It's Christmas Day, the presents are opened, now what?

[mommaU4]

I saw the other day that if you order a bike on Walmart.com and have it shipped to your house, it will not be assembled. You could always order a few bikes for Christmas, putting them together should take most of the afternoon .

Thankfully the kids all got new bikes last year...pre-assembled.

Then again, growing up, I always told my mom that I wanted one of those big fancy, everyone gets dressed up, soap opera Christmases.

What a great way of describing it. "A soap opera Christmas." How true! I remember watching one of the soaps, can't recall which one, and it was such a production. Everyone was dressed as if they were going to a formal wedding held at the White House or something.
Made for good t.v., although personally I am more of a jeans and outrageously tacky Christmas sweater kind of girl.

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

How about a drive up to Mt. Charelston for a snowball fight and some sledding? Or a hike at Red Rock?

We're in the same boat we have one DD who is 14. We do have my parents here though so we usually go to their house and have a Wii tournament.

You could go to the Strip and see the Bellagio Conservatory and maybe get a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3.

Or host a open house and have friends visit you. Make a few kinds of soup and some treats and invite people to drop in and say hi.

If you really want to go take the 2.5 hour drive to Zion. I would love to do this if only I could talk my hubby onto it!

 

[asmit4]

I'm 31 and an only child. A few years ago we started a new tradition- opening our gifts after dinner at night. We really liked it and will continue to do so. (for the adult exchange at least) I am due with our first child in January and we will likely do the spread out idea- a gift every hour or something. Along with maybe a movie some years and visiting family on other years depending on our travel plans.

 

[mafibisha]

and have been going to an elderly home (although it's an assisted living one) since the kids were 1 and 3. They are 10/12 now. We go during thier meal time. Just call a few days before and find out how many people there will be. We have made cute gifts like candy cane reindeer or cards, or we just put chocolates in a nice basket. Sometimes the kids bring one of thier gifts to share. That way all the residents are there. If you go later you may find a few in a common room though. We dress up and walk from table to table giving candy and saying, "Merry Christmas". My DD gives hugs (DS not so much) and talk a bit about what they got from Santa. People always have tears in their eyes and tell me how amazing it is that we come out. (Usually it's about 30min out of our day.)

It's at noon and we are always rushing to get there. We make monkey bread about 8, open stockings, eat bread, have gifts around 10 (open one at time) and then get ready to go. I'd be really sad if we stormed the tree at 6:30 and Christmas was over at 6:45.

Have fun!

Aww, I just love this. Bless your hearts, while y'all are being kind to others, you're setting such a great example for your kids.

Something I had read about years ago and incorporated in our family's traditions is making Christmas last all day. We do stockings first, open presents and eat breakfast casserole (every year - it's tradition and I put it together the night before). Then open more presents and play/try on new clothes/prepare our Christmas afternoon feast. The kids always save three presents each for Christmas night, to open after it gets dark and we've eaten (usually Prime Rib) and visited with family and made it back home. My husband reads the Luke passage out of the Bible about the birth of Jesus and then we open the presents by the fire.

Believe it or not, my children have always been willing to save back some presents and have something to look forward to at the end of Christmas day! Even though sometimes it's really hard!

This sounds very much like our day. Except we haven't read the Luke passages at night. Although we go to church Christmas Eve, I think we'll add that to our Christmas Day celebration. Thanks!

 

[C.Ann]

Our wallets are generally pretty empty by this point, so please, no suggestions of chartering a private jet and flying to Paris for lunch....unfortunately.

Thanks in advance!

In that case, I got nothing..