A few posts ago I was sharing our Christmas lists & decided that it might be fun to share some of our holiday traditions with you. I always love seeing what other families do, so we wanted to invite you in and let you know what Christmas looks like for us. As you know, this year we are adding a little bundle of baby joy to our family so this is probably the final year that things will look like this. Next year will more than likely be a year of transition as we decide what traditions we want as a family of 3.
Anyways, here are a few of our favorite traditions around the holiday season! I would love it if you would share yours in the comments as well!
Marc & Barb Christmas Dinner: We started M&B 3 years ago as a small business venture with my sister. We launched in June of 2019 on Etsy and have grown to mostly in person markets since then. I don’t share about it a bunch on here, but I do over on my IG sometimes. Anyways, the first year we were around, my dad told us that he was treating us and our hubs to the Marc and Barb Executive Team Dinner around the holidays. He said that running your own biz is a lot of work and he wanted to treat us to dinner to celebrate all that we had accomplished in our first year. Then it became tradition. Now each year we get together nad reflect on what was different & how we grew that year and dream and set goals for the upcoming year. There are usually some gifts involved & a really yum dinner. It is fun to get the 6 of us together and just celebrate our business and growth.
Regnaert Girls Christmas Cookie Baking Day: This one started probably 10 years ago when my grandma decided it would be fun to get us all together to make cookies. Now I think I shared some pictures from last year’s baking day, but it went from “let’s make a few of everyone’s favs” so let’s bake all day and barely eat because we can’t stop making cookies. My grandma is one of those people who knows all of her neighbors and is always looking after others so she mostly takes the cookies to those she cares about most & then we each take a small plate of our favorites for our families. As you know, though, it is truly not about what we make as much as it is just spending intentional time together — laughing and making cookies. This year I will try to remember to document the event & share what cookies we choose on here for you!
Marciano Family Christmas Eve: Josh and I got engaged a few days after Christmas in 2014, then got married in early February of 2016. Since the first Christmas I spent with his family in 2014 (we actually met at a christmas party in 2013), we have celebrated on Christmas Eve. Back then, his brother still believed in Santa, so we opened gifts from his family on Christmas Eve and then they got Santa gifts on Christmas Day. So when we got married (even though no one believes in Santa anymore), we kept this tradition going. Each year, we spend Christmas Eve with his family which usually consists of church, appetizers & then Christmas presents and pjs with a Christmas movie & punch. It is so nice to not be stressed about going back and forth between two parents’ houses on Christmas Eve & we love soaking in every minute of the celebration with his family. For the last handful of years, we have sent Christmas lists to each other & all picked a spending limit to stay within. There’s only 4 kids (Josh + me & his brother + his fiance), so that’s kinda how we roll.
Regnaert Family Christmas Day: When we got married, we bought a house 0.8 miles from my parents house. Basically that means that its walking distance on Christmas morning to head over there. We’ve always lived close & so do my grandparents, so usually my youngest sister will text me when they wake up over there & we will get dressed and head over to celebrate with my parents (& whichever of my siblings make it for the holiday). We will do stockings over coffee/hot cocoa/tea in the morning with cinnamon rolls (pillsbury, we aren’t too fancy here). This is while we wait for my grandparents to show up. Then we do gifts (i’ll explain in a second), and then stuff our faces with the biggest brunch you’ve ever seen. It’s one of my favorite things. Then we usually split and all go home and take care of our pups and all reconvene that evening for dinner & games (& sibs who didn’t open gifts get to do it now). Usually with dinner comes grandparent gifts and all the dessert. I actually think this is the first year that all the siblings will be in town for Christmas Day (which is pretty exciting).
So a few years ago, we all got married/engaged and that made our kids count up to 7. We decided that year to change up our “kids Christmas” and start drawing names for a secret sibling. My mom comes up with a new way of assignment each year, but her and dad do a drawing and you get a text with your secret siblings name and their list to shop from. We put a spending limit on it and only buy for one sibling each. Only rule is you can’t draw your spouse. It’s a fun way to shop for one another and celebrate Christmas with siblings without feeling the need to spend an endless amount of money on the other 5 sibs. As the family grew, my parents and grands switched how they did things two. Mom & Dad do 3 gifts (at 3 different price ranges) and wrap each person in their own wrapping paper. It’s a fun view when you walk in and try to guess which is yours. Then grandma and grandpa started doing a white elephant sort of game with the numbers. So they buy gifts in a similar price range, we all draw numbers and pick gifts in that order. You can steal and swap and all that good stuff, then they usually top it off with a food or Target gift card. Shopping for 7 grandkids is a lot of work so this is a fun and low stress way to still celebrate the holiday season.
What traditions do you love with your family? I’m considering making homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve to enjoy Christmas morning, but it might be a little much to take on with a newborn this year so that might have to wait until next year. We also want to incorporate the Christmas story into our morning Christmas routine. Maybe we will read it to Ryder this year. There has to be a kids version of the story in a book out there somewhere, right?
Most importantly, we are looking forward to spending a lot of time with family soaking in life and the holiday season as a family of 3.
Xoxo,
Josh, Hil and Ryder
hrmarciano 