Hollora for the fun cointest.

 

 

Our Family tradition on Christmas Eve is been something our parents did for us since we ben infants, they load up in the car and take us for a evening drive around the neighbor hood and look at all the Christmas lights that people had up. Our parents loved doing this since it was their time for themselves to have a nice quiet evening as soon as the car was warm and hearing the car motor running they said it didnt take long and all of us kids were out like a light, they always said if they couldnt get us to stop fussing or go to sleep many times they would take us for a car ride. They did that all of the years until we moved out and have gone our own ways. Now my parents are Snow Birds and live in Texas for the winters away from Cold winter months in Upper Michigan. That has not stopped me to carry on the tradition with my new family, we do the same thing every year the night before Christmas we go out for a eveing drive out to see all the neighboring lights, come home and sit and relax and remind us how fast the year has went and hope that Next year will even be better, and think how much we have and consider ourselves lucky to have a warm place for the Holidays, and send a prayer out to all the homeless people, familys that are alone for the Holidays, Pray for our troops that can't be home for the holidays with their family, for the sick, we could go on and on, and consider ourselves very greatful for what we do have. This year I have made a few quilts and have donated them to the needy and am blessed to know they will keep someone warm during the holiday season. We like to wish every one a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years '09. As I always like to say from Our house to Yours.

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We have dinner Christmas Eve with all the extended family. after everyone leaves we get to open one present. For as long as I can remember the gift has been a new pair of PJ's to sleep in. To this day, somehow Santa still has a new pair of PJ's waiting for me on Christmas Eve... :D

 

After changing into our PJ's we turn off all the lights except the tree and lay down on the floor under the tree to enjoy the lights. When I was a young child at home we would have a slumber party under the tree- but now that I'm older we just snuggle for a bit then go to our comfy bed!

 

In Holmbiorns family the stockings were the one thing that the kids could open before his Mom woke up and the gifts under the tree were the big ones that had to wait for Mom- in my family the stockings were the main event, with only a few small things under the tree!

 

We've compromised a little- stockings are still the main present, but we got stockings that are about two feet tall and can hold an awful lot of presents! It makes everything a lot more interesting- when buying gifts you have to stop and think of what will be most enjoyable and still fit in a stocking. We put a lot more thought into gifts now...

 

Thanks for the great cointest, and Happy Holidays to everyone! ;)

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Well, it's not an official tradition but it seems to be something that I've ended up doing for a number of different Christmas Eves...I keep all my wrapping supplies in an old Trunk(I think they call it a steamer trunk) and I also keep all the letters and cards I have received over the years from when I was in High School all the way to today. I always wait until the last minute to get gifts wrapped, and have to move all those old letters out of the way to get it done. Once I get my hands on them, I can't help but to open up a bunch of them and read. My Christmas Eve tradition is to spent the evening(and late in the night) wrapping Gifts and reading old letters and cards(and my old journals and yearbooks too).

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I'm in the military, and my family is currently stationed in Northern Japan. I'm my parents' only child, and my daughter is the first (so far) grandchild, a grandchild I think they never thought they'd have (I am a very late bloomer).

 

So our Christmas morning tradition is to set up Skype so that Grandma and Grandpa can watch Summer tearing into her presents. Last year she was only a couple of months old, so she enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the presents, and really enjoyed being placed in the bigger boxes and pushed around. This year she's much more mobile and we're really looking forward to seeing how she'll handle her presents.

 

The plan is to set up the laptop so that it has a good view of the tree, and then sneak the presents in late Christmas Eve (after she's gone to bed), so that Grandma & Grandpa can watch her come into the living room and discover the presents on Christmas morning.

 

Seeing as we're probably going to be staying in Japan, this is going to become a tradition. Yay technology! : )

 

Thanks for the cointest!

 

Edited to add:

 

I really like Maine!

 

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Edited by Jackalgirl
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Christmas eve it is tradition in our family to dress up and make the drive to church for midnight mass. I lived on a farm growing up so our church was 45min away, more if it was snowing and it usually was. We would all pile into the car and usually mom would be 'late' and dad would go see what she was up to...so we would wait for them and then leave as a family. On the way to church dad would crank the local honky tonk station as it played non-stop carols like "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and various Christmas Elvis. We would have mass and usually get home somewhere near 2am. A quick look under the tree showed us that Santa had been there while we were gone to church!!! We would all scatter to get out of our good clothes into Christmas pjs while mom made us a "snack". Now, any of you grow up on a farm? Our snack consisted of all sorts of veggies n' dip, chips n' salsa, shrimp rings, the Christmas candy platter, baked goods, various hors d'ouvres, and most importantly meat pies. While the hot food was being warmed, we would pile into the living room and rip open the presents for the next hour or so. Then we would eat and fall into bed.

I think this order of things was to make sure that we weren't up extremely early Christmas morning BUT when we woke in the morning...STOCKINGS!!!! And more church...

 

It took us a while to figure out why mom was always late.... ;)

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Our Christmas eve tradition has changed originally we would go off to my mother in laws or sister in laws Christmas eve and have dinner and open presents with my wife's immediate family. the best Christmas gift I ever gave was shortly after I got married. I paid for my father in law (who lives a couple provinces over) to come down for Christmas. only myself, my wife and my mother in law knew he was coming. the looks on my wife younger brother a sisters faces were priceless ;) . (they hadn't seen him in a few years that was over a dozen years ago and still makes me smile). Then we would go see the Christmas light displays.

Christmas day would be spent going to the extended Families Christmas parties.

Now that we've moved 2000kms away our Christmas eve is spent checking out the light displays in our new town.

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My favorite was every Christmas Eve my parents would take us to see the lights and some how every year we would see Santa and the reindeer close to home. When I became a Mom I took my daughter every Christmas Eve to see the lights and she would discover Santa and the reindeer so close to home. We would always have to hurry home so we could be asleep so Santa could come. Now I am a grandmother and the tradition continues and we can't wait to all take our grandson to see the lights and decorations. There is just something so special when they discover Santa and the reindeer is so close.

That is also one of my daughters favorite memory. Her all time favorite memory is I would let her wrap her presents every year and tell her they were for someone else. She was always surprised Santa had brought her the same things she had wrapped and it always made her day.

Thanks for the contest Hollora. Your husband is right. It is all about memories. We have a lot of wonderful memories and now we create memories for the next generation. My grandson tells us things he remembers about Christmas and I think that is the greatest gift we can give him, memories that will last a life time.

 

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Eve dinner is lasagna, garlic bread and salad. Clean up and then its off to services at Church. When we get home we would put on the Christmas music make some egg nog and break out the cookies...1 package per person can then be opened.

 

Christmas morning you can be up as early as you want and you can dive into....only your stocking! Now that we are all adults when everyone is up we make mimosa's and open packages. (orange juice just tastes better that way!)

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Well this year poses a problem!!!

 

We have recently moved to the Arabian Gulf - and are living inan Islamic country that does not celebrate Christmas. As Christians, we actually celebrated today (Fri & Sat are the weekend here) - as I will be working right through - and the children are on holiday. I actually will be at work on Christmas day - so will not have a great opportuntity to spend the day with the family.

 

Odd - but we had a delicious seafood pilaff - with an Eastern spice. And will spend some time as a family tomorrow (possibly a new cache out in the desert)?

 

:ph34r::D;):lol:

 

But even though this is different - we are together as a family, surrounded by love and have a few good friends here from the church to spend time with -so it's actually very nice.

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For many years I had a Christmas Eve tradition that included Maine!

 

The few days before Christmas Eve I would travel from home (NH, then MA, now VA) to ski at Sugarloaf Mountain with my Godparents. We'd ski the days leading up to Dec 24th and then on Christmas Eve on the way to my parents house in NH we would stop at LLBean for last minute shopping. So there were always a few last minute gifts that came from there.

 

Thanks for the nice opportunity to reflect on this and see some other wonderful traditions!

Sandra of SandyDuff

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My side of the family traditionally opens gifts after an informal buffet dinner on Christmas Eve. It allows the other side of the family to have their traditional Christmas. We are hosting this year's festivities and we're serving tamalies that we made a few weeks ago.

 

I remember one year many moons ago at my grandparent's house when the gifts were stacked to the ceiling (it was a low ceiling but still...).

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Well Christmas Eve here has gotten to be a longer ritual each and every year it seems.

 

We usually start by me getting up early and going to work. I usually have to answer a couple dozen or so people's questions with a strange look on their face of "We are getting mail on Christmas Eve?". By about the second dozen of times hearing this, I usually respond with something of "No I am just doing some recon for the Grinch tonight and this is my disguise. Oh and here's your gas shut off notice. Merry Christmas". Sprinkle that in with a couple good old "Is it cold enough for you yet?" by the same people who refuse to clean their steps for us as we are bouncing from cheek to cheek down their steps. Gotta love it.

 

So then I race home to spend the front end of the evening with the in-laws. Anything else need to really be said about that? Sure they all come to the house, the same one they have been coming to or years, but do we have to eat the same stuff as last year? I mean seriously if you have a full platter of left over wheat bread with some nasty mash on it this year, do you think it's gonig to be a big hit next year? Leave it home and bring over something we all like. Whatever happened to some good cheese and meat platters or a basic sandwich ring. Shrimp always eems to vanish quickly. Don't touch her Grandmother's chocolate unless you enjoy your candy coming from the dollar store with the expiration date crossed out for sales purposes. At least they don't stay too long.

 

By now it's time to put the kids to bed. This means fresh PJs for the kids and Mom breaking out the wine bottle. After they set out Santa's plate of cookies and a cup for the soymilk (Thanks Uncle Mark for convincing the kids that Santa is lactose intollerant) and the plate of carrots for the magical reindeer, it's off to bed. Well for them at least. My night has just begun.

 

So they get tucked in and told to go to sleep so Santa can come there quickly (or Dad can finish his jobs and get to bed himself at least). With Mom on the couch with wine bottle in hand, screw the glass since it is nothing but a middle man in the way at this point, I begin the task of building things. The bike is always easy. The parts are always right since Dad picked it out. Now the toys Mom thought looked cool are always designed by some guy who has never had to build anything before, and decided to give his poor excuse of a brother a job of writing the instructions. Usually by around step 24, while Mom is singing a really bad version of Jingle Bell Rock while thinking she is Brittany Spears, the instructions say something about "unless you want it have a torque wrench with a digital read out you will not be able to proceed past this point". Wouldn't want to put THAT on the box cover now would ya?! So by about 3 am, with Mom passed out with an empty bottle, I retire to the bed room. Usually I am tired enough to fall asleep right through her snoring version of Silent Night.

 

Two hours later we are awoken by the kids. Anyone ever notice the kids never seem to be up before 11 am on a Saturday when there is grass to be cut, but you put a fake tree in the house and a promise of toys under said tree and these same kids could run a marathon backwards in 6 inches of snow at 5 am!?! Anywho we can downstairs to see if the rotten bundles of joy were "good enough" for Santa this year. Of course the room is filled with paper being torn and boxes flying throught the room. Ohs and Ahs seem to come as frequent as Mom's hangover pangs do.

 

I wouldn't trade a moment of this for anything in the world. Well except the work part. So clean your steps this year and remember your mailman!

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;):) PGH your post is just a riot!! :):lol:

 

This year for Christmas Eve we will be attending church for a candlelit service.

 

I do agree about Christmas morning about how kids just somehow manage to NOT sleep in. I know we will be awoken by our daughter, PengoBeky by 6:00 am. But the excitement on her face is just too cute and we will go open gifts. My problem is not all the gifts that need to be put together it is trying to take the gifts out of the box. The way they tie down toys with all those silly twist ties and pieces of plastic and elastic bands...

 

Then I spend the rest of the day cooking with the hubby. The MIL comes over in the afternoon and a few more gifts are opened. Then we eat until we feel like the stuffed turkey.

 

But we feel very blessed this time of year and enjoy every minute that we have together...even when we argue about how long things need to cook and when they should be started.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

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That is a great memory of mine from 25 years ago that I will never forget. Not really a tradition, but a wonderful Christmas memory all the same. Thanx for the cointest!

 

About a week before Christmas is when we would start putting some of the gifts under the tree. I remember one year, when I was about 12, one small gift appeared under the tree about a week earlier than normal. One of our dogs noticed it, and thought something seemed odd about it. She crept up on it to investigate, and slowly got closer and closer as she tried to get a sniff. We were in the other room, but could see her antics. As she crept closer, for some reason she got spooked, and she dug her claws into the carpet as she tried to run away from the mysterious package as quickly as possible.

 

We all started laughing hysterically, and went to go comfort her. One of us held her while another went and got the gift to bring over to her so that she could get a good smell. She realized that there was no problem with it, and quickly lost interest. It remained alone, under the tree for about a week until the other gifts started arriving, and she never paid it any more attention.

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One of our Christmas Eve traditions started when I was just a kid, and seems to mirror a tradition of quite a few others in this thread. We hop in the car and spend an hour or two driving around town looking at all decorations and trying to find the best lit houses. Somehow, Santa always managed to make his visit during the time we are gone.

 

When our kids were younger, it was easy enough for one of us to simply "forget" something and have to run back into the house. All of the presents were quickly moved from where they had been hidden and placed under the tree. Every year, it became more difficult to keep the game going. One year we got a good friend to help out while we were gone. Another year our oldest son, then a teenager, was in on the game and our pre-teen daughter was amazed and delighted for at least one more year.

 

Both kids are in high school now, but we still drive around town on Christmas Eve admiring the decorations and lights before coming home and opening a few gifts.

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I posted this in a traditions thread as well, but:

 

;) We have been married for 26 years and our oldest daughter is now 25 with a 17 year old daughter and 15 year old son to round out the family. We always do our BIG Christmas meal on Christmas Eve followed by hours of playing cards and then settle in to open gifts from one another. The kids are allowed to open the gifts they got for eachother and my husband and I are allowed to open the gifts he and I got for eachother. The kids receive one gift from us each Christmas Eve which is a warm, cozy, soft and snuggly pair of PJ's that they always wear to sleep in that night. We also get a new pair of PJ's and when we all arise on Christmas morning, pictures are always taken while all other gifts are opened and everyone is in their new PJ's. After the gifts are open, we cook a full breakfast spread and lounge around for a few hours taking in the meaning of the holiday and enjoying the new "toys" left under the tree. Midday, we head to the movies and always see a double feature before heading back home to close out the holiday playing cards until we can't stay awake. :)

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When I was a child, it was a BIG deal to be able to be old enough to go to Midnight Mass. Plus, Midnight Mass is a beautiful ritual. One year my poor, worn-out parents were too tired to go but we kids were revved up for it.

 

We had quite a number of Catholic families on on block and we managed to pull together about 10 kids, ages 14 to 8, who agreed to walk the mile to the church and back, all together and no one left behind and we promised to behave. There was a fresh snowfall of about four inches when we started out - all fluffy and white and sparkling. The plows hadn't been out and we all walked in the center of the sidestreets. The Christmas lights on the houses we passed were like a fairy land of glowing colors.

 

We got to church and it was, as always, a lovely service, full of music and candles and meaning and incense. The walk back home was nearly as much fun - maybe more, because we didn't have to worry about arriving soaking wet at church - we were going home and didn't have to be presentable. (The nuns who taught us at school made sure they checked us over when we got to church. You best believe they would have reported any problems to our parents!)

 

We made stomping snowprints and slidemarks in the street and tossed snowballs and made snow angels and shoved snow down each other's coats...and all too soon we were at our own homes, safe and sound, all of us telling each other Merry Christmas!!

 

One of my bestest memories growing up.

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Well Christmas Eve here has gotten to be a longer ritual each and every year it seems.

 

We usually start by me getting up early and going to work. I usually have to answer a couple dozen or so people's questions with a strange look on their face of "We are getting mail on Christmas Eve?". By about the second dozen of times hearing this, I usually respond with something of "No I am just doing some recon for the Grinch tonight and this is my disguise. Oh and here's your gas shut off notice. Merry Christmas". Sprinkle that in with a couple good old "Is it cold enough for you yet?" by the same people who refuse to clean their steps for us as we are bouncing from cheek to cheek down their steps. Gotta love it.

 

So then I race home to spend the front end of the evening with the in-laws. Anything else need to really be said about that? Sure they all come to the house, the same one they have been coming to or years, but do we have to eat the same stuff as last year? I mean seriously if you have a full platter of left over wheat bread with some nasty mash on it this year, do you think it's gonig to be a big hit next year? Leave it home and bring over something we all like. Whatever happened to some good cheese and meat platters or a basic sandwich ring. Shrimp always eems to vanish quickly. Don't touch her Grandmother's chocolate unless you enjoy your candy coming from the dollar store with the expiration date crossed out for sales purposes. At least they don't stay too long.

 

By now it's time to put the kids to bed. This means fresh PJs for the kids and Mom breaking out the wine bottle. After they set out Santa's plate of cookies and a cup for the soymilk (Thanks Uncle Mark for convincing the kids that Santa is lactose intollerant) and the plate of carrots for the magical reindeer, it's off to bed. Well for them at least. My night has just begun.

 

So they get tucked in and told to go to sleep so Santa can come there quickly (or Dad can finish his jobs and get to bed himself at least). With Mom on the couch with wine bottle in hand, screw the glass since it is nothing but a middle man in the way at this point, I begin the task of building things. The bike is always easy. The parts are always right since Dad picked it out. Now the toys Mom thought looked cool are always designed by some guy who has never had to build anything before, and decided to give his poor excuse of a brother a job of writing the instructions. Usually by around step 24, while Mom is singing a really bad version of Jingle Bell Rock while thinking she is Brittany Spears, the instructions say something about "unless you want it have a torque wrench with a digital read out you will not be able to proceed past this point". Wouldn't want to put THAT on the box cover now would ya?! So by about 3 am, with Mom passed out with an empty bottle, I retire to the bed room. Usually I am tired enough to fall asleep right through her snoring version of Silent Night.

 

Two hours later we are awoken by the kids. Anyone ever notice the kids never seem to be up before 11 am on a Saturday when there is grass to be cut, but you put a fake tree in the house and a promise of toys under said tree and these same kids could run a marathon backwards in 6 inches of snow at 5 am!?! Anywho we can downstairs to see if the rotten bundles of joy were "good enough" for Santa this year. Of course the room is filled with paper being torn and boxes flying throught the room. Ohs and Ahs seem to come as frequent as Mom's hangover pangs do.

 

I wouldn't trade a moment of this for anything in the world. Well except the work part. So clean your steps this year and remember your mailman!

 

Oh my gosh, you recreated the year perfectly when we got the kids that kitchen set for Christmas (many years ago)! The other yooper had blisters on his hands from putting that thing together and I don't think he made it to bed before 3am!! Myself and the wine bottle were another story ;) I seem to remember the kids up before the crack of dawn...thanks for the memory!! :) ( I am soooo glad it is just a memory and the kids are grown and gone, mimosa's at 9am are a blessing! :) )

Edited by usyoopers
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We have dinner Christmas Eve with all the extended family. after everyone leaves we get to open one present. For as long as I can remember the gift has been a new pair of PJ's to sleep in. To this day, somehow Santa still has a new pair of PJ's waiting for me on Christmas Eve... ;)

 

 

That is too funny -- As a child I always was able to open 1 present on Christmas Eve, and it ALWAYS was a brand new pair of PJ's to wear for Christmas Eve and morning.

 

Now, having children of my own -- I do the same thing. Every year I buy them a pair of PJ's to wear that night. They are always Christmas PJ's. My kids are 10 and 8, and when they get that gift -- they are like Gee, is this our PJ's for tonight?

 

Heidi

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My post - can not win, but it has to of course be counted!......I am so happy folks are getting into this thread.......and there is plenty of time to get your post in. And - remember, I did not say, limited to one post! ;) So if you want more than one chance and have a meaningful, thoughtful post to share.......bring it on.

 

Reading these has been so much fun. It has reminded me that my Christmas eve's and Christmases have evolved over my life. From being an only child of two older parents, where trimming the tree was a family event and Christmas eve was going to church for the candlelight service and opening one gift to what I eventually did with my children. As a child, one gift was it on Christmas eve.......and I awoke to Santa's presents and then had to wait for the Aunts and Grandparents to arrive before gifts could be unwrapped. Of course the day was filled with a wonderful, home cooked meal with the whole family (we were small in numbers) around the table. My Dad had a sister who always recorded everything with a camera........I have tons of pictures!

 

As the years went on, and we lost members of our family, things didn't change a lot. Not until, I graduated from college and had a family of my own. We then continued the Christmas eve.......open a present routine but the Christmas day celebration moved from my parent's home to my home. And many a fun celebration we all enjoyed.

 

My parents, Ralph parents and of course the Grandparents are all gone now. A number of us have or had 24/7 professions (nursing, firefighting, police work).......so of course, this all dictates our schedule and what we do. One thing which has been added is a post-Christmas eve church service - buffet and social party at the home of a law enforcement friend. It is always fun to see folks in street clothes mingling with officers dropping in in uniform.

 

This year my son is working Christmas (he's an IAFF firefighter), his wife is on school vacation (she's a teacher) so she will be in AL visiting her family, we will attended Christmas eve services locally, Christmas morning join our Granddaugher - her Mom and family for an early tree and breakfast, stop by the fire station to say hi and enjoy dinner with friends as close as family.

 

One tradition which has never varied is filling a stocking with wrapped gifts .............. Yes, Santa always puts some fun stuff in those stockings - even for the older folks!

 

Keep posting - remember - all posts until one minute before Christmas arrives will be included in the numbers. And - oh yeah, post a comment to a post - that will be counted too!

 

Merry Christmas............hope to hear from some of those across the pond or Down Under too!

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Christmas eve it is tradition in our family to dress up and make the drive to church for midnight mass. I lived on a farm growing up so our church was 45min away, more if it was snowing and it usually was. We would all pile into the car and usually mom would be 'late' and dad would go see what she was up to...so we would wait for them and then leave as a family. On the way to church dad would crank the local honky tonk station as it played non-stop carols like "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and various Christmas Elvis. We would have mass and usually get home somewhere near 2am. A quick look under the tree showed us that Santa had been there while we were gone to church!!! We would all scatter to get out of our good clothes into Christmas pjs while mom made us a "snack". Now, any of you grow up on a farm? Our snack consisted of all sorts of veggies n' dip, chips n' salsa, shrimp rings, the Christmas candy platter, baked goods, various hors d'ouvres, and most importantly meat pies. While the hot food was being warmed, we would pile into the living room and rip open the presents for the next hour or so. Then we would eat and fall into bed.

I think this order of things was to make sure that we weren't up extremely early Christmas morning BUT when we woke in the morning...STOCKINGS!!!! And more church...

 

It took us a while to figure out why mom was always late.... ;)

 

What I didn't mention is that this is what we would be doing if we were back at my parents' farm in Canada...but now it is just our little family in Australia. What to do? As I've gotten all the prezzies lined up (but not wrapped) and our shipment finally came so the stockings are all up by the chimney with care and I got my husband to put up lights last night...all the big things are done. I really feel no Christmas pressure to clean the house for a week before and a week after, bakes tons of sugar laden crap, or decorate the house 'til it looks like an elf puked! I think we'll be pretty low key this year. We are going to the Childrens' mass where my two youngest are in the choir and it is outside (last year it was 40C). Then we'll go home and probably eat the ham that I bought for the occasion and the kids will beg to open gifts. The only dilemma I face this year is should we let them open all of them (it won't be 2am and therefore Christmas morn like usual). Christmas day we'll begin will ham (it's a big one!) and stockings for sure, maybe the bigger Santa gifts which are snorkel sets for everyone! We'll head to the ocean and snorkel for the day.

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When our two kids were younger my husband dressed as Santa Claus was giving them all their gifts.He has done that for many years. A funny thing that I remember is that on one occasion, they put some chocolate cookies and a glass of milk on a table near Santa was sitting. Later on that night we found out that Santa didn't eat the cookies but one of our dogs did, we will never know which one though ;)

 

On Christmas Eve, for us it has always been a buffet dinner made by every guess coming to our house. After that we played some games and chat for a while. Around 11 o'clock, we will watch by the window if Santa was coming and he would finally show up with a large red pocket on its back. After unwrapping all the gifts, Santa would leave us and we would eat a little snack before going to bed. The following morning the kids were up early to play with their toys. During all those years, my parents stayed over for a few days at Christmas and New Year's so grand-pa was the one getting up early to play with the kids while we would sleep a few more hours :D

 

The kids are gone from the house now but each of them has a new baby recently so my husband is going to dress as Santa like in the good old days. Lucky for him, the suit still fits :lol:

 

It will be our first Christmas as Grand-Pa and Grand-Ma to two beautiful babies and we really enjoy this wonderful time of the year with our beloved family :lol:

 

Thanks hollora for this cointest, I really enjoy reading all those nice memories people share with us :)

 

As we say in French... Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee! :)

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On Christmas Eve I would usually spend some time having a few drinks with friends before preparing for the onslaught on Christmas Day. Coming from a large family this requires a mammoth effort.

 

In my childhood, our family always had a visitor join us on Christmas Day and I could never figure out why we would invite a stranger to celebrate with us. ;) When I was older I realised the visitor was usually someone in the neighbourhood who had nobody to celebrate with so we would just take them in for the day. Now whenever I am responsible for Christmas celebrations, I try to include anyone I know who might otherwise be on their own for the day. :)

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Oh! Well... we do not have something very special! the family is united here in your house, (by family I mean my parents, my sister, my brother in law and me!), we usually play games, drinking and eating, and have fun!

 

In Chrustmas we eat a rooster in the oven stuffed with rice, seeds of pine cones etc, and with potatoes! It is really good!!!! :D

 

Then relatives are coming to celebrate, because it is my father's name day! :(

 

sometimes the younger ones go out to a bar, a club.... you know!

 

I have no idea what we will do this year! I learned today that I will be working on 25th of December until 10 at night!!! ;)

I will be alone guarding the palace! I will definately feel lonely! Well.... I can not change that! I had plans to go out with my girlfriend and spend some time togather, in a nice and romantic bar with traditional music that we both like, but I do not know what we will do now! she will probably go with her friend, and if I can, I will go and find them! We will see....

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Our "tradition" is to do something a little different every year. One year we left clues around the house directing the kids from place to place (like a multi) with the final clue leading to their presents hidden underneath their own beds. Another year we put the presents under the tree a week before Christmas, we tagged the kids gifts with a code based on their birthdays (ex. 12/14/1992 = 12x14x1992 = 334656), then told the kids they could open their gifts when they figured out the code.

 

 

Edited for spelling

Edited by cachecrashers4
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Well, beings that we're a multi-cultural family, we do a mix of US and Swedish traditions.

 

It starts around noon, the stables that is next door to us always has a Christmas Eve party of sorts where they offer sleigh rides, pony rides, warm drinks and such, and most of the village shows up. The kids ride the ponies and we drink some mulled wine and eat gingerbread and then we head over to the grandparents' place :(.

 

There we eat the Strange Swedish Holiday food, which consists of lots of fish, meatballs, little mini hot dogs, omelettes that are done in the oven and a couple of American dishes like green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole tossed in for good measure! We eat dinner there and sometimes, if there is time or if we're done in time, the kids will watch the Disney special that is shown here every Christmas Eve at 3:00 and has been shown for umpteen gazillion years here. After that we open gifts, eat a snack and dessert, and then head home, stuffed to the gills and with excited kids.

 

Now we blend in the US traditions and the kids get out the special Santa Plate and Mug we have, and they place cookies and milk, and a carrot for the reindeer on the plate and FINALLY (thank God) go to bed. Mamma and pappa then get to chill for a while before putting out the Santa Gifts and filling the stockings and then off to bed we go!

 

Here in Sweden they don't do a midnight mass as much as they do something at church called Julotta. It used to be done FIRST thing in the morning and all the farmers would race home afterwards and the first to get home would fire his gun to prove he was home. The first farmer to do so was guaranteed good luck in the following year's harvest and such. It used to be held extremely early, but not it's held at either 7 or 8 am on Christmas Morning. It's beautiful in the church, they don't use electric lights, they use only candles, and there are usually 3 or 4 brass chandeliers that are full of candles, the ends of the pews have candle holders and lit candles, the Christmas tree on the alter has candles and the wall sconces have candles. It's dim and cozy in the church, and the only light is from the nativity set, which has a light shining on it. Christmas songs are sung and the story of Christ's birth is told and it's very peaceful and beautiful.

 

We get home and the kids get to open Santa presents and stockings and then we clean up a little bit :D

 

The rest of Christmas day is pretty much spent relaxing!

 

That is our Christmas here in Sweden!

 

Naomi :P

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we sort out all the xmas gifts into piles for each person, so on xmas morning when we wake up they are sitting there at the foot of the bed and we hand each other single gifts to unwrap. these are all the gifts we recieve, they are from my parents and other immediate relatives as we dont live near any of them. we unwrap them and enjoy the moment, but this will be the first year that my son is self aware of whats going on, so this year when he awakes we will both be watching him tear open his gifts and trying to mentally take note who gave him what, while paper is flying evreywhere covering everything.

once we are up and about we will relax watching the tv for the family movies that are playing. my husband is the one to take care of the xmas day dinner, so he will be in and out of the kitchen alot of the day tending t the cooking.

we will be sitting down and relaxing, watching tv and watching our son playing with his new toys. as well as all this, we will be getting lots of phone calls from members of my family keeping in touch and all that. my two brother inlaws will keep phoning us up for drunken chats and weirdness.

the very first xmas i had here with my husband away from family, we got my two bro-inlaws keep phoning us up while nissed as a pewt, making threats to my husband if he ever as much cheated on me or treated me badly. it was so embarrassing to me, i mean at that time i was quite capable of fending for myself.

anyway, this year will be a good one, im going to enjoy every moment of it alone with my family (apart from the dang phone calls)

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I used this one in another post, but everyone in my family love doing it. Kind of a combo of a few other Christmas traditions.

 

Every year for the past few years whichever family members house that we are at for Christmas, we have been hiding presents nearby for people to find. What we do is we hand out gpsr's (between friends and family there has been enough extras around) if not enough for everyone we create teams. After that at a set time I hold up a board with many coords on it and the people input the coords of their choice (there are alot) and off they go!!!! The kids LOVE it! After everyone returns gifts can be traded but not opened untill everyone is done trading. We usually have a seperate team for the kids so the presents are age appropriate.

This game really gets people laughing and makes the family get together and talk and laugh. Also keeps people from sitting around being bored and feeling uncomfortable.

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:( Well, I have been the lucky winner of many cointests, blessed with some mystery coins - soooo, it is only fair, I now sponsor a cointest. My cointest, my rules, my game.............right???!!!

 

Starting now, anyone may post their Christmas eve and Christmas Day traditions. What do you do ?...

 

work. so other folks who have families can spend time with them. it is quiet at the office, not so much craziness going on, unless there is an earth-shattering event or a major pile-up on the freeway (hope not hope not!)

 

i usually shoot a little on christmas day ( more work) and then into the office.

 

that's my tradition. working on a holiday means more dollars for coins!

 

rsg

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Well, our tradition may be a bit corny, but we enjoy it. A few years after we were blessed with the birth of our son (he's the A in DLAK Pack) we began spending Christmas Eve evening watching The Muppets Christmas Carol and eating buffalo wings (I know, not traditional Christmas treats...but we love them!) We have since added The Polar Express to the movie line up and chasing down a few caches during the day. Christmas is spent zipping to different family gatherings.

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i usually shoot a little on christmas day ( more work) and then into the office.

 

 

Shoot a little...what? :ph34r:<_<

 

cameras! i shoot with a camera. i am a photographer! B):huh:

 

my latest from the rare snow we had in the desert on wednesday - http://www.flickr.com/photos/redshoesgirl/

 

there is always something interesting to shoot, photograph on christmas day! that's my tradition i suppose.

 

rsg

Edited by RedShoesGirl
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After returning from a Christmas Eve candlelight service, everyone gets to open one present. The next morning, we open stockings while having breakfast (which always includes an orange in the toe of the stocking!). Then, it's on to presents.

 

Since I first got married, my wife was somewhat upset that she didn't have the same stocking as the rest of my family. My father's mother had knitted everyone matching stockings, but she died before Susan, my wife, was introduced to the family, so we couldn't get a matching one for her.

 

I work at a camp & conference center. One popular retreat we have is a quilting retreat. Every year, I'd get questions like "John! Why aren't you quilting with us??" The honest answer was that I already had enough unfinished projects and didn't need one more. Well, a couple years ago, they finally set me down in front of a machine and had me sew a pair of quilted Christmas stockings! I decided that Susan and I would have matching stockings. They came out really well, I thought.

 

The week or so before Christmas, camp is pretty much closed, so I had some free time. I decided that making the stockings was fun, so I called my Dad to be sure it was ok, then I quilted stockings for everyone in the family. It came out to about a dozen stockings! The hard part was being sure Susan didn't know what was going on. Every day after she went to work, out would come all the material & sewing machine. About an hour before she was due home, I'd put it all away. Had to vacuum each day so there weren't stray threads to give the secret away...

 

Christmas Eve came, my secret was safe. When it came time to open a Christmas Eve present, I handed Susan a box that, when she opened it, was filled with everyone's stockings! She was very surprised!

 

This year, I had to make 2 more stockings for my sisters' boyfriends.

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This is a nice cointest and I am enjoying reading others responses :ph34r:

 

I am going to post only about our latest newest added tradtion....but I want to tell you a short story first.

 

Two years ago our son was involved in a dodgeball accident at school and had to have head/brain surgery because of it. He had to spend two different weeks in the hospital to include the week of Christmas. It was the hardest time ever. On Christmas eve, a family came in with their two young kids and dropped off two gifts. They decided the nurses could pick who was most worthy of them. They had one girl gift and one boy gift. Our son, was the lucky recipient of that box of legos for a boy! When the nurse came in and brought it in and told me the story (Jacob was asleep at the time) it brought tears to my eyes - the generosity of these kind people in our trying time. It still brings tears to this day. It's amazing what a small but wonderful jesture can do to a heart that is troubled. Jacob couldn't play with it for a matter of days because it was too hard on his brain. He did not feel good enough, but by the time he went home it was built and it brought him happiness to build it when he was tired of being stuck in bed not feeling good.

 

For the rest of our lives, we will now carry on that families kindness....paying it forward....we look forward to our trip to the hospital to drop off our gifts on Christmas eve after attending Mass....we hope they will touch someone's heart like Jacob's gift did...and we are grateful that our son is still doing well.

 

Merry Christmas to everyone <_<

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W have a few - one that always make me grin growing up (and it's more of a Decorating the Tree tradition) but we had this really ugly wreath made out of fabric tubes suffed with cotton batting - mom didnt' want to hang it anywhere - so we used to take turns wearing it as a "Crown" to decorate the tree B) It really gave us some "Family time" to look forward to and both my sister and I used to dig through all the boxes of decorations to try and find that wreath first! I have pics of my sister and I wearing it at christmas from the time we were little until now. I"ll try to track one down and post it.

 

<_<:ph34r::huh:B)

Edited by Erica-opoly
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I posted earlier my days leading up to Christmas Eve day that were spent skiing in Maine and then a shopping trip to LL BEAN on the way back to home in NH. [slightly off topic: Didn't mention the town we stayed in during those pre-Christmas ski trips was Eustis, Maine. Mostly didn't say it 'cause no one would have heard of it. Well twice in the last week on National news programs I heard the town of Eustis Maine mentioned because of storms leaving it with 42 inches (3.5 feet) of snow!!!] I am wondering how our contest hostess is fairing with all the storms up there!

 

As a youngster Christmas Eve had mom and I - I'm an only child :shocked: - met my grandmother 'Nana' at church for the caroling service at 9:30pm. The first hour we sang all the wonderful Christmas carols and then had Christmas eve service. Upon arriving home around 12:30am Christmas day Santa had arrived!!!! We opened all our presents then and rolled into bed around 2 or 3 in the morning. There was no rush to get up in the morning but when we got up we began to make the Christmas meal.

 

Mom says this was a continuation of her family tradition - they always opened their presents Christmas Eve so that Nana could be there. On Christmas morning she was too busy cooking to be able to watch. Dad's tradition also was a Christmas Eve opening - for him - he was the youngest of 12! - they opened on Christmas Eve so that there was time to clean up the massive mess before the rest of the family came for dinner! Dad noted that even the two presents that they got - one from mom and dad and one from Santa - was enough to make a huge mess with 12 of them!

 

Happy Holidays All - hope you all have been good boys and girls!

Sandra of Sandyduff

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I had fairly small family (two siblings and both parents) gatherings for Christmas Eves, which is when we always did out thing. The only other relatives we had were in Philidelphia, so we were pretty much on our own when we opened our gifts. This fostered a more intimate atmosphere for our family that I'm glad I had. Later in the day, we'd hit the neighborhood houses (most everyone had families with children in my age group) and exchange gifts. As a kid, my whole world was within walking distance except for school, and everything seemed simpler. We always loved what we got (except for clothes) and I can't remember anyone ever having any problems - no unemployment, no divorce, no sickness that a couple of days rest couldn't cure.

 

Today, as I look at the lives of everyone around me - friends, family and coworkers, it seems that everything is full of drama. This one has cancer, those two are divorcing and everyone is trying to make ends meet over the course of the year. We still make it a point to have Christmas Eve at my parent's house (same one after 45 years), though the family has now gotten bigger. With all the turmoil everyone faces, it's as if we fight to keep this one simple time undisturbed; to renew our faith in the "good old days". We eat, laugh, exchange presents and for a few hours each year, we return to our roots, where everything is within walking distance.

 

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope and pray that each and every one of you gets to spend this holiday season as you wish and that the upcoming year brings you health, happiness and prosperity.

 

Nashuan (Michael)

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Our Christmas eve traditions would including a large dinner and then my mother would open her birthday presents (she was a X-mas eve baby) and we would have cake and ice cream then we would all go in to the living room and watch "How the Grinch stole X-mas". Then we would all open the presents from each other when you have a large extended family that is a lot of presents. Someone would play Santa and hand out all the gifts. We contine to do these thing today except for the birthday part since my mom has since past away. Starting next year we will have some new traditions since I am going to be a grandma very soon X-mas day to be exact so I guess next year the birthday present will resume on X-mas day.

 

Merry Christmas to All

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:shocked: On Christmas, we are calling or sending letters, cards, emails etc to all our friends, depending on how far they live from us! It is a nice way to tell them that we care about them, to give them our wishes, and to tell them a tiny but very powerfull word, that we LOVE them!

 

With this post, I would like to wish you my friends, Mery Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

 

May all your wishes come true! May love cover you, your family your friends and all that love you and care for you!

 

In days like that, please remember the poor, the homeless, the old people that are alone! Lonelyness is stronger in days like that! Help them feel nice, help them feel the warmth of love in their hearts!

Sometimes, just a telephone call can do that! Show that you care, show that you haven't forgoten them, show that you love them!

 

Thank you for reading this!

Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Even if I did some, I know that inside your heart, you got the meaning of this message! Spread it if you can! Let us all be more human...

 

Mery Christmas to all!

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My is pretty simple. Christmas eve is always a birthday party at my folks house for my oldest son. So the kids and I have dinner with the folks and have birthday cake for dessert.

 

For Christmas we all go to my aunts and uncles house and have a huge dinner with all the other relatives then after dinner half watches the ball game and the others play poker. We, the kids and I, do get up early and open gifts that we got each others.

 

Pretty simple but very enjoyable. Merry Christmas to you and thanks for the contest. :shocked:

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On Christmas eve I am hanging al my Christmascards on ribbons at my wall or a door. This time I have to hang the coins that I got too.

Then I receive my guests; My brother, his wife and two kids.

On Christmas day we will go geocaching a bit in the afternoon and have a dinner in the evening.

In Holland we have a second Christmasday. That one I am spending with my sister and her family.

My brother in law is a great cook and he will be surving food from all over de world. A multi-culti event.

In between we catch up with eachother and maybe play some boardcames (which I always loose.

I am looking forward to two splendid days.

Marit :laughing:

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My family always goes to the last Christmas service at church. Then we go down to the Country Club Plaza and see the lights and have hot chocolate. country-club-plaza.jpg

 

After we drive around we get back home and open our gifts at the very first minute of Christmas Day. After that we head to bed and sleep in until we feel like getting up. Then it is time for homemade biscuits and gravy.

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Like many people on this thread, we were allowed to open one gift Christmas Eve. Ours wasn't pajamas; it was usually a book.

 

The big surprise was always Christmas morning next to the coffee maker. My parents had an old school coffee maker with no automatic start. They would fill it before they went to bed and the rule was they wouldn't get up Christmas morning until it was at least 6:00am AND the coffee was made. There was an extra wrapped present in the kitchen for the person who started it. It was always a card or board game which was meant to keep my sister and I entertained until 6:01am.

 

Nice memories everyone. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the cointest! Merry Christmas.

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