The Official 2007 Holiday Thread

[Kycha]

:menorah: The Official 2007 Holiday Thread:christmas:

:present: :present:
Okay, I know some of you are thinking I’m crazy, it’s September for gosh sakes. How can you be thinking about the holiday season and the summer isn’t even over yet? But, then again, I know there are a lot of us that like to plan, plan and then plan some more.

So, I thought it would be a nice idea to have a place where we could all share our ideas, family traditions, plans, pictures, recipes, great deals, Black Friday specials, whatever we want!

So, come one, come all! Let’s get this party started!!

[andrea2289]

OK OK I'll start :banana:

I am on my out the door so I’ll add more this weekend but our biggest tradition that immediately comes to mind is our NON-traditional dinner. After having a very traditional Thanksgiving meal, my sisters and I decided to ‘kick it up a notch’ for Christmas!

I have 3 sisters and we are all Italian so BIG meals are an every weekend thing for us. BUT on Christmas Day we do an ALL appetizer dinner. We wind up with so much variety and everyone just loves it! It is SO fun! We spend all year looking and testing out new yummy treats for our yearly dinner :)

Of course my first idea would be about food…:eat:

[Kycha]

That is a great idea! My family has done that in the past as well. We usually do my families holiday on Christmas Eve. So, just having a very casual meal like that is perfect.

A few Christmases ago I noticed that my Mom still drags out all those Christmas crafts we made years ago in school. She lovingly tapes them to the wall or puts them on the tree. So, I thought it would be a great idea to start making family craft projects. I found a really cute idea for an elf garland. I cut out the elf shapes beforehand. As everyone arrived on Christmas eve, I took their pictures using my digital camera. I was able to print the photos out immediately with my portable photo printer. Then I cut out their faces and glued the faces to the elf shapes. Then each person was able to decorate their elf selfs as they wished. We had such a great time and it is my most favorite memory from last Christmas.

Now, I am looking for another family craft project for this year. It has to be a project that anyone can do(from 1 to 90 years old), simple and fun. I would appreciate any suggestions you guys have.

Here are a few pictures of the complete project:
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/kycha33/IMG_2554.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/kycha33/IMG_2558.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/kycha33/IMG_2641.jpg

[Candi]

Here is my deal for the season. I got dd a pink leapster lmax at Target for $24.99. That's $65 off!!!

[Blessing and Miracle]

Yeahhhh! My favorite time of the year! I love Christmas and everything it brings! Of course, it's not too early! I've already started shopping and the boxes are being delivered! One of my favorite holiday traditions is we have a party everyday leading up to Christmas Eve. This begins December 1st! They are small parties during the week days and a bit bigger on the weekends. The grand finale is the Christmas Eve party and it begins around noon and ends at bedtime. My kids love it! Our parties include food, hot drinks, cold drinks, Christmas book readings, games, movies etc. We really do have fun and since we are a family of eight, there isn't a boring moment!! :rotfl:

[TIAMOMMA]

Here's a site you might enjoy:

http://www.organizedchristmas.com/

For all of you planners out there!

[arob414]

OK OK I'll start :banana:

I am on my out the door so I’ll add more this weekend but our biggest tradition that immediately comes to mind is our NON-traditional dinner. After having a very traditional Thanksgiving meal, my sisters and I decided to ‘kick it up a notch’ for Christmas!

I have 3 sisters and we are all Italian so BIG meals are an every weekend thing for us. BUT on Christmas Day we do an ALL appetizer dinner. We wind up with so much variety and everyone just loves it! It is SO fun! We spend all year looking and testing out new yummy treats for our yearly dinner :)

Of course my first idea would be about food…:eat:

I'm coming over to your house. :eat: Finger foods are my favorite foods. We do the same thing, took several yrs to convince my mom but because I work every other yr, on Christmas, and she keeps my girls, I finally convinced her this was easiest. We could fix the stuff ahead of time. And, they make great leftovers.

[Soccer Princess]

Oh Yay! I love Christmas! :) I already have about 2/3 of our shopping done this year. Everything is in rubbermaid containers in our "gift closet" and I have an Excel spreadsheet of what I already have and who it is for. I cannot wait until November when DH lets me start decorating! :)

Every year we have a baking day with all of us (and I have several more on my own lol) where we make all kinds of cookies and sweets and then split them up. We also have a gingerbread baking/decorating day that always ends up being really fun!

[Soccer Princess]

An idea I think that is really cute if you have kids: Take 12 Christmas books(they can be ones you already have, new ones, or a combo of both) and wrap them in different paper. Place all of the books in a basket in the family room (or wherever your family congregates). Then do the 12 days before Christmas with the books and each night have the kids pick a different book to unwrap and read as a family. You could also do this with 24 books if you wanted and start Dec 1st. I hope that made sense! lol

[disney_girl]

LOVE the book idea! I am definitely going to do that! I also have some things bought and need to organize them and get a list together. This is the first year that I really NEED to be prepared early and I need to get started!!! Love this thread!

[miladymajor]

Oh Yay! I love Christmas! :) I already have about 2/3 of our shopping done this year. Everything is in rubbermaid containers in our "gift closet" and I have an Excel spreadsheet of what I already have and who it is for. I cannot wait until November when DH lets me start decorating! :)

Every year we have a baking day with all of us (and I have several more on my own lol) where we make all kinds of cookies and sweets and then split them up. We also have a gingerbread baking/decorating day that always ends up being really fun!


Oh my goodness, you are so organized! That is so awesome! I haven't even begun to think about Christmas shopping yet! Probably because I am carrying a full load in college right now and some days I don't know my head from my hiney! :rotfl:

I love Christmas sooo much! :love: It always reminds me that I am so very blessed with a wonderful family, a roof over my head, food to eat and that the best things in life are free. I also love to bake Christmas cookies with my mom and sister, go shopping at the Galleria in Dallas, and make shopping runs with my mom and my best friend! Our family tradition is to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then have early dinner with my entire huge extended family. . .and then when we get home, we pull out the tree and start decorating for Christmas! I also love those cold, crisp evenings when you can smell the neighbor's fire burning in their fireplace. . .ahh, my favorite time of year!

[ItsmeSunnyV]

Here's a site you might enjoy:

http://www.organizedchristmas.com/

For all of you planners out there!

I recently came across this site, and :heart:it!!!

[Soccer Princess]

I also love that site!!!! :)

When does everyone start to put up their winter/holiday decorations? November? After Thanksgiving? December? How long do you leave them up?

[arob414]

I also love that site!!!! :)

When does everyone start to put up their winter/holiday decorations? November? After Thanksgiving? December? How long do you leave them up?

I actually start decorating as soon as I have down my Halloween stuff, so like the first wk of November. I really love Christmas and decorate most of the house. The most time consuming is the sunroom because I have a shelf that goes across one wall and another and is about a foot from the ceiling. I put Christmas lights across the back and then place alot of my enormous Christmas collection up there. I also put the tree in there, decorate a bench with mooses (one is 5ft), etc. It really isn't as tacky as it sounds. Or, at least I don't think so.:rotfl: But, it ends up looking like a holiday store. My uncle, who owns a barber shop, is as crazy as me and starts decorating around mid Oct. People come from all around to see his shop. He is lots of fun to shop for because he loves Christmas stuff, so I look for unique things. Because he has a shop, I can buy him the stuff I just don't have room for in my house.

[pbhall13]

I start putting the decorations up the weekend following Thanksgiving. One of our favorite family traditions is our cookie swap (yummy and with over 15 people participating you bring home a lot of cookies you wouldn't have time to make and can enjoy them up until Christmas) and our newest tradition is a Gingerbread house Decorating Day/Competition (adults and children). This has been really great and my girls just love it!!! They are so proud of what they each make and put it in their room as an added decoration.

[Kycha]

I would love to see pictures of everyone's decorations and celebrations. So come on everybody. Post some pics!!

[pbhall13]

here is one from our Gingerbread House Making Parties and we always go to visit Santa at the Burlington Mall (he is the best!!!!)
Pictured are my daughters Sadie, Sydney and nephew Nathaniel with Santa.

The gingerbread picture is my sister Marcie with Nathaniel, my mom, Sydney, Sadie and Me (Pamela)

[Kycha]

here is one from our Gingerbread House Making Parties and we always go to visit Santa at the Burlington Mall (he is the best!!!!)
Pictured are my daughters Sadie, Sydney and nephew Nathaniel with Santa.

The gingerbread picture is my sister Marcie with Nathaniel, my mom, Sydney, Sadie and Me (Pamela)

Wow! Those gingerbread houses look incredible! What do you do with them when you are done?

I love the picture of the kids with Santa. Too cute! I love your girls names too.

[sammielynn]

I just love getting ready for Christmas! I have started shopping but have just a few things put back for the boys. If I have the time everything in the house would have a bow on it.

[pbhall13]

After the 'contest' (and our judges are not part of the gingerbread making and they don't come until the end of the party to vote on favorites in adult and children category) we all take them home and in my house the girls are allowed to put them in their rooms as part of holiday decorations and I usually put mine on the table (if we have people coming over we usually group the 3 together). Ironically we don't end up eating them....my little one Sadie sometimes picks off some of the candy and when the time has come to say goodbye to them, we put out what we can for the birds and squirrels and the rest in the trash (the girls don't like to take part in putting in the garbage...they ask me to do that when they are in bed!)

My daughter Sydneys godfather had a skating pond and smoke coming out of the chimney. It was pretty impressive. I don't have a game plan for this year, but I like to try to pick a them. We have the most fun trying to come up with designs for stain glass windows in them (using fruit rollups or crushed candy melted the night before and put onto gingerbread...this is allowed) Can anyone come up with a good them???

Looking forward to seeing everyones pictures!!

[kayjo]

We will be celebrating Christmas in WDW this year. Christmas Eve dinner will be at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Christmas morning breakfast will be at Boma. I love Christmas at WDW especially the Osborne Lights and the Candlelight Processional.

[arob414]

We will be celebrating Christmas in WDW this year. Christmas Eve dinner will be at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Christmas morning breakfast will be at Boma. I love Christmas at WDW especially the Osborne Lights and the Candlelight Processional.

We have never been to WDW at Christmas, but I just start thinking about going, next year. We wouldn't go until after Christmas, don't want to miss out on extended famly fun. And, do to work obligations, probably only 3-4 days. This yr, would be perfect becuase the girls are out an especially long time, but too late to save enough money. Oh, well, part of the fun is the anticipation.:)

[tghamilton]

**subscribing**

[Soccer Princess]

I wish we would be at WDW during Christmas. We will be there December 16-21, which is good b/c we still get to see all of the special events, but I would love to be there the actual week! Maybe a in few years lol. :)

[3dog2kidmom]

We will be celebrating Christmas in WDW this year. Christmas Eve dinner will be at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Christmas morning breakfast will be at Boma. I love Christmas at WDW especially the Osborne Lights and the Candlelight Processional.

I am SOOOOO jealous!!! We spent Christmas 2005 at Disney (Santa brought our family a surprise trip) and I would do that every year if possible. We are giving the kids a WDW trip for Christmas this year, but we will take it in January since it's much cheaper and the flight vouchers I had are good then. But we'll definately be back at Christmas some other time. Enjoy!!

[kayjo]

I wish we would be at WDW during Christmas. We will be there December 16-21, which is good b/c we still get to see all of the special events, but I would love to be there the actual week! Maybe a in few years lol. :)

We will be there from the 17th to the 27th. We usually go just after Christmas Day and stay through New Years but last year there was a nightmare. The crowds were so large that MK closed each day by early afternoon. New Year's Eve at EPCOT was down right scary. We got caught in a large crowd in the World Showcase that just couldn't move. As the crowd grew larger, pushing and shoving started and those of us near the front were getting crushed and trampled. Luckily my DDs are teenagers but there were toddlers and strollers in that mess. It took us half an hour to get from Le Cellier to the main walkway into FW.

[Kycha]

Omg! That is frightening. I wonder why the crowds were so bad last year?

[Lisaj68]

Last year, my DD's with the help of DH & I made chain links out of red and green paper and for each day we put an activity. It ranged from "drink hot cocoa by the fire" or "make a Christmas card for grandma" to "go to Zoolights" or "make a gingerbread house". Of course, DH & I stratigically put the big things on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays!

I love the idea of wrapping books and opening one each day - will use that this year!

BF and I will be holding our 6th annual cookie exchange party this year. She and I do ALL of the food that we eat that night. Just appetizers, and we really go all out! We invite about 35 people, but with schedules, we usually have between 25 and 30 people there. Each person brings 4 dz. cookies so we all leave with tons of cookies !!!!

This year, we will be in WDW - which my kids don't know about yet!!! 1900 Park Faire on Christmas Eve and Boma on Christmas Day.

Can't wait for Christmas!!!

[belbook]

My daughter's getting married 12/29 so I'm cutting back on Christmas and worrying more about the wedding. There'll still be some Christmas stuff going on but I can't deal with both at full throttle.

[bbangel]

Now, I am looking for another family craft project for this year. It has to be a project that anyone can do(from 1 to 90 years old), simple and fun. I would appreciate any suggestions you guys have.


How about a take off on gingerbread houses but made with graham crackers. Use the crackers and Royal icing for the glue. Make them up ahead of time and then everyone can decorate their own house. I'm sure you can find the instructions for the houses on the internet somewhere.

Or you could do the face thing again but do it on gingerbread cookies and everyone could decorate their cookie.

Or you could have people decorate a small wreath and then add their picture in the middle.