Holiday

[Mominohio]

When my son was little, we used to make Magic Reindeer Food. 

You simply mix some dry oats and colored sugar of your choice (red and green works good for Christmas!). 

Take it outside and scatter it in the backyard. The purpose is for the moonlight to dance off the colored sugar, and allow Santa's reindeer to see where they can land easily and safely.

My son got such a kick out of this, and the dog would jump in the air and eat as much of the oats as he could before they hit the ground.

I have such very sweet memories (and some cute pictures as well) of this favorite holiday tradition!

Please share a family favorite tradition that your family enjoys during the holiday season.

[Group 5 minus 1]

2 that I can think of right now:

1. We have TV dinners for Thanksgiving dinners

2 We always watch the movie "The Lady in White for Halloween.

[Puppy Lips]

On Christmas Eve, we always watch the movies, The Santa Claus, and Polar Express -- in that order.  We also have those Pillsbury cinammon rolls that come in a tube for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I can't think about this anymore -- my boys are grown now and it is making me sad!  We still do those traditions and they are still around us.  But I get sad when I long for the time when they were young.

[Mominohio]

---

@Puppy Lips wrote:

On Christmas Eve, we always watch the movies, The Santa Claus, and Polar Express -- in that order.  We also have those Pillsbury cinammon rolls that come in a tube for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I can't think about this anymore -- my boys are grown now and it is making me sad!  We still do those traditions and they are still around us.  But I get sad when I long for the time when they were young.

---

I understand this! My son is 19, still at home (for about 15 minutes per day between school and work!), but I am so melancholy for those days when he was little, especially around the holidays. They were so magic and fun filled. We had so many routines and traditions.

Trying to make new ones, but it isn't so easy as it was when they were little.

[AuntG]

For me, it has to be the Christmas program at chuch.  After our program was over, we would go to the basement of the church and get our 'Christmas bag' filled with nuts, fruit, candy cane, candy bar and a pack of gum. 

[Nomore]

Holiday tradition, hmmm, one that has been lasting.....since the kids have grown up, everyone works Thanksgiving. 

It was different in the miitary, my husband always got Thanksgiving duty at any location we lived, it was odd. Then his job now, he has always worked Thanksgiving, and now mostly Christmas day. The kids got jobs in H.S. at the theater so they have/had to work all holidays.

So our tradition is by necessity to celebrate on another day.

[candys mine]

When we were kids my sister would always get me up really early on Christmas morning and drag me downstairs to the Tree.  The stairs creeked so I'm sure my parents knew what we were up to.  We would separate all the packages into piles by name then go back to bed.  It was always hard to pass by those lumpy Christmas Stockings and not peek inside.  When we got up later the gifts were all jumbled up again!  Santa Knows  ALL!  We always had to wait for Daddy to finish his tea before presants were opened and the person passing out the gifts always had to wear the Santa hat!   One gift at a time, going from person to person let us all share in the joy and anticipation of discovering everyone got. 

[lork]

For the last 43 years we have baked Peppernuts for Christmas.  Peppernuts are very small, hard, spicy German cookies that seem to take forever to cut and bake.  My Aunt Nancy always had them at Thanksgiving and I promised myself that baking them would be a "family tradition" when I had my own family.  My DH mixes the dough and our kids/grandkids/friends/neighbors help us cut and bake.  They "improve with age" and do not crumble; they're perfect to send/give; we try to bake them well ahead of Christmas.  They're very popular in this part of the mid west and are often sold for church/school/library fund raisers. . . 

[CAMOGIRL]

My son and I making a wish with the Thanksgiving turkey wishbone. Every year since he was old enough to break it. Everyone knows to leave that wishbone for us ...

[corita]

Growing up...we always had hot chocolate and home made cookies before going to bed on Christmas Eve.  We were allowed to open one gift - usually from a friend or relative - as Santa had not come yet!  When I had my family, we followed the same tradition, but we drank egg nog!