Traditions...aw, this thread is making me miss my mommie!!!! LOL!

My mom was a single mother, a nurse, and she taught classes too, when she wasn't taking them... I learned to cook at a young age, but during the holidays, my mom went nuts in the kitchen. My favorite memories are of me, Mom and sister in the kitchen, making yummies - fudge, cookies, cake. She would run apple cider thru this glass perculator. In the perculator basket were red hot candies. That cider was sooooo good - and made the house smell great.

As my mom was a single mom, there wasn't much money for presents. I remember one Christmas, things were really tight. I was about 11??? I remember NOT getting my hopes up for Christmas. well, Christmas morning there was all kinds of stuff. My mother was a crafter when she had time. She must not have slept for 2 months, making all that stuff. I still cry when I think of that Christmas, it is my favorite Christmas memory.

Mmy mom's favorite christmas tradition is this: every Christmas Eve, we all got to open one present, and it was always new pj's to look nice for Santa Claus. She still makes sure that we all get our eve pj presents.

Okay, I have to go cry now! LOL!

— Kellie

Oh WOW, that reminds me of Stephen talking about going shopping and he would buy for his Uncle, who lived with them, a box of nails or screws, because he was kind of a "handy man". This Uncle, who I was very fortunate to have known, must have been one of the most gentle men I have ever met!! I miss him as much as I miss my own mother and father!! I can remember him coming over for Christmas, and that's when I had my first Pomeranian, and we lived on the second floor of a two family house. He would come up the stairs and walk into the living room then get down on his hands and knees to say hello to the puppy nose to nose!!!

I remember that more and more with the new puppies!!! "Unkie" was one of the true GOOD GUYS!!!!

— Leigh

Oh I like this thread, Leigh! I remember something my parents did one year that became a tradition. A couple days after Christmas, when we were still on break from school, and it was too cold and too much snow outside to want to play out there much, my mom went to the hall closet to get something out, and lo and behold, she found a wrapped gift! She said Santa must have hidden this in here and it has all your names on it (me and my three brothers). It was a game, and we had a blast playing it for a couple hours that afternoon. A few days later, my dad found another package with all our names on it under their bed. It was another game we could play together. That was so much fun that the next year, it happened again. Santa always hid one or two extra presents for the whole family somewhere in the house that we wouldn't find til a couple days after Christmas. Kept the fun going for awhile.

As we got older, we started the tradition of opening one gift each on Christmas Eve at midnight. While waiting for midnight, we listened to Christmas music and ate all kinds of hor' dourves such as cheese puffs and pigs in a blanket, and Christmas cookies. Ron's family had the same tradition so we carried that one on with our kids - though these days we don't wait til midnight!!

— Ginny

We always have a tree decorated with red apples and miniature gold violins and horns. We have other things, too, but we have to include those. It started when my DD was a toddler and I was afraid she'd get hurt on the glass bulbs we had always used before. So I went out and looked for all non-breakable decorations, and that was all I could find. So now it doesn't seem like Christmas to us without the apples and musical instruments.

We like to add one new special ornament each year; usually it's something we make. Starting this year, I think it will have to be PC from now on!!

It is also traditional for us to NEVER have a live tree indoors. I always feel so sad to see all the trees thrown out with the garbage right after Christmas.

When we had a house, we always left the tree up until Easter, when the ornaments would be replaced with blown-egg decorations we made. But living in an apartment, there just isn't room for this anymore.

We also like to bake all kinds of cookies the week before Christmas. Some of the cookies MUST be spritz cookies, or it just isn't Christmas! Most of them go with us to my mom's house on Christmas day to be gobbled up by our huge family. But we always save some to be eaten in January so we don't have an after-holiday "let down" feeling. This way,that Christmas-y feeling lasts a while for us!

— Barb

In the early to mid 1980s I lived in rural Western Massachusetts. I was playing out a Farmer Linda fantasy and among other things, I had some dairy goats. For a couple of years, at the request of a neighbor, I walked a couple of my goats in the snow out around their house to leave footprints in the snow on Xmas eve. The young kids who lived there evidently were absolutely wide-eyed in the morning thinking they were reindeer prints. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure how to also put footprints on the roof. And I had to go back after I brought the goats home and walk the dog on the same route to cover the tracks between my house and the neighbors... about 1/3 of a mile of tracks. LOL! The goats got a good reward, though. Neighbors would give us their xmas trees when they were done with them, and my goats loved to munch on them. :)

I forgot how much fun that had been. Makes me smile wide just to remember those days...

— Linda

Here's one I started and have passed on to many others. You can cut this recipe down substantially if you're only going to use it for a few kids. It's a great gift to give to a class of kids or all the neighbors.

Recipe for Reindeer Food:

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 package glitter (cheap stuff works best)
• Mix thoroughly and package in baggies.