I don't have much to offer for the photography because any holiday clothes will work. I can see by your avatar you have a good eye for that. I would suggest in the general future if you find that family members are displaying the photo year round you may not always want to have holiday clothes on, but like I said that is in the general future.
As far as the ornament it may help if you say what type of tree you have. Is there a theme? Do you want something that is more descriptive of your son? Do you plan on keeping it or sending it with him when he leaves home? That last one is a hard question to answer with him being so little. I could never imagine my kids leaving.
My family does many traditions. I am sure you already do some but I'll put them all in just in case.
Mid November I wrap the count down books and the kids write a letter to Santa. I shop year round but get the big gifts on Black Friday. I do control myself with my kids by giving them something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. Santa brings one gift to each kid and a family game to be open by the pickle finder.
The way I look at it though is this. For right now, it is more important to my kids that they get the same number of boxes. They have no idea what things are worth. It is easy enough to put more than one book in the box to wrap as one to equal out the money spent on each one. Or a full outfit that is the same price as sweater. Four boxes per kid now can be done fairly inexpensive, but later that 12 dollar outfit may turn into a $60-80 football jersey. So I do this with an eye to the future too.
The flip side of this is my DH HATES this system. He has no concept of money, our budget or the wastefulness of some things. Heck half the time, he doesn't even know what toys they already have. I guess my point is, I really love my way of doing this but it isn't for everyone.
Anyway, here are the other things I do...
Traditions:
1.letter to Santa Mid November
2.Two large food drives (one Girl Scout one Cub Scout)
3.Last day of shopping for me is Black Friday
4.Count down chain
5.book box
6.Holiday parade
7.Turkey & Tinsel weekend (lights & trees up no decorations)
8.December 1st cover book cases and begin opening from the book box
9.Breakfast with Santa (Girl Scout fundraiser but I use that photo for inside holiday card)
10.Caroling with Girl Scouts (all my kids go)
11.cookie weekend with mom and sister
12.Decorate Trees and house
13.Observation Elf Adventures and journal
14.Drive and look at Main Street lights
15.Walk the Zoo path and look at lights and trees
16.Kids paint ornaments for their trees
17.Christmas Eve with inlaws
18.Cookies out for Santa, sprinkle reindeer food outside to guide the sleigh, elves go home
19.Rudolph kisses on kid noses to see when they wake up
20.open stockings while I cook breakfast
stockings have a few small gifts, meaningful ornament, candy, toothbrush, and fruit
21.Pickle ornament to find out who will open the family gift
22.Each kid gets 8 gifts under the tree (first 4 are from Steve and I, 1 from Santa, 1 from each sibling)
23.eat then pile o'presents
24.Play all day, maybe a Christmas movie or two if they haven't had enough of them or need down time but no other tv
25.Dinner with inlaws Christmas Day but ONLY if DH works Christmas Eve
26.12 Days of Service (sort of like 12 Days of Christmas but instead of presents to my kids, we'll do family service to others. This is our first year so we'll see how it goes.)
1.12-26 cards to the soldiers
2.12-27 Meals On Wheels tray favors
3.12-28 www.colorasmile.org pictures send to nursing homes
4.12-29 Hot coco poppers to Ronald McDonald house
5.12-30 Hot coco poppers to police dept
6.12-31 Hot coco poppers to fire house
7.01-01 Something for Hannah Center (crisis pregnancy house)
8.01-02 Dog Treats for pound puppies
9.01-03 Hope Lodge meal (Like R. McD house for people with CA)
10.01-04 Kids return to school so ??
11.01-05 ??
12.01-06 ??
27.Second Christmas with my side weekend between Christmas and New Years
Edited to add that we don't have a fireplace, so we have a special Santa key that we hang outside our door that will only open our door when he uses it. It won't work for a stranger.
Best wishes to you for starting your own traditions!
Cheers!!
Liza in WI
Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.
Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.
Edited 10/20/2009 11:06 pm ET by mutterauge
