What Christmas traditions did you start with your children?
Last edited Wed Dec 5, 2012, 07:52 PM - Edit history (2)
We would have our kids write a letter to Santa and then have a fire in the fireplace , burn the letter and tell them santa would get the letter in one piece from the embers.... we would also have a friend write a Thank you note for the cookies so the kids wouldn't recognize the writing....
I know there are DUers that think lying to your kids about Santa is wrong .. but the smiles and excitement in my kids was priceless and I am happy to say my daughter is making memories for my grandson and I hope they go on for generations. hey my kids turned out ok AND they are not mad at us... They still talk about those Christmas mornings and they are 35 and 29
edit to add:I would like to hear all kinds of traditions from any DUers
I Believe..... 
lost
= new reply since forum marked as read
the bottom of the tree was always bare. they would eat the tinsel and knock the decorations off...
I feel your pain!! 
lost
I will note at the get-go tht we are not believers but like Christmas and its stories.
So, he grew up with this really sweet primitive nativity set from Jamaica, but somewhere along the line he decided that the Baby Jesus looked lonesome, so he put another little plastic baby in the creche with him. With me, Christmas involved a King Cake, really a Twelfth Night thing but it was always a Christmas treat. And all King Cakes come with, of course, a little plastic baby. Get the piee with the baby you have good luck (and if it's Mardi Gras you throw the next party but that's another story). Every Christmas for years my stepmother would send us a King Cake, and the boys continued the tradition. We now have a nativity scene with basically a litter of Saviors. I LOL every time I put it out, and the now grown sons just raise their eyebrows at me as if it's all my doing.
I'm thinking of taking it on the road and baby-bombing some of the local churches...
It's fun, even eventually watching the kid's figure it out. We would leave one cookie with a bite out of it. I would have my father write the gift tags.
My daughter was very observant--as grandpa would dress up as Santa. He would go to the extent of putting on old glasses and trying to hide his dark hair. She however noticed his watch one year that he forgot to take off. She still didn't have it all figured out but just asked me why grandpa dressed up as Santa.
It is nice seeing the excitement in their eyes.
I guess I have a tradition of not being there. 
everyone has to go around the table and say something, or some things, they are thankful for.
Also, my mom always bought a plum pudding. I make my own from scratch. I buy either a small antique silver ring or a small antique silver key each year and bake it into the pudding. Whoever gets the piece from the pudding with the key or ring, gets to keep it and will have the "good luck" in the coming year. Everyone's gotten it at least once. My niece has gotten it 3 times and keeps hers as "charms" on a silver chain. One year the ring actually fit her. She wore it for the entire year....
Otherwise all of my traditions are carryovers from when I was a child and none of THOSE were new to our family either. We still put the tree up on Christmas Eve (its a big party too). Still have roast beef and yorkshire pudding (I always have tons of vegetarian dishes as well for the vegetarians).
My oldest daughter was one of those who was seriously angry that we "lied" to her all those years about Santa when she discovered the truth so we definitely dialed back on the "Santa magic" with my youngest pretty early on.
Alas.
I like to sew, so each of my kids gets a hand-sewn pair of flannel pj's from mom on Christmas Eve. It involves a trip to the fabric store in November, so they can pick the material of their choice.
