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~* Christmas Memories *~

Nothing puts me in the Christmas Spirit more so than cuddling up on the couch with my family (with a big mug of hot chocolate of course) and watching the classic Christmas movies I grew up watching. They’ve become traditions in our family – every time we have a family dinner leading up to the holidays, we make sure to watch a Christmas movie after we eat. Some of my favorites are:

 

- Miracle on 34th Street (the original)

- It’s a Wonderful Life (I can’t make it through this movie without crying...it’s so heartwarming!)

- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (you HAVE to laugh at this one...we always had major holiday-mishaps too!)

- All of the Claymation Christmas movies. I watched these as a kid with my siblings and shared them with my kids, who will no doubt share them with their kids. All of my little nieces and nephews love them too!

- Home Alone (this is a ‘newer’ one but it will always be a favorite.)

- A Christmas Story (you’ll shoot your eye out, kid! My brother always wanted a BB gun and parents never got him one because they were worried he would hurt himself too haha!)

- A Charlie Brown Christmas (the Peanuts gang will always be special to me – my grandparents would always read us the comics in the newspaper on Sunday, so I started loving them as a child. It’s not the start of the holidays season until we watch their Christmas special!

- Scrooged (Love Bill Murray and this funny take on the Scrooge story!)

- Elf (another newer one but so cute!)

- Christmas in Connecticut (I would watch this with my Grandmother every holiday season. This was one of her favorites!)

- The Muppet Christmas Carol (my kids LOVED this movie when it came out. They were a big fan of the Muppets and this holiday film didn’t disappoint. We all still watch it together every year!)

 

Some of my favorite holiday traditions with my family are…

 

* Christmas cookies. We set a weekend aside where the whole family comes together (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.) and we BAKE! We bake a lot. We bake cookies for all of us, plus enough to give away to our neighbors and friends and Church members. It’s so fun and festive and we’ve been doing it for many years now that it doesn’t feel like Christmas until the frosting comes out!

*Cutting down our family Christmas tree. Our kids may be all grown up now and living in their own houses, but Alex and I still go out and cut down our tree. It may be a lot smaller than years before, but we still love the tradition. We make sure to drink hot chocolate and listen to Christmas albums while we’re decorating it.

*Christmas gift exchange. We have a huge family, so instead of buying presents for everyone, we do a secret santa. Everyone’s name gets dropped into a Santa hat and we pick names on Thanksgiving. We spoil the person we get and it works out so well. It’s so fun trying to guess who we got each year!

*Christmas-Eve mass. Alex and the kids and I still go to Christmas-Eve mass every year. We choose to go to the 4pm service, so we can get a nice dinner together after, just the four of us. Christmas day is always so hectic (but wonderful!) with all of our extended family, so Christmas Eve is a quiet little time for the four of us to celebrate together.