Take Time to Share Your Christmas Traditions: Holiday Traditions

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We have a few holiday traditions, but I'm always on the lookout for more.

1. Growing up my siblings and I had our own Christmas trees in our rooms that we decorated. I loved having my own tree and have continued this on with our own kids. Ethan has his own little Christmas tree in his room that he decorates every year. This year was the first that he knew what to do, even if he hung all the ornaments on the lights themselves. I just have a few ornaments for him. As he gets older then I'll let him pick out more miniature ornaments to decorate with.  
2. Since Ethan was born I have started is decorating the yard with lighted reindeer each year. We have a 'Mama' and a 'Daddy' and baby reindeer to represent how many kids we have. I buy the reindeer after Christmas when they are at least 50% off. In fact, I think I bought baby reindeer #2 last year after Christmas lol. Now after about 5 or 6 kids our front yard is going to look a little cramped! haha! It doesn't look like I have taken a photo of the reindeer before so I'll be sure to do it this year. 
3. Another family tradition that I continue to carry on from my childhood is purchasing a Hallmark ornament for each child and storing it away. When they are married they will get their stash of ornaments as one of their wedding gifts. They will instantly have several beautiful ornaments to decorate their first tree. 
4. Making a Christmas stocking for each member of the family is one tradition I love. It is so much work, but the stockings are so beautiful. I wrote more about this and have pictures on the Christmas Crafts post from a couple weeks back. 
5. Anyone have a neat advent calender they use?? I'm on the lookout to make this a tradition as well. Our neighbor gave us one this year from Trader Joes. It has the little chocolates in it for each day, but it is not a reusable one. I would like something that can be used from year to year. I need to remember to be working on this for next year!
6. Gingerbread House Decorating Party. Oh boy, this is my most favorite tradition! I started this annual party the year Ethan was born. We just had our 3rd annual party this past Sunday and it was a blast. I will have my post up in a couple of days with all the pictures so be on the lookout for it. In the meantime you can visit my gingerbread house blog where you can see the photos from previous years. After 3 years of Christmas parties and 2 years of Halloween gingerbread parties I've now got a smooth system down :-)
7. We have a couple of Christmas photo traditions: our picture in front of our tree and a Santa photo for the kids. I just posted the Santa Photo from this year on my Wordless Wednesday post this week. 

That is pretty much our Christmas Traditions! I can't wait to hear about yours!