How to Start a Holiday Tradition

Every year my grandfather would read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve to the entire family (my mom is one of 10, so there are a lot of us). After he died, the honor of reading the book passed down through his children and their partners and now is slowly trickling down to the cousins. I looked forward to it as a kid and now so do my kids.

—Cerentha Harris, editor

My husband usually leaves his gift-wrapping, if not the shopping itself, to the last minute, so on Christmas Eve I bundle the kids up in warm PJs, strap them into the car and tuck blankets over them, and hand them to-go mugs of hot chocolate. Then we drive around our town looking at the holiday lights on houses in our neighborhood. Their favorite is the "Jackpot House"—that one home that has been covered with lights over every possible inch! By the time we get home, Dad has finished with his wrapping and the kids are ready to go to sleep, excitement or not.

—Kim Tracy Prince, writer

Every year at Christmas, my mom gifts me those cement stepping stones of my boys' handprints for my front planter. On New Year's Day every year, my stepmom makes several dozen homemade pierogi using a family recipe—everything done by hand. We eat some that night and freeze the rest to eat later on.

—Megan Hook, editor

Since I was born, my mom has added a special patch to the back of my stocking every Christmas. The patch typically marks a big event that happened in my life that year—joining the soccer team (soccer ball), graduating from college (my school's letters), moving to New York (an "I Heart NY" logo), and so on—and I'm surprised each year on Christmas morning with what she's chosen. Even though I am approaching 30, she still adds a patch each year. (Though, she's had to add extra fabric to hold all of them!)

—Natasha Burton, writer

My mother grew up in Florida where there's a large Cuban population. Every Christmas Eve my mother makes traditional chili, but then at 12 o'clock after all the kids have gone to sleep, the "Santas" eat a medianoche (Cuban sandwich). It's a tradition.

—Mackenzie, mom.me community

One year when the electricity went out on Christmas, my entire family drew humorous pictures of each of the 12 days of Christmas. Each person was given two days/pictures, and when it got to your solo you would hold up the picture and sing. We have continued to do this (drunkenly) every year. Once we are finished, you write your initials and the year on the back.

—Philip, mom.me community

My mom is British, so, growing up, we had special Christmas sacks that we would lay across the end of our bed for Father Christmas to fill while we were sleeping. I cannot describe the feeling I had when I woke up around 4 in the morning and saw a bag full of presents at the foot of my bed. I can remember jumping up, running to grab my brother and sister and then all three of us jumping in our parents' bed yelling "He's been! He's been!" We would drag the bags out into the living room and open them first before seeing what was under the tree. None of my friends had this tradition (I think it must be a purely English thing) so those memories are extra special to me.

—Samantha Darby, writer

My brother and I both really disliked ham when we were younger. So since the annual Christmas dinner with relatives had the traditional ham as the main dish, we usually stayed away from it. My mom took it upon herself to make sure he and I had a meal we really loved during the holidays, so on Christmas Eve, she made just our family a big holiday meal, with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and everything. I still like it better than the actual Christmas day.

—Ted Asbaghi, editor

On Christmas eve, we go to a family church service, and then we go get In-N-Out burgers and come home. Our three boys open two presents each, and they know what the presents are. One is new matching pajamas to wear Christmas morning, and the other is some type of board game that we play as a family before we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story from the Bible. It's a great way to stop to play and just be together.

—Tina Bryson, writer

We don't have an overwhelming number of relatives since my mom has just one sister and my dad's an only child. So when I was young, my mom decided she needed to create an excuse for the entirety of our extended family to get together and began throwing an annual Christmas party on the 26th. It's pretty much the best idea she's ever had. Every year is different, but a blast. Whether it's my cousins forcing me to break out my karaoke machine for living-room singing battles, or a white elephant gift exchange where we literally dig up the most ridiculous things we can get our hands on, it's always lots of laughs, lots of stories—and great food, of course. I can't imagine a better way to spend the holidays.

—Jenna Birch, writer

I grew up with Polish traditions in my family and my husband and I are passing down a few of those traditions to our children. On Christmas Eve, before eating our Polish holiday dinner, consisting of fish and pierogi, we break oplatki, which is like the wafers used for Catholic communion bread. We each have a large rectangular piece of the wafer and we go around the table breaking bread with each person in our family. As we break bread, we offer each person a blessing or a kind thought. It is a simple and beautiful tradition that reminds each of us the importance of God, Christmas and family.

—Leane Vandeman, writer

Waking up on Christmas morning, my sister and I skip the hallway out to the living room and go straight to my parent's bedroom. After my dad, now along with our husbands, leaves the bedrooms to set up cameras, turn on Christmas music, and mentally prepares for the onslaught of flying wrapping paper, we all anxiously await the call of "I'm reaaaaady…" Even now as adults with our own young children, my sister and I still follow the same tradition of giddy anticipation, knowing our dad and our kid's grandfather waits just long enough to get us all past the point of patience to see what is waiting for us on Christmas morning.

—Angie Lynch, writer

When I was little we still had our milk delivered in real glass bottles! My older brothers and sisters would occasionally sneak down and add food coloring to one of the milk bottles, then send me down to collect the milk from the doorstep when I woke up. There among the creamy mix would be one glorious bottle of pink, green or blue. How did it get like that? "Fairies!" they told me. Now I use a similar trick on St. Patrick's day, when the Leprechauns invade the fridge and turn all our milk green!

—Anne Marie O'Neill, editor

With my extended family, we'd vacation together every summer up in north Michigan. My grandparents have four kids, and each kid has three kids—so, by now, that's 12 grandchildren. Every summer, we'd take a picture of all the cousins sitting on the couch together. As the years go by, you can see new babies being added to the picture, and pretty much every year at least one child is crying hysterically in the picture.

—Paula Kashtan, editor

Any time someone did a great job (grades, music recitals, etc.) they got breakfast on the red plate and we wrote their name, accomplishment and date on the bottom.

—Sarah, mom.me community

Every December, my mom would hang a giant felt banner on the wall. It read "Happy Hanukah!" and beneath the words was an enormous felt menorah. Each night of Hanukah, we would stick a faux flame onto a faux candle in the faux two-dimensional menorah. Now that I am grown up and have clearly inherited the fear of an open flame lighting my house on fire, I envy my mom's genius (and flameless) tradition.

—Cara Natterson, writer

My kids choose about 10 to 15 of their favorite pieces of Halloween candy and the rest goes in a bucket on the dining room table for the Switch Witch. She takes the candy while the kids are sleeping and replaces it with a toy they've been wanting. They love this swap—and it leaves a much more doable stash of candy left to handle.

—Sally Kuzemchak, writer

My mother and grandmother always stage a fake fight while they are cooking Thanksgiving dinner. My grandmother insists that my mother's stuffing is too dry and my mother complains that my grandmother's stuffing is too soggy. It's is all an act, of course, and there is plenty of good humor. Now that my grandmother is gone, my sister or I take on her role. Then, we gather in a circle and say what we are thankful for. (Dramatic interpretations encouraged!)

—Lea Lion, writer

We have an Easter egg hunt every year even now with my college-age sons. They love it. We hide real eggs (no one wants them), candy filled plastic eggs (popular), a golden egg (premium chocolate and loose change (the most popular) and the Bad Egg. The bad egg is a plastic egg filled with the black jelly beans no one wants. That's just how we roll.

—Lauren Kessler, writer