Thanks Anna for the suggestion to post about my Christmas traditions!
For as long as I can remember, my siblings and I always looked forward to Christmas. We would start our Christmas lists early in anticipation of the Christmas season and basically have Christmas list parties. These "parties" would usually take place in my room, each of us wrapped up in blankets because it was freezing and we would day dream about all the cool stuff we wanted for Christmas. I do recall one year asking for a horse for Christmas. In my mind, it made perfect sense. It could live in our small backyard and I could ride it to school. Genius. My mom wouldn't have to drive me anywhere ever again.
We had an advent calendar we would take turns doing each day. The kind where you take a mini-ornament out of the pocket and pin it on the felt christmas tree. We also had certain scriptures we would read each night about the Savior. One year we had some friends give us a candle and verses to read each night. It was fun because we would light the candle, read the verses, then blow it out. Seems pretty simple, but for kids - we had a great time with it and really looked forward to it.
As soon as we got our Christmas decorations out (usually not too long after Thanksgiving), we would do "good deeds" or service for each other. One of our Christmas decorations and traditions was a little wooden manger with a little baby Jesus. Every time we did a good deed, we got to put a piece of hay in the manger. We needed to do these good deeds so that the manger would be ready for baby Jesus come Christmas day.
Leading up to Christmas, we would do the 12 days of Christmas to other families. This became more and more fun and exciting the older we got. I believe it started out as us just leaving it on the door step and later it became more like ding-dong-ditching. We would hold a family discussion to decide what families we would do this for each year. One year, we did this for my best friend Ashley. Her parents (mostly her Dad) were anxious to find out who was doing this for them. Each night got harder and harder. My older brother, Caleb & I would dress in dark/comfortable clothes to complete the task. One night we almost got caught - her Dad opened the door and we hurried to hide under the stairs that led to the front door. But he came out and headed right toward us. We ended up sprinting down the street and through the dark park to get away. He never caught us. It's possible that I almost peed my pants one of these nights. It was pretty intense.
We always got our Christmas tree from one of those places where you cut it down yourself. My dad would load up the essentials - saw, rope, tarp, etc. and we would be on our way. We had a family vote to decide which tree to get. Once decided, we each had a turn to help cut down the tree. This usually meant we were just holding right below my dad's hand on the saw as he did the work, but as we got older, obviously we were able to do more. We would usually decorate the tree that night. Youngest to oldest, we would each take an ornament and put them on the tree. Our ornaments were anything from something one of us had made in primary (a picture of us or a popcorn necklace) to what you might consider a christmas ornament (santa clause, reindeer, etc.). I don't think there were many ornaments that "went together" - they were all pretty unique and all are special to our family.
Within the week of Christmas, my mom would bake. She'd usually make caramels, fudge and some other delicious cookies and treats. She would put together an assortment of treats on plates and we would carol to a butt-load of people. I mean it. We would go to all the families that my parents home taught & visit taught and each kid in my family would get to pick a friend we could go to. It took forever, but it was super fun. The night usually ended with hot chocolate because we would be freezing.
On Christmas Eve, we always re-inacted the nativity story. We each had a role, we would dress up and then film it. This involved reading the story from the scriptures and acting out the story as the verses were read. This also included singing hymns that went along with the story in between verses. My mom would play the piano, and we would all stand around and sing. I was usually Mary, my brother Caleb was Joseph and the youngest kid was baby Jesus. Most of us (as Mary, Joseph and shepherds). As the years went on, my sister Rachel would be Mary and I would be the angel. I usually dressed myself in a white sheet.
Christmas Eve was also pizza night. I think mainly because there was so much going on that evening, and of course we all loved having pizza.
Then we would lay out our stockings somewhere in the room where the tree was. This may seem kind of strange because normally you picture stockings hanging above the fireplace. However, in our house, Santa brings gifts that are unwrapped. So where we would put our stocking would be where Santa would leave our present/s too. Next we put out a plate of cookies & cup of milk for Santa, and a carrot for the reindeer and go to bed.
I don't know how exactly this started, but we have always loved sneaking out during the night to see what Santa brought. Of course I have to blame my older brother, since it probably started because of him :) I'm sure it started as just "I hope I wake up during the night so I can sneak out." But, it evolved to planning and preparing for the night. I'm sure that initially my parents started "traps" as a way to know when we were leaving our bedrooms, so they didn't get caught. The earliest I remember was paper grocery bags with hangers/pots & pans that were set right outside our bedroom doors. We didn't see them of course, so it would make a lot of noise when we left our bedroom during the night. These "traps" evolved as well. Some years our door knobs were tied together with string, one year butcher paper was taped to the door frames - that was a tough one to cut it without making noise. One year there was string tied to door knobs, a sleeping bag stuffed at the top of the stair case with a wig and a hidden baby monitor. The other monitor was next to my dad - so we heard him snoring. I actually thought my dad was sleeping there. The stair case was covered with butcher paper and strings. Anyway, basically every year is a very elaborate attempt to keep the kids from sneaking out to see presents. We have always loved it. Hence, why the planning would evolve as well. We began setting alarms and making sure we had flashlights. Eventually we would make sure we had things like scissors, etc.
Christmas morning we would always have to wait until 7am to go out as a family. My dad - camcorder in hand - would record us coming out youngest to oldest. We would see what Santa brought us. Then we'd eat our cereal from Santa for breakfast. Opening presents was next, youngest to oldest. And whoever was opening next had to clean up the previous person's garbage before they could open theirs. As you can imagine - this took a long time, but by the time we were done, there wasn't garbage to clean up. Lunch was always summer sausage, cheese and crackers. Dinner would be something nice like chicken, potatoes, etc. Christmas day was always laid back and we would just stay inside and hang out. I still LOVE going home for Christmas because I love all of our traditions.
