BellaOnline Forums Family Attachment Parenting Question of the Day

What are your family's holiday traditions? What do you hope your kids will continue with when they have their own families?

The only slightly abnormal "holiday" thing we do has nothing to do with the winter holiday season. We don't celebrate Mother's day on its "traditional" date, because it's such a Hallmark holiday, but rather, we celebrate it on my birthday, since I'm the oldest and therefore Sept. 6 is the day Mom became a Mom (she went into labor on labor day). I think I'll celebrate it this way when I have kids, it seems to make quite a bit of sense if you think about it.

As far as the winter holidays, we're multifaith, so we do both Christmas and Hannukah.... this year Hannukah begins on Christmas, so Christmas ham with a side of latkes will probably be on the menu.... (We're already celebrating Jesus's birth.... keeping kosher is clearly a moot point!)

One thing we always do is sign up for a Saturday shift for the Salvation Army at the pedestrian mall in my hometown. Instead of ringing bells, we sing Christmas carols. We invite lots of friends and have a great time, and are consistently one of the biggest money-raisers for the SA Christmas Drive. I haven't been able to do this with the family for several years, since I moved away, but they're still going strong. When I have kids, I'll make a point of either starting the same thing here or taking them home so they can take part in it there. Combining fun with philanthropic activity seems like a good way to teach kids that charity work isn't a drag.

Celebrating Mother's Day in that way does make a lot of sense--what a great tradition. (LOL at the ham/moot point!)

Growing up we always opened one gift on Christmas Eve, just before bed, and we've kept that a tradition with our kids. And they get their chocolate initial as part of their stocking. Christmas dinner is turkey and trimmings, but honestly, I'm open to change with that aspect-- we've thought about trying something less conventional like indian or asian cuisine.

The kids are still quite young, but we make a donation in each of their names to a charity, and when they get older they'll choose how and when they'd like to give.

we dont have many traditions, really. The main one we have is making decorations ech year. When my first was 1 we had a bunch of shells from the beach so we painted them red and green and glued a ribbon on and gave to family members. That grew and this year we're making decorations with all four kids. Our thing is that we start making them when they are 1, and my little boy will be 1 next week.

Ths year we're starting something new. Christmas eve after dinner we each open one gift, a new pair of jammies to wear that night and open presents in!

Meg

Our family always opens two smaller gifts on Christmas Eve, it is our Christmas pajamas and our new ornament. Each year growing up my grandma gaves us a new ornament so they are really special. Now with our family growing so big our parents buy the ornaments but my g-ma still picks them out. It is really neat and I will do the same for my kids. Our Christmas dinner main dish is prime rib and of course there are the potatos, veggies, deserts to go along with it. We figure once a year we can have a really nice dinner with family.

We let Colton and Caleb help decorate the Xmas tree this past week, it was fun, we have a bunch of ornaments all in one spot around the bottom section of the tree, but that is okay, the pictures are priceless. Hopefully next year all 4 of my kids can help.

Congratulations on your new arrivals!

Soun ds weird but my family would stick this little stuffed beanie baby in the tree and when my brothers and I got up they would let us go at the same time at the tree, whomever found it got a special gift. Normally it was a box of chocolates or a swim day pass or sumthing liek that.