This episode of Father Knows Best isn't as cohesive as I'd like, but I'll talk about several aspects of the Christmas season based on our experiences with our young children.
First, the presents, traditions, and Santa. When I was growing up, my parents sold us (or at least me) on Santa, and it was something I enjoyed for quite a while. My wife didn't do as much with Santa, and frankly is fairly ambivalent towards the idea in general. GRZ is getting old enough to ask questions and be really excited about Christmas, so the wife and I have discussed our strategy. We've decided that whenever she asks, we'll tell her about the history of St. Nicholas, what the common stories of the times are, and that sort of thing. What we won't do is lie to her (and later them), tell her that Santa's watching and she'd better be good, or anything like that. There are stockings by the fireplace Christmas morning, but the jury's still out on whether the kids will get presents from "Santa". So far, this seems to be working well, but I am curious to see how it goes.
Our Christmas tradition is to head out to my parents on the 23rd and decorate, then spend the night there. We continue to get things ready on Christmas Eve, then open presents after the main meal and head home. On Christmas morning, we open stockings and presents at our house, have breakfast, go to morning Mass, and then go to my mother-in-law's house. I love visiting my MIL, but Christmas can be kind of crazy.
The day itself is usually rather nice, but she lives in a fairly small house and pretty much everyone stays for at least a night. While it isn't a huge family, we collectively have 6 children under 10, 2 married couples and 1 unmarried couple (who of course can't share a room) vying for space to sleep in the 3 bedrooms. The kids are getting old enough now that they can be stacked in a room, there are always potential difficulties with sleeping in those scenarios. It's something we don't have to deal with at my parents because my other siblings don't usually stay over, and while every year gets a bit better, it's still a source of holiday stress.
Now that I've finished my stream of thought, what are your Christmas/holiday traditions and challenges?
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Hey - now it's one of the main 6! neat.
i think i can escape the more philosophical santa discussions with the boy this year, but probably not next year. this is pretty much in line with the approach i was thinking of.
Some how the three of us have the tradition of eating spaghetti for our Christmas Eve meal, although that's not etched in stone. As far as Santa -- we let Runner daughter form her own opinions from friends and stories, and we just remained wishy-washy and didn't confirm or deny anything. She found out the real story soon enough, but was smart enough to continue to go along with the Santa schtick.
We open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, and in the morning we see what "Santa" brought -- candy and gift certificates etc. in the stocking, one or two unwrapped items under the tree. It's been less exciting for me since Topps moved their release date of the new season's baseball card set until late January 😉
We'll spend most of the afternoon/evening on Christmas Eve helping at the church; the choir is involved with three of the services, there is carolling out front, and being the Financial Secretary Mrs. Runner pre-sorts offering (w/Runner daughter) so that it's not overwhelming when the time comes to record and deposit when offices open after Christmas. Good friends of ours have their house open that evening, so people wander in and out and visit and share snacks and wine before heading home.
This sounds exactly like what we're doing with Santa.
my current family's Christmas tradition is going out for chinese food 😉
back in the day growing up, we went almost every year to Smalltown, NE, to spend the holiday with grandparents. My two sets lived a few blocks apart. We always spent Christmas Eve with my mom's parents, which involved a big "dinner" in the late afternoon, then present opening (for years, I was the youngest grandchild present, so I was tabbed to distribute the presents). then off to church for the midwestern protestant version of midnight mass (prolly started around 8 in the evening).
I very distinctly remember one year when Grampa B hustled everyone to get ready for church and out the door, then smirkingly stayed behind. But for the most part, this was a big family affair. (Grampa B and Uncle B were the town doctors; Aunt E was an MD as well, as was another Uncle, although he married in; one of his kids is now an MD; lots of medical talk).
We then went "down the hill" to the S house, either that night or the next morning, depending on how full the B house was with aunts, uncles and cousins (which determined where we would stay) for present opening and another big holiday dinner.
I also remember that the grandmas were quite competitive. "So, what did you have for dinner at [..]'s? Well, WE'RE having [...even more...]."
I try to avoid getting caught up in the holiday industrial complex. But when I start feeling like I have to do ALL THE CHRISTMAS THINGS or else my kids will be missing out, I read this and take a deep breath. One day at a time, dudes.
We haven't really settled into a set tradition yet. It used to be my family's place for Christmas eve, but a few years ago that just got too big. Last year we spent Christmas Eve at home with just the 4 of us, and it was wonderful. Opened gifts, with a single Santa gift and stockings the next morning. Then Mass and off to the in-laws for the day. It looks like that's what we're doing again this year, only Christmas Eve Mass instead of morning (Philosofette is the lector). It'll be a little more crazy, but I'm still looking forward to it.
I'm not loving the Wednesday Christmas thing though, as it means working on the 26th and 27th, and weekend Christmas celebrations on either side of the actual day. So basically, instead of an extended holiday, it's a bunch of short ones interrupted by work.
My family's Christmas hasn't changed in 20+ years. (Seriously: here's 2010 and here's 1991 or 1992).
On Christmas Eve we gather at church. Then, while my mom goes home to finalize dinner (lasagna), we all head to a good family friend's house to engage in shenanigans (they're always spending Christmas Eve with family an hour outside the Twin Cities - last year, we took down all of their Christmas decorations and put up all of their St. Patrick's Day decorations).
On Christmas Day, we head back my my parents' and wear Christmas pajamas all day (red plaid) and just lounge around my parents' house. We start opening presents in the morning going around in a circle (it's a big family and lots of small gag gifts, so opening presents takes awhile). We'll break when brunch is ready (eggbake, cheesy potatoes, and ham). Then napping and more presents.
zomg, the girl in the lower right in the 1991/92 picture could have been The Girl circa 2001-2.
And here's 2013.
We also don't really have any tradition. Now that we have kids, though, we have to try to fit in time with my MIL, my dad and my mom. This year, that means lunch on Christmas day at the MIL's, then head up to my mom's afterwards. The day after, we're having dinner at my mom's with my brother and his wife and daughter coming out to make it a family affair. Friday is dinner at my dad's, though unfortunately it sounds like the possibility that neither of my other two brothers will be able to make it (on for sure, anyway). We were planning on heading back home on Saturday, but my mom offered to take us out anywhere for my birthday dinner, so the Gasthaus in Stillwater it is!