Share Your Holiday Traditions to Win

I love the holidays and I really love the traditions that surround season. Each year adding another or trying something new. My favorite is pretty much everything... Including driving around in the evening with my daughter to see the Christmas Lights and Zoo Lights and Christmas ships on the river in Portland, Oregon, making Cookies and sharing them with family and friends, going to a local farm to cut a tree and having hot cocoa, taking my daughter to donate gifts, listening to non stop holiday music on the radio in the car, eggnog and of course being with family. I can go on and on but i won't .... I am pretty sure you get the idea....

I love the holidays and I really love the traditions that surround season. Each year adding another or trying something new. My favorite is pretty much everything... Including driving around in the evening with my daughter to see the Christmas Lights and Zoo Lights and Chirstmas ships on the river in Portland, Oregon, making Cookies and sharing them with family and friends, going to a local farm to cut a tree and having hot cocoa, taking my daughter to donate gifts, listening to non stop holiday music on the radio in the car, eggnog and of course being with family. I can go on and on but i won't .... I am pretty sure you get the idea....

The first Christmas decoration we set out each year is an Advent calendar. Even though my youngest is 15 it was the first thing he wanted out of the box and he turns the numbers everyday. That really made me feel good

My father is Italian, so every Christmas Eve we have raviolis with my grandmother's special spaghetti sauce recipe. They are so delicious! After dinner, my mother reads the Christmas story from Luke in the Bible and we sing happy birthday to Jesus. Then we have birthday cake...always a lemon pound cake. Finally, we end our evening by attending the midnight service at our church.

Most all of my family gathers at my grandma's house on Christmas Eve. We have been doing this for years, only canceling a couple of times. For a few years we met at our local Parish hall, as my grandparents house was to small to fit everyone of us and our kids! It's a great fun tradition, we all take food and play games, visit, we used to have the little cousins do a gift exchange, but as the family grew we cut that out. It has changed a little since my Beloved Grandfather passed on almost 5 yrs ago. He is greatly missed, was the glue that stuck the family together. We are continuing on this year, should be fun!!!!

Every year my daughter receives a new ornament for the tree. Once during the season we all get in our pj's, grab some hot cocoa and get in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights.

We have a "white elephant" exchange where we wrap up a gag gift or something fun....like home made fudge or cookies....last year a bedazzled pair of women's undies! Whatever we want and then we draw numbers. Number one unwraps the first present and number 2 can either steal the first gift or unwrap another. This goes on until all numbers have chosen. It really is the highlight of the gift process and can be downright hilarious! Always a hit and we look all year long for that perfect "white elephant!"

On Christmas Eve we "plant " the small round peppermints outside, sprinkle Christmas magical powder(edible glitter or regular sprkling glitter)In the morning they have grown into full size candy canes (with a little help from Mom) My mother did this as we were growing up and we loved it as much as my children now love it now. I love seeing the awe and pure delight as they harvest the magic candy canes.

Our tradition is staying up way late wrapping presents on Christmas Eve. No matter how much we get done beforehand.. It always seems like we still have so much to wrap and get prepared before Christmas Day.

I love to get the kids in the car and take them out to look at the holiday lights. We stop and get fancy hot chocolates from the local coffee shop and spend time laughing and enjoying. Very thankful for those that spend the time and money to "dress" their houses up for us to see! My other favorite is a local church puts on a fantastic Christmas play that includes live animals and beautiful music...really puts you in the Christmas mood after seing the play. Both of these are free for the family (well except for the hot chocolates) but boy does it make for great family time during the holidays!

I usually decorate the house a week before the holidays.We make home made decorations.

I started 4 years ago taking my oldest granddaughter(3 1/2 at the time) to the local Symphony Christmas Pops Concert. This year I added her sister(4) and in a couple years I hope to add my newest grandson(6 months) to the event. We go eat chicken nuggets and drink a holiday milkshake first. We have a great time together.

Every year we open pjs on Christmas Eve we drink hot chocolate read Luke 2 "the Christmas story" then we read our favorite Christmas stories and talk about all the crazy Christmas that have past. As the Christmas tree sparkles in the background.

One of my favorite traditions is driving around and looking at all of the houses decorated with Christmas lights. I also love sitting around with family drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies every night of December. One more of my favorites is playing Christmas music while we decorate the house and put the tree up. This year is going to be really fun because my daughter will be 2 five days after Christmas, so it will be her first Christmas that she really has fun with and enjoys. So far, she loves the lights!

Our family has a nativity puzzle that we work on together in the evenings. It helps us to unplug and work together as a family in a season that is often over-booked and overwhelming. We share about our days and talk about the true meaning of the season; the birth of Christ.