Favorite holiday traditions with kids?

[Anonymous]

What are your favorite

Thanksgiving + Christmas Or Hanukah traditions you do with your family so they hopefully remember as adults?

[Anonymous]

Caviar on Christmas eve

[Anonymous]

We are jewish and when the extended family gets together for Hanukah, after the candle lighting and gift-opening all the cousins pile in a couple of cars and some uncles drive the kids around to see Christmas lights.

[Anonymous]

Staying home and disengaging from stressful holiday travel has been a huge help.

At home, we decorate and host anyone who is in town/alone for the holidays but don't make specific plans for the day of each of the holidays.

[Anonymous]

Nutcracker at Lincoln Center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are jewish and when the extended family gets together for Hanukah, after the candle lighting and gift-opening all the cousins pile in a couple of cars and some uncles drive the kids around to see Christmas lights.

They make glasses that refract all the lights into stars of david, if you are a family who would find that entertaining. (My grandmother loved them.)

[Anonymous]

Cookies (held by stuffed animal) left for Santa with handwritten note from child
Baking cookies
Going to start one of making food to donate to food bank or taking them down to serve at one
Watching All the Charlie Brown holiday movies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are jewish and when the extended family gets together for Hanukah, after the candle lighting and gift-opening all the cousins pile in a couple of cars and some uncles drive the kids around to see Christmas lights.

They make glasses that refract all the lights into stars of david, if you are a family who would find that entertaining. (My grandmother loved them.)

We have those glasses - fun to look at the lit up Christmas tree with them on (interfaith marriage, we celebrate Chanukah and Christmas).

For Chanukah, 8 gifts:
Something you want;
Something you need;
Something to wear;
Something to read;
One night from aunts and uncles;
One gift from grandparents (also a big-ish gift)
One big gift from us;
One night - charity - kids pick gifts for a child their age for our synagogue's toy drive (and we also donate gift cards)

For Christmas morning, they get stockings (from Santa/us) and gifts from aunts/uncles/grandparents from the Catholic side of the family. We also make monkey bread every Christmas morning

[Anonymous]

We open gifts Christmas Eve while eating dinner of all appetizers.

We get really into advent calendars. We have puzzle ones (where you build part of the puzzle each day), one where we do a christmassy activity together each day, and then some kind of thing (this year both kids have sock advent calendars) and I have a tea calendar.

We have kind of a ritual around our tree where we pick it our Friday night, put lights on it on Saturday, and decorate it together on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Nutcracker at Strathmore but it stopped during Covid. Now we walk the canal of lights in Frederick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We open gifts Christmas Eve while eating dinner of all appetizers.

We get really into advent calendars. We have puzzle ones (where you build part of the puzzle each day), one where we do a christmassy activity together each day, and then some kind of thing (this year both kids have sock advent calendars) and I have a tea calendar.

We have kind of a ritual around our tree where we pick it our Friday night, put lights on it on Saturday, and decorate it together on Sunday.

OP I hadn't heard of the puzzle calendars. That sounds really fun! Any brand you like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are jewish and when the extended family gets together for Hanukah, after the candle lighting and gift-opening all the cousins pile in a couple of cars and some uncles drive the kids around to see Christmas lights.

They make glasses that refract all the lights into stars of david, if you are a family who would find that entertaining. (My grandmother loved them.)

We have those glasses - fun to look at the lit up Christmas tree with them on (interfaith marriage, we celebrate Chanukah and Christmas).

For Chanukah, 8 gifts:
Something you want;
Something you need;
Something to wear;
Something to read;
One night from aunts and uncles;
One gift from grandparents (also a big-ish gift)
One big gift from us;
One night - charity - kids pick gifts for a child their age for our synagogue's toy drive (and we also donate gift cards)

For Christmas morning, they get stockings (from Santa/us) and gifts from aunts/uncles/grandparents from the Catholic side of the family. We also make monkey bread every Christmas morning

Can you link to these glasses?

[Anonymous]

NORAD santa tracking
Day or weekend in NYC
Botanical gardens
Trolley Museum
National Tree
Capital Tree

[Anonymous]

Nutcracker, Walk of Lights at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, DH and DD make the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving together

[Anonymous]

Christmas tree farm.. We pick out and cut down our own tree.