When I was growing up, we opened the gifts on Christmas Eve. Then, after the kids had gone to bed, my parents would fill the stockings. We would then get all the stocking stuffers on Christmas morning.

We understood that the gifts on Christmas Eve were to and from each other, and that Santa took care of the stockings. I think this is a reasonable compromise to the 'Santa issue' - we grew up understanding that the season is about giving, not just getting, and also had the fun of anticipating what Santa might bring. (I don't remember how my parents dealt with the kids finding out Santa wasn't real. I vaguely remember understanding that at a pretty young age and not being too disappointed).

My parents were (and still are) fans of "No Christmas before Thanksgiving" (and about 45 years ago that was easier than it is today), and for a long time the tree didn't go up until my father's birthday, December 18 (hey, that's tomorrow! Happy 87th, Dad! )

About 15 years ago my parents began going south for the winter, so we'd celebrate Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving (they'd head south by December 1). That sounds like we were rushing it, and maybe we were, but the big thing was to be together as family. And I came to appreciate it, because it meant the Christmas shopping was done, and I could 'relax' a little and enjoy the rest of the beauty of December - the new snow, looking at lights, concerts, times with friends, and so on - without feeling rushed to finish the shopping.

In recent years my parents' health hasn't allowed them to travel south anymore, so we've reverted to celebrating around Dec. 25. Often this is at my brother's family's house, in northeast Minnesota. They're miles from the nearest paved road, which offers beautiful scenery but can be risky (a couple years ago we got about 30 inches of snow at once and were snowed in. A medical emergency with our aging parents could have been pretty serious!).

I don't recall when we opened Christmas gifts when I was very young: because of one video, I remember opening gifts on Christmas Eve because we were travelling for holidays the day after to celebrate Christmas. Otherwise, as far as I can remember, we opened gifts Christmas day.
Our stockings typically were filled with the smaller gifts (chocolate, gifts of small sizes, etc.), and larger gifts went under the tree.

We usually decorate for Christmas December/after Thanksgiving. We were not big on "No Christmas After Thanksgiving" but after Thanksgiving is typically when the Christmas box was brought out.

When we held Christmas Parties, we'd have a cake (for Jesus' Birthday. ) and typically, the youngest child got to cut the cake. This ended up being yours truly for years when no one younger was among our guests: the perks of being the youngest.

On Christmas Eve, we either had a little meal of hot cocoa and something special at home, or we sung Christmas carols with neighbours, or went caroling to friends we knew. I'm not sure which one we'll do this year. I really wish, though, that there was a large caroling group or something: it would be so fun to go.
In 2009, I attempted to make a little tradition of my own to read "A Christmas Carol" every Christmas Eve. I tried (and this was my first time reading the book), got to two chapters or so, and then went to sleep because I was really tired. Maybe I'll try again this year.

Opening gifts on Christmas day was simply that my sister and I got up as early as we could, opened gifts, and thanked our parents. Then we either prepared for dinner at the end, or went to church (if there was a Christmas service.)

One year, for Christmas, my mom and us lined the walls outside with candles aflame.

Like stargazer's family, my family placed great emphasis on giving and being generous during Christmastime, but we still had a lot of fun anticipating Santa's arrival. Like stargazer, I remember learning that Santa was not real but I was not devastated and I didn't feel deceived or anything. (I mean, I was disappointed, but not life-changingly. ) We'd leave out milk and cookies. (and my mom would ascertain we bought cookies that Santa liked; nothing too sugary or outlandish. ) I think, with Santa, my parents did Santa for some time until finally my sister and I picked up (I'm not sure how; but we just realized Santa wasn't real.) So we asked my mom when we were of a good age to enjoy more about gifts than Santa, and she said that she had been Santa. I think the Santa legend is a fun, lovely tradition if handled well.

We typically have our 6' artificial tree, but this year we decided not to do the tree because 1) we moved, and it's a bit crowded so we don't know where we can put it conveniently. and 2) we just decided to see what Christmas would be like without the tree, personally for us (we do enjoy looking at trees and stuff decorated outside, lol. ): so, this year, we lighted up our Nativity for a change and are planning to incorporate this tradition even more meaningfully in our home.

Hi there, I have been away form the forum for a while now due to college. Now that I have finished college for this semester, I have vacations, can finally (hope to) sleep something and play some games. As many know and many also celebrate, this is the Christmas season. Which also involves shopping, which I am now doing because my parents drag me in. People decorate, they prepare meals, families reunite and their is a lot of heavy traffic as well.

Many celebrate a new year with their family and us christians celebrate our gratitude and peace. In different countries this festivity is celebrated diiferently. I am ware many users are from the US. Personally, I would like to know much more. So I wish people from other countries to post your different Christmas customs, what kind of food do you prepare, what kind of presents do you give and all. In Latin America for instance things celebrate a little bit differently than in the US, and although turkey is usally the main star of the table presentation for dinner, other foods are also eaten.

Share your opinions and habits, your personal stories and all even if you are form the US, so people form other countries can read them; it is interesting to learn. So, come on! Oh and Happy Christmas to you all.

People decorate, they prepare meals, families reunite and their is a lot of heavy traffic as well.

^^ That basically sounds like how we celebrate Christmas in the U.S. The last part especially. Only, there are also mad rushes and cat-fights in the stores the night before the big day.

But on a serious note, Christmas traditions vary greatly from family to family here in the US. There's the common stuff like buying a Christmas tree, decorating it, decorating the house with nativity sets, Santa-themed decor, candles, mistletoe, garlands, wreathes, the works and what-have-you. Christmas cards sent to friends, people going caroling (although this isn't done nearly as often as it should be. ), some people being more friendly than usual to show off holiday spirit, while others are more cranky this time of year due to the traffic and stress the holidays bring.

Food is probably the most varied thing among families here. Eggnog is popular. Different kinds of dessert. Ham or turkey. My family prefers ham. Fruit salad, potatoes, cranberry, and coleslaw will be found on our table.

I hear most people get up on Christmas morning, open presents, then get dressed and ready and start preparing food. Relatives start arriving. A big dinner is served.

My family does things a bit differently from other people. My ancestors, just a few generations back, were immigrants from Germany; so many of our traditions still reflect German culture. We do celebrating mostly on Christmas Eve, instead of Christmas day.

Most of the day before Christmas will be spent normally. But once night falls and after dinner is eaten, we'll go out to the car and take a drive around town, looking at the different Christmas light displays people have put up. (And believe me. There are some pretty outrageous ones. ) After a couple hours of that, we'll come back home. The lights will be turned out, the candles will be lit (as well as the fireplace). Christmas music will be played low in the background. And we all present each other the gifts we are giving one another.

The next day, Christmas itself, we'll get up and have a quick breakfast. Then we'll head to the movie theater and see the best film which happens to be playing during that time.

And we come home and have Christmas dinner. Just the three of us, my parents and I. We don't have relatives to celebrate with, so we usually eat Christmas dinner alone or with a friend.

~Riella

I usually really get into the Christmas spirit at least a month before the big day its self. However, this year I've been so busy that its hard to feel excited even a few days before Christmas. I am trying to relax though, now that most of my school work is done.

Most of the time we go to Church on Christmas eve. We open presents on Christmas day. I don't have a large immediate family, so Christmas day is usually fairly quiet. We eat lunch/dinner (its planned as lunch, but we only finish cooking it in time for dinner), and watch movies. Nothing too exciting.

Sometimes I wish I had a bigger family. My friends tell me that I'm lucky because I avoid the stress that a large family brings. I guess the grass is greener on the other side. But I am very thankful for the family I do have. After all, I know a lot of people don't have anyone to spend Christmas with.

So I wish people from other countries to post your different Christmas customs, what kind of food do you prepare, what kind of presents do you give and all

Thanks for bringing this up! Tell us more details of more Christmas Traditions in El Salvador, too!

I live in the U.S. so a lot of our traditions are like those of the U.S.; however, I am Indian by ancestry and Kenyan by birth place, so those are definitely integrated equally into our traditions.

For just overall traditions, my mom makes butter cookies and gives them in gift bags to friends. She also makes an Indian treat called farsi poori; basically, a fried, flaky, savory biscuit. We eat it with green chutney made of jalapenos, cilantro, fresh mint, lemon, and sometimes coconut. It's delicious.
My mom also makes a dish of semolina flour; it's sweet and kind of cooked/fried. It's kind of like johnny cakes or hoe-cakes, but is prepared a bit differently, out of semolina, and isn't exactly a cake.
In India, it's tradition to prepare large amounts of Indian sweets/biscuits and give trays to your neighbors. In Kenya, my Grandpa would make sweets and give them out, too. He was also one of the first Indians there to celebrate Christmas in and put lights on a wood star he made himself to put outside in celebration of Christmas. My mom told us the story: he made the star, put it outside with lights, and all their Kenyan neighbours were so elated to see that there was someone who celebrated Christmas, too, so they came over and all sang "O Come All Ye Faithful."
Caroling, also, is a big tradition.
Christmas/Nativity scenes are very common in Kenya, I think. I have to ask my mom about India; what I know is that she would go to her church, which was decorated with many lights for Christmas.
I don't know if Santa Claus is something big in Kenya and India; like I said, I need to ask my mom. Growing up in Kenya, my sister and I definitely knew about Santa Claus and anticipated his arrival on Christmas. (we set out cookies, milk, etc,)
We also had a Christmas tree, presents, etc.
There were no White Christmases, because December is summertime in Kenya. Experiencing greeting-card snowy Christmases was a new, exciting thing when we came to the U.S.

Christmas hymns are generally the same ones sung around the world: "O Come All Ye Faithful" as mentioned above, "Away in a Manger"... all the traditional hymns, mostly sung in English, but often in the native language.

Our traditions are not strictly one culture; kind of a mix of everything.

Tradition in my family:

I am an only child. So it means I get pulled in by both my parents in last minute (and all gift plotting). My dad just called and we pulled off a last minute gift for my mother and I honestly suspect both of them of plotting something else because they ended up both going out today. Even if I'm wrong, I find it fun to watch because I love this kind of plotting of gifts.

We have other traditions, but I need to go make pecan pies for dinner tomorrow! Mainly they revolve around the getting together of family.

For some reason this topic makes me think of Fiddler on the Roof.

Great, now I have that show in my head!

Here's the spot to discuss your Christmas traditions. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Do you do anything for advent?

You know, it's strange (and kinda sad), but I don't remember the last time my family did anything for advent. I mean, we all still go to church every wednesday night during advent, but that's it. We did stuff when I was little, though!

Do you open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas?

Ok, here's how it goes for us...
The Four of Us: Christmas Eve night, after church.
Dad's Side: Christmas Day at our house
Mom's Side: A few days later, and where at switches... this year it'll be on tuesday

Granted, this has only been the tradition since I was 12, when we moved closer to our relatives. Before that, it was different... though, I couldn't tell you exactly when we did each. Sorry!

Any traditional Gifts?

Do these count?
1) the four of us always used to get new pajamas (not this year, as we have to cut back on some things )
2) Nutcrackers for my sister, from me (she collects them)
3) I already mentioned this in the decorating thread, and it doesn't happen any more (don't think there are new ones). But my sister used to get my dad the Budweiser mugs each year. You know, the ones with the clydestale (sp?) horsies on them
4) Mom always gets me two calendars... one for my room, and a big one for the laundry room

Other than those, I can't think of any. And I don't even know if those sort of things are what you were asking about.

Santa or no Santa?

Santa; though I forget how my parents handled this. (it's been AGES since we were little enough to believe, and it's just the two of us, so...)

If I think of anything else, I'll come back later; and either edit it in or post again. k?

........
waterkid72, nice to see ya! I really don't know what to tell you, though. Because between this thread, and all the Christmas Countdown threads, I have said everything my family does. Yep, I agree with Riella... although there are some traditions that (nearly) everyone in the U.S. does, it mostly varies from family to family. So, I don't know if reading one person's post would give you an accurate description of a U.S.A. Christmas. Sorry.

That said, when reading all of my posts it can give you an idea of this midwestern girl's traditions. Hope that makes sense!

Ah, Christmas! Merry Christmas everybody!

I don't think we have any annual advent traditions, but we do have certain movies we tend to watch, certain lights we tend to put up, certain music we tend to listen to. Ooo, ginger snaps! We always have ginger snap cookies.

We open about half our presents on Christmas Eve. It used to be that we'd open presents from the extended family on the Eve and from the immediate family on the day. That idea was left by the wayside a few years ago as we decided we needed to open more presents early!

Before we were Narnia fans, my sister and I were Star Wars fans, and we still enjoy watching the Clone Wars tv show from time to time, so it's a tradition that I always give her a Star Wars action figure at Christmas. Sometimes she asks for a certain one and sometimes I surprise her. The hard part is disguising the package and wrapping it so that she doesn't know which present has the action figure inside!

I never grew up believing in Santa, and don't intend to lie to my children about him either, -but that doesn't mean that I don't love the Santa story and appreciate what the character teaches us. Ultimately Santa is a representation of the self-less giving nature of God. And who doesn't need to be reminded of God's goodness from time to time?

I'm trying to memorize the second and third verses to popular Christmas carols. We all know the first verses, but do you know any more? (No, the 12 days of Christmas doesn't count.)

Always open just one present on Christmas eve. If you open more then you have to wait til school starts back up to get them back

This tradition started with my Great Aunt, who could NOT wait for Christmas day to open, so my Great-Grandparents let her and my Gramma open just one present. At this time we get have designated Christmas-Eve presents which are Christmas PJs, and we get to stay all warm and toasty in candy cane and Santa clothes

Great, now I have that show in my head!

Sorry PA.

I never grew up believing in Santa, and don't intend to lie to my children about him either,

Ditto. We always get presents from "Santa" but we know where they came from. Santa gifts usually include: Calendars, Christmas socks, candy of some sort, ornaments, and some kind of cute stuffed animal. Our tradition as grown so that we get things from Santa's Helpers. We try to think of a creative giver that will match the gift. For example: this year my mom got nativity socks from Santa's Inn Keeper and Grinch socks from Santa's Impersonator. We had so many Santa and co gifts this year that quite a few didn't fit in the stockings. That made things a little interesting because "Santa" forgot to label some of the gifts and we had to guess whose were whose. Luckily, they were ornaments in a set - one set for me and one for my sister and "Santa" had used the same paper for the same ornaments so we made sure we each got one of each type of paper.

I'm trying to memorize the second and third verses to popular Christmas carols. We all know the first verses, but do you know any more? (No, the 12 days of Christmas doesn't count.)

That would come in useful in Christmas Trivia Games. I know all the verses for "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." I might know others but those are the ones that come to mind. That reminds me I want to look up the other verses for "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "Jingle Bells"

Please note that our Christmas Countdown threads will be closing on Monday, January 9...but never fear! We look forward to having them again next December.