Christmas Gift Traditions

RUDisney

Mom to Ivan & Kristina
Joined
Apr 8, 2002
The Stocking Stuffer thread got me to thinking about what other Christmas Gift traditions everyone has.

My youngest sister is 24 years younger than me. When she turned one, I started buying rocking horse ornaments for her. This year, for her 28th birthday, I will give her another rocking horse ornament. She will always be my baby sister. Each ornament has been different, and I'm on the lookout all year long for a different type than I've bought in the past.

So, what traditions do you have?
 
We collect Christmas ornaments from vacations we go on. We started doing this when we were dating 28 years ago. Our family tree is all ornaments throughout the years. It's nice to reminisce about trips we've been on that have been forgotten while putting up the tree.
 
For the past 20 years, I’ve given my kids matching pajamas on Christmas Eve., and they put them on immediately (even as teens, when we weren’t even home). I think this is the first year they’ve stopped growing, and they won’t be handed down to younger siblings. I saw a bunch in our goodwill bin, I usually get them from lands end, great quality.
 


Everyone gets an ornament for any event that year (marriage, new baby, new house, etc.) And our big family tree has things the kids and grandkids made over the years, ones we bought on vacations, a few I made, and some of the ones that were bought as gifts for each other or that we received as gifts from others. Its a real mish mash.

Most of our traditions are about the events, gatherings and such. Not much really about the gifts
 


I send my goddaughter an ornament every year, and my stepmom does the same for DS. - Both of them will have a good start on special trees for their first homes. :santa:

We always did the popular one-present-on-Christmas-Eve thing when I was a kid, and have continued that with DS. (It's not always PJs, though.)

We also have a tradition of labeling a couple of gifts "from the _____ elves" - like if someone needs socks, they're from the sensible elves, or a disguised gift might be from the wacky elves, etc.
 
My mom has bought her grandkids a nutcracker (older kids) or Santa (younger kids) each year since they were born. The last one is given the year they graduate from high school. The kids are all in high school and can't wait to see what Mimi got them for the year. We have to make sure they are all displayed each year. I hope to do it for my grandkids one day.
 
Like a lot of families, we do new pj's each year, the only gift opened on Christmas Eve.
We always try to buy a new ornament whenever we travel somewhere new.
Every year I get a three pack of chapstick and some swedish fish in my stocking! When the kids were super young and they wanted a list from me of stuff I wanted for Christmas - I must have put those things on the list and so it's turned into a every year thing which is fun!
I always put fishing lures in all the boys stockings, too.
 
A couple years ago I started the "Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read..." for our immediate family. It really helped me from just buying a bunch stuff to make sure I had enough. Since we have a only, she gets more that one thing in each category of course...lol And we also added something to eat as a category...:laughing:

She always gets new pjs, an ornament, and I just started making up her own little advent calendar with small stocking stuffer gifts since she would never eat the chocolates from her regular advent :laughing:

We also get an ornament anywhere we travel throughout the year.
 
A couple years ago I started the "Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read..." for our immediate family. It really helped me from just buying a bunch stuff to make sure I had enough. Since we have a only, she gets more that one thing in each category of course...

Oh, that reminds me of another one! When DS was little, he could ask Santa for 3 things. (The number came from gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the Christmas story.) He always got a ton more than that, but it helped to divide presents from Santa, Mom & Dad, grandparents, etc.

He's an only child as well, so it was easy to go overboard, and I didn't want him to wonder why Santa brought him a ton of things, and his friends with several siblings much less. (Plus, it was kind of a middle ground between DH's upbringing - where Santa brought small things and Mom & Dad gave the big present, and mine - where Santa brought the expensive stuff, and anything from Mom & Dad was sentimental/meaningful.)

I also felt like it made him think about what he really wanted instead of writing down every toy from every commercial he saw. :laughing:
 
Every Christmas Eve my kids get a pair of PJs and an ornament.
The older they get the earlier in the evening they want to open them and put them on. Last year it was before dinner LOL
This is the first year I’m not doing ornaments, now that they are older it’s harder to find an original one to represent the year (I have a whole soccer team on my tree).
 
This is the first year I’m not doing ornaments, now that they are older it’s harder to find an original one to represent the year (I have a whole soccer team on my tree).

I know what you mean, my kids range from 15-20. My one ds graduated HS in 2018 so he will get a graduation themed one but I'm not sure what to do about the other 2 kids. I think I've given my youngest a basketball ornament for the last 3 years, before that it was soccer too LOL.
I'll most likely just get them a personalized generic one. I don't plan on stopping the tradition but it does get harder the older they get.
 
I know what you mean, my kids range from 15-20. My one ds graduated HS in 2018 so he will get a graduation themed one but I'm not sure what to do about the other 2 kids. I think I've given my youngest a basketball ornament for the last 3 years, before that it was soccer too LOL.
I'll most likely just get them a personalized generic one. I don't plan on stopping the tradition but it does get harder the older they get.
I’ve noticed they don’t even put a lot of them on the tree anymore, because it is getting a bit ridiculous. I have 4 soccer players and 2 Irish dancers, plus the boys played basketball and baseball for 10 years each. Add a dozen Irish dancers, all 5 who’ve been in choir forever, 3 who did the HS musical every year, 3 graduations, 3 drivers licenses - plus places traveled... I’m curious to see if they will be happy or sad about the ornaments.
 
I've gotten my parents an ornament themed for our mutual alma mater for a good 20+ years now. All of DD's grandparents have received a calendar with pictures of DD for each month of the year since she was a baby. As I noted in the stocking stuffers thread, DH gets some annual edible gifts of shortbread, chocolates, summer sausage, and beer. I always get Pez. Usually, too much Pez. Once people find out you collect Pez they all seem to want to get cool dispensers for you. I once got 35 different Pez for one Christmas.
 
When I was a child, we always had a Chinese takeout feast on Christmas Eve (my grandfather insisted). That stopped for a few years, but since we began hosting Christmas Day for the entire family when DS was born, we've taken it up again.

Also when I was little, I would always receive a white chocolate Santa pop from a local chocolatier in my stocking. That shop has since closed, but the daughter of the owners opened her own chocolate shop about 45 minutes away. We made the drive out there last year and OMG, when I walked in, the scent was EXACTLY that of her parents' shop! And she makes the same white chocolate Santa pop! I bought one for DS last year and we will be making the trip this year and in the years to come.

A somewhat temporary tradition is that although DS is only 3 years old, I try to find a grown-up Christmas decoration for him every year or two. That way, when he grows up and moves out, he'll have some decorations of his own to start his home. Of course he'll inherit some of our things, and there are some family heirlooms from both sides that we hope he'll cherish as much as we do, but we want him to have some of his own things.

I've gotten my parents an ornament themed for our mutual alma mater for a good 20+ years now. All of DD's grandparents have received a calendar with pictures of DD for each month of the year since she was a baby. As I noted in the stocking stuffers thread, DH gets some annual edible gifts of shortbread, chocolates, summer sausage, and beer. I always get Pez. Usually, too much Pez. Once people find out you collect Pez they all seem to want to get cool dispensers for you. I once got 35 different Pez for one Christmas.

My DH collects PEZ. He has 18 Rubbermaid bins in our basement full of it. It's quite fun searching out new dispensers, but DH has decided to cool it and just get "special" ones (i.e. no more Star Wars...we have a ton of Star Wars PEZ). Now we buy a few special ones for DS, who has a display case in his room. He has Batman, the European PJ Masks set, Muppets, Sesame Street, I ordered a whole set of Paw Patrol dispensers for this Christmas (plus he gets one Christmas dispenser in his stocking every year), a couple of Halloween and Easter ones, etc.
 
I know what you mean, my kids range from 15-20. My one ds graduated HS in 2018 so he will get a graduation themed one but I'm not sure what to do about the other 2 kids. I think I've given my youngest a basketball ornament for the last 3 years, before that it was soccer too LOL.
I'll most likely just get them a personalized generic one. I don't plan on stopping the tradition but it does get harder the older they get.


I used to do the ornaments that matched an interest for each of the kids but the last 6-7 years I make them on Shutterfly with pictures from the year. That way I can do a few things. This year youngest DD will have pictures of her playing soccer, lacrosse and volleyball, a picture of her and a friend dressed for Halloween, her and her sisters at the beach and maybe 1-2 others. You can customize 1-8 pictures depending on the ornament style and they have frequent sales/free shipping between Halloween and Christmas. I hope it is a tradition that will mean something to them and they can look at those when they are putting up their own trees over the years.
 
I bake Christmas cookies, cut-out ones and frost and decorate them. Put them in cans. Then make another type of cookie. My son loves taking different cookies back with him when he goes home.
 
In 1970 my mother made my brother a new shirt put it in a pink box an wrapped it, he unwrapped his shirt folded the wrapping paper back up put it back in the box handed to mother. Every Christmas till 2017 the year he was no longer with us he got his new handmade shirt from mother in the same pink box with the same wrapping paper.

I'm not sure if I was even in school yet I think I was like 2nd grade tho when Daddy came home with a roll of what he called wrapping paper IT WAS HUGE 4ft tall and so heavy Mom couldn't hardly lift it an she was no weakling. The paper was more like a cellophane shinny blue with silver flicks on 1 side green with blue flicks on the other side. This became our multi purpose wrapping paper for everything.. On Christmas as we unwrapped our gifts we had to pull the tape off and fold up the wrapping paper so it could be reused.

Last year when I was cleaning out my parents house...There stood the wrapping paper standing proudly in the corner where it had always been kept. I went got the tape measure it was still 6 inches in diameter. It went home with my DD who will proudly continue to use it maybe it will be her multi purpose wrapping paper too.
 

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