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Christmas Traditions Part 7 - Christmas Day
I have been busy blogging about Christmas at our house. It was just too much to include in one post. And I thought If I broke it into segments and shared it, it would be here for my children to read and enjoy as they grow older.
Christmas Day has taken on many appearances for us over the years. Sometimes we have been fortunate enough to have my mother-in-law or my mom and stepdad or my dad here to visit for Christmas Day and be part of the Christmas present opening process. The years that my mom and stepdad came, we put together a neat Christmas meal. We each made plans to make 'party food'. You know...cheese balls and crackers, cranberry salad, sliced meat and cheese and homemade bread, veggie tray, olive butter. We would make things that we didn't often have other times of the year and that would be our Christmas Day meal. It was a lot of fun and less work than other meal options.
Most years, it is just us and our children. Now we are down to just the two youngest. We get up anywhere between 6 and 8. The kids are so excited that they have a hard time falling asleep the night before, which often means we get a bit of extra sleep Christmas morning.
Breakfast varies. I usually make some tea or coffee, turn on the Christmas music and then we might eat homemade cookies or donuts or some other sweet item for breakfast. When I was growing up we always ate Christmas cookies for breakfast...it was fun, and that is still my preference.
Then the kids hand out the gifts. Then we take turns opening the presents. Katrina will open one, then Jack, then me, then Daniel. Then we start all over again until the presents are open. Stockings are always saved until last. When I was growing up, we took turns opening presents. But it was a different way. I opened mine first, then Mom, then Dad. Some years, I would insist on going last to prolong the anticipation. Daniel grew up in a household where everyone opened their gifts at once. He seems to like the way we do it now though. If we spend weeks and months getting ready for Christmas, it is nice if it doesn't all end in fifteen minutes. After we open gifts, the rest of the day is spent enjoying our new items and playing together.
I enjoy Christmas at home and I enjoy it being just us. I love spending time with my family, but I really like doing that on other days. When I was a child, it was important to my mom that it just be us for Christmas Day, she didn't want to be out of town for Christmas, she wanted us to be home. I inherited her desire to spend our Christmas Days like that as well.
As to a Christmas Meal, we don't really do anything special. I prefer not to spend time on Christmas cooking. When I was growing up, mom cooked everything the days before Christmas and we ate pretty much a cold dinner (ham, potato salad, things like that).
So now you have read all of our Christmas traditions. I still have a post to share where I will show some pictures of our decorations, but I am saving that for
If you want to read our other Christmas traditions that I have posted about, they are linked below:
First, I shared a treasured Christmas memory - as part of the Holiday Bundle Giveaway post.
Then I shared all of our favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes for your enjoyment.
Then I gave you the titles of our favorite Christmas movies in case you were looking for some new movies to watch this holiday season.
Then I shared a list of some of our favorite Christmas books.
Next came some Christmas Craft ideas.
Activities we enjoy during the month of December.
