UPDATED: We have our winner! Thanks for all of your great holiday traditions!
We had our Cotton Babies Holiday Party at our retail store in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago. Our vendors were beyond generous in giving us amazing prizes for our customers. It was a blast!
So to carry on the fun, we are giving away some Kicky Pants Bamboo Pants – have you ever felt a pair of Kicky Pants Bamboo clothes? They are so amazingly soft, we can’t get enough of them around here!!!
So…to enter…leave a comment with your favorite holiday tradition in the comments. We will select 3 people at random to win some great Kicky Pants Bamboo Pants!
Winners will be selected on Wednesday December 16 – so…let’s hear about those traditions 🙂
About the Author
Jenn is the founder of Cotton Babies & creator of bumGenius, Flip, and Econobum, worldwide leading cloth diaper brands. She has four children (Andrew, Oscar, Elsie and Louis) and holds an MBA from Washington University. When she's not working full time, she enjoys teaching business leaders how to implement sustainable economic & social change.
Comments
81 Comments
I love our tradition of setting up the Christmas tree Thanksgiving evening and having the little guy help!! It just gets more fun each year!
We always watch A Christmas Story for 24 hours straight! And we usually have Conch Chowder on Christmas Eve but we live in Florida so it’s not too crazy!
iloveyouhecried at gmail dot com
Watching White Christmas with my mom!
Every Christmas Eve we listen to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater’s radio play of A Christmas Carol and open our family presents (Christmas morning is for stuff from extended family + Santa).
my favorite holiday tradition is going to christmas eve service at my church with my family!
heidilynndonahue@gmail.com
My mom and I make peanut butter fudge together every year, and give tins of it to friends and family. Odd, I know, but it’s delicious and signifies that the holidays are here, to me!
Every year we get new jammies for Christmas (even mommy & daddy) and then we wear them all day (while the family comes over and has Christmas at our place) and then go to the movie theater in our jammies. SO MUCH FUN!
One of my favority traditions is making tons of Christmas cookies for the holidays.
All growing up, our Christmas family tradition (as un-traditional as it gets, though) was to be out of town on a ski trip, and definitely skiing on Christmas day. It is the best ski day, as the slopes are not very crowded.
My parents are older now and no longer ski, so that tradition has fallen by the wayside. We just had our first child (the day after Thanksgiving), and as soon as he is old enough to learn how to ski, I can’t wait to revive the old tradition of skiing on Christmas day.
In an effort to make sure our kids understand that Christmas is really about Jesus being born we have a birthday party for Him on Christmas day complete with cake, candles, party hats, etc.
One of our traditions is going to a U-Cut farm Thanksgiving weekend and picking out our tree. Our 2yr old enjoys some hot coco and we bring the tree home and decorate it while watching ‘A Christmas Story.’ I love kicking off the Christmas season this way!
For 28 years we have gone christmas carroling with the same group of families. Now we bring our children, 3 generations of carrolers. my mom started it the year i was born! it is so much fun! people seem to really enjoy our little piece of christmas spirit. this years party wasn’t quite as fun, one of the older men in our group was hit by a car while crossing the street! (he is fine, just scrapes and brusies) other than that we have always had a great time!
Unfortunately, we have a tradition of never being able to attend church services because we are always traveling to be with either my family or my husband’s family for Christmas. I am hoping that by the time our son is one year old next year, we can change this tradition and actually stay at our own home for Christmas!
Christmas Eve candlelight service at church.
Most traditions in my family revolve around food! I love the Christmas cookies, crab ball, green bean casserole (in a duck-shaped dish), etc. Probably my favorite moment of the Christmas season is decorating and putting out my naitivity scenes – it helps me remember the true reason for the season 🙂
One of my favorite traditions is breaking into groups and singing the 12 days of Christmas with each group taking a day or two. Great fun!
lucycontest at gmail.com
Well since my husband is deployed this year Christmas is kind of being put on hold till he gets home, but my daughter and I had lots of fun shopping for his Christmas care package! We found a mini Christmas tree and tiny ornaments, got a bunch of his favorite candy, and filled the box with a bunch of small gifts. We also made Christmas cards for the residents of a nursing home. I put paint on the bottom of my daughter’s foot and put her footprint on the front of the cards. We did brown footprints and turned them into reindeer(her heel was the nose) and did some that were half white and half peach. Those we turned into Santa’s face. (The white part was her toes and pad of her foot and it made a great beard for Santa!) I would love to keep this tradition up with my daughter because it’s very important to teach our children the importance of giving back to your community especially during the holidays when some people don’t have family to celebrate with!
Every year since my eldest daughter was born (and she’ll be 4 in March), we have baked cookies for Santa. We also make a new handmade ornament every year. This year we made cotton ball snowpeople and last year we made puzzle piece wreaths. It is just a nice way to take time out of our busy day to focus on each other.
Each year, my husband hangs his homemade star on the highest branch on our tree. When we celebrated our first Christmas together, we didn’t have the extra money for a tree topper. We used a tiny little star he had made with his mother at a craft and cookie evening a few nights before. That star reminds us that ‘making do’ is usually just right!
Every year our family gets together for Christmas Eve Dinner and Mass, my mom and I have sung for the past 13 years and this year my little baby girl will join us! She is only 7 months but she loves to “sing”! We then open presents and chat. The next morning after Santa has visited our house we will open our family gifts and stockings and go to another Grandma’s for lunch/dinner! We have a lot to be thankful for and we love to celebrate family together, usually always with a lot of really wonderful food!Our new traditions will begin this year as we are adding our daughter to the mix, and my brother and his wife have a baby 2 month younger! So we are all very excited for the new/old traditions that will ensue!
I would say going to church on Christmas Eve back home. I really hope this year we can do it (no newborn this time!) They have a candlelight of silent night, with the lights off, and everyone with his/her own candle, it’s a nice tradition, the light ‘spreads’ throughout the sanctuary and it’s such a special, quiet, peaceful moment. jill dot shoemaker at gmail dot com
I love decorating the tree and going out for Chinese food after church on Christmas Eve w/ my family! 🙂
we go to the christmas eve mass that my mom’s choir sings at and we have dinner and open our presents.
Opening up one present on Christmas eve (it was always pajamas). Then we would change into them, eat cheese and crackers and drink hot chocolate before bed.
Going to Christmas Eve service with the in-laws.
We have Julia Child’s french onion soup and a glass of red wine before an 11pm Christmas Eve service. The day before I’m roasting marrow bones and slowly caramelizing onions. On Christmas Eve, the toasty gruyere and rich soup fills me with warmth that stays with me until we sing Silent Night by candlelight.
My dad’s side of the family is 100% Norwegian, so we always have celebrated Christmas Eve as the big day… We gather after the Christmas Eve service at church and eat Norwegian Rice Pudding. The person who finds the hidden almond in their bowl wins a prize! This year, my husband and I are hosting the gathering at our house since our 7 month old bumGenius baby will be fast asleep when it’s time for rice pudding (or at least we hope!).
even with really little kids, we will go get ourselves ice cream and drive around looking at Christmas lights. we do this about 4 or more times a Christmas season!
We do our stockings on the night of December 6th in honor of St. Nick. I love it! It’s like a preview to the big day.
My mom made candy houses with us every year when I was little. I loved eating the candy as we constructed our graham cracker village. Now, it’s my turn to do it on my own and it’s a ton of work!
cool pants!
our favorite holiday tradition is doing something for advent every day. it’s so fun to anticipate and extend the celebration!
We always eat our Christmas Eve meal by candlelight. It such a special tradition from my family, so we’ll start it with our new little guy this year. 🙂
My father kicks off our traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner with scripture and a prayer. Then he passes out the traditional prosfora (bread and honey) starting with his wife, then the oldest to the youngest. This simple blessing always catches me and makes me feel blessed to have my place in my particular family. 🙂
We always go out for a huge chinese brunch as a family. The smells and sounds at the restaurant are so heartwarming!
My husband goes shopping (on his own!) for our little girl’s Christmas dress, which I think is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. And I like to do lots of baking and hand out the goodies to all our neighbors.
We love doing the advent calendar for the month of December. It makes every day in the month a fun one, with something to look forward to.
Then we love to open ONE gift on Christmas eve and then all the rest on Christmas day.
I just LOVE Christmas!
I love love love decorating the Christmas tree with spiced cider and christmas music in the background!
Watching A Christmas Story on TBS as much as possible!
I have a string a jingle bells and since I was a child I have run through the house on Christmas morning to wake up the house. I do it for my husband now.
I love Kicky Pants! We have a tradition of giving a special ornament to each other, something that reflects the past year’s accomplishments or milestones.
The candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve is my favorite–although with little ones who are tired and hungry, I seem to have missed quite a lot of the service the past couple of years!
We have a big dinner every year that is based on some foreign culture that someone in the family has experienced that year.
Spiced apple cider simmering on the stove. A house that smells like cider smells like Christmas 🙂
We go to Christmas Eve Service, come home to Christmas cookies and watch It’s a Wonderful Life
We keep it simple… pick up a tree together as a family, decorate it, put presents under the tree… hot chocolate, Christmas music…
as long as we are together as a family : )
We started a new one this year: the Thankful Box. We wrapped a shoebox and cut a slit in the top, and all month long we’re putting in slips of paper with things we’re thankful for written on them. We’ll read them as a family on Christmas day.
My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas party we host. It is a great time to visit with friends and family.
Waking up to the smell of my mom’s coffee cake baking in the oven, and reading the Christmas story.
Theresa A.
Ever since I was a kid, we would pile into the car on Christmas Eve and take a drive to see all the Christmas Lights in the nearby neighborhoods. My husband and I now do that same thing with our kids!
Each year on Christmas Eve, we give the girls gifts and each year those gifts are Christmas Pajamas that they can wear to bed for Christmas. We take pictures of them in their jamas by the tree with Santa Hats on.
luvinmyfamily at verizon dot net
Every year we spend Christmas Eve night at my parents house, we are all up bright and early Christmas Morning. We have the same delicious breakfast casserole and then open presents. The house seems to get fuller every year with family…this year we’ve added our 4th baby and my brother and his wife! YEAH! I love our Christmas traditions!
We always cut down a real tree, but that’s only half of the fun. When we get home and begin trimming it, we take a stroll down memory lane because all of our ornaments represent somewhere/thing in our past.
On Christmas morning, we make waffles by the tree while we open Christmas presents.
Favorite traditions. Hmmm…
When I was in college but still came home for Christmas, my dad would blast me out of bed on Christmas morning with Ted Nugent’s “Fred Bear.” I don’t know why. I still smile and think of Christmas when I hear that song.
On my dad’s side of the family, the men all weigh in each year AFTER we get done stuffing ourselves. Weights are kept in a little notebook. The man who gained the most during the year gets some really offensive gag prizes to hold onto until the following Christmas.
Now that I’m married and have kids, I like the time after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. Hubby and I get to wrap gifts and he always makes me go to bed first and there are always some surprises in the morning that even I didn’t know about.
Also, every year we go to a special tree farm to get our tree. They give us a wagon ride out to the tree fields and back, and there’s hot cocoa, Santa and a free ornament waiting for us when we get back.
krys13@msn.com
My favorite traditions as a “new” family (ie me, my husband and my daughter) revolve around the Christmas tree and putting up our special ornaments.
HOWEVER
My favorite tradition as an “old” family (ie, me, my twin, and my parents) was that every year my twin and I would host and stage a pageant–just the two of us! Oh it was always hilarious, sometimes sweet, usually sentimental, and unique each time. I miss putting those on but hope that my twin and her children will re-start this with my children!
Every year we sit down and roll out the dough to make our own homeade Christmas ornaments. I get out all the cookie cutters and we pick out the special holiday ones as well as silly ones like feet, fish, and sometimes a football helmet or two. I let my 8 year old roll out the dough and cut with the various shapes and we put them in the oven. A few hours later we all gather round, even our teenager, and paint them to our hearts content. We give some away to special people, send some to the school, and put the rest on our tree. We’re never lacking for ornaments, that’s for sure.
My favorite tradition is singing Christmas carols around the piano with my family.
Our family has a huge dinner on Christmas eve and we each open 1 present while enjoying a batch of my grandfather’s famous whiskey sours. Then, Christmas morning we open the rest of our presents, watch a Christmas story, and celebrate with potato sausage and cinnamon rolls. This year, we are sadly spending Christmas away from our families because we are enjoying it with our 6-week old starting our own tradition instead!
Every year we have a huge dinner on Christmas Eve and then change into our pj’s to go open all of our presents. After the kids go to bed we enjoy drinks and then all go to bed to wake and find what Santa has left us all. Then we have a huge breakfast and lounge all day.
Eating enormous cinnamon buns after opening the stockings, and fashion shows of new clothes.
My favorite tradition is making Happy Birthday Jesus cakes (which I haven’t done in years but need to start doing with my 18 month old) and decorating the tree with the carols playing
I love bamboo – I just bought a bunch of bamboo thread but I don’t even know what I’m going to make with it!
Traditions: Watching Peter Paul & Mary’s Christmas concert (taped off the TV back in the 80’s) while decorating the Christmas tree.
We like to *try* and stay up till midnight Christmas Eve because as a child I was told that all the animals can speak “people” language for that hour! Growing up I would even sneak out to the barn to talk to the horses!! 🙂
my favorite holiday tradition is eating latkes! yum!
My favorite Christmas tradition that my husband and I have started with our family is to give each other, and the kids new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Then we wear our new PJ’s all day on Christmas.
My husband and I started a tradition last year of going to the Christmas Tree farm and cutting down our own tree. Then on the way home we stop at the local cider mill and get apple cider to drink as we decorate the tree. Last year I was 9 months pregnant selecting our tree. Our daughter came over 2 weeks late and missed Christmas. I realized this year that might have been a blessing since we were trying to cut down our tree in freezing weather with a little one in tow. I am a Florida girl through and through who recently moved to the midwest, so this new tradition is challenging due to the weather but exciting at the same time.
Those look so comfy! My favorite tradition is opening gifts on Christmas Eve, and stockings Christmas morning.
We always make Christmas cookies with a recipe that was handed down to us from our great, great, grandparents. We usually box them up in tins and give them to neighbors and friends…
Every Christmas Eve my dad, mom and I make peppermint bark and my grandma makes peanut brittle. So far there’s only been one year that we haven’t done it but it’s always so much fun! We’ve gotten pretty creative with the recipes too!
Christmas Eve at my Gram’s house. The whole family (her 6 children and their children and grandchildren) gather there for lots of food, laughter, catching up and celebration. In my 28 years I have only missed it once, and this year will be my three week old son’s first Christmas Eve at Gram’s house!
My mother makes a sweet roll on Christmas Eve for Christmas morning. She will be making one for my family to continue the tradition!
The candlelight Christmas Eve service at our Episcopal Church is definitely my favorite holiday tradition.
I love spending Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family, and all of the obligatory foods that go along with it. I make cream cheese roll-ups/ Its not Christmas Eve without them!
When my husband and I first started dating he ran the local ice rink and thats where we meet. He no longer works there but still helps from time to time and has the keys. Every year after Christmas dinner and we open gifts some family and friends go down to the rink and skate. At first it was just the 2 of us and now we have a little following. It wonderful and living in SoCal where some years it can be in the 80s on Christmas makes it feel like a white Christmas.
My mom always makes cranberry nut bread for christmas morning breakfast. We would open gifts and then eat the yummy bread! Now that we have our own child, we still head over to Mom’s for cranberry bread. She has to make extra these days!
on of our favorite holiday traditions is buying a live Christmas tree in a pot… when we are done with the tree inside we can then plant it on our property… we’ve only been married 2 years, but in a couple years we should be able to cut down our own tree from our yard!
sarina at scualum dot com
We do a Jesse Tree each year where our family does a devotion and places and ornament on the tree in anticipation of Christ’s birthday.
Two years ago at Christmas time we found out that instead of having a miscarriage (which is why went to the ER) I was still pregnant and they could see two babies, at which point they told us one baby was unfortunately not alive. One year ago we celebrate Christmas with our twins, who were both alive and well. To remember the eventful year we made up a photoalbum together of the past year. This year we’ll do it again to remember all the special moments of the past year with twins.
We got married the weekend before Christmas 4 years ago (our anniversary is the 17th) and had ornaments custom made and decorate the tree at our reception hall. We asked people to take them as they left, but we ended up with a ton of them. So every year we add one extra ornament to the tree to match the number of Christmases we’ve been married. Hopefully someday our tree will be covered with them.
our family attends a candle light christmas eve service each year and it is always one of our favorite christmas memories.
I love decorating the Christmas tree. Every year we get an ornament from our parents, and my husband and I started the same tradition with our baby boy this year.