Yea Tim!! I've been wanting one of these sections for a long time.

We had many traditions. When I was a little girl I would stay with my Papaw (that is grandfather in Southern talk ) on Christmas Eve while my parents took my Granny grocery shopping. Then we would take the long way home to look at all the lights and have Christmas with my siblings, which were already married. I was probably a teenager before I realized that the reason for the grocery trip was to get the fruits, nuts, and candy from Santa. That is one thing Santa doesn't bring here and I sometimes have regrets about that. We would also plan an evening where the whole family would come to my house to make candy. I never liked anything we made but it was fun. I miss that.

Now we have our own traditions. My boys Christmas Carol for our elderly neighbors and we have homemade goodies we give them. We have so many places to go now. My grandmother and one set of my husband's grandparents are still in good health, plus my husband is from a divorced family. It gets overwhelming but I love it anyhow.

Last night I thought about making a post on here (before I even knew about this section) about how people celebrated Hanukah (I can't spell that!)Kwanza, Rhamadon, or other holidays. We live in unicultured community LOL! and I would like to be able to tell my boys some first hand knowledge of some of these traditions that other people have.

Well, you'll probably laugh, but our closest relatives live a good 9 hour drive away, and until this year, all 4 of my girls believed in Santa, so there's no way we go anywhere for Christmas morning. At some point (I think when the oldest was 5 or so) we just figured, well, if we're not going anywhere, why bother getting dressed? We all have special Christmas pajamas, and we just stay in them all day. We hang out and watch whatever new videos we get, play the new games and generally just hang out together. My parents think we're insane.

One of my sisters just moved about an hour away, and said maybe she would come and visit Christmas afternoon. I told her that was fine, but we were still all going to be in our pajamas. I don't think she believed me...!

Another thing we do is once each girl turns 5, they get to go see the Nutcracker sometime during the Christmas season. Then, once you've seen it, you get a nutcracker under the tree each Christmas. So we've got quite the collection going. My third daughter just turned 5 this year, and she is so excited that she is finally getting her turn to go!

I'm from a small family where two kids is usually too many. I have 3 if that tells you how different I am from them. I married into a huge Italian-Catholic family and we are a 12 hour drive from most of them. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we go to this small town and meet with my husband's grandmother's family and all of their families-lots of people. Where 3 kids is considered on the small side. We have a nice lunch and the families take turns hosting. Lots of stories and fun for the kids. On Christmas Eve we go to Grandpa Calabrese's for dinner and present exchange. All 47-3 new this year-of us gather in the front room around the tree. Christmas is at my inlaws-they have the biggest kid friendly house-where we have a nice lunch that usually lasts until 9 or 10pm. There are also 4 other family gathering/present exchanges we go to in the month. Needless to say, if I don't get the shopping done in November, it isn't getting done!

I do Christmas Eve for my husbands family and all 42 of them show up year after year! It's a lot of work and I completely stress out the entire week before. But it sure is a lot of fun. We do a grab bag for the adults, and one for the kids. We pick our names on thanksgiving(which I also do).My husband dresses up like Santa every year for the past 14 years. Everyone (including all the kids) knows its him but everyone plays along. And everyone, including the adults, has to sit on his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas.

Then on christmas morning it's just my little family for breakfast and later on my entire family (all 11 of them)come over.My poor husband has to dress up yet again!

My poor older girls, they have to help me clean and get ready for Santa before going to bed. Then after our morning rush of ripping open the presents and breakfast, they help me again get ready for the next crew. I think we'd all enjoy it better if it were calmer, but with a really big family thats impossible!

I just re-read my own post and find it sounds much grumpier than intended. I meant to be laughing at myself, not griping...

It's true that the "if it's 10:00, this must be MiMi's house" style of Christmas isn't my dream scenario. However we get at least 2 days full of love and family - which is what really matters. And I'm really greatful for all of our family members.

You guys sound like you have some lovely traditions. Please keep sharing.

Oh Metzy, I love the part about the neighborhood ball game! One of my neighbors and I organized a neighborhood picnic one spring and everyone loved it, but both of us had taken on huge commitments with volunteer organizations and asked if someone else would take over-of course no one did. I wonder if I could get some little impromptu cookies and cocoa thing going --hmmmmm!