Share Your Holiday Traditions to Win

our tradition is that we let the kids pick one gift to open when they wake up on christmas eve and the rest on christmas day

One of our family favorite traditions is to go as a group, no matter how many cars it takes, and go see Christmas lights like in Wheeling, WV or Pittsburgh, PA; sharing the many ooh's and ahh's together.

Every year Christmas Eve, everybody shows up at my place. We watch Christmas movies, eat, have hot cocoa and open one gift which is always a pair of pajamas to lounge in while watching the movie. Then we make the cookies to put out that evening. My favorite though is the stocking wall... I made a precious moments character cross stitching to represent each person who spends christmas at my house. It is hung above that persons stocking. Everybody who spends christmas at my house has a stocking that is filled with goodies. Both adults and kids.

Listening to Christmas music always gets me in the mood for the holidays. It's the only time of year to listen to some of these classic songs, so I get as much holiday music in as possible.

Our family tradition is to go to Christmas Eve service at our church, then we come home and open one gift before going to bed.

Every year at Christmas time for years, my husband and I would go see A Christmas Carol performed at the Madison Square Garden Theater. I was very upset when they discontinued it. There is no comparison to The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. I wish they would bring it back :(

My favorite holiday tradition is on Christmas eve we have a birthday party for Jesus. We are very reverent and subdued, we sing happy birthday and everyone gets a cupcake with a candle. We read the nativity story in Luke and everyone gets to open one gift (new pj's with a cute little poem about sleeping in heavenly peace.) We always invite the missionaries from our church, and usually one or two more people to share in the celebration with us. It helps my small children remember the true meaning of Christmas.

The tradition in our family is the host of the Chistmas Eve party hangs the pickle ornament somewhere in their house. All the guests throughout the night try to find it. The person who finds it wins a prize...normally like a $10.00 gift card to BK or something like that.

A childhood Christmas tradition I loved was that our tree would not go up until my brother and I were in bed on Christmas Eve. My parents would then decorate it and place all of Santa's presents beneath for Christmas morning. AND what a morning it was! Sheer magic. A tradition my husband and I have started since we became married is to write a Christmas letter to each other recapping our year and looking toward the future. I keep all of the letters in a keepsake box that will become our daughter's when we've passed on.

We all make an ornament each year. When we decorate the tree we take the ornaments out by years and stroll down memory lane. It's a really good time!

One of my favrite traditions is going to my nieces and nephew's home on Christmas day every year.I give gifts to the kids from myself.I always have one special gift wrapped from "Santa" for my 7 year old niece who still believes in Santa. I tell my 16 yr old niece and 12 yr old nephew " Santa didn't leave anything for you because you don't believe in him".As soon as my little niece hears this she always giggles and says Ha ha! lol I love it!

Our tradition started several years ago, when my niece and nephew were young. I am unmarried and don't have any children of my own. So, every Christmas eve we would find a new restaurant to go to. We would have dinner, and after dinner would drive around and look at lights in the neighborhood. Then we would go back to their house, and all get in our pj's. Then we would watch Christmas movies, and have snacks. I would sleep over their house, and in the morning the kids would be surprised by Santa. Now that they are in their twenties, we still have dinner together. We also still drive around and look at lights. We go back to their house, and instead of waiting till morning, we open presents then. The other change is. now I don't sleep over. But, it is still our tradition.

For years, on the 23rd, we have our son get dressed in his jammies, then we all take a travel mug of hot chocolate and drive around and look at people's Christmas lights and decorations while listening to Christmas music. We love it!

My families favorite tradition growing up was my mom got us a new ornaments each year related to some big event that happened that year. Now that I'm married I have ornaments for my own tree.

We make finger foods on Christmas Eve and watch the newest Christmas movie that has come out, a good way to add to our movie collection. Then we put out cookies for Santa that we have made earlier in the day and an apple for the reindeer to share. Then the kids get to bed to wait for Christmas morning. I love it because we do it every year, my parents usually join us and it is a great time.