Dec. 2008 Cc's Christmas Contest #23 Winners Announced!

Open gifts on christmas eve.

GOOD LUCK 2 ALL!

Baking cookies

No real tradition here. Just get up and open presents. well maybe we have a tradition. My kids makes us coffee first then wake us up. They have been told nothing get started until we have had at least 1 cup of coffee. We let them go through their stockings while we drink our first cup and then we open gifts.

Christmas morning, Before, any gifts are opened, (stockings not inclusive), breakfast is made, eaten, and cleaned up...all disarray must be put in order... and then the gifts will be handed out one per person, and after the 1st round of gifts are opened, Thank you's and comments are made for each of us in the home..we go for round 2, and so on and so forth... and usually "Santa's extra helper", man's the camera for those extra special gifts meant for "the expression on their face when they get ??"!! ..and some of the unsuspecting shots of those always hiding from the view of the lens for fear of noteable changes that show how the years have treated them!!!

After gifts are opened we then begin the real clean up of wrapping disposal, and await the sweet aroma of Turkey Roasting in the air, as we help the little ones with the new items they anxiously are trying out...ho,ho, hum...yawning, and yawning... and whew... that parts done for another year...till the next time!

...and of the 26th has its Bday frivolities.... then, hmm... well by the time we get to mine Jan. 1... Im usually too danged tired to party, too awful much anyway!!

this is wierd but we always eat grilled cheese sandwiches on Christmas eve

Unfortunaltly not,Growing up though I remember my Dad roasting chestnut's in fireplace,While mom slaved away in kitchen making huge feast,There is 5 of us kid's,Dad would break out the whiskey sour'sin morn.,By 4pm we were all sloshed.LOL sad but true.I miss having HUGE family X-MAS.

we have imediate family christmas morning then all the siblings etc come and we have ham sandwiches and lots of side dishes along with a gift exchange

I do homemade baking every year for all the children and grandchildren, I give them big bags of goodies
cmj926

We open presents on Christmas Eve, eat a big dinner and lay around all Xmas day!

We used to get the whole family together and have a Christmas party and open prezzies. Unfortunately, the last time this happened...I was probably 16 or 17 years old. Too many family problems got in the way after that.

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For the longest time, I didn't get to celebrate Christmas, my mother's husband's religion didn't allow it; when I was very young, it was having the whole family over & watching F-Troop all day (I can't believe I remember that show!) Now it's mass on Christmas Eve with Grandma, getting a fish dinner take out if we make it before it closes, watching It's a Wonderful Life, then to bed...prezzies first thing in the morning, just enjoying our family, then running all over creation the rest of the day to make everyone else happy... Ah, the things we do for our kids. But I wouldn't change a minute of it!

ours a bit different, as we have families of our own, every Sunday after xmas, all of the family members and the family get together and celebrate again.

We see most of all of us xmas day but not not everyone together at the same time

has been going for 7 years now.

We get to celebrate twice.

Every Christmas my mom would make tons of fudge, davinity and goodies. She was a fantastic cook and everyone always looked forward to the Christmas fudge!

Now we spend Christmas eve with the family packed in the car and drive around town to look at all the decorations. It is really fun and beautiful!

Other than that we don't really have new traditions.. there always seems to be too much going on.

SInce we had 16 people including my mom and day, a lot of the older siblings couldn't afford to buy everyone a give, so we had gift exchange

Whosever turn it was to hast Thanksgiving dinner will have two hats with every family members name in. The first hat included everyone's name that was of a certain age, and the second hat contained everyone's name that was younger. Each member of the family would draw a name, and that wouild be the person you get a gift for on Christmas. We always had a maximum price you can spend. Everyone would gather around lunch time on Christmas eve to plan what was left to bring for Christmas Dinner. This is also the time that we would exchange gifts. There were basically two major rules (not to be broken) which we did most of the time.

1) You could not reveal the person who's name you drew, and
2) You were not allowed to open you gift before Christmas.

Everyone will know if you broke these two rules, when you have a big family like mine, he siad, she said, gossip spread like the Southern California Wildfires.