Speaking of the Holiday - Christmas around the world.

[LJSDesigns]

I know we have people from all over the world here, so I am wondering how everyone celebrates the holiday. What are the traditions of your country, family, etc.

I think many of us are familiar with American traditions such as Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, lots of lights and presents and the one we don't talk about that much, overspending. LOL

Individually, I think we've also adopted other traditions as people immigrated to this country. My mother always had a pickle ornament on the tree because of our German heritage and also a golden spider, though I can't say for sure where that one is from. Since my parents have passed, our traditions have changed and now our holiday looks like this:

As a family, we like to get together at least once and bake cookies or make chocolates for the season.

We prefer to spend the bulk of our Christmas budget on adopting a family for the season, so once we get them we strategize on how to fill their needs, shop for them and then have a wrapping party where we do all the wrapping at once while listening to Christmas music and having a pot luck dinner. In essence it is our family Christmas party.

Our Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve where we each open a gift, always, always pajamas, watch It's A Wonderful Life with hot cocoa, cookies and other treats.

On Christmas day we open our presents first thing in the morning. We each get four presents based on "something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read." After the presents are open, we play games, listen to Christmas music and have a special dinner together. It always used to be ham, but now we change it up from year to year.

After dinner we play more games and as it gets dark, we start heading for our individual homes. All and all it is a quiet, relaxed holiday for our little family.

Let's hear about yours.