Photo courtesy {eclaire}
With Christmas right around the corner, there are many traditions that families follow. Christmas Eve services at church, family dinners, opening presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.
This week’s question has to do with any traditions you and your spouse have for your marriage.
What are the Christmas traditions in your marriage?
Share yours in the comments below.
Happy Holidays!
Several traditions have evolved for us.
I jokingly insist that the holidays be taken in order so Christmas music can’t be played in the house until noon on Thanksgiving at the end of the Macy’s Parade when we see Santa. The kids (who are 20, 17, and 13 now) still watch it with us. Then we put on the first Christmas music CD that my wife and I bought together.
I’m half Italian and grew up in an Italian household. As a nod to that my wife always makes a big pot of spaghetti on the day we put up our tree (usually two weeks before Christmas) then she uses the sauce to make lasagna and we have that with antipasto on Christmas eve.
There is a whole list of Christmas movies that we MUST watch as a family every year and that everyone looks forward to.
On Christmas eve I read “Twas the night before Christmas” from a book that I bought early in our marriage before we even had kids. then everyone can open one present. Then, and I’m not even sure how this started, after everyone goes to bed and my wife and I are alone we exchange “naughty” adult presents that we buy for each other – games, toys, books, etc.
23 years and counting. It works for us!
@Bruce- your last tradition sounds like fun.
@Corey- Traditions as a couple? Nope can’t think of a one. I believe to make couple traditions, two of you have to participate. What are your?
This is our first Christmas as a married couple so we’re just figuring things out right now. I know we’re planning on enjoying a lazy morning in bed before heading out to have breakfast together and opening our gifts to each other before going to his parents house.
One tradition we started and I hope continues is that on our dating anniversary (Nov. 5th) we have a date night and go out to pick a special ornament for that year.
This year we have little money in the house, and it really is true, Christmas is much better without it.
What may become a tradition is making and hanging up snowflakes.
Laurie, it is indeed. The gift that keeps on giving
I always make sure we have all the presents wrapped and ready before Christmas Eve. After the kids have gone to bed, I get my “personal present” (lingerie), and we spend the evening having our own celebration. It’s a great way to relax before the big day!
Rachael … we too have a similar tradition. While we don’t have a lingerie gift per se, we always make sure to spend some time “under the tree” so to speak. It’s been a tradition for the past 14 years of our marriage.
On a separate note, we switched the cookies and milk tradition to Pop Tarts and Chocolate Milk after learning that Santa had a thing for those instead. Tasty!
We always check out the local Christmas lights on Christmas Eve … and we have Santa bags hanging on the tree numbered 1-24 that have little gifts in them. We take turns finding the appropriate day on the tree and then seeing what treat is in the Santa bag.
Great time of the year for some great traditions … always looking for new ones too.
All this under the tree sex! Wow! Don’t you all get shocked from the static around a tree? Oh that probably makes it more fun.
@Cody- Did you not get the memo from Santa? He said this year he wants you to leave him a beer and some salted nuts. He is cutting back on sugar.
I guess this year would be a good one to start a tradition. Maybe the trick is to not call it a tradition but to do something that he would participate in for sure. Maybe a good smooch under the tree isn’t a bad idea. Or how about a special gift that leads to a scavenger hunt to candle light and who knows what else.
For 24 years my wife and I have picked out a dated ornament together. We have a tree trimming party where friends and family gather to help us trim the tree. Then she and I finish the tree by hanging the dated ornaments, begining with the oldest. It helps us remember the good times and the tough times we have been through together.
@Raymond- That’s a great tradition.
When my wife and I were first married, we were really broke. It was a stretch for us to have a Christmas tree. She had a small collection of ornaments she had bought and saved through the years. I had one ornament. It was a Denver Broncos ball she had given me just before we got married. We didn’t have a star for the top. So, she took ribbon and lace from our wedding and made a bow for us to use as a star. Ten years later, the Broncos ornament goes on the tree before any other ornament. And, we still use the same bow for the top of the tree.
Our “couple” tradition is that Christmas morning my husband makes fried onions and potatoes. We only have it a couple of times a year (it’s an artery clogger for sure!) and our kids don’t like it. So we enjoy it all on our own while the kids have cereal and play with their new gifts (since we open family gifts Christmas morning).
Our traditions are still in flux as we’re adjusting our outside family commitments and making our nuclear family more of a priority.
Some of these traditions sound like great fun! We’ve been married for only eight years, so we’re still working on this.