Seriously – is anything better than free Starbucks? I don’t think so. A few months ago, I was in line at Starbucks. The guy in front of me was taking his sweet time. I pull up there, go to hand the barista my money, and she won’t take it. She said, the person in front of you paid for the coffee of everyone in line. There were probably at least 6 cars in line. I love “pay it forward stories,” although I’d never experienced it myself. It made my day….So that’s my Starbucks story for the day.
I wanted to do a little something special for all my wonderful blog readers. Even though you guys are NOT so great about commenting, I know your reading because I check my stats. So thank you. And here’s a little treat for the holidays. Everybody needs a Gingerbread Latte once in a while – am I right? With Christmas just around the corner and Aidan at such a fun age (nearly 2!), I’m always looking for fun things that we can do this holiday season that will be new and exciting for him and our little family. My question for you is, what are your family Christmas traditions? Tell me, and you can win a $20 gift card to Starbucks!!!
The rules:
-Everyone may enter, but you can only enter once.
-You must submit your favorite holiday tradition in your family in the form of a blog comment.
-Your entry must be submitted by 5 p.m. Central Standard Time, next Thursday, December 11.
I will put each entry on a piece of paper, and on Friday morning when Aidan wakes up, hopefully NOT at 4 a.m., I’ll have him pick a winner. I’ll be sending that person a $20 gift card to Starbucks. That’s 5 venti caramel lattes!
So, email your friends, tell your family – but most importantly, enter and tell me your stories! I can’t wait to hear them. I’m sure everyone will have some fabulous ideas.
Thanks for reading and entering.
-Nikki
My fave: iced caramel lattes. Mmmmmm.
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Fun contest! Thanks!! My favorite tradition is decorating Christmas cookies.
Our favorite tradition is decorating the Christmas tree. The kids have their own special ornaments that they like to hang each year.
How fun! My favorite tradition is spending time with my side of the family on Christmas Eve where Santa comes to visit the little kids.
yay!! cute story about Sbux!! our fave tradition is my husband and his brother and some of their friends decorate one of DH’s trucks with tons of Xmas decorations and one of them dresses up as santa and they drive around the neighborhood blasting Xmas music on Xmas eve. The neighbors there all love it and the kids come running out to see Santa!!
Neat contest idea. My favorite tradition is bundling the boys up and going to see Christmas lights as a family!
Cool story!! Our favorite Christmas tradition is going out to a local tree farm, finding the perfect Frasier Fir tree and bringing it home to decorate together(while listening to xmas music and drinking hot chocolate – from sbux!)
Love your work! We love to make buckeyes for Christmas. We’ve been doing as long as I can remember. It’s a tradition I have started with my family too.
This year I am starting a new tradition. I am taking Hannah (and eventually Leah) to the Nutcracker. We will get all dressed up and make it an annual event. As a child, I grew up dancing in a local production of the nutcracker (for over 15 yrs). So the Nutcracker has always been a part of the Christmas season for me.
Whoa, look at the comments a’rollin in now!!!
Very cute idea. My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating Christmas cookies with the fam a week or so before Christmas. Carson always puts like 5lbs of sugar on each cookie so that they’re not even edible after he’s done with them. lol And then you have my mom who is so slow and detailed with hers – it takes her like an hour for each cookie and she has to have every sprinkle in juuuuuust the right place – uses a toothpick to rearrange them and all. Really? Once u put the cookie in your mouth and take a bite your’e never going to know if the sprinkles were out of place or not. ha And last but not least there’s my dad, who thought last year that the baby Jesus in the manger was a deer’s head (in his defense, if you turn the manger upside down it DOES kind of look like Rudolph). Aye aye aye…
What a great story!
My favorite christmas tradition has to be Santa ringing the doorbell on Christmas eve. Ever since I was really little the doorbell would ring and I would run to the door and “just miss santa” ..that guy is quick. But, he always left me a little present! And that’s what I hope to start this year with my little guy.
Thanks Nicole! : )
Keep them coming you guys! I love reading your stories.
AW! I have to pay it forward at starbucks one day for funsies and restore people’s faith in the human race!
My favorite xmas tradition is waking up and helping my mom (or baking my own) cinnamon rolls from scratch! We end up having a lot of fun and sing my mom’s favorite christmas carol called the christmas alphabet
I need to go get my BUX now
Wonderful story!! Stories like that give me warm fuzzies.
My favorite Christmas Tradition is putting up the tree. I love pulling out all of the ornaments and remembering the year it was given to me, or when I bought it. It always brings back nice memories of vacations, special occasions, etc. I love it. There are usually some tears shed. Then again I’m extremely sentimental.
Great contest, I will love reading everyone’s responses.
Cool contest! My favorite family tradition is getting up super early Christmas morning and watching the kids open their gifts from Santa. My brothers and I used to get up (wayyy too early) and all get in one bed and wait until we were allowed to get up. I hope my kids will do the same as they get older
Ah! I love ‘pay it forward’ stories too. Fantastic!
My favorite tradition is opening one present early, on Christmas Eve. Ever since I was a kid, I would look forward to Christmas Eve [because it came before Christmas!] and pick out the biggest box! Some years there would only be one box for each of us kids, and mom and dad would let us decide when to open them. It was a good time to be together and spend another night laughing and loving.
I love this contest! It is so neat to read about other’s favorite family times…Mine is tamale-making day! All of the ladies get together to make batches of tamales once a year and they are FABULOUS….even the babies have a role in the tamale making process, and we all sit around laughing and telling stories! Afterwards we distribute them to other friends and families around town and it is overall merry-making at its best!
I think my favorite (recent) tradition is trekking out to the tree farm to cut down our tree. My husband’s family did this a lot when he was growing up and we started to do it when we got married. It’s always cold and wet, but it’s still a lot of fun.
We sure could have used a Starbucks after that! 
So yes, I have you on Google Reader and read every single one of your posts, but am SO BAD at posting comments. (Mainly because, like today, I have about 900+ posts to read because I subscribe to SO many blogs.) ha
Anyway. . .I have two family traditions that I love. Old and new.
Old: Doing Christmas at Grandma’s on Christmas Eve. Though I only get to do that every other year now. Reason being, favorite new family tradition: We go to VA every year (sometimes I leave on Christmas Eve and some years I leave on Christmas Day), because that is where my husband’s family lives. I miss Christmas with Grandma and my family when I can’t be there for it (he has never been there for Christmas, because he goes to VA on the 24th EVERY year). . .but I like being able to go visit VA as well.
A few of my favorite traditions are:
Baking and decorating cookies with my family while listening to Christmas music.
Going over to my parent’s house on Christmas morning in my pajamas (everyone else is in theirs too!) and my Mom makes a cinnamon roll Christmas tree, we all just relax, drink coffee, listen to music and have a relaxing time giving and opening presents.
Great idea! I love watching the classic Christmas movies: It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Christmas Story, and my personal fave, White Christmas, and listening to my family’s standard Christmas albums: Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and Christmas with the Chipmunks.
Look how many comments u get when you offer up something free! Maybe I should do the same since like no one writes comments on our blog either!!! Well, at least u do!
My favorite Xmas tradition is everything X-masy really. Usually we travel to WI every yr, but not happening this yr. I like putting up all our holiday decor. My favorite thing is putting out my St Nicholas Village houses. Another tradition is my grandma L gives each grandchild an ornament every yr. I have about 30 ornaments from her! Jason’s mom also gives us hallmark ornaments every yr. She started the classic car collection for Jason when he was little and he now has a ton of them. Our tradition now is spending Xmas Eve w/ Jason’s family and then on Xmas Day, we spend it with mine. Guess we’ll need some traditions for Baby Orf, huh??
First, I will share a Thanksgiving tradition, since it is a little different. Instead of turkey, we have enchiladas!!! Yum, yum!!
Christmas…pretty similar to others, but we always have an upwrapped Santa present waiting for us on Christmas morning. We also go to church on Christmas Eve and sing lots of Christmas carols. This tradition was the same at my husband’s house, so it was easy to mesh our holiday traditions together. Happy Holidays!!
Fun idea! My mom is one of 11 we have a HUGE family. Every Christmas Eve, everyone gathers at my grandma’s house for dinner, drinks, and to hang the stockings. Each family leads the group in a Christmas carol and then hangs their stocking. They go in birth order and by the time we get to the end of the line it always gets pretty interesting. Very cheesy and very fun!
My favorite tradition is Christmas morning- after all the presents are opened (when we go to my parents’ for christmas morning- every other year) we have breakfast. My mom makes this soufle thing from eggs, milk, bread and saussage- it’s SO good, and we have english muffins and whatnot as well. That’s something that if I don’t do, it doesn’t feel like Christmas. Oh- and Christmas Eve’s candelight service- lighting the candles and singing “silent night”- I LOVE how pretty it is with all the people light up by candlelight and the church etc.
Fun contest! My favorite christmas tradition is exchanging one present with my husband on Christmas eve!!
My family’s holiday tradition, that was started back when my great-grandmother had her 3 kids: since most people are married and have kids, in-laws, etc, we get together, as a family, and celebrate Christmas the Saturday before Christmas. This way, families who want to stay home with the kids or have other plans (in-laws), can do that on Christmas day and they don’t have to feel guilty for not spending Christmas with their own family. Essentially, we have 2 days of Christmas, a week apart.
And PS – love me some Starbucks. And I need it; I am working into the night during this holiday season. Tell Aidan to pick ME!!!
Just in the nick-of-time:o)
Christmas Eve we go to the late service and sing “Silent Night” in a dark church lit only by candles. It’s gorgeous and the perfect celebration for Jesus’ Birthday.