Reply to How to make Christmas Special With Just Immediate Family/Only Teenagers?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So, pp, how do you make Christmas special?  [/quote]

For ourselves, we cook traditional meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  In the month before I go around to the farmers' markets and collect the meats, because I like to support local farmers (all year, but particularly during the holidays as they're heading into the lean winter months).  I bake and freeze pies ahead of time, and anyone in the family is welcome to join me in making them.  Often a friend comes over to help and we share the pies we make.  Along these lines, we visit pick-your-own farms through the fall for apples and peaches and I can treats for the holidays (typically cranberry sauce and mincemeat); the kids are more interested in helping prepare and put out the dinner when they have been involved in acquiring the ingredients.  We limit the amount we spend for each other, so we also spend some time trying to creatively acquire or make gifts that fall within the defined limits.  We also go to events around DC, like another PP mentioned, at the Kennedy Center or embassies.  I really like the Revels performance at GW, and the sing-a-long aspect can make it fun (albeit a bit corny) for all ages.

For our friends and neighbors, we have an open-door policy for all of our holiday activities at home.  Cookie baking, tree trimming, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners.  Our kids are expected to be around for the big ones (they're excused from baking) but their friends are also always welcome.  We have a late Christmas Eve tradition, where we eat and sing carols until midnight, so people sometimes stop by after they go to church (or just later in the evening after their dinner).  We also go to events that friends invite us to: a holiday house tour, a potluck dinner, and a fair trade gift fair are the few that happen nearly every year.

In terms of our additional charitable behavior around the holidays, we make sure to donate any winter items that we've outgrown early in the fall so that it can be distributed by the time its needed.  We purchase gifts for a family at our local battered women's shelter (the kids really like having input into what they think the children in these families would like) and we make additional monetary donations to the Capital Food Bank.  We also donate bedding and toiletries to the local churches who have a rotating program to house the homeless through the winter months.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we take food to Town Hall for the police officers and public works guys who are on duty, and we donate to the annual fund for their holiday bonuses.

Our family traditions center around sharing food and around being grateful for what we have.  We always say a version of grace that thanks all the people who grew and transported the food we're eating and remembers those less fortunate.  This is true all year, but we really emphasize how lucky we are to have a warm safe home to celebrate in.[/quote]

Wow...this sounds amazing. Wish I could stop by! [/quote]

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