Your Traditions 🎄

[smileymiley]

[name_m]Hi[/name_m] berries! I’ve come to talk about something special to me and many of us today… traditions!

Please move this if you don’t find it suitable for parentberries!

One thing that I love most in the world is family and friends. [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] is my favorite holiday because my whole family gathers to celebrate it. Family traditions are things that go along with that! I just love them - it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to be apart of something special.
In my family, we always get a present on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] [name_f]Eve[/name_f]. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though we all know what it is - we are super excited anyway! This present is always [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] pyjamas. [name_f]My[/name_f] whole family usually has matching ones which is a little cheesy but I love it. Then, we wake up on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] with fresh, new pyjamas! [name_f]Do[/name_f] you guys have any special memories and traditions? About anything, not just [name_u]Christmas[/name_u]! I’m just a [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] enthusiast!

So, what are some special traditions unique to your family, perhaps ones that you would like to continue to carry on? Maybe you have some traditions you’d like to start?

[GreenEyes375]

edited for privacy

[LibelluleClaire]

Ours are pretty simple:

Halloween- we always do a corn maze and pumpkin patch and since our girls are still little we do family costumes for trick or treating (though we just moved states so hopefully we can find one this year)

[name_f]Easter[/name_f]- girls get new [name_f]Easter[/name_f] dresses and we have a special pie that has been passed down through the generations.

[name_u]Christmas[/name_u]- we usually go and watch the nutcracker. Everyone gets [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] pajamas and a new [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] ornament on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] eve. This year since the girls are a little older I’m hoping to start a new tradition of after we get our Jammies. Putting them on and hopping in the car with hot chocolate and treats and going for a drive to look at [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] lights before bed time. And of course we leave cookies out for [name_f]Santa[/name_f]

[clair.de.lune]

I love this post, Miley!!

[name_u]Christmas[/name_u] definitely has the most traditions for my family - it’s everyone’s favorite holiday! So, I’m going to talk and talk about my favorite traditions .

gia’s christmas

[name_u]Christmas[/name_u] always seems to start right at Thanksgiving! As soon as the Macy’s parade closes with [name_f]Santa[/name_f], it truly feels like [name_u]Christmas[/name_u]. For Thanksgiving dessert, my dad makes his special [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] treat, which are his grandmother’s cream puffs. It always feels so special to see her handwriting on the index cards noting her recipe - my brother and I love baking with him. We always decorate the day right after Thanksgiving, with little wintry village displays, nutcrackers, Santas, and the tree. I think the most magical part this past year is that our tree (artificial, because of the cat in years past) ordered itself. ([name_f]My[/name_f] mom and brother were discussing trees and [name_f]Alexa[/name_f] went mad… the only thing being we don’t HAVE an [name_f]Alexa[/name_f], so Amazon must’ve went magical for a moment. 10 foot tree later…) We always have my maternal great grandmother’s [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] cookies, drive around to see the [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] lights with hot cocoa, see [name_f]Santa[/name_f], and make gingerbread houses throughout the holiday season. [name_u]New[/name_u] [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] pajamas are a must!! [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] [name_f]Eve[/name_f] is my favorite, because we always watch It’s a [name_u]Wonderful[/name_u] Life and dress very fancy for absolutely no one but ourselves whilst my nan (she lives with us) cooks the Feast of [name_u]Seven[/name_u] Fishes! We leave cookies out for [name_f]Santa[/name_f], track him from the moment we wake, and then my brother and nan all sleep in my room whilst watching a [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] movie and telling stories of past Christmasses until we fall asleep.

I think the one thing I’d want to pass down (besides the cookies) is the magic, because I still wholeheartedly believe in [name_f]Santa[/name_f] even though I know he isn’t the one leaving things under the tree (though my brother still thinks that, and it’s the most fun thing in the world to do) but that the magic of Jesus’ birth and [name_u]Saint[/name_u] [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] shines through so much throughout [name_u]November[/name_u] and [name_u]December[/name_u] that I’d hate for anyone to lose that.

TL;DR - [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] magic is the most special thing

[clair.de.lune]

@GreenEyes375

1. It was more about love and family, and they never “lied” to us about it but they still found a way that made me as a thirty-year-old still believe in the spirit of Santa and Christmas

[winterlyricalfox]

A fun tradition in my family that just kinda happened is what we call “surprise gift”

Basically, for someone’s birthday, all gifts are for them, except one other person in the family also gets a surprise gift for that person’s birthday!!
Basically, the way it is when the birthday person is opening presents, they’ll go through it as normal, but when they accidentally grab the gift that’s secretly for someone else, the person who bought the gift will shout “WAIT”!! And grab the gift and give it to whoever it is for (always a random other member of the family)

It’s never something big, it’s usually along the lines of candy or a book, but it’s still just a very fun and silly tradition that I can’t wait to pass on

[CashTheUnicorn]

We do the exact same thing with [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] pyjamas. We open them on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] [name_f]Eve[/name_f] and wear them for [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] [name_u]Day[/name_u].
Most of our traditions are popular in the uk, but we have [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] crackers, they’re not the food but rather like a popper that make a snapping sound when pulled open, and often contain a small gift, paper hat and a joke. I absolutely loved them as a kid.

Before [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] we go to see the [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] decorations in town.
The next day is Boxing [name_u]Day[/name_u] and we have all the left overs from the day before

Adverts!! A huge deal in the uk, especially the [name_u]John[/name_u] [name_m]Lewis[/name_m] adverts. Basically, like a battle of who can do the best/saddest adverts. Also [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] doesn’t truly start until the Coca Cola advert is on.

Then we watch the queens speech.

[namergirl3]

Awe, I love this post so my son was a pandemic baby (age 3 now), so we haven’t quite gotten into the swing of things, as far as traditions go…not that you can do much with infants anyway… here’s kind of what we’ve done so far, as well as what DH and I did pre-kid:

[name_u]Christmas[/name_u] :

Summary

We decorate really early. It’s kind of become our silly little tradition that people hate us for lol. Last year, we decorated for [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] when we got back from trick or treating on Halloween night it’s one of our favorite things to do.
We used to get one new ornament each year but recently have started picking up ornaments (or things to turn into ornaments) when we go some place new…zoo, train museum, etc. We also let DS pick his own out. It’s a lot of fun to reminisce
We go to our local [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] parade and tree lighting. A nearby zoo also has holiday lights up a few days each winter, so we added that to our list.

No Santa…we may do that whole “St [name_u]Nick[/name_u] was a real person and we give gifts to keep the spirit of giving alive” thing but we aren’t stressing it yet. Controversial but we go all out for his gifts. Like, we don’t stick to a certain number. Presents are fun! I’ll even wrap some snacks so he has extra to open.

One of my favorite parts of [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] is setting the gifts out and just standing there looking at the beautiful tree with DH we also love just driving around looking at lights. We got lost a few times but made some special memories.

Bonus: growing up, my mom would drag out the decorations and put on the same old CD every year. She’d dance to All I Want For [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] Is You and we’d laugh. We’d bake plate after plate of cookies for my stepdad to take to his work. We’d watch ABC Family’s [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] lineup every night. I still put on many of those movies all these years later.

Halloween

Summary

We never used to do much for it, except for participating in a trunk or treat a couple of times. I wasn’t allowed to celebrate it growing up, so am kind of lost about this holiday.
Last year was our first time taking DS to a pumpkin patch and we’ll definitely do that again! In addition to pumpkins, I bought a few small gourds…and the toddler got a kick out of hiding them. So it kind of turned into a little game lol

[name_f]Easter[/name_f]

Summary

Growing up, we did the whole religious aspect of it. We also did [name_f]Easter[/name_f] baskets. [name_f]My[/name_f] mom was a pro at hiding eggs and baskets! I swear there’s still (plastic) eggs still hidden in that old house haha.

For my own little family, I love making DH and DS baskets. We haven’t done a proper egg hunt yet but we do like dyeing eggs. That’s kind of it for now….it’s kind of hard since I no longer hold onto the faith I grew up with and that holiday is big about that…but I’m sure we’ll find a new way to celebrate eventually.

That’s kind of it. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We watch fireworks on the 4th of [name_u]July[/name_u] but that’s about it. Holidays used to be much bigger affairs when I was a kid. It just isn’t like that anymore, with everyone living their own lives…which is kind of a relief yet also a bummer.