Thursday, December 5, 2013

Christmas Traditions

Now that we have Madison, I have been thinking a lot about Christmas traditions that I want to start for our family of 3.  As a kid, I always remember putting up our Christmas tree as a family.  While this is not necessarily a tradition, one thing I remember was that there were many years we would go to Marble Slab afterwards and get ice cream.  Not sure how the tradition got started, but it was always fun.  I also always remember when my parents would get out the Christmas books and put them into a wooden book holder my mom had that was shaped like a house. Lucky for me...a few weeks ago my parents surprised me with all our the Christmas books from when I was a kid.  I also remember going to Christmas Eve church, eating at Black Eyed Pea afterwards and listening to the Boston Pops radio show on the way home. 

On Eric's side of the family, we have developed a tradition over the years of going to Christmas Eve church service and then going to eat Mexican food with his family afterwards. Since his family is so large (15 people with kids, spouses and grandkids) we have also started to do a Christmas gift exchange. Each person brings a gift worth around $30 and we do a gift exchange where you can get or steal a gift.

I have been thinking a lot lately about traditions that we want to start with Madison as we now have our own family of three. One thing I want to do is to buy a special ornament every year.  It will be fun to look at the ornaments each year as we decorate the tree. The teacher in me has always had a love for books. I want to get a special Christmas book for Madison every year. Since I always remember getting out our Christmas books as a kid year after year, I want her to have the same memories. I think our Christmas Eve tradition each year will be that she gets to open her new Christmas book for the year and we were read it together as a family. I also want her to have a pair of Christmas pajamas each year that she can wear during December and also on Christmas morning.  Eric and I always enjoy going to get a Starbucks drink and driving around to look at Christmas lights. I found these two Christmas lights scavenger hunts on Pinterest the other day and thought it was such a fun idea. I'm hoping that we can do one of them this year as we drive around and look at lights.
  
christmas light scavenger huntLights Scavenger Hunt:  this would make a  fun FHE.  Use a cell phone to take pictures of lights

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions each year? Any special ones that we should add to our list?




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7 comments:

  1. We do the scavenger hunt thing for Easter to find the baskets and it's so fun! We buy an ornament as a family every year and it's always so fun to look back and remember when we bought each one. I've been making a "christmas eve" box for Nick since he was 4, he LOVES it. I put some hot chocolate, Christmas jammies, a Christmas movie and/or book and sometimes a new mug. We open it on Christmas Eve after we make cookies. It's always fun! These past few years we've been making cinnamon applesauce ornaments and those are fun also. I can't wait to start the Elf on the Shelf thing but I'm saving that for next year:)

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  2. love those Xmas light scavenger hunt lists! I think you have some great ideas for traditions to create! We always make plates of holiday goodies for the neighbors and this year now that our daughter is older we are planning to have her help with baking and then passing out the plates. my family has done it my whole life and I'm looking forward to adding it to our own traditions. yay for the holidays!

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  3. We have done the tradition of buying a new ornament every year for awhile and I love it! I love your book idea too.

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  4. Stopping by from the linkup! My husbands family also does the gift exchange steal thing! We call it Chinese Gift Exchange. It's so much fun! We also do the personalized/special ornament each year. There is a really awesome Christmas store that we go to and they have every ornament under the sun! It's fun to pick one or two or three out! I love your book and light scavenger hunt idea! :)

    www.justjuliejoy.blogspot.com

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  5. I love the scavenger hunt idea!

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  6. These are all such great traditions. We always go to our candle light service at church on Christmas Eve. I just love it and never miss it. I also love the Christmas pajamas and book tradition. My mom gets Jackson and my nephews Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and they wear them to our Christmas Eve service since it's always at 10 p.m. Its so cute! Have a very Merry Christmas!

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  7. The scavenger hunt sounds so fun! My little boy and nephew would love it. We started an ornament collection for our little boy when he was born. I enjoy them so much and know he will too when he has a home of his own. Visiting from Kelly's Korner. Have a blessed Christmas as a family of three:)

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