My immediate family (husband, two adult children, their partners, two grandchildren) celebrates Xmas Eve with a crab louie dinner. We all sit around and crack fresh dungeness crab which is a fun and messy undertaking, enjoy a lively conversation, then toss together salad fixin's. This year, we will host.

Christmas morning is eggs benedict, fruit, and mimosas with my husband and anyone who might have spent the night (older son this year).

Christmas day is family dinner somewhere, sometimes just the nuclear family, sometimes the extended family. This year, younger son will host (they want their 1 year old to wake up at home), and we'll eat prime rib.

Gifts are not a focus except for the children, who each get something from everyone.

My eldest grandchild recently moved out on her own and her 'wish list' included a Swiffer Wet Jet (that would be SICK Grammy...) Ha ha, I got her that plus a basket of cleaning products, all wrapped in a new set of bath towels.

Share your traditions, in whatever fashion you wind down one year and get ready for the next one.

When mom and dad were around we would go to church Christmas Eve, I always anticipated the bag of treats from my Sunday school teacher.
Then we would come home and open 1 present.
Christmas day grandparents would come over and we had a big dinner and then opened all the gifts.
As the years went by and people passed on it changed little but from 1986 on I cooked the dinner.
Last time we did anything similar to that was approx. ten years ago and since then it has gotten a lot smaller, have not had it at home, but I still go to church at least once on Christmas Eve.
Try to make the candle light service at a Lutheran church but recently just go to Mass with Sharon most of the time.

I'd forgotten about the candle light services, that was rather magical to me as a young child. Do churches still do that?

Bonehead said:I'd forgotten about the candle light services, that was rather magical to me as a young child. Do churches still do that?

Yes but fewer and fewer use actual candles anymore.

But that was the best part! I suppose they use battery votives or something now? I have to laugh when I see young folks at music concerts waving around their cell phones with some flickering flame app instead of lighters. Just isn't quite the same...

I had to think a while to answer this as we don't have traditional...traditions.

My kids would write their wish lists and I told them that if they asked for a sweater, for example, they should donate a sweater to a needy person. Likewise, if they asked for a book or toy, etc. This served two purposes. It made room in the house for the new gifts they would receive, and it taught them to think of others before themselves.

We made and exchanged a lot of homemade gifts when money was tight. All gifts are appreciated as it is always the thought that counts. But I remember one year when we took a pile of mail order catalogs and did something I called "circle down". Each of us would draw a circle around something in the catalog that, if we had the money, we would buy for each other. That was a lot of fun.

Granted, not as much fun as Mimosas for breakfast, but fun nonetheless.

Greene, you triggered another memory for me. When we were kids, my siblings and I would sit on the couch and go through the massive (to us) toy section of the Sears Roebuck catalogue one page at a time and pick one toy each per page, taking turns who got to pick first as there were no duplicates allowed. Sometimes it was a very difficult choice!

Christmas catalogs, J,C. Penney, Wards, Sears oh dear now that is a memory.

Biggest tradition here is my younger brother and his family coming over on Christmas Eve to do their presents. Youngest brother doesn't come over anymore so it's just the one. We usually have a lot of fun...depending on whether they're fighting or not.

For many years I held onto the traditions of my parents (mostly my mother's), until one day as I was placing an ornament on the tree, my kids told me it was creepy. Okay, it was a bit worn out, but that was the very first ornament my mother put onto her very first tree as a married woman so many years ago. I treasured that ornament.

but...
After the kids opened my eyes, I took a good hard look and yes, it was downright creepy. It was time for new traditions to be formed. Out with the old; in with the new.

Since my photos of this creepy thing are old school (not digital) here is a link to give you an idea of what this antique ornament looks like. (chenille Santa)
http://atreasuredpast.blogspot...

One thing I enjoyed doing was buying each child a special ornament from the time they were born until they left the house. When they left, they took their ornaments with them as a start on their own tree.

I love ornaments and have always bought a special one for myself as well. I have quite a collection of nautical and ocean based ornaments. I have seashells, mermaids, boats, scuba divers, coral, lots of fish, porpoises, more.

We get a special ornament each year. It might be a marriage, or birth of a child or a trip. Sometimes more than one😊.

Ornaments help us remember special memories. I love decorating the tree. It takes a very long time because each ornament sparks a special memory.

I got some ornaments from my mom because she doesn't do a tree any longer. I remember them from growing up in the 60's. They bring back a long of memories. She also gave me a hideous one I made when I was in kindergarten or first grade. A styrofoam ball that has a few sequins attached.

I have some of those kindergarten ornaments too. They make fun memories.

As my children have moved far enough away, that we cannot just drop by, but have to spend the nights together, I am finding my traditions travel well. And as My husband and I are usually able to get a bit more time off work than they are, we are going to them more and more. Decorating has always been a real pleasure for me at Christmas, but more and more I was putting them up, leaving and taking them down. So, I boxed up the ones they love the most, over the last few years and have passed them on to the people they were bought for in the first place. My son's have decorations that have been with them every christmas of their lives, with special memories we all share. It is such a good feeling to see these familiar loved keepsakes being loved and treasured. As I decorated the tree this year, and put up the old priceless slightly tattered ornaments out parents gave us, my husband and I reminisced over each one. well, it just feel really great to see these things mean as much to my boys as they do to me.

I, too, gave my children an ornament each year - which gave them a good start when they left the nest. I no longer do an indoor tree and very little decorating, so I'm now passing on my ornaments as gift attachments and decorative pieces as just 'here ya go' - this year I gifted my new grandchild Luna with a very cool moon-shaped Santa wall hanging.

My mom passed on an advent calendar which I used for my boys when they were young. After going through 6 kids, it was pretty tattered, so I then made a new one for my older son's daughter, and it's now going to younger son's daughter. Burlap with a velvet tree, tiny ornaments in 25 pockets, with a small candy cane for each child every day.

Since I am a single woman, my tradition is to do a midnight candlelit vigil meditating on the birth of the baby Jesus and what that means in my life and to the world. Last year, I completed the vigil at 2 am. I find this tradition very centering.

greene said:
Since my photos of this creepy thing are old school (not digital) here is a link to give you an idea of what this antique ornament looks like. (chenille Santa)
http://atreasuredpast.blogspot...

Wasn't that a character on Sponge Bob Square Pants?