Family Christmas Traditions

[pam]

What traditions did your family have growing up or what traditions do you have with your current family regarding Christmas?

 

 

[Jamie123]

My father always used to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to my daughter once she was in her pyjamas and ready for bed on Christmas Eve. On times when he wasn't available the duty fell to me, and I would always jokingly start reciting "The Raven" instead before reading the proper poem.

[Carborendum]

Since our second Christmas together (the first one was shortly after our wedding, so we hadn't established traditions yet) we've painted ceramic or plastic Christmas ornaments.  One each year.

We did the first year's ornament for each of our children.  But from their second birthday, they each painted their own.  It is interesting to see the gradual development of artistic capacity of each child.  The first ones are scarcely more than a bunch of blots in a motley pattern.  But it is amazing how good they get in just one more year.

When they leave for their own households, they will take all their ornaments with them.  

If you do the math, you'll realize we have somewhere 100 ornaments that were painted by our family.  It feels kind of cool to have a tradition that will bring the family together for generations to come.

Sorry to wax rhapsodic.

[Still_Small_Voice]

After we open presents on Christmas we take the tree and all the wrapping paper out into the back yard and burn it.  As the flames rise to near their peak we sing the Johnny Cash song:  Ring of Fire.

All the above that I wrote is a joke and is not true.

[NeuroTypical]

We get a yearly ornament that symbolizes the year.  Every year we finish the tree decorating with a year-by-year retelling of our family.

This year's ornament:

[prisonchaplain]

Christmas Eve we usually gather with the greater fam...then Christmas Day Evening we head out for a family trip. This schedule allows me to offer Christmas services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, at the jail. It's bitter sweet that this will be the last year in which I tell the inmates, who continuously tell me to go home and be with my family, that. "I am one of the very few Christian pastors that has the privilege of being inside the jail to share the Christmas Good News with them. My family understands and they are praying for us right now." This is precious work, and one tradition I am going to miss.

Edited December 7, 2020 by prisonchaplain

[mirkwood]

Christmas Eve we each open a present.