My+Family+Holiday+Traditions

Family traditions are an important aspect of family pride and unity. Describe a tradition that your family participates in during a holiday such as decorating the Christmas tree, hiding Easter eggs, or cooking specific foods for the family meals. If you would like to post pictures of your favorite family traditions unfolding please do so and thanks for sharing. Please include your name after your entry (ex. lgarvin).

Example: One of my favorite holiday traditions is our annual Fourth of July picnic. Every year my family gets together to celebrate this summertime holiday. I have eight sisters and brothers, many nieces and nephews, and countless extended family members. We always have a large group at the picnic because it is always fun and the food is wonderful. After a a day filled with games for the kids, visiting with family members, and eating till we just can eat anymore we all go downtown to watch the fireworks. We always have a great time celebrating the holiday and the freedoms for living in our great nation. (lgarvin)

My favorite family tradition is Christmas night. My family and I eat a traditional seafood dinner of fried and boiled shrimp, fried crab claws, and gumbo. My mother loves to cook and bake so there is always a ton of food to take home. We then sit around and watch Christmas Vacaction (which we can all quote) because my dad is truly Sparky. We exchange gifts and watch our old family movies. (sdillard)

Our Christmas Day I-Hop visit is a tradition that Jesse (my husband) and I started. Our first Christmas together as a married couple was spent on our honeymoon in Orlando, Florida. On Christmas morning we drove over to I-Hop for breakfast. When we returned to the car, the battery had completely died. Not wanting this inconvenience to spoil our Christmas day, we decided to leave the car in the I-Hop parking lot and walk the one or two miles to Universal Studios. We continue to keep up our Christmas day I-Hop tradition as a fun little reminder of our honeymoon and our determination to not let the "little things" spoil a perfectly good day. Since we've lived in Mobile, our families drive down from Tennessee to join us for the Christmas holiday. Inevitably, there will be an I-Hop visit. (mguinn)

My favorite family tradition is one we began many years ago when I was a young girl. My family always went together to choose and cut down our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. Now that I am married with two children of my own, my husband and I carry on our version of the tradition. We start our day by going to the local Christmas parade in our small town, then head off for lunch and finally down to Fish River to a huge tree farm where the kids enjoy a visit with Santa, a train ride, and hot chocolate before we set out into the fields of trees to pick out just the right one. My kids now have started their own tradition- finding a tree that has lots of "baby" pinecones on the branches. However, I'm still partial to the "Charlie Brown" variety. (mmcdaniel)

My favorite tradition occurs on Christmas Eve night. I have 3 children (who are now 20, 16, and 14), and ever since they were very young, we would allow them to open one gift that night. I would always pick it out for them from under the tree because I'm the only one who knew everything that was under there. I started buying them Christmas pj's, and this is the gift that they were allowed to open so that they would sleep in them and wake up in them on Christmas morning. They loved this because I always tried to find really unique pj's for each of them. Their father and I have since divorced, so they've spent the past 5 Christmas Eves at their grandparents' house, but they always return home that same night, put their gifts aside, and sit down together to open their Christmas pj's. As their gift to them this year, I took all three on a trip to New York City, but one of the first things they asked me was "will we still be able to get Christmas pj's?" I cannot tell you how much that warmed my heart. Even my 20 year old (who still lives at home) gives me suggestions for the kind of pj's she wants under the tree. (bfavors)

One Christmas tradition that my husband and I have recently started is making pizza for neighbors, friends and other people that we see through out the year. About five years ago we stared making home made bread and pizza about two weeks before Christmas and delivering it to our neighbors. From there it grew into treats for the people at the post office, the bank and other business people that we normally deal with. People have started looking forward to getting their pizza and ask if we are doing it again this year. (bmangiaracina)

My favorite Christmas tradition is going to my aunt's house on Christmas Eve. Everyone gets together and has a huge feast every year. We always stay until about eight or nine at night. Then everyone goes home and waits for Santa to come! The next day, everyone comes to our house for Christmas lunch and to exchange presents. I have come to love my Christmas Eve tradition just as much as Christmas Day! (hkenny)