12.04.2014

Grothe Family Christmas Traditions

Every year we have travelled to my parents or my in laws or both, this year we all live in different states that are quite aways away ( in laws- 12-14 hour drive, my parents 10-12 with a 8 hour ferry ride)  or we have gone to my aunts 2 hours away.
This year for a couple reasons we are staying home, just the three of us.
We have talked about some traditions that we do every year since we have been married and had Brooke

1) Decorate Christmas tree ( Dec 1) 
Hubby and Brooke have been sick with a head cold, but we managed to get it up Dec 1, Brooke helped me.
2) Go look at the light show on Christmas eve in our Pj's with hot chocolate 
a family about 6 miles from here, has thousands of Christmas lights out, they do a light show and I cannot wait to go see it.
3) I'd love to go see a Christmas movie
I mean go to the theatre and watch something while holding my hubby's hand, eating popcorn and pretzels.
4) Christmas Eve party ( maybe) 
We have done a Christmas Eve party the last 4 years, this year I have not decided if I will do anything, our house is smaller and not much room for a party. Really thinking about a ugly Christmas sweater party.
5) Gingerbread houses 
Brooke loves doing ginger bread houses, we need to decide when we want to do this
6) Read the Christmas Story before opening presents.
I think it is super important to start the day with a story about the real reason before we dig into the commercialization of it.

What are some traditions at your house

17 comments

  1. We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving with Christmas Tunes so loud that the neighbors can here. We also have a Massive Cookie baking session 2 weekends before Christmas and do an exchange with the family!

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  2. We always decorate as soon as we get home from Thanksgiving travels. Our tree is a mishmash of all kinds of ornaments and I love the memories that entails. And the kids and I make fudge. We have a couple of tried and true recipes but enjoy trying new ones as well.

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  3. We do our tree on black Friday. Then the weekend of my birthday we do zoo lights in DC.

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  4. Great ideas. Yesterday we discussed the symbols of Christmas before we decorated the tree. Hopefully as the kids get older they remember the true meaning of Christmas. (=

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  5. Great ideas! We have alot of family traditions too. They are so important for kids!

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  6. I love family traditions! One of my favorite is making a party out of putting the tree up. Snacks and all!

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  7. I like your list! Something your family will remember for a long long time :)

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  8. Fun list! That's interesting that you actively go to the theater to see a Christmas movie! Whenever something is out, and it's wholesome and well done, my husband and I will definitely go see it! Most of the time though, we do Christmas movie marathons on DVD or Netflix :)

    Rachel
    http://alamodest.com

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  9. We have some traditions, but the when is generally in flux as hubby works in retail and doesn't have predictable hours. We go to my grandmothers at some point in the month for a family Christmas with all my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins. That also is in flux as my grandmother moved to a senior complex a couple years ago. We like to go see lights at some point. We like to go cut down a tree, but have had to forgo that as our favorite tree farm has been closed the last couple years (we're in California, the drought is real) We go out with my parents and brother to pick one new ornament each for our trees. We also do Advent, we try to do Advent every night but sometimes don't get to it. :)

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  10. Thank you so much for sharing. We have a few family traditions that I look forward to each year. One is to go riding around looking at Christmas decorations and stopping in at Pizza Hut afterwards, and another fave is putting up the tree while listening to Christmas music and sipping on homemade cocoa.

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  11. This is lovely. At our home there is always one day where we gather around the Christmas Tree to wrap presents. We also go to Church on Christmas Eve and then bake the ham. We have tons of parties to attend on Xmas Eve and because of this, I end up staying at home on Christmas day and sleeping!!! I'm absolutely okay with this though because the night before is always so good.

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  12. We do the Feast of the 7 Fishes (used to be Christmas Eve, now the first weekend in December), we read the Christmas Story in Luke the morning of, we have started a Christmas Eve box - one box to open with Christmas PJ's and a movie/book to watch/read together.

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  13. These are so great. We haven't really come up with a lot of traditions that are just our own yet. I need to be better at this kind of stuff.

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  14. Those are great traditions and very manageable. We always go to a Christmas Eve service around 6 pm. Makes it Christmas!

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  15. I love these traditions, especially that 1) there aren't too many and b) they are easy enough that you actually get it all in without feeling overwhelmed! We are still forming all our traditions. :) But one is we go cut down a tree as a family, then decorate (that's next weekend!) and we go look at lights together with hot cocoa!

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  16. I love your plan and traditions for Christmas. We love to roam around downtown, to see all the lighted streets, beautifully decorated shops and buzzing street.

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  17. This is wonderful. I think it's a great idea to build holiday traditions... Kids never forget them.

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