Does your family have any Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day traditions? Please share them! Our Christmas Eve: Christmas music; order in pizza for supper; go for a drive & look at all the Christmas lights as well as a live drive-thru "story of Jesus' life" a local church does (very moving and amazing!)(they also give out hot cocoa as you finish the drive-thru); new pj's; read the Christmas story; open our stockings...just us four and no more (hubby's family in Australia, mine in IL & France). On Christmas morning we open our gifts and I make yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Our big Christmas meal is at around 1 p.m. Since it's just the four of us, we "adopt" other people who don't have family to celebrate with (some years it's been elderly ppl, this year a single mom with two 6-yr-old boys who have no family here). Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
Now that we're back in PA near family... Christmas Eve (has always been...probably always will until they pass) is at my Dad & Stepmom's with all siblings, spouses and children. We do pollyanna with the kids, and a white elephant type thing with adults. My dad makes homemade clam chowder and chili every year, and my stepmom gets peel & eat shrimp (like 40lbs of it or something like that!). We eat and eat and eat. Christmas Morning we have breakfast with my DAd & stepmom and my husband's brother. The kids/we all open presents, eat breakfast and visit and my folks leave to go do the "rounds" with the grandkids. Later Christmas day...my stepdad and my one real sister and her family, my maternal grandmother and my stepdad's brother, wife and kids come to my house for a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings. This year my stepdad will stay a couple days after Christmas too. And I think that one of my stepcousins is coming too (that's new). One serious tradition we have is Christmas Eve the kids get to open ONE gift...and it's always their Christmas PJ's for the year. My eldest told me tonight she can't wait to see what her Christmas PJ's look like this year! EDITED TO ADD....dozermom...the "orphans" thing is so cool. When hubby and I first married we did an "orphan's breakfast' on Christmas Day every year. We lived in Phoenix for 4 years too - we always made Christmas our place with folks who had no other family nearby. it was always so special!
Well, usually we do Christmas with my side of the family Christmas Eve, but this year we're doing games, pot luck and white elephant. Since we're doing white elephant, I'm not going to let my kids open up one present. Since they will already do so. Since Christmas day is going to be crazy...instead of our traditional pancakes, eggs and bacon breakfast I'm going to make a breakfast casserole and some sides to go with it. Then it will be time to clean up the house, get ready to go and gather presents and on to my mom's house and then back home to empty the car out and then pack up what we need for my Christmas at my inlaws and on to their house. We will won't get home until late and I will have to go to work the next morning.
Christmas Eve - we attend Christmas Eve service at church, spread reindeer food outside and set out cookies and milk for Santa. We open our Christmas Eve gift, which is pjs for all of us. I call my Mom, and have her open her gift while she is on the phone with me (she is in KY we are in NC). She and my Daddy always opened their presents on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day - chaos ensues at daybreak as the girls head down to see what they got. We open gifts, and DH makes breakfast for us all. Later in the day we head to the movies - this year Bedtime Story.
Christmas Eve we usually travel to my our family to visit and bring gifts although DH is working this year so some of the family will be coming by when he gets home from work. We sing Christmas songs, watch a Christmas movie together and drink Hot Chocolate and we pull the matresses out of the kids room to let them sleep in our room (so there is no peeking from the Santa gifts under the tree) Christmas Day after we open gifts we cook breakfast, clean, and the kids play then I cook a nice Christmas Dinner. This year I am also cooking a big dinner including a turkey for a less than fortunate man and his son that live on our street.
LOL. My parents always did this, too, when we were kids. Christmas Eve: This will be our first year going to church Christmas Eve, too. The 7 PM services are a rough time of night for our kids (holiday or no), so we've been waiting until they're older. But this year a local church is having a 4 PM service just for little ones. After, we'll come home, have a big, buffet dinner and open gifts from family. Christmas Day: Santa comes sometime during the night and leaves 1 gift for each child (usually something that they will all use, so 3 gifts for 3 kids). DH & I may or may not get anything - depends on how busy Santa is. Santa also fills stockings. We'll have a pastry for breakfast that my brother sent, and the rest of the day will be leftovers, crockpot wings, snacks, or other foods prepared by someone besides me. I do not cook on Christmas Day. I'm not a bah-humbug. I just discovered, after having spent two separate Christmases with babies less than 2 weeks old (one year with three kids total), we do just FINE without me cooking. So, why make extra hassle for no reason? We play with our gifts and watch Christmas movies.
Christmas Eve varies for us. Traditionally close friends of dh's family have a party that we attend. For the past couple of years they moved it to a different night but now this year it is on Christmas Eve again. We also do one present on Christmas Eve-pajamas. Christmas Day starts out with opening stockings while cinnamon rolls are baking (ok nothing fancy just Pillsbury but the kids love them). Then we open presents. My in laws come over in the afternoon and we do gifts again. Then a turkey dinner and collapsing!
