jcandleattic
Well-Known Member
For those that celebrate, what are your traditions - I posted this on another forum, so some of you may have already seen this but here goes (sorry it's long)
Christmas is not necessarily my favorite holiday or time of year, (I HATE the cold, the commercialism, etc.,) HOWEVER, it is a very special time for me, especially with the little ones.
For me @ Christmas, we always as immediate family, on Christmas Eve, we drive around from the time dusk hits and it starts getting dark, until late, looking at all the Christmas lights. Last year, it seemed like hardly anyone had lights, but I am noticing this year, a ton of lights are already up, so this year will be better. Anyway, we drive around with the windows down or cracked and try to chill ourselves really well while driving around looking at lights. We do this for hours - sometimes 3-4 hours. Then we come home, get the fireplace going, make homemade white hot chocolate (with peppermint schnapps for the adults, and peppermint extract for the young ones), sit around our lit tree, talk about which lights were our favorites, and then the kids get to open 1 gift each before "Santa" comes that night.
Also a few days before Christmas my granddaughter and I usually make "Reindeer Food" (regular oatmeal with a TON of biodegradable glitter - I mean a TON of it) and then on Christmas Eve, before she goes to bed, we go out in the front yard and sprinkle the food. The Reindeer see the sparkling of the glitter, and stop at our house, and while Santa is putting the gifts under the tree, the reindeer are occupied by eating the oats. This has been a tradition of ours since our children were little, and we will probably do this even after they all move out.
For extended family, we usually have everyone over to our house for a big traditional turkey meal, then open gifts. We usually do this a few days after Christmas, and not actually on Christmas day, as when we tried to do it on Christmas day it seemed like we were always in a rush, the kids didn't want to leave their houses and gifts, and it just works better for us if it's either the day after or even a few days after. This year it will be the 26th for the extended family gathering.
Christmas day as a family is a nice a relaxed day. Kids getting up, opening gifts, my hub and I making a huge traditional Irish breakfast, and then just snack and watch sports, movies, or whatever the rest of the day. It's a nice family day and we love it.
What are your traditions? I'd love to hear them!
Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, due to personal or religious beliefs, do you have any traditions you celebrate or follow this time of year?
And Music -
My absolute favorite traditional Christmas song is "O Holy Night" - any version really. They are all beautiful.
But my favorite non-traditional Christmas song is by Great Big Sea - Come and I Will Sing You. (It's like an old Irish 12 days of Christmas song - it's awesome)
Let's see if I can post the video - (well, I posted the link anyway - not sure why it won't embed the actual video)
https://youtu.be/gbRsJ5riZgY
Christmas is not necessarily my favorite holiday or time of year, (I HATE the cold, the commercialism, etc.,) HOWEVER, it is a very special time for me, especially with the little ones.
For me @ Christmas, we always as immediate family, on Christmas Eve, we drive around from the time dusk hits and it starts getting dark, until late, looking at all the Christmas lights. Last year, it seemed like hardly anyone had lights, but I am noticing this year, a ton of lights are already up, so this year will be better. Anyway, we drive around with the windows down or cracked and try to chill ourselves really well while driving around looking at lights. We do this for hours - sometimes 3-4 hours. Then we come home, get the fireplace going, make homemade white hot chocolate (with peppermint schnapps for the adults, and peppermint extract for the young ones), sit around our lit tree, talk about which lights were our favorites, and then the kids get to open 1 gift each before "Santa" comes that night.
Also a few days before Christmas my granddaughter and I usually make "Reindeer Food" (regular oatmeal with a TON of biodegradable glitter - I mean a TON of it) and then on Christmas Eve, before she goes to bed, we go out in the front yard and sprinkle the food. The Reindeer see the sparkling of the glitter, and stop at our house, and while Santa is putting the gifts under the tree, the reindeer are occupied by eating the oats.
This has been a tradition of ours since our children were little, and we will probably do this even after they all move out.For extended family, we usually have everyone over to our house for a big traditional turkey meal, then open gifts. We usually do this a few days after Christmas, and not actually on Christmas day, as when we tried to do it on Christmas day it seemed like we were always in a rush, the kids didn't want to leave their houses and gifts, and it just works better for us if it's either the day after or even a few days after. This year it will be the 26th for the extended family gathering.
Christmas day as a family is a nice a relaxed day. Kids getting up, opening gifts, my hub and I making a huge traditional Irish breakfast, and then just snack and watch sports, movies, or whatever the rest of the day. It's a nice family day and we love it.
What are your traditions? I'd love to hear them!
Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, due to personal or religious beliefs, do you have any traditions you celebrate or follow this time of year?
And Music -
My absolute favorite traditional Christmas song is "O Holy Night" - any version really. They are all beautiful.
But my favorite non-traditional Christmas song is by Great Big Sea - Come and I Will Sing You. (It's like an old Irish 12 days of Christmas song - it's awesome)
Let's see if I can post the video - (well, I posted the link anyway - not sure why it won't embed the actual video)
https://youtu.be/gbRsJ5riZgY
This will be the first time we've ever used instruments to carol by, by the way. All my life I've always pictured our family doing something like this, so I'm excited....and nervous!!! 
