Christmas Traditions!

Nurses General Nursing

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Merry Christmas (especially those of you who are working tomorrow),

I just wanted to share some of our Christmas traditions and maybe hear some new ones.

One thing we always do is go up to the high country a week or two before Christmas and cut our tree. Every year we have a few more folks come with us (this year we had 32 people). We build a fire and have hot chocolate for the kids and cook something. If there is enough snow we also go sledding.

One other thing we do is invite someone (or 2 or 3) for Christmas dinner who has no family near them. We give them some type of job and they feel right at home.

My kids started a new tradition a few years back and we have continued it. We each buy a gift for a stranger. We don't know who it is for until we see them. There is no criteria. You buy the gift first and when you see someone you think might enjoy it you hand it over. It's fun to see the reactions when someone gets a gift from a stranger.

Got any traditions? Share them here.

-Russell

Yep....a momentary headscratcher.....its late and I really thought I had completely lost track of time. Rusty you are a teaser!

There have been alot of changes in what the "traditions" are now that my Dad has passed on and we have all moved on with lives of our own...but Mom and I have taken to having shrimp cocktail and clam chowder on Christmas Eve followed by some ice cream and cookies.

Specializes in med surg.

we always have a birthday cake for jesus so my kids would know it wasnt all about santa, the kids each bought a gift for the other and could have that on chrismas eve and everyone gets new flannel jammies, my boys and girls are grown but still get new jammies for christmas eve. merry christmas to all and to all a good night

You thought YOU lost it?

I saw this and didn't remember starting it...til I saw the date.

hehehe

-Russell

oh... the feast of the 7 fishes...

ok... the story goes...ha... theres really no story....

3 ideas though...

The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church -- baptism, penance, Holy Eucharist, confirmation, marriage, holy orders and the sacrament of the sick.

The seven sins of the world -- pride, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth, lust and greed.

The seven days it took Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem.

or... my idea... b/c it tastes good.

--Barbara

Specializes in Critical Care.

Like Mandi, we put out Xmas tree up Thanksgiving night or the next day. We watch our Xmas movies, National Lampoon Christmas Vacation, The Christmas Story, Jingle All the Way are the favorites in my house. The kids try to guess what is wrapped and they are usually right on the target, but my husband is the biggest kid of all this goes on as we buy and wrap the gifts to put under the tree. The kids and I always make a gingerbread house and decorate it with a ton of candy (the house is 1/2 eaten now). I bake tons of cookies which sometimes don't last until Christmas.

Hmmmm, hot chocolate, sledding, ice-skating, opening one gift on xmas eve. Family get together, lots of Bing Crosby, Frank Sintra, Dean Martin, church service at 11pm and smiles & hugs!

I grew up with many wonderful family christmas traditions. one of my favorites was mom allowing the kids to open ONE present under the tree on christmas eve... the one she picked out for us to open always was pajamas... (maybe because she wanted us to look nice for morning pics?)

We dont really get together with my extended family anymore. My hubby is in army and we are never close enough.

Although my kiddos are really small (2 girls, one is 4 other just turned 2) Ive already began to start our own family traditions. Hot coco on christmas eve, baking cookies for santa, and of course, opening one present thats under the tree... (mom gets to pick!) Hey-- my babies have to look good for the next morning pics!! :chuckle

My mother passed at christmas (2 yrs ago this year) so Christmas has been a little hard for me lately... always brings back tear jerking memories. Sounds crass, but I dont let it get me down during the season. I put on a strong front for my girls, and make their Christmas season wonderful and fun. Its good for me too... Seeing them happy and care free makes me feel better.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!!

p.s. Yea for me... got every single bit of shopping done and wrapped!!

We always drink hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music when we put up the tree. Then Brian and I put the decorations up. Hubby's job is putting out other stuff around the house, and distracting Brian so I can move his ornaments around to better, less crowded, places!

Most of our family celebrations are Christmas Eve. We always let him open one of ours that night, but we do the rest of ours, with my mom, on Christmas morning, followed by a big breakfast.

We leave Santa yummy goodies, and he always thanks us some how. It was usually notes, but the year we got our computer, he left a Word document on the screen thanking us for the goodies! Hubby went through this big phony production - "I sure hope Santa didn't mess with any of our internet security settings!"

This year Brian is really into writing his own songs and recording them, so Santa is getting him his own tape recorder. We're gonna leave it out, plugged in, and have a male friend tape a "HO HO HO! Thank you for the goodies!" on it!

This is probably his last year. :o

Heather

AHHHHHH!!!!!! Please don't do that to me again!!! I've been really busy lately (too busy to comprehend) and when I saw the date on rustyhammer's original post I almost laid bricks!! :eek: It actually took me a full 30 seconds to see the 2001 in his date. It was like one of those nightmares I used to have when I was a kid...when you dream that you're at school and there's a huge test you didn't know you were having and didn't study for. You wake up all worried and panicked...whew....Thank God!!! I still have a week! Wow...that's one way to wake up out of a perfectly good day dream...:p

~Bean

Originally posted by aus nurse

Oh my lord:eek:

I nearly had a heart attack:chuckle Was reading this thinking wtf?..Xmas TOMORROW... date 12/24...what happened to me?..have I been in a time warp?:eek:

Then, whew...finally noticed date being 12/24/01

flowerchild, you messing with my mind;) :D

Thanks goodness I wasn't the only one!!! :roll Hahahahahah

Teeheeheehee! I've had a lot of fun reading these posts. When I first found Rusty's original post, I thought, oh this is nice, let me revive it, and I did. I had not thought about making everybody go crazy thinking they are in the twilight zone, but I must admit it's been an added plus! Too Funny!

I do love reading about everyones holiday traditions. Keep 'em coming!:D

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