Our Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas Eve!!!!! I hope all of you had a stress-less month of December!  Can you believe that 2016 is almost over?  I can’t!!!! I had so many posts planned for this month and well, it all went out the door.  It seems like every time I sat down to post, I was distracted by something else.  Anyway I figured I’d squeeze in a little last minute post.  Maybe it’s just me but I love seeing what other families do for the holidays, IDK, is that weird? LOL  Soooo I decided to share with you guys a little bit of what my family does  around Christmas time.

1. Real Christmas Tree –  When I was a little girl, for as long as I remember, my uncle always brought my mom a real Christmas tree.  He never failed to bring us one and I remember being amazed at the fact that we had a REAL tree in our living room.  So now we continue on the tradition and every year we all go together to pick out a tree.  Well, I pick the tree, my husband just showcases them to me until I decide on one and Jaiden just agrees with me! haha!
2. Poinsettias & Mixed Nuts – I’m Spanish and ummm I don’t know any Spanish household that didn’t have Poinsettias & Mixed Nuts.  And since it’s what I was brought up with, I now do the same in my household.
3. Visit Santa – I’m pretty sure every family takes their children to visit Santa, so YUP it made my list! This year MJ tagged along with Jaiden LOL (she was feeling him up lol) 
4. Christmas Light Displays – What child isn’t amazed by Christmas Lights?  I know I still am.  Every year we’ve made it a tradition to go see fully decorated homes.  We went to so many places in NY that we will never forget.  Since we moved to Florida it was a bit hard to find places in the beginning but I’m so happy I’ve found a ton of places that I’ve taken Jaiden and now we get to go with MJ. (this was in West Palm Beach, Snug Harbor)
5. ELF On The Shelf – Yes I’m that mom that does Elf On The Shelf, ain’t no shame in my elf game!!.  Jaiden behaves so  I don’t use it in a way to trick him into behaving or anything like that….He just gets a kick outta seeing where it’s moved to every morning or what he’s doing.  I intend on passing him over to MJ next year since Jaiden is going to be 11.
6. The Christmas Eve Box – This is something I always did (without the box) but then I came across it on Pinterest and was surprised it even had a name.  I would always get Jaiden brand new Christmas PJ’s that he would wear to bed on Christmas Eve. When we weren’t at my parents house and he didn’t fall asleep too early we would make popcorn and watch a Christmas movie. So basically the Christmas Eve box is just a box (any box will do but, some people really go out of their way and get creative) that you fill with brand new pj’s, popcorn, a new movie, cookie mix to make for Santa, or a new cup…(anything Christmas-y), some cool socks…..anything goes.  And you give it to them (I normally place it under the tree as a gift from Zack (our elf) ) on the 24th.

Aside from the Gingerbread houses, the Santa Cookies we bake (or buy…..LOL I’ll show you in my next post what I’m talking about) or the gazillion times we watch ELF and other Christmas movies, that about sums up our Top Family Christmas Traditions….What are some traditions you have with your family? Leave a comment below, and as always Thanks so much for reading and if I don’t get to post tomorrow I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!