[crick]

What is your favorite part of the holiday season or favorite tradition you do every year?

I celebrate Christmas and love the music associated with it. I used to join the church that invited any and all to sing the "Handel's Messiah". Haven't done it for a long time, but it is still a favorite!

This year I'm taking the kids Christmas Caroling.
and hopefully the 8 year old will stop messing around with "Jingle Bells" and not sing "Batman Smells". sigh...that boy!

[kelceesmom]

Mine is actually the day after xmas. We all gather again and turn our turkey into a waffles and gravy dinner. Hmmmmm so good. I love the music also. Oh and driving around to look at the lights, and the parade in town, and the.......... LOL

[nikkianni]

I have to pick one?!

OK, I can do this. The tree. It has to be the tree. My parents, brothers and I all go to get our trees on the same day (last Saturday). We go back on a horse-drawn wagon and cut our own, then we spend the day at each home setting them up, ending at my parents for games and sloppy joes.
This year was great. DD fell in love with the giant draft horses that pull the wagons and must've kissed them each about six times. Mom almost had a heart attack.
Then once the wagon started moving, DD sang all the way back to the field. She has a blast.

And I have to say I'm a music nut. I'm currently listening to Dean Martin's version of "Baby it's Cold Outside."

[crick]

When I was a kid we used to cut our own tree every year. Back when you just went up to the mountains and cut whatever you wanted to. LOL! Great tradition!

And no...it doesn't have to be just one...share all faves!

Denice - you've mentioned the waffle & gravy dinner and I don't know about that one. hee! But I did mention it to dh when I first heard you talk about it and he seems game to try it!

[belleinblue1978]

Easily going back and reading the "books". Mom, Auntie June, myself, and my cousin Suzie have autograph books where we record Christmas eve meal and everyone signs. It also has where it was, what the weather was like and who lit the candles and blew them out. We have those books back to the twenties I believe.

We all also have candles that the oldest lights at the beginning of Christmas Eve supper and the youngest extinguishes it.

New jammies on Christmas Eve for Christmas pictures. And we still get up at the crack of dawn for presents. I LOVE watching everyone else open them.... I could care less what I get as long as everyone else is happy.

[kelceesmom]

Let me know Crick and I will give you the recipe! You'll love it I swear.

[SamIAm2]

We always bake Christmas cookies and get new ornaments for the kids each year. Most years we drive around and look at Christmas lights. And on Christmas Eve we play Christmas music, eat good finger-food type stuff, and exchange gifts. Sometimes, like this year, we all go to the theater on Christmas day and see the latest greatest movie...but only after we cook a big breakfast and see what gifts Santa left for us

[Kat-L]

Everything year we...decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. Then go to an outdoor mall/skating rink where they have carriage rides & caroling. We also decorate a gingerbread house each year. We go to a local forest to see a huge light display. And a friend's church has a breakfast with Santa. I love Christmas so we usually have at least one holiday event scheduled each weekend before Christmas.

[lovemy2boys]

I have too many to name, but I love the holiday music...

Every year, we listen to an old Bing Crosby album/story called "How Lovely is Christmas"...I've done this since I was a baby and now I share it with the kids...

My mom and I sing Baby it's Cold Outside every year (love Dean Martin!!!)

And I LOVE when White Christmas is on tv....the phone lines burn up with me calling my mom, while My Aunt is calling me, while we hurry off to call my Grandma and so on...and we all say "Hurry up!!! It's on!!!"

And with the kids, it's definately decorating the gingerbread house with Christmas music playing in the background...

BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS!!!

[Singlemom619]

I have too many...

Xmas eve we open one present that I (mom) gets to pick out... It's always Pajamas for us to wear to bed that night. Typically we all sleep in my room too.

Xmas eve we eat chocolate Fondue and we track Santa on this GPS website

Santa always brings certain things in our stocking - tooth brush, little box of sees candy, chapstick... and then other things for each individual person

Decorating - we normally do the weekend after Thanksgiving... When we do the tree each child has their own ornament they get to put on (along with others we put on together)... We put on Xmas music when we decorate and when the Mariah Carey song "All I want for Christmas" comes on we sing like lunatics and dance around.

Those are just some

[jp4ga]

We have 2 christmas trees, the big one in the family room and a smaller one in the kitchen. The one in the kitchen is covered with handmade decorations that my son has made during the past 12 years, along with his Babies 1st Christmas ornament.

This year the tree has our adoptive daughters Babies 1st Christmas ornament on it. I can not wait until she is old enough to start making decorations herself. Next weekend we are going to do a mold of her hand and paint it and hang it on the tree.

Each year as we decorate the tree we talk about how old our son was when he made each decoration. He is currently making a "secret" ornamnet that he will hang on the tree on Christmas Eve. I can't wait to see it.

[maricela]

I love EVERYTHING about the Christmas season.

We start decorating Thanksgiving weekend...my DD is now old enough where she LOVES helping! It's so much fun! When my son was young, we'd bake cookies, make hot chocolate and watch whatever Christmas program was on TV. We started that tradition with my DD this week! We are all bathed & in our PJ's by 8pm and we've seen Christmas programs this week! It's the 1st year she's actually sat down and watched the whole program! It's made for some real nice family bonding time.

[ourdreamcametru]

Hmmm, just one? Well, I have several but my very favorite is waking up early on Christmas morning and seeing my kids faces light up at what Santa brought. After they see their toys we all cook breakfast together and then we decorate for the HUGE birthday party later in the day, for Jesus of course. We hang decorations, play music, eat a wonderful meal with family and friends and then we sing happy birthday and have a beautiful cake that says Happy Birthday Baby Jesus on it.

[trooluv614]

My husband and I write "Dear Santa" letters to each other every year putting our hopes for the coming year. We have an ornament/decoration that we put them in and, on Christmas morning after opening presents, we read them.

Every year so far we've both written about wanting to begin our family with a child. This year we'll be writing about our hopes for the child we're preparing to adopt! When he's old enough, we'll begin writing letters to him as well.

This has to be my favorite tradition!

[Shadowfaerie]

We buy a tree from the Boy Scouts every year. On Christmas Eve I cook a turkey dinner for just myself and my dh with candles and holiday music. Last year we started a New Years family gift tradition instead of going out, we bought ourselves a PS2, and this year we bought Rockband. I have to say last New Year Eve was probably the most fun I've had in years on New Years Eve.