Holiday Traditions

• Ulrike's thread inspired this

WHAT ARE YOUR FAMILY'S TRADITIONS?​

I just bought my craft supplies & gathered all the years' photos together ~ I sort out the "best" ones for individual frames, I sort out the "worst" for Leila's shoes box so she can play freely with them & the rest I cut out only the people (trimmed very close to actual body shapes) & make a hilarious collage There's always an area where the same person seems to be embracing theirself to appear as twins/triplets & someone always looks like they're riding and/or eating someone else This gets glittered a bit & laminated....

Otherwise, we just lounge around in sweats or jammies, cooking & eating, singing & dancing, watching cheesy festive movies.

Our Christmas traditions....

We generally hang out with family on Christmas Eve..not sure about this year as we're just far enough away that we don't want to go there and back, then there and back again on Christmas. So, we'll probably have some genuine family time at home Christmas Eve.

Then..Christmas morning..dh and I are up before all and get everything set up ready for them. We like to leave their 'big gifts' unwrapped, on prominent display in the living room. Then smaller gifts are wrapped. Anyway, we get all that set up and ready. Or rather, dh does while I finish the cake, if needed.
We have a Jesus birthday cake! That has been tradition for probably 6 years now, even the cake itself has become tradition, it *must* be a Jell-O poke cake, a red layer and a green layer, frosted with Cool Whip
SO the kids get up, enjoy their presents, at least their unwrapped ones, but we don't ever have more than a couple presents a piece anyway so it doesn't take long to go through it all.
Then, we read the story of Jesus birth. Dh leads us in the scripture and prayer as well as discussion. Then we gather around the kitchen table and the cake. We insert and light a candle and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blow the candle out together. Then enjoy Jell-O Poke cake for breakfast hehehe
Once breakfast is finished we get dressed and around to head off to family's where we spend the rest of the day lounging, eating and being together. Home that evening to recover from the chaos at family Enjoy some time together at the close of the day, playing with our new things, come together for another time of prayer to remind once again our reason for the season and celebration, then off to bed.

Tara,
What is a Jello Poke cake? - (My DD's birthday is Christmas Eve, so I'm always looking for ideas for her birthday cake.)
We used to do a birthday cake for Jesus too, but after we had her - it was just too much cake, LOL!

Jell-O poke cake ooooooh so simple, you'll kick yourself

Boxed white cake mix. Mix and bake according to package directions in 2 - 8 or 9 inch pans. Leave to cool IN pans on wire rack.

2 cups boiling water

2 pkg (4 serving size) Jell-o (or 1 lg pkg) Any flavor(s) you like. Our tradition has been a layer of red and a layer of green.

Just don’t forget, if you’re doing 2 different flavors/colors, use 1 cup of water for each package.

Dissolve gelatin in the water. Stir to dissolve completely.

Using a skewer, chopstick or what I think works best…a large serving fork the big 2 prong kind..and poke holes all over the top of each cake layer. Don’t make huge craters, but you do want some sizable holes in there. Go ahead and give a wee wiggle here and there, to ensure the holes don’t close right back up.

Now, gelatin dissolved in water…pour over the top of the cake layers. Let it seep into the holes. Pour gently.

Refrigerate a few hours (or overnight as I do).

To remove…briefly place each pan in shallow warm water. About 30 seconds should do it. Then flip it out onto your serving plate or whatever.

I like to top with Cool Whip!! Oh so easy, perfect compliment to Jell-o don’t you think?


It's posted in full on my recipe blog:
http://myrecipebox.wordpress.com/20...nal-jesus-birthday-cake-aka-jell-o-poke-cake/

Thank you Tara!!! (I think we have a NEW tradition!)

Our other traditions include:
Christmas Eve candlelight church services
Christmas Eve birthday party for DD & celebrate Christmas with extended family
Christmas day - Open gifts & spend a nice, quiet day together (immediate family) playing games, eating leftovers, and playing with all of our new toys.

Neat, my niece was born on Xmas (She thinks it sucks -- they're Catholic & she only gets "extra" gifts every other year when she gets to have a summer party)....

Tara said:

Jell-O poke cake ooooooh so simple, you'll kick yourself
It's posted in full on my recipe blog:
http://myrecipebox.wordpress.com/20...nal-jesus-birthday-cake-aka-jell-o-poke-cake/

Click to expand...

Tara, do you eat this for breakfast?

Jewels said:

Tara, do you eat this for breakfast?

Click to expand...

Yes LOL

It started as the only time we could really manage it. We were expected at family's and would stay until late..but we *loved* the idea of a Jesus b-day cake. So, dh approved having a piece for breakfast before we jetted off for our usual doings.
We do eat better food later hehe I figure it's no worse than doughnuts or iced cinnamon rolls And...it's Christmas..it's fun...it's special. The only day of the year they can indulge in cake for b-fast. Eggs, oatmeal and the like all the rest of the year...yeah, they have earned it teehee

Tara said:

Jesus b-day cake

Click to expand...

We did that the 1st couple Xmas' we shared with Leila's older 1/2 siblings -- mostly because they had no idea whatsoever what the holiday is actually about.... Then again, I like using food as a medium for learning about lots of cultural stuff, even (& perhaps especially) those that aren't "ours"

We decorate a gingerbread house every year. This was the first year dd really 'got' it, and did most of it by herself lol (can you say... no mommy I do, I do it mommy my Christmas house! LOL). and since I like to show it off, here it is


I cook lots and lots of food, and we have a party on the night before Christmas eve with friends since none of us really have much family out here.

Then Christmas day we just hang out open presents, eat (and eat... and eat), and play.

For us Christmas is often an exercise in insanity, running from one house to another. lol
Christmas Eve is usually spent doing last minute shopping and taking the kids to see Santa (a Christmas Eve tradition started when the boys were babies.) In the evening, we go to a local Christmas Eve service while DH stays home and does any last-minute assembling that needs to be done. When we get home we set out cookies and eggnog for Santa, oatmeal for the reindeer and read the nativity story before the kids go to bed. They tuck their letters TO Santa in their stockings.
Christmas morning the kids may open their stockings if they get up before we do, but must wait until after breakfast for gifts (a tradition dh's parents started). They also get their letters FROM Santa in their stockings. We usually have pancakes and OJ and eggnog and coffee for me. After we open gifts the kids play with their toys, everyone gets dressed, we eat a light lunch (usually just scavenging for leftovers) and then we go to the IL's to open gifts and have Christmas Dinner. We rarely get home before midnight.

We go to my mom's for dinner Christmas eve and then head to church for one of the services. Christmas story before bed. Christmas morning, DS gets his present from Santa under our tree and gets to play with it until we are ready to head back to my mom's for the rest of the presents and brunch with the rest of the family that has come home for the holidays. Mid-afternoon, we head over to my sister's in-laws for a buffet dinner. Then home again.

This is the first year Dillon is really old enough to understand everything. He knows Christmas is Jesus' birthday and he is really excited about it. This is also his first year participating in the Christmas pageant. Our holiday season just gets more joyous as he gets older. This is also the first Christmas with 2 kids and the boys have their first baby cousin coming from Oregon to celebrate with us. Lots of fun and family!

Our Christmas seems to involve too much time on the highways.

We live about an hour from any parent/grandparent. So here's how things have gone in the past:

Christmas Eve afternoon(1 hr travel)---head to DH's grandmas to see aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma(obviously), his mom, brothers, their kids. Gift exchange with Grandma(leave before food)

Leave there and go to my parents(an hour away)(food almost gone by the time we get there)
See my parents, sister, brothers, neices, nephews--bigger gift exchange
Then go to Midnight Mass with my parents(our old preist had it at 9 or 10---wasn't so bad).

Head home---another hour

Christmas Morning
Open present with each other at home
Go to his dad's(an hour away) for brunch and a gift exchange--His brothers don't have anything to do with their dad
Come back home and chill before going to his Mom's(30 minutes away)
We do presents and Christmas dinner at her house.

Although this year--we don't think Grandma is having Christmas Eve, so we'll go to early Mass and then my parents.

We HATE all the running around we do, as soon as we have kids we will be staying in on Christmas morning. I'm sure it's not going to go over well, but I don't like rushing around Christmas day and I'm not gonna do that with my kids.

Susan

a new tradition my kids are really enjoying...

I've really enjoyed reading about your Christmas traditions. I hope you don't mind me posting to this thread, since I've only been on this board a few months, and don't post a ton.

We have a new one this year that has been a big hit with my girls, who are ages 3 to 11. I pulled out all of our picture books about Christmas, or snow, and then got more from the library to total 24. The kids and I wrapped each one like a present, and I put a sticker on each one with the numbers 1-24. (The library books have the lower numbers, so they can be returned on time.) Then we put them all under the Christmas tree, and each day one of the kids gets to find the "present" for that day, and unwrap it. (The numbers correspond to the date in December.) Then we snuggle up on the couch and I read the book to them. They have really liked this a lot, and we'll definitely do it again next year. The younger two loved having a chance to wrap things (and it didn't matter what it looked like), and they all love being able to unwrap things throughout the month, and having me read picture books to them. (I usually read chapter books to the older two, rather than picture books.) This has also helped the 3yo to not be as interested in unwrapping the other presents under the tree.

-Helen