[I<3HelloKitty]

So I know some of us celebrate Thanksgiving at different times, and I'm not sure if everyone celebrates Christmas. What holidays do you celebrate around this time? And what are your favorite traditions? Have you started new ones since you had children?

[inyourhonor]

Good question! I know of only two members I believe that don't celebrate Christmas.


We do, neither of us grew up religions so our Christmas' were about family, being together and yes, gifts. I was told of the reasoning for it but since we didn't go to Church or have a set religion, we didn't celebrate it like that. My parents always left that door open for me to choose for myself as I got older. I will do the same for my boys.

Our traditions are to have Christmas eve at home, we do a yummy dinner, then go see the lights around town. Boys go to bed and leave cookies for Santa.

Christmas we do gifts, we listen to music. I make breakfast and they play. Later in the day we go to my moms, open gifts there and have dinner.

Oh and always the weekend before Christmas, my in-laws come up for the weekend and we do our Christmas with them then.


I love hearing how others Celebrate during this time.

[noworries]

We celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Although, we don't celebrate Christmas the same way that most people do.
For Thanksgiving, we obviously focus on what we have to be thankful for. We get together with family and eat....a lot. And then just hang out with family.
For Christmas, we don't do gifts and we don't do Santa. We focus on celebrating Christ's birthday. We do a Jesse tree instead of a Christmas tree. We do bake cookies and make candy. I think this year we will bake a birthday cake for Jesus. We watch The Nativity movie and we read scripture. It's a wonderful family time. My sisters and their families and my parents and in-laws celebrate Christmas with gifts and Santa and so our kids are exposed to that. We have taught our daughter not to tell other kids that Santa is not real if they believe in Santa. The kids receive presents from grandparents and aunts/uncles.

[I<3HelloKitty]

Usually a couple weeks before Christmas, DH and I take a day and do all our Christmas shopping and go out for a nice dinner. I grew up in a very religious Baptist family, though I don't practice anymore. For DH and I, Christmas is about family and spending time together. My DH's parents are Buddist, though MIL grew up Episcopalian and I really like the ritual of their church services so I usually go to Christmas Eve Mass with her. On Christmas morning, we go over to their house for coffee cake and coffee, and we do stockings then and sometimes a few presents while we listen to Manheim Steamroller. Then we go home to do our cooking for Christmas dinner and then in the afternoon, we go back over to their house for dinner and open the rest of the presents. Since my mom lives near us now too, she usually joins us for all the festivities at the in-laws.