I know I keep coming back to the importance of traditions and spending time with your children and creating meaning in your family, but, well, it matters a lot!  I thought I’d share some of our family holiday traditions. Please feel free to add your own…

Since giving is as important as receiving, each of our kids gets a small budget to buy a gift for everyone else in our family.  They all enjoy this tradition – and I enjoy taking each them out, one at a time, to buy their gifts.  (This year, my youngest could barely wait to wrap her gifts.  Almost the moment that we finished decorating the tree, her gifts appeared under it, wrapped in birthday paper because we hadn’t even pulled out the Christmas paper yet!) 

We have a few special recipes that we like to make, some having been handed down from my and my husband’s childhoods.  And our Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning menus are family traditions now, too.

My husband and I like to watch White Christmas every Christmas Eve.  I will admit that we sometimes fall asleep near the end — it’s a busy day, and after getting organized for the next morning and sitting down with a glass of wine, it can be pretty late.  But we’re both looking forward to the years when our kids are old enough to stay up with us and watch it, too.

We take turns opening gifts.  I know the free-for-all approach works for some families, but we like being able to see everyone open each of their gifts and turn our attention to both giving and receiving.  

What special traditions do you have in your family?  How do you give this season of overindulgence and materialism, meaning for your family?