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jennthmg
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 8:16pm | IP Logged
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My husband has decided to rethink how we celebrate Christmas (this is what I get for praying for his spiritual leadership of the family to Pope John Paul  )
We are only giving each child 1 gift. This is a HUGE change from the way we've done it in the past. After crying for a whole day (I LIKE the way we've always done Christmas), I've now accepted and am looking for something to "fill the time." We used to take 3-4 hours to open presents, go to Mass, go out for Chinese, drive around and look at Christmas lights, spend the afternoon playing with our new toys and go to my mom's for dinner. I now have to fill that 3-4 hour slot (since it'll only take us 10 minutes to open presents). What kinds of traditions do you (or wish you had time for) Christmas Day?
Jenn
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 8:30pm | IP Logged
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We like to spend some time watching a movie together.. it's just calm, low key, and we can all rest from an early morning and/or late night. The littlest ones usually go to sleep.
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DivineMercy
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
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We open our gifts Christmas Eve. We go to Mass at 8 on Christmas Day. Then we go to my in-laws for breakfast and opening gifts with them. Then it is a kind of play it by ear kind of day - playing with new toys, playing outside, reading, watching Christmas movies.
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Maddie
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 10:27pm | IP Logged
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We have gone caroling at a nursing home on Christmas Day. The residents are usually most lonely on this day as family tends to visit before or after Christmas Day. Another Christmas Day the children all made cards for the Catholic residents (got their names and room numbers from the church) and delivered them on Christmas day. We all dressed in our best Christmas clothes, boys in suits, girls in their cute Christmas dresses and the residents were so happy to see children on Christmas!
We haven't been able to do it Christmas' that we're sick or I have morning sickness, but the years we have gone I'm glad we did. It really helps my children to not focus so much on themselves and the stuff.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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We used to get a puzzle (usually a 3-D puzzle) every year from my uncle in California, and we would put it together all day (well, sometimes for the next couple of days). You might see if dh would relent a bit to allow one family gift like a board game or puzzle that you could do all together for a couple hours.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: Dec 15 2009 at 11:12pm | IP Logged
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We plan a Christmas menu. We spend hours pouring over cookbooks and discussing what we want to eat. A few days before we get all the ingredients.
Christmas day we wake late, open gifts, and start cooking!!
We usually go to Christmas eve mass.
We also take a long time to open presents as I usually save the ones sent from family/friends and place them under the tree with the few Santa and mom and dad get the kids.
We don't live near any family so it really is a family day for us.
Anne
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 7:56am | IP Logged
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This may sound goofy, but only one person opens a gift at a time here, youngest to oldest. We all take the time to oooh and aaaah over it. We will sometimes even take the time to cut all those stupid plastic doodlies off a toy so that a small child can play with it right away. This makes the time stretch and also encourages appreciation for what one has received. Definitely takes more than 10 minutes.
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 9:38am | IP Logged
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I hope it doesn't sound too goofy, because I"m right there with Books! We've always opened gifts this way, too; part of the fun is taking time to enjoy everyone else's gifts and not just your own.
Peace,
Nancy
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jennthmg
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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That's how it took 3-4 hours...one person at a time opens, we pass around and discuss, then open the next one. But with only 1 present each...it won't take long.
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SusanJ
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 12:46pm | IP Logged
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I was also going to suggest one gift at a time.
Our kids have piles of gifts from out-of-town relatives but we purposely stretch them out and keep Christmas Day itself to just one gift. This year we might only do stockings which would be only fruit and silly putty.
Then to fill the rest of the day we are going to go on a family outing. We live very close to NYC so we are just going to go and take in the holiday sights and eat street cart food before coming home for a simple but elegant Christmas dinner.
So, maybe an outing of some sort? I also love the game/puzzle idea. A family board game was always a standard gift in my family and I just decided to start doing that with our kids this year, too.
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
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sewcrazy
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 1:08pm | IP Logged
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I go to 5 pm Mass on the 24th with my dd. While we are at Mass, my dh and the boys wrap their presents and make dinner. When we get back, we eat dinner. After dinner we open our "family gift" (One year a Wii, one year a dvd player, once a new TV and so on) We do it the night before, because stocking gifts often go along with the big present, for example Wii remotes the year we got the Wii. Before bed, I start a pot of soup for the next day.
Then my dh takes the boys to 7 am Mass on the 25th. While they are at Mass, my dd and I make a large fancy breakfast. We eat at the dining room table with good china. After we are done eating, we open go through our stockings at the dining room table. Then we clean up. After that we open presents in the family room. We have the gifts my dh and I give the children, the gifts they give each other, gifts from relatives in other states, and gifts from friends. So it is a lot of gifts 
During the day we watch Christmas movies, eat soup and play with presents. At 5 we go to my family's for dinner (and more presents  ) The hope is that the younger kids will fall asleep on the way home!
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LeeAnn
Wife of David, mom to Ben, Dennis, Alex, Laura, Philip and our little souls in heaven we have yet to meet
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folklaur
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 7:14pm | IP Logged
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i just wanted to give the OP a  .
you are handling it way better than i ever would.
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pixilated_momma
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| Posted: Dec 17 2009 at 11:38am | IP Logged
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Things have changed around here, so the 25th is mostly just us, the immediates. To keep Christmas feeling Christmas-y, we'll take time on the day also to make a birthday cake for baby Jesus and I'm getting the kids to practice Christmas carols, so they can put on a little show for Daddy and the baby.  We're not super-musical (I wish!), but I can tinker out enough of a recognizable tune and the kids love to sing!
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Veronica Maria
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Christmas Day Traditions??
