Holiday Traditions

Holiday traditions tend to make the kinds of memories we cherish forever.

Looking for some traditions to start with your family? Here are some from our readers and friends that you can borrow and adapt:

• “We buy our children an ornament every year as well as a ball, when they move out they will get all their ornaments. I have all mine from growing up! We also buy a family ornament every year so our tree isn’t bare when all of our kids are grown up,” Chelsea Hendrickson

• “We watch Scrooge (with Albert Finney) every day for the week leading up to Christmas,” Nick Eliades

• “We go to mass Christmas Eve, and when we get back we have a huge fish feast,” Steph Solda

• “My grandmother would take us down to the Santa Claus parade. We’d walk along Yonge Street and look at the beautiful Christmas displays that The Bay and Simpsons used to do. Taking the street car was such a treat! Those memories are exactly why we now have the same tradition with our children,” Melanie Pereira

• “We go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, then visit Santa when he ‘arrives’ at Macy’s the next morning. Closer to home, each child has a mini tree in their room that they get to decorate with their own ornaments. We also do a tour of lights in a neighbourhood close to ours that puts on an awesome Christmas light display,” Stacey Downing Laurin

• “Growing up, my whole family always watched The Sound of Music around Christmas time. I hope to pass that on to my son,” Betsy Amores-Budziak

• “Hubby started this one: baking fresh cookies for Santa Christmas Eve! I get to watch White Christmas or some other thing with my feet up while they bake! Then, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Claus get to eat the cookies after baby’s bed time,” Kat Armstrong

• “My parents always let me and my brothers open a present on Christmas Eve (usually a game to keep us busy), so we are going to carry on that tradition,” Melisia Catling

• “We did and now do the same thing only now we do a Christmas box with jammies, a snack and a Christmas movie,” Jada Marie Catling

• “Tree Day! We always decorate our tree on December 18 every year. We even have shirts made up that to wear on tree day,” Alesha

• “As a kid we only got to open one present on Christmas Eve (the day we do our big Christmas dinner and go to church as Lutherans) and then Christmas day was more the commercial version. It was nice to have both a day with family focus and then a day with presents. As we’ve gotten older, presents have fallen by the wayside but we still get stockings from Santa the 25th and Christmas Eve is still family and church, but after midnight now is when close family and friends stop in for a nightcap, which makes it so special and lovely,” Anneli Must

• “Our tree and decorations go up on the first Sunday in December. New stockings for the kids are picked out and brought by Santa. Christmas morning we search for the Christmas pickle to see who gets the first present,” Sherri Norton

• “We have two Christmas Eve traditions – my husband buys my two girls new pjs every year that they must put on Christmas Eve (every year they get tackier and tackier – its a great laugh). Also, he reads ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in foreign accents,” Debbie Spratt Slater

• “New PJ’s on Christmas Eve for the kiddos and I always wrap their presents on Christmas Eve while watching A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim,” Vanessa Badour

• “My husband, my two sons and I set up our sleeping bags and pillows in front of the Christmas tree and sleep there on Christmas Eve. The boys love it,” Robyn Mast

• “We always open up new PJ’s on Christmas Eve. We also always attend a Christmas Eve Party. We watch Santa online to see where he is too,” Tonya Cowle