Holiday Traditions To Cherish!

I love this time of year; snow is on the ground, the stores are filled with shoppers, and the aromas of evergreen and gingerbread fill the air, it can only mean that Santa is on his way!  Since the holidays are such a special time for families I thought I’d share with all of you a few of our family traditions as they are truly what make this time of year so special!

My family has several holiday traditions that always make the holidays such a special time for me.  Every year (for the past 20 years) my entire family (all 40 of us) gets together the Sunday before Christmas for our annual Christmas party; we eat, play, catch up with one another, and Santa usually stops by after the reading of The Night Before Christmas with a few goodies for all of the good little girls and boys.  It is such a good time for all of us and something that I always look forward to when December rolls around.  Another of my favorite family traditions is our annual Christmas Eve dinner and gift giving celebration.  When my sister and I were younger (young enough to still live at home, but old enough to have had the dreaded Santa talk) my mother would let us each unwrap one present on Christmas Eve.  I always looked forward to this and remember taking great care to pick the perfect preset to unwrap, all of these years later my mom and dad and my sister and I and our families still get together on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts, it’s become a tradition that my children treasure and anxiously await each year! 

Since starting a family of my own there have been a few traditions that my husband and I have started and enjoy each year with our children, but none is awaited more than our annual hanging of the Christmas stockings.  Every year after Thanksgiving we gather the kids around and get to work decorating the house for Christmas, but the finishing touch is always the same and seems to be our kids favorite thing to do…hanging their stockings for Santa.  It always brings a smile to all of their faces and I can almost see as they head off to bed after the decorating has been done the visions of sugarplums (or maybe these days it’s Wii’s and cell phones) dancing in their little heads! 

What makes the holidays a special time for your family?