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NOTE: This was posted December 19, 2016. I can’t believe this happened so long ago! Thought I’d share this happy memories once again. 🙂
Does your family celebrate each year with holiday traditions? Because of moving through 4 different states in the last 7 years, holiday traditions have become very important to me. No matter where we have lived, by having holiday traditions, I always feel at home.
For Valentine’s day, we craft paper cards and bake heart shaped cookies. For St. Patrick’s Day, being Magee’s means wearing green and learning about having Irish heritage. Fourth of July wouldn’t be the same for our family without some sort of fireworks – big or small. Halloween means every.single.year without fail we carve a pumpkin.
Reflecting on all of the past year’s fun, I realized at Christmas we don’t have a yearly tradition. Most times we put up a tree but there have been a couple years we didn’t. Sometimes we open presents at our own home; most times we don’t. Sometimes we drive around to see all the Christmas lights, but not every year. Lastly, from year to year, the location for the big holiday meal changes. So this year I have decided to do something about the lack of traditions for my immediate family.
This year, I am starting the tradition of a big fancy family meal at our home during the Christmas season with table cloth, china, and crystal even!
Although I love going to my parents’ and in-laws’ homes to celebrate the holidays, I want our kids to remember a specific event each year related to our little family. It is so important to me to have our kids, my husband, and I sitting around the table for a meal. I’m planning to continue this holiday tradition every Christmas.
For our very first Christmas family meal tradition, what to eat?
Pan cooked pork chops
Mashed potatoes with optional shredded cheese
Kidney beans
Cooked corn
Fried squash
Spinach salad
Garlic toast
Ice Cream with chocolate or strawberry syrup
Ok, I might have gone a little overboard with all the different food I cooked! The good news is we have plenty to eat for the rest of the week.
And to drink?
Well, we are the Magee’s and the entire extended Magee family loves Coca-Cola! My husband has loved Coca-Cola his entire life. Me too! My kids love to drink both Coca-Cola and Sprite. I like Coca-Cola and I also like to try new things so I’ll be sampling the Cranberry Sprite this year. My local Albertsons made it super easy to find what I was looking for. See… right at the store entrance!
When this fun display isn’t setup, Coca-Cola can also be found here…
What to wear?
Being that this will be our very first official family Christmas holiday tradition, I wanted to take a bunch of pictures and capture all the memories from it. We all dressed up. (Ok, I use this term loosely. They successfully arrived to the table without any major stains on their shirts.) It was fun for me to wear a cute shirt and skirt outfit. My husband is always looking dapper with a nice shirt on.
How to set the table?
If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know I love china and shiny pretty things. There aren’t many occasions in this house for breakable items to be used at dinner time. So when I came up with having a Christmas dinner for our holiday tradition, I had to get all fancy and set the table just right. China, silver utensils, fancy goblets, cloth napkins with easy to do (and use for the kids) decorative ties, table cloth, and complete with little lights on the table…
How to capture the memories?
Since it was just the five of us for dinner, capturing pictures wasn’t that hard. But if you are wanting ideas to make sure you get everyone’s photo from a big event, here are some ideas to make sure that happens.
- As soon as everyone has arrived, take a group photo. This is the very best time to get the group photo for a bunch of reasons. Some people might have to leave early or maybe they eat faster than others and then get preoccupied watching football. LOL Getting pictures at the beginning of the celebration is the best time to make sure you get everyone’s picture taken.
- For impromptu photos, don’t worry about finding the perfect setting. Your main subject is your family and friends. If you always wait for the perfect setting or timing, you might just miss getting a photo that you would hold dear for years to come.
- Create a “photo booth” area and ask people to take pictures to share with everyone. Designate one small area in your house with maybe a chair and some props. Put out a little sign that has “Photo Booth. Please take some pictures and capture this Holiday Tradition. Share at https://xxxxx.shutterfly.com/” Shutterfly has a way to make “share sites” with your own personnel URL. Now everyone can contribute to a group file of photos for the event straight from their phones!
Printables of photo props are available at the end of this post.
What to do with all of those photos?
After capturing all those photos, now enjoy them!
My extended family gets a group photo each year. This year I plan to have a print made since my last print is getting a bit outdated from 4 years ago. Thankfully, there is a great deal going on right now! When you buy 4 participating Coca-Cola products at Albersons you can get $20 off at Shutterfly Catalina print-out at the register with a unique pin code to use at Shutterfly between now and 12/28/2016!
Shutterfly has tons of ways to utilize all the pictures taken(and the $20 coupon!). Making photo books online is one of my favorite things to do. Fleece photo blankets would be a great reminder of your Christmas traditions and cuddling up with the entire family – literally! I also like the idea of finding a picture of each family member to make individualized placemats. Then at next year’s Christmas dinner, use these rather than place cards. There are so many ways to enjoy the photos captured during holiday traditions.
Having decided our family yearly tradition for Christmas makes me so happy! I’m looking forward to each year sharing time around the table with our family. And love creating memories that will last a lifetime for all of us.
What holiday traditions do you celebrate each year?
A pin for friends –
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I also love family traditions, especially at Christmas time! We generally have the same meal every Christmas Eve – I’m looking forward to it tonight! 🙂 I really like your idea of photos with props – hadn’t thought of that before, so it would be something fun to add to our list!
Merry Christmas!!
That sounds like a bunch of fun & delicious! Hope that you have a great time with your family and enjoy the props. 🙂 Merry Christmas!
I think that the photo booth is a great idea!
Our tradition is doing Christmas things together like, outside lights and decorations, and baking goodies to take and share with our family members at mom and dads on Christmas day! Merry Christmas!
Ohhh fun! We still haven’t drove around yet to look at lights. Hoping too tomorrow or next week.:) Merry Christmas!!!
I like the photo props idea to get people taking more photos! I also use photobooks made online to preserve the memories
I’m always wanting more pictures! Hope this is a fun addition for your holidays! I’ll have to make up some for Valentine’s day too. 🙂
I get everyone involved in the planning process. The table is one of my favorite elements of the dinner. We do tons of candles and lots of new foods.
Oooo! There’s just something extra neat about having candles on the table. 🙂
Our traditions are starting to change with a new generation hosting Christmas. My daughter is starting her own traditions, one being that she is using a paint drop cloth for the tablecloth – every holiday we all sign, date and leave a message on the tablecloth. This will be such an awesome sentimental tradition in years to come!
What an awesome idea!!! This could be used for generations! LOVE IT!
I take lots of pictures and I keep a journal. The Shutterfly books are wonderful. If I only had more time to do them!
We used to have lots of traditions, however as we grew up and had kids, families split and those kids had kids it just become hard enough to find a time when we could all gather for a meal or a few minutes to open presents.
I does get harder and harder to meet up with my extended family as well! We usually all make it to my parents or sisters at some point during the holiday even if for 4 hours (we live in 3 different states!).
I have a video cam rolling as soon as everyone arrives and I shut it off when everyone leaves lol
I like your idea of taking pictures early after arrival. Makes sure everyone gets in the picture!
We celebrate on Christmas Eve and always have a big dinner at my mom’s house. We look forward to it every year.
We make a ginger bread house and cookies with my kids and Granddaughter.
Fun! I love making cookies with my kids! We usually make the ginger bread house at my mom’s each year with the kids. It’s a fun tradition.
I think traditions are very important for making holidays special. Sometimes I like to start a new one.
We all have a big Lasagna Christmas Eve dinner, then off to Midnight Mass.
Ooooo! I haven’t had lasagna in so long. That would be delicious!!!
My mom had a notebook that she stored with the Christmas tree. Each year she would write about things we did and our favorite gifts. We would read it when we put the tree up and write in it when we took the tree down.
This is such a cool idea! I love it and am going to copy it starting this year. 🙂
Sounds like you REALLY have it planned out! Wish I could be so organized!
Our family tradition is having our kids get a photo with Santa every year. Then we put the photos on display near our Christmas tree. It’s a great way to capture the magic of the holidays.
GOOD REMINDER! We haven’t gotten our kids pictures yet this year. Gotta get that done!
i love traditions we have a large family and i love to capture the moments.. This year we are having everyone wear santa hats .. i love your post it is very helpful ,We need to start at the beginning to take the pictures . very smart idea thanks
I love capturing family traditions and beatiful memories
Love capturing all the prescious moments ty
Love your new family tradition. This one can be carried on through the years no matter the ages of everyone. Great idea!
THANKS! I’m so happy to have found a tradition that will work for us each year. 🙂 Can’t wait to see you!!!!!!
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Wow that’s a very extensive write-up! Looks great!
Taking the time to capture each holiday with pictures is so very important! Thanks for the inspiration!
Awww! Of course! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂