December Daily : Days 18 + 19 + 20 + more traditions

Hi Ali, I love your book!! Our children always open one present on Christmas Eve which is always PJ's. Then we read "The night before Christmas" as a family. We were asking our daughters what their favorite part of Christmas is and they all said opening pajames. That made me feel really nice because it is a tradition that we have carried on for many years and the kids look forward to it.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

My family has always done Christmas on Christmas Eve (all presents from family get opened Christmas Eve, presents from Santa were opened on Christmas Day). It's always been at my parents house, my Mom decided when I was a baby that she didn't want me to have to go around from house to house to house...she would always do Christmas Eve at our house. Now that I'm grown I realize exactly how awesome that was (and still is). It's a relaxing day, no rushing around, good food, good company...just perfect. It's been much harder since my Grandpa passed, I've had a really tough time getting into the holidays since then (and it's been 3 years) but there is something so comforting about having that routine for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Omelet at my grandma's on Christmas morning. We've been doing that for as long as I remember. That's the one thing that makes it Christmas for me.

So love how this book is progressing. Simply love it.

It isn't Christmas in the Wood house without watching White Christmas (with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, & Rosemary Clooney) and listening to Johnny Mathis. Oh and eating homemade ginger cookies, I try a new recipe every year!
Merry Christmas!

for us it's the christmas pj's on christmas eve.
My husband is a volunteer firefighter so around the busy holidays i keep the police scanner going all the time. On christmas eve is no exception except that they have "UFO sightings". By the end of the night it's apparent that it's Santa they are tracking and at 8:00 they tell the kids that it's time to go to bed so santa will come visit them. It's a blast to see my kids get sooo excited about it every year. They always think it's their dad being called out on another fire so they are always keeping a open ear to the scanner.
This year we are starting a new tradition with a big special christmas eve dinner with the nice "wine" glasses filled with sparkling grape juice and the place filled with christmas lights and candles. This years dinner is crown of lamb rib roast... CAN'T WAIT!!!!

We make the most delicious baked clam chowder and croissants on Christmas Eve. Then we hang out and enjoy each other until bed time when we read The Night Before Christmas.

Being a vegetarian and an expat from England, I do a nut roast with brown sauce, roast potatoes, brussels sprouts and this year I am serving REAL Christmas pudding (also called Figgy Pudding) with hot custard! My mum made the best. And scented candles all day and overseas phone calls to family does it for me. Love your album so much... working on a spinner already for next year thanks to your inspiration.

This is a tradition we do with my mother after Christmas day. Since my parents are divorced, we see my father on Christmas day and my mother on the day after Christmas. My sisters and I help our mother make homemade eggrolls that last us well into March. We wake up early in the morning and start cutting carrots, cabbage and beef and by 11 a.m. we are rolling and frying those puppies. Since I'm the oldest, I get to eat the first eggroll out of the oil. YUMMY! We usually make about 200-300 on that day, and by New Year's we never want to see another eggroll :)

Definately read Luke 2 before opening any presents, one year the kids memorized it. We alsways have homemade cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast as we open gifts. No matter where we are I get elected to make the rolls. When the kids were little I got a new book each year, so we spent many nights by the tree reading stories. We have accumulated Christmas movies over the year that we love to watch at this time of year. Christmas caroling to older people in our church/community and taking them homemade cookies and goodies. My kids like pizza on Christmas day much better than the traditional turkey and ham - I do too, much less work for me. Love the Christmas eve carols and candles service at church.

One of the things that absolutely has to happen for me is Chinese food from the China Palace in Rochester, New Hampshire on Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember my mother, who is a professional cook, has forgone her usual kitchen business on Christmas Eve, for delicious, awful for you food from this little Chinese restaurant. The whole family gathers together, and when I was small I could only open one present. Now that we're all adults we open all of our presents, except for presents in our own household. Those we save for Christmas morning.
This is kind of a funny/sad story, but two years ago my husband and I lost our first child, very suddenly 35 weeks into a perfect pregnancy shortly before Thanksgiving. I decided to do Christmas Eve at our house, because I really needed to feel surrounded by the love of my family during that unspeakably difficult time. My brother was given the task of picking up the Chinese food and he said to me...oh I'll just go here, it's close to your house. I fought him on it, and he refused to go to China Palace, until I was so emotional I just blurted out "It's JUST NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT FOOD FROM THE CHINA DINAH (our nickname for this place)!!!" Someone in my family, I don't remember who, but bless them, drove 40 minutes to order the food from the China Dinah just for me, (but secretly I think that the whole family was relieved).

Christmas Eve traditions in our house are these; last food shopping for perishables first thing, watching Christmas movies, attend my aunties party, leave out whisky and short bread for Santa (we are Scottish Aussies), open one gift, drive around looking at the lights and decorations. After the kids are in bed; we eat the shortbread and drink the whisky, we sneak around outside jingling bells while the other person says 'I think I can hear Santa!' in their best 'oh my gosh' voice, then we chew up and spit carrot all over the lawn (those reindeer sure can make a mess), wrap any last minute gifts and arrange presents as if they have been tumbled from a sack. It's a busy day!!!

Merry Christmas,
My boys are 20 and 23 this year but there are some traditions that have remained the same through all the years. We always start Christmas with church early on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning is stockings and Santa gifts first, then showers and a nice breakfast before we open our family presents, the last present is usually the one they want the most and they always have a treasure hunt to find it (we weren't going to do it last year and they were both upset!!), and we usually have a birthday cake for baby Jesus and always sing happy birthday....
Laura

my mom started a tradition of eating an orange on Christmas morning... her family is from Nebraska, where fresh fruit is a luxury in the winter time. Her family didn't have much money, but they would get a fresh orange in their stockings on Christmas morning...sometimes in lieu of anything else. So, we still get an orange in our stocking, and eat it to remind ourselves to never take things for granted.

Our traditions are evolving - bit like yours - with our DD growing into toddlerhood. My only firm tradition is FAMILY. With my husband working shifts as a nurse, our time is presious and limited so our traditions will tailor to that. The unchangeables? Family trip to Edinburgh (yes, the original, Scottish one - we live an hour away!!!) to see the lights etc, a real tree and new decoration each year, and Second Christmas ( that's the one with the rest of the family - and, yup, gifts, turkey, the works !!)

Let's see....the girls always open a present of pajammmies or a nightie on Christmas Eve. We eat appetizers or fondue and a salad that night as well. We like to find a Christmas Eve service with the candle lighting and "Silent Night." And we have started to track Santa on Norad which has been fun! Turns out that if you call them they really answer the phone...I found that out last year!
t

When my daughter was a little girl, after all the days of anticipation and preparation, Christmas morning when we open Santa's gifts seemed to go by too fast. By late afternoon there was a feeling of sadness that it was all over, so a new tradition was born. Since then, when she goes to bed that night, there is always a LITTLE gift sitting on her pillow, Santa must have found it in his sled and dropped it by on his way back to the North Pole!

Ali! Your Christmas book is such an inspiration to me! Thanks for sharing your art and your life like you do! This year we're starting the "Santa tradition" which is new to me and to my little boy (but not to my husband - cookies and milk left for Santa and a present under our tree from Santa for Joel to open before we head off to Grandma and Grandpa's to open presents and have fun!) We are also having Christmas eve dinner with my husband's family and inviting our neighbours who are here from Australia and a far way from their family (I live in Canada). So excited for Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Kim

Christmas Eve traditions for us begin with a candlelight service, to help us keep the focus on Jesus. Then, we enjoy a dinner of our favorite appetizers coupled with champagne/sparkling juice....this is usually shrimp, clams, Mexican rolls, bacon-chestnut wraps. We then tell the Christmas story using little figurines...this will be the first Christmas that my 6-year-old daughter will be able to read the Christmas story to us.....can't wait! We then light candles and have a birthday cake for Jesus, followed by opening new PJs for everyone and one gift for the kids. We then leave peanut butter cups and milk (our Santa likes these better than cookies!) before the kids are tucked in with visions of sugar plums....and then my husband and I usually turn off all the lights, enjoy the tree lights, and wrap gifts late into the night.

And for Christmas morning, we get up REALLY EARLY, of course, and come downstairs to find the stockings stuffed with gifts. We always open the stockings first...then the kids pass out gifts and we open them one-by-one. After the gifts are open, we take a family photo by the tree, enjoy a baked egg casserole and sticky, gooey monkey bread. On Christmas Day, we like to stay in our PJ's all day and enjoy our gifts. We listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, and just enjoy being together. We have really tried to avoid traveling on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day ever since we had our children, to help them root their Christmas memories at home. We have our extended family get-togethers before/after the actual holiday.