Our house is decorated for the most part. Our tree is up and beautifully trimmed. Stockings are hung. Unfortunately we do not have a hearth so we hang ours from our TV cabinet..lol Garland is strung around the house and soon I will start the holiday cookie making. My grandmother passed on to me the holiday cookie cutters from my childhood. Every holiday she would make a huge platter of sugary treats and it would sit for days on the table as we would pass by and grab one here and there. She would make several different types of cookies, fudge, and divenity. The house always smelled so good. I used to make Russian Teacakes every year but have not done it since we've had the girls. This year C and I will be baking up a storm, using the passed on cookie cutters, keeping the tradition going. The other day we made rice krispy treats, her first time, she had a blast. However the treats only lasted the day in our house, their just too yummy to let sit all by themselves!
I love traditions. One of the memories that always stands out the most of tradition growing up is on Christmas Eve. We would always have a big Christmas Eve dinner. Grandparents, uncles, friends and neighbors would come over for a wonderful feast. For dessert my mom and grams would go into the kitchen and prepare the pudding. Spooned into beautiful pedestal cups they would place a almond into the center of the pudding in only one cup. Then mix around the cups as to try to fool themselves as well. Then the pudding cups would be brought out and served to the table. Now here is the fun part, the part I always was excited for hoping and dreaming it would be me! Whom ever had the almond in their pudding got to open one present of their choosing that night, Christmas Eve. This to me was the most exciting part of dinner of course, what kid doesn't want to open a present early? This is a tradition I will be passing down to the girls when they are a little bigger to understand the rules and I know they will love it as much as I did.
What traditions from your childhood did you always look forward to?
40 comments:
Those are beautiful photos! Love the tree! When I was growing up, I looked forward to decorating the tree and praying for a white Christmas so we could go sledding.
Looking good! My Dad always got us a new Christmas ornament every year and he would give it to us when we put our tree up. Sort of an early Christmas gift. Now that I am on my own, I have all those ornaments that I can look back on Christmases past.
The tree is really beautiful!!! I just made the Russian Teacake cookies yesterday and I swear I've eaten a dozen myself! They are so good!!
I've been realizing recently how much my childhood sucked, but we did have some fun traditions like fondue on Christmas Eve..
Your tree looks lovely. And what a fun tradition with the almond..
Love the tree! I always really loved having holiday lights in my bedroom at night. :)
Great Photos - very beautiful tree!
Thanks for sharing your traditions!!
Gorgeous decorations!!
Gorgeous tree! I love the almond in the pudding idea. I bet that would be exciting for a child. I will have to remember that.
beautiful, very festive
I LOVE the decorations...hummm but I don't see one of my Santa's sitting on the shelf...LOL!!!
Momma always baked cookies too and I have several of the cutters that she used. Wow..I guess they would be antiques by now seeing that I'm ummm ok I think I will stop there. I started a cookie tradition with Chaz when he was two. We bake up a batch of cookies on Christmas Eve so they will still be fresh and warm for Santa. AND to make such there are cookies to leave Santa..we have a cookie monster in our house...need I say more??
Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos...family traditions and bringing back a few good memories of my own.
Hugs,
Regi
Your Christmas tree is lovely!!
And what beautiful decoration you have there!
Thanks so much for your comments.
Nice to meet you!
Have a great Festive Season!
:)
How sweet! I guess the milk and cookie preparation for Santa was always the most exciting tradition for me as a little girl. Now it's the family's annual Christmas Eve Card Judging Competition.
Your tree looks absolutely beautiful!
If my littlest one knew about the milk an cookies yet- he'd go nuts ;)
Very cool tradition.
Your home is beautifully decorated.
We will be putting up our tree tonight.
We did not have a lot of traditions in my home growing up.
I'm hoping to create a few with our little guy.
Swinging by from SITs,a little late :)
Love your Tree,its very Christmasy!
Though I am a horrible baker,and end up buying most of the goodies we eat around here during the Holidays, I really love divinity and found a recipe I am going to attempt since its so hard to find anywhere!
My favorite tradition as a child was the fact that presents NEVER were under the tree when I went to bed on Christmas eve....and Christmas morning, WHAM, stocking's full and presents are there!
my parents were sneaky :)
I love your tradition! We each opened a gift before Christmas when I was growing up.
Stopping from SITS
I love making cookies with my Mom and daughter. This year my granddaughter helped. So fun!
What a great idea! I can just imagine how psyched I would have been about hoping to get that almond as a kid.
Such a pretty tree. How wonderful you have your childhood cookie cutters!
Wonderful pictures at your blog. My best tradition long time ago was to speak a poem under the christmastree...
Servus, so long and great wishes to you from germany
Kvelli
It sounds like you have some great holiday traditions. I'm still trying to build mine. -Victoria from MBC Follow Me Club
Hi! Just stopping by from SITS.
I love your tree. THe ribbon is a beautiful accent! And the traditions sound really wonderful. I hope you have a very merry Christmas!
We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was our Christmas pajamas. We're 31 and 28 now and my Mom still gets them for us every year!
What a fab tradition! My fave is hot cinnamon bus on Christmas morning....with milk for the kiddies and a LOT of coffee for us adults!
What fun traditions! I love it! And your tree is beautiful. My husband and I are just starting our own Hanukkah traditions for our 2 year old. We both had similar Hanukkah experiences growing up - one gift for each night of Hanukkah and one really big Hanukkah dinner with lots of latkes, brisket, and apple cake. We can only do one dinner since 8 nights of latkes is deadly! =)
I love your Christmas tree. It is so big and round and full!
Stopping in from SITS!
I love the pudding cup idea, but we're one of those weak families that opens a bunch of stuff on Christmas eve anyway!
Your tree is lovely! I look forward to taking neighbor gifts to all my friends and neighbors! I also look forward to our annual pilgrimage to Tucson for Christmas.
Your decorations are beautiful!
I love the almond tradition. That would be so exciting for a child. I may borrow this idea when my children get older. What great memories it would create - thanks for sharing it!
hi stephanie,
so many traditions i have passed on to my daughters but cooking and baking are up there on my list! i haven't stopped over in a while and i wanted to say "hi!" and wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday seson!
Shelley
http://iamstillstandingafterallthistime.blogspot.com
http://theplaygroundprincess.blogspot.com
http://theuntraditionaltopiaryblog.blogspot.com/
http://thedcladies.blogspot.com/
Merry Christmas!
Our tradition is going to church Christmas eve and then the kids get one gift to open which is PJs.
In my family we always got to open one present on Christmas Eve. The problem is we usually opened the best one. My husband's family got to open one and it was new pj's. So we went with his when we had children. It was kind of like mine. And since my husband lived in Denmark for 2 years we have a rice pudding. I hate them except for this is flavored with vanilla and is SOOOOO good. There is a game with it that we don't do. The Danes put a blanched almond in and you have to be sneaky and keep it hidden in your cheek and others guess who has it. The prize is a marzipan pig. We just do the pudding and have pretty much since we married almost 24 years ago. When we have big family get togethers we'll do the game.
Such a pretty tree! can't wait to see your cookies!!
Thank you very much for visiting and commenting, so sweet! Very nice to meet you too!
Happy Holidays!!
What a great tradition - though I think if I tried to let just one kid open a gift on Christmas Eve I'd have a riot on my hands!
beautiful decorations! i just got mine up tonight.
thanks for welcoming me to SITS!
LilMsSnarky
www.snidecommentary.com
Thanks for stopping by to welcome me to SITS! I'm trying to figure out where everyone is coming from! I am so glad you came by my blog, please stop by again soon, hope you liked it!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Loved reading about your Christmas traditions- what fun it would be to play the pudding/almond game! My kids would love it!:)
Blessings from a new SITS member. Merry Christmas
I love to make candy during the holidays. My favorite tradition is putting up the Christmas tree.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and welcoming me to SITS.
http://www.eyeballgirl.com
I looooooooooooooove your tree!~! It's so beautiful, and I am a sucker for ribbon on a tree. Just gorgeous! Thank you for coming by my blog from SITS!
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