Christmas Traditions

In case you somehow missed the warnings that the advertisers are shouting at you, Christmas will be here soon. Very soon. Are you ready? I'm not. I have very few items actually ready. I have very few ideas, except for some handmade gifts but I'm not prepared for those either! 

I could do some online shopping and get more prepared but that seems a little stressful. So instead, I'm going to focus on something that DOESN'T stress me out...Family Christmas Traditions...

When I was little, we would go to Christmas Eve mass and go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and have chili, chicken noodle, and oyster stew with crackers and cheese. On the way home, we would drive around town and look at Christmas lights. 

• Now that I have kids, we go to Christmas Eve service, have soup with cheese and crackers and load the kids up in the van with our hot chocolate and go look at Christmas lights. We come home and the kids exchange their 'Secret Sibling' gifts and then it's off to bed so Santa can come.

• 'Secret Sibling' is a fun tradition we have for our children. Sometime after Thanksgiving, the kids make small lists with gift ranging in the $5-10 area. They then draw a name out of a hat and that is the sibling they must gift something to. The kids then do a chore for Steve and I to earn the money to buy the gift for their sibling. We usually make a fun night of eating out and then going shopping for their 'Secret Sibling' gift too. We want to teach the kids the joy of giving and we also want the kids to see that we work to give them the gifts that we give them. This has been a fun tradition and I hope we continue on for many more years! 

• The Christmas tree almost always goes up the weekend following Thanksgiving. I have a very stern rule that it doesn't go up before that. I also like to tell people they can't sing Christmas carols before Thanksgiving but I lose that battle and I really only tell them that because it's funny to hear them argue about it. :)

• Every year the kids and I make Christmas goodies and take deliver a goody basket to the Northeast Police Substation. We either take them on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. I want the kids to recognize that there are people still working to keep us safe on the holidays. 

I know there are other things that we do but those are the big ones. Those are the ones that would be missed the most, I hope, if we didn't do them. Those are traditions that I hope some of our children will carry with them to their families, or hang around and do them with us still. 

What are some of your favorite traditions?