old
1. opening one gift every christmas eve, pj’s or a game to play together
2. leaving cookies and milk
3. watching “twas the night before christmas”
4. getting our stockings first and pics with them on the stairs BEFORE peeking
5. setting up the nativity that was my great-grandmother’s

new
6. leaving cookies, milk and now, reindeer feed (in the yard)
7. driving around with hot chocolate to look at the lights
8. attending the local parade, again with hot chocolate
9. christmas eve service at church, sometimes followed by cookie decorating with the grandparents.
10. watching my daughter and mom set up the same nativity set that i used to. love to see it come full circle.

and of course we still do the pics on the stairs with our children now. i also make sure that we watch “twas the night before christmas”, “frosty the snowman”, and of course, “rudolph”!

Thank you Jennifer! I love your traditions! We especially love driving around looking at lights and the Christmas Eve service, we may see you there!

1) opening one present Christmas Eve – always pajamas and always excited
2) not being allowed downstairs on Christmas morning until everyone had washed faces and brushed teeth and made their bed….we went down stairs in single file
3) stockings, breakfast, presents…one at a time
4) fondue on Christmas Eve (growing up…then became lobster newburg and now what ever I choose)
5) watching Love Actually, The Family Stone, and The Holiday during December with Marty
6 ) a fabulous Christmas card! (Janelle is one of our awesome clients and photo above is by cobblestone rue!)
7) collecting Nova Scotia Crystal annual ornament for each of the girls
8) traditional Christmas fruit cake that I make in October , wrap in Rum soaked cheese cloth and store away
9) getting together with British friends to make proper plum pudding. Everyone stirs the batter and makes a wish
10) making trifle for Marty (or he makes it…once weighed 13 lbs!)
11) we don’t have a church here so we read the Bible story and other favorite readings after dinner on Christmas Eve…all stragglers come to our house (those with no family to go to) and they are invited to share as well

Thank you so much Janelle! We definitely share the Christmas card tradition as well as watching holiday movies with the hubby! I love all of them :)

From Amanda:

In no particular order, these are the things we did EVERY YEAR at home. I am a complete nut when it comes to Christmas. Just ask my parents, and especially my brother. They think I’m a little bit crazy, too.

1. Load up entire family + aunts, uncles, cousins and drive around looking at Christmas lights the week after Thanksgiving. While we were out, we would go and buy our fresh Christmas trees for each home and we (kids) would all eat candy canes and giggle our heads off.

2. Kids receive a new ornament every year that relates to something special about them for that last year. (Example: Freshman year of H.S., I sewed my first dress and my mom gave me a sewing machine ornament that year. This year, Maddox gets a Lego ball to hang on the tree and Maggie gets a little puppy dog. Her obsession.)

3. ALWAYS leave out milk and cookies on a special plate w/ a special mug for Santa on Christmas Eve. It was always gone when we woke up the next morning. We do it with our kids now.

4. On Christmas Eve (when we still believed in Santa) my dad would have a friend hide outside our house somewhere and ring sleigh bells. If there were plane lights in the sky it was even better. :) He would tell us to hurry and get to bed b/c Santa was waiting to come while we were asleep. Such a good memory!

5. Mayfield’s Peppermint Ice Cream – a must!!!!!!

6. No presents under the tree for kids until after they are asleep on Christmas Eve. Even now that I’m married, my Mom wont put the gifts for ME or my kids out until we are upstairs. It’s so exciting to go to sleep w/ an empty tree and wake up to that magnificent goodness of presents all over the place. Magical!!

7. My brother and I would always sleep in the same room together on Christmas Eve (even until I moved away and got married). I would get overly excited and couldn’t go to sleep, so my dear younger brother would play board games and talk to me until I fell asleep. (I tend to squeal a lot on Christmas Eve. The excitement is too much to handle!) We could see the shadows of our parents going back and forth down the hall, hauling gifts to the tree downstairs. We were forbidden from opening the door. :) The next morning we would wake up at horrifying hours such as 4am and our parents (who had just gone to bed) would get up with us. The rule was that we had to sit on the top step together until our parents went down and turned on the tree lights and set up cameras and video cameras first. We still do this whole scenario (except for the sleeping arrangements) when we are both in town at Mom’s for Christmas. Sorry that was a long description, but it’s such a happy, good memory for me. :)

8. ALWAYS have Blueberry muffins for Christmas morning breakfast.

9. With Maddox, we’ve started reading him the Christmas story (Jesus) all through December and then HE gets to sit in front of the tree on Christmas Eve and “read” the story to us. Until he can read the whole thing himself, it makes for some very sweet and heartwarming video memories to hear him tell it the way he understands it.

10. It’s not Christmas unless you listen to Dolly Parton’s “I’ll Be Home With Bells On”. I drive everyone nuts singing it every year when I show up at my Mom’s door for the holiday. :)

Thank you Amanda! We share in the tradition of riding around looking at Christmas lights and the LOVE for Christmas!