What are YOUR Christmas traditions?

In my family, my father ALWAYS wanted traditions. Something when you are a child, you dont understand. I could NOT be any more grateful now for these traditions. They make the Holidays FEEL like holidays.

In my family, we still do them, even though we all have our own lives, and dont live together.

On Christmas Eve, we have a LARGE family dinner (moms side only), and lots of homemade goodies. My aunt used to do this at her house, but now that I have the largest house, we do it at mine. I cook 2 HUGE pots of chili, and make cookies, and brownies, and buy biscotti, coffees and eggnog.

We exchange all the family gifts on this night, but we dont get my parents presents until early Christmas morning. We go over there to open them just like kids:D in our PJS! LOL

On the Eve, we get two presents apeice. It is ALWAYS new PJS and Slippers.. ALWAYS! When we were little, we wanted PRESENTS! TOYS! Now I always look forward to see what kind of kitty pjs I got this year! I have gotten kitty PJs for ATLEAST the last 15 years;)

We have a fire and drink hot cocoa, and watch Christmas movies while wrapping the rest of the presents for family on the other side who we dont see on the Eve.

Everyone leaves, and then Hubby and me continue to watch movies, get the presents loaded into our cars, and then, after cleaning up the house, we fill kitty stockings! We put all of the kitties into a room, load them up and then they can come out and dig into their own personal stockings! That is SO CUTE to watch! They always get bunches of treats and toys, nip and attention.

Then bedtime, and we know, we have to get up SUPER early, to start off the day! These are the things I look forward to most.

What are some of you Christmas traditions that make you feel like a child again?:D

New pajamas on Christmas eve must be a common tradition. As a kid we went to my grandma's house every year on Christmas eve and she gave us a new pair of pajamas. When she passed away that tradition went away. However it was a tradition in my husband's family too, his mom gave everyone new pajamas on Christmas eve. So when I married into the family (actually when we were dating too) that tradition found it's way back into my life. My mother-in-law still does it.

My husband and I wanted to create a Christmas eve tradition for our son so we decided to give him a Christmas book every year. This way he'll get new pajamas from his grandma and a new bedtime story from us.

Another tradition we have is cooking a big yummy breakfast Christmas morning.

Since I've moved out the traditions I love so much I miss. My dad always fixes a big breakfast. However, since I live over an hour away and we go to Bruce's family for Christmas Eve and don't get home until the wee hours of the morning, we never make it there for breakfast. We are lucky to make it for lunch. LOL

But other traditions from when I was a child have changed so much that they are just memories now. We used to go to my dads side of the family for Xmas Eve and my moms on Xmas day. Neither of those things happen anymore. :( Mainly because my parents parents have all passed away. But I will always have those fond memories of how it used to be back in the "good ol days". :)

Now for Xmas day we go to my brothers (who lives right next door to my parents). And I can't wait for this year!! My sister will be down and I'm so excited. I haven't been this excited since I was a child. :D

I don't think we had too many traditions. We open our gifts on Christmas Eve and then we get 1 big gift on Christmas morning and then we head to Grandma's and open presents there from the extended family. But that won't be happening this year. We're going to Delaware! :D

I've started a tradition for my nephew, every year I read him a Christmas story-Santa: My life and times. We start on the 9th of December and read a chapter every night and read the last chapter on the 24th. It's a pretty good story, it has a lot to do with magic. "Santa" tells the story of how he came to be and how everything started. Even though it is long, Nathan enjoys it.