Holiday Togetherness

I remember holiday traditional activities being one of the biggest, excitingest (is that a word?) things as a kid. Every year the anticipation of those things was great! And looking back, the memories it created and the family bonds that were formed during those times were irreplaceable. Now that I have my own family, I have tried to come up with family traditions for us as well. Each family has its own personality, so they won't always be the same as you did as a kid, but it is so important to try to do these things! Here are a few that we do:
Bake holiday cookies or brownies with decos related to that holiday.
Carve a pumpkin and take pics with it.
Go to Harvest Fest (or other).
Cook and Eat together on Thanksgiving (using special china!)
Bake holiday pies.
Do stockings (at a different time than presents).
Do the Christmas tree together.
Have Christmas coffee with special creamers with candy and cookies!
Have a "Christmas Surprise" waiting under the tree on Christmas morning (unwrapped) or a gift from Santa if that is what you do (I am a selfish mom and want my kids to know who really bought it!)
Christmas Bible readings.
Make a Card or Cake or Cookies to celebrate Jesus' Birthday (find SOME way to keep the focus where it should be)

I am so excited that the holiday season is here! I just hope I can do a good job conducting here in the new place! Something we are going to try to do also is find some outreach that we can do together as a family every couple of months to teach the kids about giving and reaching out. Right now we have just begun a Shoebox (most of you know what that is). I encourage you to find things like this that you can include your kids in.

What are your traditions?