Christmas Traditions

Joanna over at One Krusty Mama recently posted about her Christmas traditions and it struck a chord with me, so I thought I'd post about the traditions that my family has or had, and what our little family is starting for traditions now!

I have fond memories of Christmases past.

*Note: my tenses might be past and present...because we still hold this tradition to this day!*

Christmas Eve was the big day - my Mom would pick up various meats and cold cuts from the deli, buns from the bakery, and a jug of chocolate milk (unless my Dad brought it home from work - he drives truck for a company that, amongst other things, hauls milk). Why chocolate milk?

It's the highlight of the meal! We didn't keep it in the fridge during the rest of the year and very much look forward to it at our Christmas Eve dinner.

Speaking of dinner...it's the same every year, and so delicious!

It's called faspa - a low German term for a meal that consists of buns, meats, cheeses, jams and desserts. So very good!!

My Mom would make the table special with the Christmas tablecloth, fancy tableware and we drank our chocolate milk out of the good glasses. She'd even light candles and we'd eat by the candlelight!

Afterwards we'd help clean up and my Mom would set out baked goods and other treats including kransjes met witte spikkeltjes (yes, I had to look it up!) which, translated, means chocolate rings with white candies. It's a Dutch treat only available at Christmastime - thankfully we have a Dutch deli and market right in our town that brings them in, along with the traditional chocolate letter, of course.

My Dad would read the Christmas story and when we were younger, my siblings and I would sometimes put on a play or presentation of sorts (one year we used trolls of various sizes to tell the Christmas story).

And then it was present time! We saved our stockings for Christmas morning right before church.

With Baby Bear around now, and being that I'm married, trying to organize when and with whom on which days we'd spend various events is always interesting. Papa Bear's family has a fondue tradition that they do on Christmas Eve also, so we've started alternating which family we spend that night with each year, and then other family chooses another day.

We like to keep Christmas Day for our little family - we don't plan much other than sleeping in a bit, having a great breakfast (I'm thinking waffles this year but we've done those Christmas Morning Wife Saver breakfasts in the past, too), snacking throughout the day and then having a bigger dinner (this year is going to be a small ham, mashed potatoes, veggies, stuffing and gravy).

We'll have a few movies ready for during the day and afternoon, and we'd like to take a walk with Baby Bear at some point, perhaps around our local lake. I'm really hoping it snows a bit so we can take a few pictures (time to brush up on the automatic picture taker thingy on my camera!).

Of course we open gifts, usually after breakfast. Because Papa Bear and I aren't exchanging gifts this year it's going to be Baby Bear's show (as if it wouldn't be anyway, right?) but it will be great for pictures!

What are your holiday traditions?