What Christmas traditions do you have with your grandchildren?

[Dan Murphy]

Congratulations to you both. You'll love it.

We are expecting our first grandchild in May also. Our son and daughter in law are expecting a baby boy!

Adding you in also.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I am so excited for you! A few of my closest friends have been grandmas for many years and often told me how wonderful it was. I really couldn't relate...until 9 months ago. This baby girl makes me feel so young and alive! There is truly nothing like it! Many blessings for a healthy baby andcontinued good health you!

The bolded confuses me. I have young kids and they just make me feel old and tired. It’s a paradox for sure.

 

[disneychrista]

I don't have any grandchildren so I was trying to think if my parents or my grandparents did anything special for Christmas and I honestly can't think of anything.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I do a "hot chocolate bar" - cookie baking party with the littlest ones. Had matching aprons mad and bakers hats with their names on them. They are 3 and 4 so we just do Pillsbury slice and bakes but the adults make gingerbread houses and the little ones help them decorate them. I send them all home with a tray of homemade cookies that I bake the week before the party.

 

[design_mom]

This might have to wait a few years, but my MIL invites all the grandkids over to make cookies. They make several kinds (including decorating cut-outs... although we have determined many years ago that the kids enjoy decorating the cut-outs but not baking them, so I generally bake those in advance and bring them ready-to-decorate. They decorate while the other cookies are in the oven.) The afternoon usually ends with ordering in dinner (usually pizza or subs) and a board game or video game tournament. The day became dubbed "Cookie Extravaganza" somewhere along the line.

Anyway, this tradition started close to 15 years ago. The grandkids are all grown now -- 2 in college and 2 with full-time jobs. They started asking about a date for Cookie Extravaganza around Halloween... so they could get it on their calendars, be sure to ask off from work, etc. It seems to be a hit. Even now.

 

[antmaril]

I am so excited for you! A few of my closest friends have been grandmas for many years and often told me how wonderful it was. I really couldn't relate...until 9 months ago. This baby girl makes me feel so young and alive! There is truly nothing like it! Many blessings for a healthy baby andcontinued good health you!

Thank you! Congratulations to you, too! I have friends from high school who are great-grandmothers already. My (late) seven years younger sister became a grandmother in her mid-forties. I, honestly, didn’t think it was in the cards for me, but…Yay! Enjoy your first Christmas with your granddaughter!

 

[Boopuff]

I have an Advent calendar, each day my grandson opens the door and he gets out the daily ornament to hang on the Advent tree. Each year everyone in my family gets a dated ornament. On Christmas day, everyone can open their stocking whenever they'd like, then we eat brunch and open gifts after.

 

[Keli]

I have a few traditions with my grandkids that have probably all been mentioned here. I get them advent calendars every year and that's the first gift they open (since it's dec 1st, lol). They do love them, I had to tell my grandson this year that he doesn't need to tell me thank you every single day for his advent calendar. He said "but I just love it so much!" (among us was a good choice for him apparently).
Our small town (like all the small towns in this area) have a nighttime Christmas parade every year. My husband borrows and ambulance from his employer and decorates it for Christmas and then we load the grandkids up (and their parents) and ride in the parade, throwing a ton of candy out the windows/doors of the ambulance to all the spectators. This year my youngest granddaughter was so enthusiastic I had to hang onto her as she leaned out the window so she didn't fall out. It is so much fun to hear the kids yelling "Merry Christmas" over and over as they toss that candy. I also buy them Christmas light necklaces, headbands or glasses to wear while throwing candy out during the parade.
I usually take them shopping to buy gifts for siblings/parents but this year they are shopping on amazon for each other. And when the gifts come in I help them wrap them up and put gift tags on them.
The kids get Christmas pajamas every year (I often buy them but not always) and they wear them to go see Santa and have their pictures taken. We usually stop somewhere for a treat afterwards to eat in the car on the way home as we look at decorations. This is a bit of a theme because we also usually go downtown in a nearby town each year to look at all the lights/decorations in a local park and walk around the square. And we stop for ice cream at an old-fashioned ice cream shop that the kids (and me!) love, lol.
I always try to find one or more local events to take them to like a play. This year we are going to see a Charlie Brown Christmas.
I buy the kids a Christmas outfit to wear to church the Sunday before Christmas. They'll often wear it one or two other places as well. I try to get something that isn't so overtly Christmas that it can't be worn at other times but sometimes it turns out that way. This year I have a green velvet dress for one, a Christmassy plaid for another and a green velvet vest and new suit for a third. Two of them are not overtly Christmas but that plaid might be hard to pull off in January, lol.
I'm saying usually with most these things because if something comes up and causes us to skip one of the traditions in a particular year it isn't the end of the world. I try to easily adapt and just pick it up again the next year. Covid caused a lot of things to not happen a year or two but we found other ways to celebrate.
Mostly I try to find lots of things to do with the kids, places to go, anything I think they'll like if I can afford it in both time and money. When I'm gone I want them to remember all the fun they had with hubby and I every year just like I remember all of the fun Christmas traditions I had with my grandmother. She was the absolute best grandma anyone could wish for and I seriously try to emulate the things she did to be as good a grandmother to my grandkids.

 

[Dan Murphy]

for a third

A third? For Ashli? Goodness, time flies, Keli! Hope all is well with you and your family. Great seeing you again, Keli. And my best to Ashli.

 

[Frwinkley]

I do a "hot chocolate bar" - cookie baking party with the littlest ones. Had matching aprons mad and bakers hats with their names on them. They are 3 and 4 so we just do Pillsbury slice and bakes but the adults make gingerbread houses and the little ones help them decorate them. I send them all home with a tray of homemade cookies that I bake the week before the party.

That sounds so fun!

 

[Frwinkley]

I have a few traditions with my grandkids that have probably all been mentioned here. I get them advent calendars every year and that's the first gift they open (since it's dec 1st, lol). They do love them, I had to tell my grandson this year that he doesn't need to tell me thank you every single day for his advent calendar. He said "but I just love it so much!" (among us was a good choice for him apparently).
Our small town (like all the small towns in this area) have a nighttime Christmas parade every year. My husband borrows and ambulance from his employer and decorates it for Christmas and then we load the grandkids up (and their parents) and ride in the parade, throwing a ton of candy out the windows/doors of the ambulance to all the spectators. This year my youngest granddaughter was so enthusiastic I had to hang onto her as she leaned out the window so she didn't fall out. It is so much fun to hear the kids yelling "Merry Christmas" over and over as they toss that candy. I also buy them Christmas light necklaces, headbands or glasses to wear while throwing candy out during the parade.
I usually take them shopping to buy gifts for siblings/parents but this year they are shopping on amazon for each other. And when the gifts come in I help them wrap them up and put gift tags on them.
The kids get Christmas pajamas every year (I often buy them but not always) and they wear them to go see Santa and have their pictures taken. We usually stop somewhere for a treat afterwards to eat in the car on the way home as we look at decorations. This is a bit of a theme because we also usually go downtown in a nearby town each year to look at all the lights/decorations in a local park and walk around the square. And we stop for ice cream at an old-fashioned ice cream shop that the kids (and me!) love, lol.
I always try to find one or more local events to take them to like a play. This year we are going to see a Charlie Brown Christmas.
I buy the kids a Christmas outfit to wear to church the Sunday before Christmas. They'll often wear it one or two other places as well. I try to get something that isn't so overtly Christmas that it can't be worn at other times but sometimes it turns out that way. This year I have a green velvet dress for one, a Christmassy plaid for another and a green velvet vest and new suit for a third. Two of them are not overtly Christmas but that plaid might be hard to pull off in January, lol.
I'm saying usually with most these things because if something comes up and causes us to skip one of the traditions in a particular year it isn't the end of the world. I try to easily adapt and just pick it up again the next year. Covid caused a lot of things to not happen a year or two but we found other ways to celebrate.
Mostly I try to find lots of things to do with the kids, places to go, anything I think they'll like if I can afford it in both time and money. When I'm gone I want them to remember all the fun they had with hubby and I every year just like I remember all of the fun Christmas traditions I had with my grandmother. She was the absolute best grandma anyone could wish for and I seriously try to emulate the things she did to be as good a grandmother to my grandkids.

That's exactly my goal. Kids will never remember the "stuff", but they'll remember the time spent.