It’s great that you do a piñata since it was created for Christmas. The 7 cones on them represent the 7 capital sins and we hit/destroy the piñata to represent how Jesus came to help us get rid of sin.
Every year we we go to my husband's grandma's house, who lives next door, for an all day event with his extended family. At first our children would open their stockings and gifts at our house and then later open gifts at her house. We did not have much money to spend on gifts when they were young and the joy of giving the simple gifts to them was overshadowed by the plethora of presents next door. So we solved the problem by giving them their wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and then letting them open only their stockings on Christmas morning. That way they had all Christmas Eve afternoon and night to enjoy what we had given them. This has worked very well for us. (Now those "little" ones are 19, 17, 15, and 11!)
I grew up French Catholic. We always have a gathering on Christmas Eve and serve Tourtiere. We have goodies and we go to Midnight Mass. This year Midnight Mass is going to be virtual. Christmas morning we have our traditional pancake breakfast with ham and bacon then open up gifts clean up and have Christmas Dinner. Sometimes pork or ham or turkey. This year I'm not getting traditional gifts. I'm redoing house. Paint and flooring. I just received my new hood fan for over my stove. I am very Greatful for all I am able to do. My little blue house was built in 1954. Some of my fixtures and such are original but worn. Time to replace. I am spending this Christmas Eve with my daughter and her family. My grandkids are going to have a great Christmas all the gifts this year are for them. My husband is Spanish so we incorporate his traditions as well. We celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe which is really fun. My grandchildren love celebrating the different Catholic Saints and special dsys during this time. We celebrate St Nicholas Day. Generally it's small treats and a Christmas craft. This year they got the Nativity scene to put together. Of course we do Advent and we follow an Advent Calender because we wanted our children and now Grandchildren to do for others as well. They also get a treat everyday from their Advent Calander. Our traditions are big and something special everyday.
I grew up French Catholic as well and have similar memories. Except after we got home from Mass, Santa had come so with my aunt and her family, we had tourtiere and many other goodies and our gifts. We stayed up until the wee hours in the morning. Then we'd sleep in. Later in the day, we would get together with the same family for a big Christmas dinner. Once our parish stopped having midnight Mass, we no longer celebrated Christmas Eve. Sad loss... no longer have any family nearby and once I was an adult, the tradition had stopped.
With 4 young kids, advent season was hectic. My mom made a poster board cutout of a tree. When one of the kids did a good deed, we would run to mom and she would assign if the deed was a small,medium or a big deed. We would then go to a box of various shapes of the previous year’s Christmas cards and select the small, medium or large piece. We would attach that to the cardboard tree. Then on Christmas Eve, we always had a fire in the fireplace. We added the good deed tree to the fire. All our good deeds went up to heaven to release souls from purgatory. So, my mom got a lot of peace and extra work out of her kids during advent. Smart mom!
On Christmas Eve, we bake cookies for Santa together, then go to Mass at 4 or 5, where our children are in the pageant. Then we come home and eat Mexican food. This was my hubby’s family tradition growing up, so we continued that and I usually make enchiladas but sometimes tamales. Then we say prayers, put out cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer, and milk or eggnog, and our bedtime story is The Night Before Christmas. Christmas morning we open presents and then I make a big dinner with turkey and all the fixings. Christmas night we go look at Christmas lights.
This is my first catholic Christmas season ever. I am so excited. Our traditions have always been to celebrate the 24th and at midnight open presents and cheers everyone and call anyone that couldn’t make it. The dancing starts at midnight. However now that I am catholic I cannot wait to go to church on both Christmas Eve and day with my children. I am also very excited to do advent and get my children closer to God. The Catholic faith is so rich and beautiful. I am so grateful to Jesus that he called me back home. God bless you and your family and thank you for your videos.
As kids one of our gifts was always a 'family present' from Santa which was generally a board game or another activity which we do as a family. Also one kid was nominated to hand out the presents from under the tree and we would go around in a circle opening presents (similar to what you do!). On Christmas morning we always have croissants for breakfast and for lunch we go to my Parent's or Nan's house. As an Australian the weather is typically very hot by that point (40 degrees Celsius) so lunch is generally cold meats and salads with Trifle and Pavlova for desert.
This year I’m planning on breaking a Piñata as well. I saw on some video that what it signifies is the destroying our sins. So, I can’t wait to start this tradition with our family.
We sing happy Birthday to Jesus as well but on a fruit cake, and I still do that!!! We always went to midnight mass!!! And still do!!! My dad always read the night before Christmas pome, then we hung our stockings!!! My mom and dad did an awesome job of Jesus's Birthday and the magic of Santa and all the wonders of Christmas!!! We are catholic also! Baby Jesus isn't put in the Manger till Christmas Eve ... We burn a candle for good luck for the new year. (A German translation from my daddy's side of the family) the one thing I've added to my family is pj's ( Matching) and cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning!!! We also leave cookies 🍪 for Santa and carrots 🥕 for the rain dear!!! The funny thing is our only child a son is 26 and expects and looks forward to all this stuff at Christmas!!! You have awesome and amazing traditions keep them up, im hear to tell you your children will love 💘 and remember them for ever!!!
The neighbor's dogs ate the turkey, in The Christmas Story movie 😁 - so they had to go out for Chinese - we watch that one every year too - and the Chinese food scene is hilarious - the singing of, "Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra - Ra Ra Ra Ra 🎵🎶!"
My family stays up on the 24th and on 12 am on the 25th we open our presents. We have Parrandas. And have parties and fun all throughout the Advent and Christmad seasons. We watch Christmas movies and attend Mass. 🇵🇷🇵🇹
Beautiful family! My mom makes tamales;) I was raised Catholic. But just now wanting to learn more. This year I started doing the advent calendar, I prayed my first rosary on my own and hope to continue learning. Your videos have helped me so much, Thank you. Hope you and your family have great Christmas❤
My children are teens now but Christmas Eve has always been a day we have spend together eating, playing games just being a family and before we head out to midnight mass I read the Night before Christmas story I have used the same book that I first used for my daughters first Christmas 25 years ago. When we come back from Mass the youngest child puts Baby Jesus in his manger. Christmas day starts by going to the cemetery (both my parents have passed) come home, open presents friends and neighbors drop by house is full of Christmas carols, voices it's a loud fun morning . As we live in the UK dinner is a 4 course sit down Turkey roast dinner. I thought as my children grew up they would want to do things more up to date. Ie go out last minute shopping visit with friends, but no they still want to do as they have been all their lives. It warms my heart to know that when I'm gone they will still be doing the same with their families. Building Memories. God Bless and Best wishes to you and your family
I grew up as a catholic in Manglore, India. The week of Christmas we start doing some traditional sweets, we go to church a few days for cleaning, decorating the church, putting up the crib, and choir practice. On the 24th we put up our home Christmas tree and nativity set, in the evening we go for mass, there will be nativity play after the mass, once we are back have pork bafat and idli for dinner(sanna & dukra maas one of the manglory delicacies). On the 25th we arrange the Christmas sweets and cake in a plate and give it to our relatives and neighbors (10-15 families). Also someone from the church comes to see our nativity scenes and we get prizes for the best ones. Noon family lunch and evening again we go to church and take part in the games arranged by the youth. Now that I have married and moved to a different country things have changed, but we still try to keep few of the traditions(like dukramaas n sanna 😉).
Grow wheat in a dark room bring it out on Christmas and it turns green. This is an old tradition which represents new life 😊 God bless and Merry Christmas from Australia. P.S it's David's Wife Andriana.
We’re probably just gonna stay home watch Christmas mass in the Vatican and on Christmas moring we go to my grandparents house and I usually watch the queens Christmas speech we also eat Chinese food every Christmas night
I have a Christmas tree covered with little picture frames of all the grandchildren and past Christmas. The 2 oldest are now 15 and 5 grandchildren so that's alot of little pictures! They love looking at all the pictures since they were babies!
My husband is becoming Catholic, and I really think he would love to see some testimonials or any sort of video where your husband talks about being a catholic husband and father. This is just an idea that I have--maybe your husband doesn't want to come on camera and thats ok too! I am really enjoying all your videos!
Late in replying to this but Heather has mentioned that her husband does not want to be on camera. There are however, many male Catholics online - I would certainly recommend Trent Horn and his wife.
Growing up my mom had stand next to the nativity scene on Christmas Eve night, and sing happy birthday to Jesus. That is the only real family tradition we had.
Your parenting instincts are spot-on and smart and your children are so fortunate to have you for a mum...love the traditions and yes spend on experiences, not stuff.
Good morning Love tradition so much . Thank you for sharing your Christmas tradition.God Bless you and family Merry Christmas 🎁🎄. You and your husband are doing a wonderful job on raise your children bring Jesus into your life and home. Love your TH-cam channel have a good weekend. God Bless.
Love that you make a birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus ❤ Every year we do "The Christmas Star from Afar." We started letting our kids buy each other a small gift to open in Christmas Eve. Also, been reading a different Christmas story each day with some type of activity. Like today we read The Grinch and we fixed Grinch popcorn. 🎄
I go to my inlaws on Christmas eve and to my sisters on Christmas day .my wife and i usually go to mass on Christmas day at 9am. I love Your Christmas traditions You mention that You do. Many Blessings to You Heather and the family.
I’ve purchase a new ornament for our kids every year. It was fun to let them choose, especially if we traveled during the year, then the ornament became a memory keepsake as well. Each one is marked with their name and the year. My mom grew up in Finland and my MIL is from Germany, so we put real candles on our tree and sing carols, usually during a Christmas party with family and friends. Being military for a long time, we introduced a lot of different people to this custom and some were quite shocked at the idea. 🤣 We’ve never had a fire, though! The kids always helped me bake traditional Finnish ginger cookies and prune tarts from the time they could stand on a stool at the kitchen counter. Christmas Eve Mass and opening gifts one at a time. On Christmas Day, we place Jesus in the manger and Joulu Pukki (Santa comes from Lapland 😉) puts one small item in the stockings.
Some years we would go to 5:00 Mass with my aunt and uncle the next town over as opposed to our church/Mass. They’d serve cake for Jesus’ birthday at their church. That was pretty darn cool at a kid. Seemed so foreign to me to have Cake at Church!
I was able to get tickets for the Christmas Eve Mass I’ve attended for at least the past 20 years. Those tickets sold out in first 5 minutes the registration opened. It’ll be the first Mass I’ve attended in person since February 29th. Thanks be to God: Alleluia, Alleluia!! Likewise, it’ll be my first Christmas ever that we are home bound. Christmas Day is always the day both sides of the family are visited. 8-12 hour day. 1 day a year but that is a lot of family. I also wait until the morning of Christmas Eve to listen to all types of Christmas music, mainly on the traditional side.
Polish people share Christmas wafer (which is blessed in church) during Christmas Eve During sharing Polish people apologize to each other for trespassing Also Christmas Eve in Poland is no meat supper we serve traditional dishes for the evening Also Santa is coming during Christmas Eve
I am German so I guess our family's Christmas traditions are not necessarily Catholic only but German. Also my dad is protestant so there are certainly influences from his side of the family as well! We always prepare the Christmas Eve dinner throughout the day of the 24th. When we were younger my brother and I would go to our babysitter an elderly women for 2 hours in the morning so the house was quiet for some time, now that we are adults and our former babysitter has passed we go visit her grave and light a candle. In the later afternoon we would go for a walk at the river or around the neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights and get out of the house for some fresh air. Then we get all dressed up and prepare little appetizers for the evening which we have before dinner. Then the door to the living room opens where all the presents are set under the tree (yes in Germany presents are part of Christmas Eve and it's not Santa who brings them but the Christkind - the Christ Child - an angelic figure originating from Martin Luther). Before opening any presents we sing some Christmas Carols and wish each other a Merry Christmas. We then will each hand each other one present, have some appetizers and enjoy each others company. Throughout the evening we alternate between opening presents and the dinner table. At 10.30 pm we go to the "Midnight mass" which usually lasts for about 1.5 hours. A wonderful tradition that we have is that the former altar servants serve during this mass, people like my brother and I who are in College or even their first job but who come back for Christmas. At the end, after singing Silent Night in the dark church only illuminated through candles the altar servants and the priest stand at the back door of church (usually it is freezing cold) and greet each and everyone with a hand shake wishing them a Merry Christmas, that's the moment the Christmas spirit really hits. The following two days are a holiday in Germany and the 25th is purely a day of rest and enjoying family time. On the 26th we would go to mass again. However for me the Christmas season lasts until the 6th of January in those two weeks we would usually go and see all of the extended family and have some celebrations always revolving around the Christmas tree, Caroling and Christmas cookies.
So much fun!! Glad I watched this 🌟 My family used to have a tradition when I was young (I'm 31) where we had a bunch of people come over to decorate Christmas cookies a few days before Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve dinner at my grandma's with all my cousins while she was alive (basically a Thanksgiving potluck + ham), then we'd go to Mass, then on Christmas we'd have a huge breakfast with bacon and pancakes after opening presents. I love all your traditions!! So important to remember Who, and I'm excited to keep a few things from my family growing up and change a few things when I have a family of my own. Merry Christmas!!
My family has Christmas dinner then we open presents afterwards and go to church on Christmas Day. I watched the 6:00 pm mass on EWTN and had dinner with my family. Myself and half sister are the only two Catholics in our family and the rest are Evangelical but all celebrate Christmas because we both believe in god. Merry Christmas 🎄
What a REAL CATHECHESIS for we mistreated Catholics. You, nice family are fresh air in the middle of this fearful environment. I think you are in the right path to rise Catholics. It’s encourage other families to believe families are the best nest for new good ones. You are giving us what we lack from the ones supposed to give that to us. We just are mistreated, abandoned, sometimes blamed and abused. Tank you! God protect us and bless us with good encouraging shepherds.
As our kids have gotten older we have moved away from gifts as much as possible. I started giving a family gift of experiences. I plan out something fun as a family for each month. Some are a trip for the a night or weekend or a bike ride and picnic. Dinner out etc.., seven fishes for Christmas Eve.
Heather, you have beautiful and fun traditions. I love the matching pj's. Our kids are grown, but we used to do the pickle search, and our daughter would make a birthday cake for Jesus. And we love "A Christmas Story." I just discovered "The Nativity Story" last year, and it's a beautiful movie. Enjoy every moment with your little ones. As I'm sure you're finding out, they grow up so fast. Merry Christmas!
Thank you very much Heather for sharing your Christmas tradition. Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful family. Greetings from the Philippines! God bless
I loved hearing about your family traditions. I’m getting married so my fiancé and I are trying to decide what traditions we want to implement in our family. ❤️ Merry Christmas!
Heather thx for sharin' your Christmas traditions, it's really beautiful. We usually go for Midnight Mass after mass and every year we have Bible Housie or just housie that is organized by the members of our church in the compound area of our church and there's cake and coffee that is served too , lot of families stay back and enjoy this time while they even chat together, it's really nice and fun and warm feeling of togetherness, and the entire week there's somethin' or the other organized at our parish be it family dinner for all the families of our parish or star making, nativity seen making, games, carol singin' etc on Christmas day we have families or friends visit each other with homemade sweets and gifts also so many families here go out in the neighborhood or other neighborhood and churches to see the nativity scenes and Christmas lights & decor, everyone is so creative , i loved the big floating crib that i had seen once on a pond but there are lot of times we have opted to go for Christmas family retreat either during Christmas week or before the Christmas week.
We have a lot of the same traditions! This yea we're adding in baking a cake for Jesus, then we also do the 4 p.m mass, then go to my grandma's house where its soooo full of kids, it's great! Then Christmas morning they see what Santa left, we eat breakfast, then we do gifts amongst ourse and we also do one at a time, then we also go to my inlaws around lunch and stay most of the day! Merry Christmas to you guys!! Thanks for sharing your faith filled life with us all!!!
I love this video. I’m a first time mom (my son is 10 months old right now) and I’ve been thinking about what traditions I want to form as he gets older and we grow our family. Thank you for sharing! God bless, merry Christmas!
We have three kids (15, 13, and 9) and take turns opening on present at a time. It's so much more peaceful and it helps the kids really get excited for their siblings. I'm trying to figure out how to do experience gifts in this post-sickness world. We can't afford to do something big, but I'd like to do at least one of their gifts be tickets somewhere or something similar.
Your Nativity scene is so beautiful! And I plan to attend mass at midnight with my neighbor. I make a small dinner this year due to the virus. Love to watch movies related to Christmas. And say my rosary. And I schedule to make a Cake 🎂 for King Jesus.
Beautiful, beautiful celebration. My children and their families, come to us on Christmas Day, and my husband and I, go to midnight mass, on Christmas Eve.🎅 We celebrate putting Jesus in the manger, and the children, love that. We also sing a Happy Birthday song to Jesus, and celebrate with a cake. Next we sit in a circle with the kids, and we exchange the presents and opening them. Dinner time, is a huge celebration, with many many dishes, that everyone get to enjoy. Thanks for sharing. 🙏👏🌟👍🥰✝️🌻❤️❄️🎄⛄️🍬🎁🍭
I love your traditions! We always drove downtown to look at Nativity scenes and lights and went to Mass. Christmas day big dinner with relatives after church.
We are fortunate to have life as normal with no covid here. We go to Mass on Christmas morning as a family, have a nice breakfast and then have lunch as a family. We open gifts together. After lunch we go for a walk, and some times go to the beach as it’s summer.
beautiful family and traditions. My husband shares a birthday with Jesus but he points everything to celebrating baby Jesus with our 8 kids. You are such a inspiration to us all in our Catholic faith. God bless u and your family this Christmas esp. with new baby girl Maria Grace!
Thank you for sharing. Do you have the french toast casserole recipe posted somewhere? We also go to Mass on Christmas Eve early evening (family mass) then we have egg nog and tamales/mexican food for dinner, as that is the tradition where we live. In morning, my adult children, and sometimes grandparents come over and we have a big breakfast, including a special traditional heritage bread: poticia, and then we open gifts one by one, so we can enjoy what everyone got. My tree has ornaments obtained over the years since the kids were small - including things they made in school, and each year I get a new ornament usually representing something we did that year, like this year I have an ornament from Hawaii from our family trip there this past summer.
As a Catholic from NYC, the Chinese food tradition is for Jews in NYC because all the Catholic restaurants were closed! All our Jewish friends did that
I believe it is so important to have family traditions, & with so much darkness in this world, your beautiful children should enjoy all the fun Christmas festivities, Jesus Loves the little children & said let them come to me. Singing Happy Birthday with a cake in His Honour is special & they will remember these family times together. I am starting a family tradition this year I will be Hand crafting gifts, my daughter is an artist & she will be painting artwork. I am painting & decorating wooden boxes. The gifts that the 3 Wise men brought Jesus were from the heart a little gold, Myrrh & Frankincense oils...fast forward to the video game & electronic era, I think it is unacceptable to gift kids with violent video games 😢on the night of Peace when our Saviour was born....even us adults should concentrate on Prayer & not what we will buy for eachother. Instead of buying yet another item for people who have everything why not go to your city & just approach a homeless person & ask if they would like a hot meal, Jesus says to feed the hungry, clothe the naked & help others in True Need. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU & BE A BLESSING IN SOMEONE'S LIFE🕆🌟❤
We always go to my parents’ house on Christmas Eve and open presents with them after having a dinner of heavy hors d’oeuvres. I’m still debating whether to light the Christ candle on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Logically, I think we should light it on the day symbolizing his actual birthday rather than the day before. Our kids are so young, we won’t be up until midnight Christmas Eve! Christmas morning my parents try to come over early to watch the kids open their gifts and I’ll serve a really simple breakfast. We’ll be attending Mass at 10 am Christmas morning and spend the rest of the day with my family relaxing as much as one can with a bigger family😊 I’m considering just letting the kids play with the gifts from Santa Christmas morning and then opening the gifts from us after Mass 🤔
Mi selebracion es así de todos los días no puedo viajar donde están mis hijas hijos pero tengo familia de primos primas hnos cuñada sobrinos conmigo el mi casa
ignore the comments about CELEBRATING Christmas. The Entire World must Celebrate the Birth of Jesus (Church, Prayers,sharing) and decorating our homes and Listening to Christmas hymns songs. In Honour of Jesus Christ our ONLY True Love. In the Bible David danced, and Solomon Celebrated. Nothing wrong with it. it is a non protestant (born again Christian) attitude to call the Catholic Christimas Traditional celebrations as pagan. In Honor of Jesus Party on with Him in your heart all day and night. Jesus Is The Power!!
This is a little off topic but I'm wondering if anyone has some advice? I'm struggling with whether or not to go to Christmas mass. I have ms and take an immunosuppressant and my sister is pregnant. I really don't want to bring her anything she is due soon. My family has been going to Sunday mass as the attendance at a few masses at our parish have been small. But all of the Christmass masses are almost full. Should we go or stay home this year? I don't want to not go but am really struggling with the thought of going when the church will be so full. I know everyone will be socially distanced but I am really worried about possibly getting my sister sick. I've been praying about this alot and any advice would be much appreciated.
Go to Mass. We have to live for Christ first. Christmas is a Holy Day of Obligation anyway. If your pregnant sister is going to Mass where everyone else will be, then so can you. Getting sick is a risk we all take by being alive. I had a baby during this whole "crisis" and it was fine. I went to Mass and even the store sometimes. God gave us immune systems, which we need to work to keep strong by eating right, getting fresh air, and exercise. Unless your sick with symptoms, I wouldn't be concerned. We can't live in fear or else we stop living.
It’s great that you do a piñata since it was created for Christmas. The 7 cones on them represent the 7 capital sins and we hit/destroy the piñata to represent how Jesus came to help us get rid of sin.
Never knew!
Good info.
Every year we we go to my husband's grandma's house, who lives next door, for an all day event with his extended family. At first our children would open their stockings and gifts at our house and then later open gifts at her house. We did not have much money to spend on gifts when they were young and the joy of giving the simple gifts to them was overshadowed by the plethora of presents next door. So we solved the problem by giving them their wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and then letting them open only their stockings on Christmas morning. That way they had all Christmas Eve afternoon and night to enjoy what we had given them. This has worked very well for us. (Now those "little" ones are 19, 17, 15, and 11!)
I grew up French Catholic. We always have a gathering on Christmas Eve and serve Tourtiere. We have goodies and we go to Midnight Mass. This year Midnight Mass is going to be virtual. Christmas morning we have our traditional pancake breakfast with ham and bacon then open up gifts clean up and have Christmas Dinner. Sometimes pork or ham or turkey.
This year I'm not getting traditional gifts. I'm redoing house. Paint and flooring. I just received my new hood fan for over my stove. I am very Greatful for all I am able to do.
My little blue house was built in 1954. Some of my fixtures and such are original but worn. Time to replace.
I am spending this Christmas Eve with my daughter and her family. My grandkids are going to have a great Christmas all the gifts this year are for them.
My husband is Spanish so we incorporate his traditions as well. We celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe which is really fun. My grandchildren love celebrating the different Catholic Saints and special dsys during this time. We celebrate St Nicholas Day. Generally it's small treats and a Christmas craft. This year they got the Nativity scene to put together.
Of course we do Advent and we follow an Advent Calender because we wanted our children and now Grandchildren to do for others as well. They also get a treat everyday from their Advent Calander. Our traditions are big and something special everyday.
I grew up French Catholic as well and have similar memories. Except after we got home from Mass, Santa had come so with my aunt and her family, we had tourtiere and many other goodies and our gifts. We stayed up until the wee hours in the morning. Then we'd sleep in. Later in the day, we would get together with the same family for a big Christmas dinner. Once our parish stopped having midnight Mass, we no longer celebrated Christmas Eve. Sad loss... no longer have any family nearby and once I was an adult, the tradition had stopped.
With 4 young kids, advent season was hectic. My mom made a poster board cutout of a tree. When one of the kids did a good deed, we would run to mom and she would assign if the deed was a small,medium or a big deed. We would then go to a box of various shapes of the previous year’s Christmas cards and select the small, medium or large piece. We would attach that to the cardboard tree. Then on Christmas Eve, we always had a fire in the fireplace. We added the good deed tree to the fire. All our good deeds went up to heaven to release souls from purgatory. So, my mom got a lot of peace and extra work out of her kids during advent. Smart mom!
That is fantastic. God bless you and your mum
On Christmas Eve, we bake cookies for Santa together, then go to Mass at 4 or 5, where our children are in the pageant. Then we come home and eat Mexican food. This was my hubby’s family tradition growing up, so we continued that and I usually make enchiladas but sometimes tamales. Then we say prayers, put out cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer, and milk or eggnog, and our bedtime story is The Night Before Christmas. Christmas morning we open presents and then I make a big dinner with turkey and all the fixings. Christmas night we go look at Christmas lights.
This is my first catholic Christmas season ever. I am so excited. Our traditions have always been to celebrate the 24th and at midnight open presents and cheers everyone and call anyone that couldn’t make it. The dancing starts at midnight. However now that I am catholic I cannot wait to go to church on both Christmas Eve and day with my children. I am also very excited to do advent and get my children closer to God. The Catholic faith is so rich and beautiful. I am so grateful to Jesus that he called me back home. God bless you and your family and thank you for your videos.
As kids one of our gifts was always a 'family present' from Santa which was generally a board game or another activity which we do as a family. Also one kid was nominated to hand out the presents from under the tree and we would go around in a circle opening presents (similar to what you do!). On Christmas morning we always have croissants for breakfast and for lunch we go to my Parent's or Nan's house. As an Australian the weather is typically very hot by that point (40 degrees Celsius) so lunch is generally cold meats and salads with Trifle and Pavlova for desert.
This year I’m planning on breaking a Piñata as well. I saw on some video that what it signifies is the destroying our sins. So, I can’t wait to start this tradition with our family.
We sing happy Birthday to Jesus as well but on a fruit cake, and I still do that!!! We always went to midnight mass!!! And still do!!! My dad always read the night before Christmas pome, then we hung our stockings!!! My mom and dad did an awesome job of Jesus's Birthday and the magic of Santa and all the wonders of Christmas!!! We are catholic also! Baby Jesus isn't put in the Manger till Christmas Eve ... We burn a candle for good luck for the new year. (A German translation from my daddy's side of the family) the one thing I've added to my family is pj's ( Matching) and cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning!!! We also leave cookies 🍪 for Santa and carrots 🥕 for the rain dear!!! The funny thing is our only child a son is 26 and expects and looks forward to all this stuff at Christmas!!! You have awesome and amazing traditions keep them up, im hear to tell you your children will love 💘 and remember them for ever!!!
The neighbor's dogs ate the turkey, in The Christmas Story movie 😁 - so they had to go out for Chinese - we watch that one every year too - and the Chinese food scene is hilarious - the singing of, "Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra - Ra Ra Ra Ra 🎵🎶!"
My family stays up on the 24th and on 12 am on the 25th we open our presents. We have Parrandas. And have parties and fun all throughout the Advent and Christmad seasons. We watch Christmas movies and attend Mass. 🇵🇷🇵🇹
Beautiful family! My mom makes tamales;) I was raised Catholic. But just now wanting to learn more. This year I started doing the advent calendar, I prayed my first rosary on my own and hope to continue learning. Your videos have helped me so much, Thank you. Hope you and your family have great Christmas❤
My children are teens now but Christmas Eve has always been a day we have spend together eating, playing games just being a family and before we head out to midnight mass I read the Night before Christmas story I have used the same book that I first used for my daughters first Christmas 25 years ago. When we come back from Mass the youngest child puts Baby Jesus in his manger. Christmas day starts by going to the cemetery (both my parents have passed) come home, open presents friends and neighbors drop by house is full of Christmas carols, voices it's a loud fun morning . As we live in the UK dinner is a 4 course sit down Turkey roast dinner. I thought as my children grew up they would want to do things more up to date. Ie go out last minute shopping visit with friends, but no they still want to do as they have been all their lives. It warms my heart to know that when I'm gone they will still be doing the same with their families. Building Memories. God Bless and Best wishes to you and your family
Our family had Chinese food on Christmas Eve growing up as well! Great tradition! :D
Our family had Chinese food on Christmas Day night and this year we are making the food
I grew up as a catholic in Manglore, India. The week of Christmas we start doing some traditional sweets, we go to church a few days for cleaning, decorating the church, putting up the crib, and choir practice. On the 24th we put up our home Christmas tree and nativity set, in the evening we go for mass, there will be nativity play after the mass, once we are back have pork bafat and idli for dinner(sanna & dukra maas one of the manglory delicacies).
On the 25th we arrange the Christmas sweets and cake in a plate and give it to our relatives and neighbors (10-15 families). Also someone from the church comes to see our nativity scenes and we get prizes for the best ones. Noon family lunch and evening again we go to church and take part in the games arranged by the youth.
Now that I have married and moved to a different country things have changed, but we still try to keep few of the traditions(like dukramaas n sanna 😉).
Hello Friends! Please let us all know what you and your family do for Christmas and Christmas Eve!
Grow wheat in a dark room bring it out on Christmas and it turns green. This is an old tradition which represents new life 😊 God bless and Merry Christmas from Australia.
P.S it's David's Wife Andriana.
We’re probably just gonna stay home watch Christmas mass in the Vatican and on Christmas moring we go to my grandparents house and I usually watch the queens Christmas speech we also eat Chinese food every Christmas night
This year no Christmas decorations in our house as my Great Aunt passed away this month
@@ashlyansalam I’m so sorry for your loss
I have a Christmas tree covered with little picture frames of all the grandchildren and past Christmas.
The 2 oldest are now 15 and 5 grandchildren so that's alot of little pictures! They love looking at all the pictures since they were babies!
My husband is becoming Catholic, and I really think he would love to see some testimonials or any sort of video where your husband talks about being a catholic husband and father. This is just an idea that I have--maybe your husband doesn't want to come on camera and thats ok too!
I am really enjoying all your videos!
Late in replying to this but Heather has mentioned that her husband does not want to be on camera. There are however, many male Catholics online - I would certainly recommend Trent Horn and his wife.
Growing up my mom had stand next to the nativity scene on Christmas Eve night, and sing happy birthday to Jesus. That is the only real family tradition we had.
Your parenting instincts are spot-on and smart and your children are so fortunate to have you for a mum...love the traditions and yes spend on experiences, not stuff.
Good morning Love tradition so much . Thank you for sharing your Christmas tradition.God Bless you and family Merry Christmas 🎁🎄. You and your husband are doing a wonderful job on raise your children bring Jesus into your life and home. Love your TH-cam channel have a good weekend. God Bless.
Love that you make a birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus ❤ Every year we do "The Christmas Star from Afar." We started letting our kids buy each other a small gift to open in Christmas Eve. Also, been reading a different Christmas story each day with some type of activity. Like today we read The Grinch and we fixed Grinch popcorn. 🎄
I go to my inlaws on Christmas eve and to my sisters on Christmas day .my wife and i usually go to mass on Christmas day at 9am. I love Your Christmas traditions You mention that You do. Many Blessings to You Heather and the family.
Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus is the sweetest ♥️
If I ever have kids I will love to do that
I’ve purchase a new ornament for our kids every year. It was fun to let them choose, especially if we traveled during the year, then the ornament became a memory keepsake as well. Each one is marked with their name and the year. My mom grew up in Finland and my MIL is from Germany, so we put real candles on our tree and sing carols, usually during a Christmas party with family and friends. Being military for a long time, we introduced a lot of different people to this custom and some were quite shocked at the idea. 🤣 We’ve never had a fire, though! The kids always helped me bake traditional Finnish ginger cookies and prune tarts from the time they could stand on a stool at the kitchen counter. Christmas Eve Mass and opening gifts one at a time. On Christmas Day, we place Jesus in the manger and Joulu Pukki (Santa comes from Lapland 😉) puts one small item in the stockings.
Beautiful traditions- what happy memories your children will have!
Some years we would go to 5:00 Mass with my aunt and uncle the next town over as opposed to our church/Mass. They’d serve cake for Jesus’ birthday at their church. That was pretty darn cool at a kid. Seemed so foreign to me to have Cake at Church!
I was able to get tickets for the Christmas Eve Mass I’ve attended for at least the past 20 years. Those tickets sold out in first 5 minutes the
registration opened. It’ll be the first Mass I’ve attended in person since February 29th. Thanks be to God: Alleluia, Alleluia!! Likewise, it’ll be my first Christmas ever that we are home bound. Christmas Day is always the day both sides of the family are visited. 8-12 hour day. 1 day a year but that is a lot of family. I also wait until the morning of Christmas Eve to listen to all types of Christmas music, mainly on the traditional side.
Polish people share Christmas wafer (which is blessed in church) during Christmas Eve
During sharing Polish people apologize to each other for trespassing
Also Christmas Eve in Poland is no meat supper we serve traditional dishes for the evening
Also Santa is coming during Christmas Eve
We do the Oplatki also.
Such beautiful Christmas traditions 🙏🏽
Singing birthday song to baby Jesus was the sweetest 🥰
I am German so I guess our family's Christmas traditions are not necessarily Catholic only but German. Also my dad is protestant so there are certainly influences from his side of the family as well! We always prepare the Christmas Eve dinner throughout the day of the 24th. When we were younger my brother and I would go to our babysitter an elderly women for 2 hours in the morning so the house was quiet for some time, now that we are adults and our former babysitter has passed we go visit her grave and light a candle. In the later afternoon we would go for a walk at the river or around the neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights and get out of the house for some fresh air. Then we get all dressed up and prepare little appetizers for the evening which we have before dinner. Then the door to the living room opens where all the presents are set under the tree (yes in Germany presents are part of Christmas Eve and it's not Santa who brings them but the Christkind - the Christ Child - an angelic figure originating from Martin Luther). Before opening any presents we sing some Christmas Carols and wish each other a Merry Christmas. We then will each hand each other one present, have some appetizers and enjoy each others company. Throughout the evening we alternate between opening presents and the dinner table. At 10.30 pm we go to the "Midnight mass" which usually lasts for about 1.5 hours. A wonderful tradition that we have is that the former altar servants serve during this mass, people like my brother and I who are in College or even their first job but who come back for Christmas. At the end, after singing Silent Night in the dark church only illuminated through candles the altar servants and the priest stand at the back door of church (usually it is freezing cold) and greet each and everyone with a hand shake wishing them a Merry Christmas, that's the moment the Christmas spirit really hits. The following two days are a holiday in Germany and the 25th is purely a day of rest and enjoying family time. On the 26th we would go to mass again. However for me the Christmas season lasts until the 6th of January in those two weeks we would usually go and see all of the extended family and have some celebrations always revolving around the Christmas tree, Caroling and Christmas cookies.
So much fun!! Glad I watched this 🌟 My family used to have a tradition when I was young (I'm 31) where we had a bunch of people come over to decorate Christmas cookies a few days before Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve dinner at my grandma's with all my cousins while she was alive (basically a Thanksgiving potluck + ham), then we'd go to Mass, then on Christmas we'd have a huge breakfast with bacon and pancakes after opening presents. I love all your traditions!! So important to remember Who, and I'm excited to keep a few things from my family growing up and change a few things when I have a family of my own. Merry Christmas!!
Being Italian we had pasta with every holiday. Lasagna a staple. ; ) Took me years to realize on Thanksgiving the turkey wasn't a side dish. lol
As a Christmas Tradition, we decorate the Christmas Tree on Gaudete Sunday with a member of the Family and play Christmas Carols while doing it.
I make my daughter a new stocking every year and on Christmas Day we put her hand print on the back!
My family has Christmas dinner then we open presents afterwards and go to church on Christmas Day. I watched the 6:00 pm mass on EWTN and had dinner with my family. Myself and half sister are the only two Catholics in our family and the rest are Evangelical but all celebrate Christmas because we both believe in god. Merry Christmas 🎄
Your nativity scene is more beautiful than the Vatican's 😅
A nativity is a Nativity at the end of the day
It’s huge!
Truth!
Lol 100%
Beautiful Family. Merry Christmas!
We open ONE gift at a time too! 😁
What a REAL CATHECHESIS for we mistreated Catholics. You, nice family are fresh air in the middle of this fearful environment. I think you are in the right path to rise Catholics. It’s encourage other families to believe families are the best nest for new good ones. You are giving us what we lack from the ones supposed to give that to us. We just are mistreated, abandoned, sometimes blamed and abused. Tank you! God protect us and bless us with good encouraging shepherds.
Beautiful Nativity scene 😍🥰
As our kids have gotten older we have moved away from gifts as much as possible. I started giving a family gift of experiences. I plan out something fun as a family for each month. Some are a trip for the a night or weekend or a bike ride and picnic. Dinner out etc.., seven fishes for Christmas Eve.
Heather, you have beautiful and fun traditions. I love the matching pj's. Our kids are grown, but we used to do the pickle search, and our daughter would make a birthday cake for Jesus. And we love "A Christmas Story." I just discovered "The Nativity Story" last year, and it's a beautiful movie. Enjoy every moment with your little ones. As I'm sure you're finding out, they grow up so fast. Merry Christmas!
A beautiful & blessed Christian family!
Thank you very much Heather for sharing your Christmas tradition. Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful family. Greetings from the Philippines! God bless
I loved hearing about your family traditions. I’m getting married so my fiancé and I are trying to decide what traditions we want to implement in our family. ❤️ Merry Christmas!
Congrats for ur wedding. 🕊👫🕊
@@strwbryshrtcke9598 Thank you so much!
Heather thx for sharin' your Christmas traditions, it's really beautiful.
We usually go for Midnight Mass after mass and every year we have Bible Housie or just housie that is organized by the members of our church in the compound area of our church and there's cake and coffee that is served too , lot of families stay back and enjoy this time while they even chat together, it's really nice and fun and warm feeling of togetherness, and the entire week there's somethin' or the other organized at our parish be it family dinner for all the families of our parish or star making, nativity seen making, games, carol singin' etc on Christmas day we have families or friends visit each other with homemade sweets and gifts also so many families here go out in the neighborhood or other neighborhood and churches to see the nativity scenes and Christmas lights & decor, everyone is so creative , i loved the big floating crib that i had seen once on a pond but there are lot of times we have opted to go for Christmas family retreat either during Christmas week or before the Christmas week.
The neighbors dogs ate the turkey! Fun movie.
Ooooh Heather your traditions are beautiful I’m crying.
We have a lot of the same traditions! This yea we're adding in baking a cake for Jesus, then we also do the 4 p.m mass, then go to my grandma's house where its soooo full of kids, it's great! Then Christmas morning they see what Santa left, we eat breakfast, then we do gifts amongst ourse and we also do one at a time, then we also go to my inlaws around lunch and stay most of the day! Merry Christmas to you guys!! Thanks for sharing your faith filled life with us all!!!
I love this video. I’m a first time mom (my son is 10 months old right now) and I’ve been thinking about what traditions I want to form as he gets older and we grow our family. Thank you for sharing! God bless, merry Christmas!
We have three kids (15, 13, and 9) and take turns opening on present at a time. It's so much more peaceful and it helps the kids really get excited for their siblings. I'm trying to figure out how to do experience gifts in this post-sickness world. We can't afford to do something big, but I'd like to do at least one of their gifts be tickets somewhere or something similar.
You have a beautiful family!!
Your Nativity scene is so beautiful! And I plan to attend mass at midnight with my neighbor. I make a small dinner this year due to the virus. Love to watch movies related to Christmas. And say my rosary. And I schedule to make a Cake 🎂 for King Jesus.
The Bumpas’s dogs got the turkey! Thus, Chinese restaurant was the only place open.
Beautiful, beautiful celebration.
My children and their families, come to us on Christmas Day, and my husband and I, go to midnight mass, on Christmas Eve.🎅
We celebrate putting Jesus in the manger, and the children, love that.
We also sing a Happy Birthday song to Jesus, and celebrate with a cake.
Next we sit in a circle with the kids, and we exchange the presents and opening them.
Dinner time, is a huge celebration, with many many dishes, that everyone get to enjoy.
Thanks for sharing. 🙏👏🌟👍🥰✝️🌻❤️❄️🎄⛄️🍬🎁🍭
Beautiful traditions. Thanks for sharing.
I love your traditions! We always drove downtown to look at Nativity scenes and lights and went to Mass. Christmas day big dinner with relatives after church.
We are fortunate to have life as normal with no covid here. We go to Mass on Christmas morning as a family, have a nice breakfast and then have lunch as a family. We open gifts together. After lunch we go for a walk, and some times go to the beach as it’s summer.
I’m low key considering joining the Catholic Church ⛪️
I’m so excited for you! I always love seeing your comments but this one is my favorite so far🥰
I just joined RCIA :)
I LOOOOOVE the kids w the matching pajamas!!!!! They’re SO cute!!????
Very new so this is very informative! Thank you! I love growing closer to god
So adorable and enjoyed this video!
beautiful family and traditions. My husband shares a birthday with Jesus but he points everything to celebrating baby Jesus with our 8 kids. You are such a inspiration to us all in our Catholic faith. God bless u and your family this Christmas esp. with new baby girl Maria Grace!
GOD BLESS ALL OFF YOU AND YOUR FAIMLY
8 days in counting, but just because I CAN... Merry Christmas to the Family!
We also do the pickle too. I love Christmas is my special holiday! Merry Christmas to you and your family !
Merry Christmas!
I love your background!
I’m Hungarian so we celebrate Christmas Eve ☺️
Another beautiful video, thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing. Do you have the french toast casserole recipe posted somewhere? We also go to Mass on Christmas Eve early evening (family mass) then we have egg nog and tamales/mexican food for dinner, as that is the tradition where we live. In morning, my adult children, and sometimes grandparents come over and we have a big breakfast, including a special traditional heritage bread: poticia, and then we open gifts one by one, so we can enjoy what everyone got. My tree has ornaments obtained over the years since the kids were small - including things they made in school, and each year I get a new ornament usually representing something we did that year, like this year I have an ornament from Hawaii from our family trip there this past summer.
Love from India..
We go to Mass on Christmas Eve and have our immediate family gifts at that time. On Christmas Day (non-Covid) we gather with both sides of the family
We do the pickle too, well, something similar. Whoever finds the pickle first gets an extra gift.
Omg forever...
Merry Christmas! Love your traditions!❤
One thing we used to do is have homemade pizza for Christmas dinner because I worked at Target and was too tired to do anything else.
God bless u and your family.
Lovely family
Thank you!
A tradition in our family every Christmas eve we have oyster stew because we did not eat.meat.on Christmas eve.
As a Catholic from NYC, the Chinese food tradition is for Jews in NYC because all the Catholic restaurants were closed! All our Jewish friends did that
Great to see. Thankyou for sharing.
Happy family
Christmas is going to be different in your family this year
What does that mean?
What a creepy post.
❤
AMAZING
I believe it is so important to have family traditions, & with so much darkness in this world, your beautiful children should enjoy all the fun Christmas festivities, Jesus Loves the little children & said let them come to me. Singing Happy Birthday with a cake in His Honour is special & they will remember these family times together. I am starting a family tradition this year I will be Hand crafting gifts, my daughter is an artist & she will be painting artwork. I am painting & decorating wooden boxes. The gifts that the 3 Wise men brought Jesus were from the heart a little gold, Myrrh & Frankincense oils...fast forward to the video game & electronic era, I think it is unacceptable to gift kids with violent video games 😢on the night of Peace when our Saviour was born....even us adults should concentrate on Prayer & not what we will buy for eachother. Instead of buying yet another item for people who have everything why not go to your city & just approach a homeless person & ask if they would like a hot meal, Jesus says to feed the hungry, clothe the naked & help others in True Need. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU & BE A BLESSING IN SOMEONE'S LIFE🕆🌟❤
Can you do a video about catholics ( Maronite - latin - roman - armenians - ...)
We always go to my parents’ house on Christmas Eve and open presents with them after having a dinner of heavy hors d’oeuvres.
I’m still debating whether to light the Christ candle on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Logically, I think we should light it on the day symbolizing his actual birthday rather than the day before. Our kids are so young, we won’t be up until midnight Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning my parents try to come over early to watch the kids open their gifts and I’ll serve a really simple breakfast.
We’ll be attending Mass at 10 am Christmas morning and spend the rest of the day with my family relaxing as much as one can with a bigger family😊
I’m considering just letting the kids play with the gifts from Santa Christmas morning and then opening the gifts from us after Mass 🤔
💖💖💖
I like your holy family on mantle where did u get them?
Do you tell your kids who Santa is ? Or how do you go about that ?
Mi selebracion es así de todos los días no puedo viajar donde están mis hijas hijos pero tengo familia de primos primas hnos cuñada sobrinos conmigo el mi casa
Do you go to mass on Christmas too ?
ignore the comments about CELEBRATING Christmas. The Entire World must Celebrate the Birth of Jesus (Church, Prayers,sharing) and decorating our homes and Listening to Christmas hymns songs. In Honour of Jesus Christ our ONLY True Love. In the Bible David danced, and Solomon Celebrated. Nothing wrong with it. it is a non protestant (born again Christian) attitude to call the Catholic Christimas Traditional celebrations as pagan. In Honor of Jesus Party on with Him in your heart all day and night. Jesus Is The Power!!
This is a little off topic but I'm wondering if anyone has some advice? I'm struggling with whether or not to go to Christmas mass. I have ms and take an immunosuppressant and my sister is pregnant. I really don't want to bring her anything she is due soon. My family has been going to Sunday mass as the attendance at a few masses at our parish have been small. But all of the Christmass masses are almost full. Should we go or stay home this year? I don't want to not go but am really struggling with the thought of going when the church will be so full. I know everyone will be socially distanced but I am really worried about possibly getting my sister sick. I've been praying about this alot and any advice would be much appreciated.
Go to Mass. We have to live for Christ first. Christmas is a Holy Day of Obligation anyway. If your pregnant sister is going to Mass where everyone else will be, then so can you. Getting sick is a risk we all take by being alive. I had a baby during this whole "crisis" and it was fine. I went to Mass and even the store sometimes. God gave us immune systems, which we need to work to keep strong by eating right, getting fresh air, and exercise. Unless your sick with symptoms, I wouldn't be concerned. We can't live in fear or else we stop living.
TLIG. please do dry fasting. God Bless
Off topic, but may I ask where you purchased your top from?
Why are your little children so close to the beater , with their little hands ? Also do you celebrate the feast of the seven fishes ?
I need traditions I’m all alone now parents gone.