Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas day, so I thought I would share some of my family’s Christmas traditions.  

Traditions are fluid, but we still aim to do some things the same every year.  We tell the same stories, read articles written by the same people, and prioritize spending time together.

For my family, the Christmas season starts on December 6th.

December 6th is St. Nick’s feast day.  Before St. Nick became Santa Clause, he was known for leaving presents in people’s shoes.  

Specifically, he would sneak in at night and leave gold in little girl’s shoes so they wouldn’t need to turn to prostitution for survival.  Creepy and a little weird, but it is the basis for this minor holiday and it is where stockings come from.

On the night of the 5th, while we all sleep, St. Nick takes one of our shoes, lines them all by the fireplace, and leaves candy or small treats in them.  He also leaves a book for the whole family to enjoy together.

It is always a fun surprise on the 6th to wake up to shoes full of candy and a new book to read.

Then it is time to decorate.

I try to decorate on the 6th, but often decorating has to wait until the weekend.  Decorating is a family activity and everyone likes to take part.

We listen to music, tell family stories, and make ornaments about events that have happened in the past year.  Then we make Christmas cards and other crafts.

Filling the time until Christmas can be difficult with a toddler, but we try to do themed things to make do until Christmas eve.

Christmas Eve is Family time.

When I was younger, my brother and I each got to open a present early.  Then everyone would watch a movie together and we would set out milk, cookies, and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.  We would go to bed early to wait for Santa.

We still follow a lot of that, but I make sure the present we open early is a book we can all read together. 

With Netflix, I don’t need to find and give a new movie to the family every Christmas eve, I just find something new and keep it in reserve for Christmas eve. 

My brother used to wake everyone up at 4 every Christmas morning.

That’s why everyone gets a book on Christmas eve.  Hopefully, they will wake up and read the book instead of waking up the whole family. 

I have fond memories of my brother waking me up early and me telling him to go back to sleep.  Eventually, he would succeed in waking me up and we would jump on my parent’s bed until they grudgingly woke up.

Mom would throw a coffeecake or banana bread in the oven and while it baked we would sing “Happy Birthday” to baby Jesus and open presents.

After breakfast we would open our stockings.  

By this point, it was an actually decent time in the morning, and we were all exhausted.  So we would take an early morning nap.  

People would wake up around lunchtime, and after lunch, we would play with our gifts.  In the evening we would eat a special meal and then just generally hang out together.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?  Leave them in the comments below!

Merry Christmas!