Texas, drink hot chocolate and eat some goodies that I have made, then we get the kids to bed (having teenagers makes it hard to get them to bed very early), then my husband put all the gifts under the tree-we started this tradition because when our son was a year old he discovered how to unwrap presents and well you can guess the rest, then on Christmas morning my husband goes in and wakes each child up starting with the youngest and I stand ready with a camera aimed down the hall to snap them as they emerge from their rooms. We do have a lot of fun at Christmas but I do get the "rolled eyes" because I want to play Christmas music early-I usually start after they have gone back to school, the same goes with the Christmas movies.

I watch several movies to get me in the spirit.  Of course the "spirit" starts early October.  My husband thinks I'm nuts!  Of course as a kid Mr. Magoo's was my favorite movie!  My traditional Christmas eve food is Portuguese and it's pork chops (called Vinedeage).  My Christmas Eve meal hasn't changed in 43 years!  I went from home to serving it as a married woman.  And of course my husband's grandmum's Christmas Pudding and Mom's Christmas cookies (a different honey cookie).

We actually shop at the Farmer's Market for our trees about three weeks prior to Christmas.  My brother and his family and I and my wonderful husband compete to find the "biggest, fattest" 8 foot tree available!  We put the tree up a couple of days after purchasing it - my husband last year put 2400 colored lights on the tree.  You can imagine how beautiful it was.  After the lights, I put on most of the ornaments (well, he deserves a rest, don't ya think?) - they ornaments take sometimes a week to put on - after my "real" job!

Every year my mom and dad come to my house (they live at the beach!) for Christmas - and - every other year my son and his wife arrive to enjoy the holidays with us!  On Christmas Eve, we all go to my brother's house (he lives in Raleigh, too) for Christmas Eve dinner. I love seeing my little nephew so excited he's about to burst!

 We go back to my place Christmas Eve and try to get some sleep after sitting in front of the tree with egg nog or mulled cider listening to Christmas music from the stereo.

Christmas Morning!!!!  We're up at 6:00 - if Mom and dad had to stay at a motel because there's no room for them at my house, they arrived then too!!!  Precisely at 6:00 - the Mormon Tabernacle Choir regales us with "Joy to the World" (from the stereo!!!) - loud!  (Then we quickly turn it down, so as not to annoy the neighbors!!).  The lights on the Christmas Tree have already been turned on and coffee is brewing as we sit down to receive our presents.  We try not to all open at once - so that everyone can see what the others got.  However, most of the time, we can't resist and only stop opening our presents when someone shouts:  "OK, everyone, watch ___________ open this present." - if it's a SPECIAL present!

At 9:00 or so my brother and his family arrive and we open presents from them and they from us - we also open stocking now!  (We draw names in the immediate family - including husbands and wives, of course!).  We also are able to find out what Santa brought my nephew, David!

Later, we eat Christmas breakfast - cooked by my wonderful father and husband!  We have scrambled eggs, fat back, bacon, sausage, grits (yes, grits!!), kielbasa, biscuits, toast and I forget what else!!!  That's enough, huh?  My aunt Marty usually joins us for breakfast and occasisonally some friends come in to!

Christmas afternoon, off we go to my aunt's house to open a few presents from aunts and uncles!  AND more food - Christmas Dinner around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon!

These are traditions that haven't changed much through the years.  When mom and dad lived in town, of course, most of what happens at my house, happened at theirs.  And when my grandmother was alive, my aunt's house was hers - however, it's still the same house - the same family and the same love.  MY Christmases ARE like the Maxwell House commercials!!!  Only better.

These decorations have stayed out all year this year (each year it seems that more and more do!).

I have a wonderful door decoration which stays on my living room closet door all year - and has for years!  I have three beautiful Santa tea pots (by Fitz and Lloyd) that sit on the top shelf of the built-in book case.  One the next lowest shelf and the next one - there are six Coca Cola Santa Plates (and some small Coke Santa ornaments) and some Coke Santa candle holders (with green candles) that my wonderful daughter-in-law gave me last year!  I also have a blown class Coke bottle sitting on one of those shelves along with a Coke tin music box that my grandmother (not deceased) gave me years ago - it plays "My Favorite Things".

On my mantle, is a wonderful Santa holding two marionettes (the Rat King and the Nutcracker - from..."The Nutcracker Suite").  On my book shelves there is a picture of one of my mother's cousins taken in 1920 or so in front of her first Christmas Tree after moving to Canada (she got a sled and a doll that year).  Also on those book shelves are MANY Christmas books, MANY Charles Dickens Christmas Books (several "A Christmas Carol"s) - a commenorative plate honoring Charles Dickens and part of a Christmas Village - Dickens reading from his little book. "A Christmas Carol".  AND some ceramic Santas grace those shelves as well!

We put lots of lights outside.   I decorate everything! *L*  Even my bathroom mirrors have frosted snowflake window clings on them.  Driving around our neighborhhod and everyone elses looking at all the lights.  (My son loves that one.  He usually falls asleep for the night during the tours so I take him home and put him to bed.  Then I enjoy a glass of egg nog or a cup of cooca by the fire place while reading a Christmas story and listening to Christmas music.)

I bake all month long.  (And eat! *L*) I have a ton of Christmas books I read to my son all season but my favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve night I read to him about the first Christmas, then I read him "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Polar Express".

My husbands extended family always has a huge Christmas party the weekend before Christmas.  Santa always stops by to see the kids.   My step son spends Christmas Eve with us so we always have a little party just for us.  We make all sorts of finger foods and junk food, decorate Christmas cookires,  watch Christmas videos all day, and open family presents.  My 4 yo opens his Santa presents on Christmas morning.

It is a tradition and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the tree that we have put up for years.  Each year it gets a few new things, but not many--there just isn't room.  I have a four month old grand daughter and I am anxious to start our tradition of a new ornament each year so that when she moves out into the world on her own, her first tree will not be bare.

 My Husband's makes boxes of all kinds jewelry etc.  My Son does leather work and so on.   We think that Christmas is better for it.  As for " food" it starts with Thanksgiving.  The Saturday after the "tree" goes up.  And the decorating follows.

We bake 24 different Italian cookies.  I learned these from my Sister-in-Laws who bakes hundreds during Christmas.   We all cook together  for the Holiday's.

We have our larger meal "The Night Before Christmas" and a smaller one on Christmas Day.

Everyone comes to my home and when we lived back east we went to my Mother's home[who is still alive at 81 and a Great Great Grandmother]

We have trees in any room we can fit them.  We have 2 large trees - one for our  bedroom and one for the living room, plus several small trees scattered throughout the house.  My birthday is on Christmas so that is part of my fascination with it!  I have several collections:  Snowbabies, Santas, Snowmen.  My  husband collects trains so we usually have one running around the main tree.  We try to get started putting things up at the beginning of November because we have so much.  DH  loves the animated figures and has about 5 or 6 I think -   Santa, Mrs. , Angel, Bear on a bike, Mickey.

It has changed alot  being married to a marine we dont live near family so we dont do these things but we do put up the tree after thanksgiving dinner and I love to bake and cook and making thing with my DS 10 and DD 9 for our tree.

I also like certain foods during Christmas and crave them starting in October. i bake cakes in minuature size every year to box in baskets and give in assortments to my aunts. I like to bake Pumpkin Pear upside down Gingerbread, Gingerbread pancakes, cherry almond cake, orange slice cake....... yum!

On Christmas morning my brother and I could open our stockings right away, but not the presents under the tree.  We had to wait until our Mum had made the tea and brought in a big garbage bag for the wrapping paper.  Presents from family members
were given one at a time and everyone would watch the unwrapping and ooh and aah over the gift.

In my stocking, which was a blue and white soccer sock, I would always get a jar of
pickled onions (this started as a way to fill up the stocking and continued as a tradition, now I insist on a can of Diet Coke) and some jelly babies.  The rest of Christmas Day was spent reading and dozing on the couch and we always watched the Queen's Christmas Message. 

Then dinner -- turkey, stuffing, potatoes (roast and mashed), trifle, Christmas pudding 
(with brandy poured on it and set on fire).  We had to eat with the paper hats from our 
Christmas Crackers on too.

Now that I'm married and we have a child it's a bit different since we have to divide our
time between dh's family and mine.  We're starting to create our own traditions at home.  I have a large mail sack that we put Fiona's Santa presents in every year and we're going to pretend that Santa didn't have time to unpack it so he just left the whole bag.

I'm planning some elaborate stories to tell over the years about why he didn't have time.
I want to continue the Santa letters too.

One thing that we do that is different ( I started this when my older girls were small) was to have a surprise evening. I would pick out an evening unknown to anyone in the family, included my DH. Usually this would be in early December sometime. Nobody knew when it would be. I would make a special dinner like Pot roast ( something I never made because it used to be too expensive before Sam's came along) or Duck, or something
different.

Anyway, we would have a nice dinner, with our best dishes, and we would eat on our dining room table. We never eat on the dining room table because its always being used for something else. After this, there are presents for each person under the tree or maybe in the fireplace. There is a note from Santa saying that he had to stop off early because there were too many presents on his sleigh, and he had to drop them off early to make room for the rest later on. 

One time I brought the presents out as we were
leaving on vacation and everyone was already in the car. Even my DH couldn't figure out how I pulled that one. When we got back from our trip, there were presents in the fireplace. It took a couple years before the girls caught on to this tradition, but my 9 year old just remarked about that time each year when we eat on the dining room table and open presents and how she liked that time.  That is what Christmas is like here at our house.

On Christmas eve, my whole family (my parents, my brother and his family, my sister and her husband, and us) gets together and we have family games, exchange gifts and then we go to midnight mass.  We are catholic and this is a very important tradition that started when we  were all babies.

On Christmas day, I give supper for whoever wants to show up.

On Boxing day, we have a family sleigh ride.  The kids and men usually through each other off the sleigh and the kids have lots of fun. Then, it's back to our place for chili.

These are some of our traditions.

I started with my oldest in 1986.  By then she was old enough to help bake cookies and decorate them.  Which was so much fun and I've continued that every year.  During December all you can smell is baking being done.  During winter break is when we start their helping with the baking and decorating.   This year we're going to invite the other kids in the neighborhood as I found out some of them don't do anything aside from the typical opening of Christmas  Gifts. 

We also put up our tree and I always jump the gun, right around Thanksgiving usually before *lol* if I get it up before hubby comes home *lol* he's not that crazy about it as I am.  The day right after Thanksgiving my village goes  up with all the decorations.  I try to decorate almost every nook and cranny.  So that everywhere I look, it's Christmas.  I do keep  my village displayed in my living room with all the other christmas figurines mixed in with my victorian and family pictures, all year round.  Hubby thinks I'm crazy but everyone else thinks it looks nice.

On Christmas Eve we usually have close family and friends over and exchange gifts.  On Christmas Day we invite the whole brood. Family, friends, my husbands co-workers, neighbors and if I know someone who doesn't have a place to go I invite them.  We have two different grab bags games.  One for the  adults and one for the kids.

For the Adults.  We don't pull names, we all agree on the minimum to spend and everyone brings a gift that day.  I also tell them to please not buy edibles, one year we had tons of cookies and that just wasn't any fun.  I put a umber to each gift and put it on a table in the middle of the living room.  We then  have everyone pull a number.  I open up one gift for viewing.  Here's the catch, you don't get to keep the gift that you started out with.  We start with the person who pulled number one.  This person has a choice on ither an unopen package or the one that's already open.  Each player must display in full view what they got.  All the other players get the same choice an unopen gift or pick from those that have already been open.  Of course if someone steals your gift you get to choose another one, just don't get attach to it  until everyone has had their turn.

For the kids.  They also are told the minimum to spend and to try not to bring food.  I usually give them ideas and even offer to buy the gifts if they give me the money.  We don't pull names either for the kids.  We have them all sit in a circle and pass the gift around to the sound of music.  They pass them from right to left with each stop of the music.  We do this several times and when the music is completely over, we play the whole song.  Whatever they're  holding in their hands is the one they keep.