I love baking Christmas cookies – secret family recipe!

I have so many favorite traditions, but one of my favorites is one Sunday in December, we have a “gingerbread” house competition . Every year there is a theme, Christmas movies, song etc. and we split up into teams. Then each team has about 5 hours to construct the house out of whatever materials, and decorate with eatables. The kids get a huge kick out of it, as do we.

I always look forward to watching Christmas movies, while wrapping presents! Nothing tops midnight Mass, though!

We love the Christmas Eve Mass! Best part of Christmas, hands-down. (Oh, and the sweets don’t hurt.)

Cutting the tree!

I always look forward to decorating the Christmas tree – our ornaments always bring back such wonderful memories!

Your card is adorable! Love it! Favorite Tradition? Oh man, so many to choose from. Right now my favorite has to be getting the tree and decorating it! And I also LOVE getting everything set up with my husband the night before for the wow factor when Jonah wakes up to Christmas Morning.

Ahh i love minted!!

My favorite holiday tradition is probably when we sit around the table on Christmas Eve and tell everyone in our family what we’ve been thankful for this Christmas. It’s a great way to catch up with all of our cousins and aunts and uncles because we live so far apart!!!!

Love following you!!

Our favorite holiday tradition is making hot chocolate and piling in the car to see Christmas lights. It’s always a surprise for the kids because we get them ready for bed and then instead of going to bed, we get in the car.

My favourite holiday tradition is having Chinese food with my family on Christmas Eve at the same restaurant we’ve been going to since I was a little girl and then attending a live performance of a nativity play. I can’t wait to share this tradition with my first baby next year as I am due in January 2017.

My favorite holiday tradition is going to Christmas Eve midnight mass with my parents and 7 siblings. Might have to adjust the tradition a bit this year though, since I’m recently married and expecting my first baby (and can barely stay awake till 9 pm these days)! Love your blog, I have major aspiration goals!

I love the folded card option for a joint Christmas/baby announcement. Baby #4 arrives on December 21st and we are going to do something similar.

Favorite tradition – going into DC on Christmas Eve and going to the White House and Capitol Christmas trees and the botanical gardens. It is always so quiet and peaceful which is a rarity.

My favorite holiday tradition is crowding the whole family around the coffee table on Christmas eve to eat Chinese food and watch a Christmas movie.

My favorite tradition is walking outside around the house in the cold with our kids on Christmas eve, knocking on the doors to the house and hoping the “inkeeper” (dad) will let us and the baby Savior (clasped in my hands) in. The hushed excitement, singing, and final joy when we are admitted and baby Jesus is put in the crèche are palatable. 🙂

I love Christmas Eve mass in a dark church singing Silent Night 🙂

Growing up my family always gathered around the kitchen table Sunday nights during Advent to light the candles, read scripture passages, have a family “secret pal” activity (like writing secret affirmations/favorite things about that person),and sing “O come, o cone, Emmanuel” together. It’s a tradition I hope to continue when I have kids!

Sending and receiving Christmas cards is my favorite Christmas tradition by far! We were planning on skipping this year to put the cash toward our student loans so winning this would be wonderful! Love, love, love your blog!

My favorite holiday tradition: every year, my husband, step-daughter and now our daughter get together, make snacks and hot chocolate, and watch Elf together. That movie is one of the best, if not the best, holiday movie and to watch it with the ones I love makes it even more magical!

My husband and I both come from huge Italian families. One of my favorite traditions each year is getting together to make Italian Christmas cookies from recipes passed down through many generations!

My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with a big group of friends and doing a cookie exchange!

Every Christmas Eve after mass my dad would put all my siblings names in a hat, there are 5 of us and my parents. We all would pick one name and say what their most endearing quality was or a certain special thing about them. It was always a time of laughter and some tears as we gathered around with eggnog. It’s not often that you compliment a sibling so being forced to really allowed us all to see the good in each other! As my father always said our siblings will be our best friends he helped foster that relationship between us! I hope To continue this with my kids as they grow!

You cards are gorgeous!

Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com

My husband and I love picking and cutting down our tree and my inlaws’ (giant) tree every year. We always have a hilarious story to go with the picking, cutting, dragging, (barely) baling, and bringing home the giant tree 🙂

We celebrate many mini-feasts in December, building up to the big one on Christmas! St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucy’s day smorgasbord, OL on Dec 8 and 12… The whole month is festive!

My favorite holiday tradition is to travel and visit family but this year we may be starting a new holiday tradition of extending our travel to a beautiful warm locale! This year- Hawaii! 🙂

Gosh I have too many favorites! Making cookies, getting hot cocoa at Starbucks and driving around town looking at lights.

Love being with family…love Christmas movies…love creating Jesse tree ornaments with my grandkids…love Christmas Eve Mass…love Christmas lights everywhere!

I love decorating the entire house with all of the decorations we’ve accumulated over the years while listening to the classic Christmas songs.

My favorite tradition is eating chinese with my family on Christmas eve. It’s the time my family gets together and we just laugh and hang out. I have brothers that live far away, but everyone come together on the 24th.

I love receiving Christmas cards but have NEVER gotten my act together to send them! I am hoping to do so this year, so winning this would help a lot!

❤️ this! We really make things all about the kiddos in the family, but it turns out giving us just as much joy or even more, seeing their faces light up each time they hear Santa’s sleigh bells jingle on Christmas Eve…Fresh baked, hot Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning are also a not miss!

This will be our first christmas in our own home with our first baby so I am excited to open gifts under our first christmas tree and to just spend the evenings staring at the twinkling lights.

Thanks for the great opportunity!

My favorite is doing an Advent Calendar & book with my boys. We read a portion of the Christmas story everyday and have an activity that is either something just fun or an act of service.

putting up the tree while playing Christmas music and
going outside in the first snow and smelling the air

I love getting our Christmas tree as a family, as I never did that with my family growing up! We’ve moved around a lot since getting married 4 years ago, so it’s been so fun to try out a new Christmas tree farm each year and see the different trees each area of the country has! Growing up, I always adored going to the Christmas Eve mass and seeing so many people pack into church to celebrate the birth of Christ!

I love midnight mass and the peace it brings. Also love the gift exchange amongst 7 siblings and our spouses: great memories and laughs it always brings

My favorite tradition is going to get a Christmas tree! Merry Christmas, Anna!

Love midnight mass!

Favorite holiday tradition would have to be going to cut down a tree with my hubby’s family every year!

My favorite holiday tradition was taking the train from Boston to NYC with my sister on a Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I loved seeing all the window decorations! We live in different states now, so we’ve missed a couple of years, but maybe next year!

New Christmas eve pajamas and making pizelles.

Opening presents on Christmas Eve and Santa presents on Christmas Day.

I love the holiday card AND birth announcement combo!! My favorite holiday tradition when I was a child and now what I am doing with my own kids is having a little dessert treat each night in the living room with just the lights of the tree on and Christmas music playing. Last night we decorated the tree and enjoyed homemade pumpkin bread. My almost-three-year old son was so cute, it was honestly magical. Happy Holiday Season to you and your family!

My favorite holiday tradition is going into the city (I live in NYC) and making a day of seeing the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center with the hubby and the kids. Afterwards we go to the Plaza to have hot cocoa and look at the Holiday windows along 5th avenue. 🙂

Seeing the joy of Christmas on the kids faces!

Fav Holiday Tradition: Late morning Christmas Mass followed by egg and sausage casserole, coffee cakes and muffins, piping hot coffee … and lots of family together!

I LOVE our tradition of going to a tree farm as a family to cut down our Christmas Tree. We all wear Santa Hats and take our time finding the perfect tree. We ride the hayride and sing and laugh. We argue about which tree is best but ultimately all decide on one. We end the trip by picking up a gorgeous handmade wreath while sipping hot cocoa and eating cookies in the barn. My kiddos let me take photos the whole time and we treasure seeing them year after year and how they have grown.

Spending Christmas Eve with my family

My favorite holiday tradition is driving around and looking at the decorations with a warm cup of coffee!

The one tradition I miss, is driving around the neighborhood to look at christmas lights on Christmas eve.

My favorite holiday tradition is either watching Little Women or A Holiday Affair with my family the night before Christmas in our matching PJ’s.

Decorating the tree and listening to Xmas music

Christmas Eve pajamas and my sibling gift exchange- even though we are grown with families of our own. My mom was great about implementing so many traditions growing up.

Our family tradition is matching pjs for all the girls in my family and we play a really great, fun white elephant game as well. Best time of year!!!

Love minted!! One of our favorite traditions is taking a tram ride through a beautiful light display at our local botanical gardens!

My favorite traditions are going to some kind of christmas play or show; my grandma always took us to one every year when we were kids. I live in Florida so it takes a lot to make it feel like the holidays so the traditions help get me in the spirit. I also love the giving and receiving of holiday cards! Sometimes it’s the only time I hear from some people and it’s nice to see what everyone is up to. ?

When we were growing up, my parents wanted to take the stress and chaos away from having to tear kids away from playing with new toys to go visit each side of the family… just to come back to a disaster in the living room. So, PJ day was born. Christmas morning we may unwrap presents; but not open them. We celebrate with each other, go to Mass, and the 26th is all about new toys/games and never leaving your pajamas!!

My favorite tradition is visiting my mawmaw and pawpaws house on Christmas morning. Every year they cook a big breakfast for the entire family, and afterwards we all listen to my pawpaw play bluegrass on his guitar. It’s simple, but it’s a treasured memory.

We always go to the Christmas Eve Service at our church and go eat at Waffle House afterwards ?

One of my favourite traditions is the annual bake day we have with my mom, sister, aunt and grandma. We listen to carols and make shortbread, tarts and Christmas cake ?