Christmas Traditions

So I have been sitting here thinking of my Christmas traditions from when I was growing and which ones we have kept for our own family.

When I was younger my brother and I would get to open one present on Christmas Eve, but the gift had to be from each other.  It was always exciting even though days or maybe weeks before we had taken a butter knife slide it under the tape careful enough not to rip the paper and slide the gift out and check out our present while our parents were at work.  Now that was so much fun and then make sure we had great SURPRISE faces for Christmas morning.  LOL

Another one was where we would go to my Grandma's house Christmas Eve and my dads whole side of the family was there and we would exchange gifts and have lots of appetizers and some great laughs. Lets just say with 9 cousins it was always a big mess afterwards.

The only thing I carried on from my childhood was going to Grandma's now we go to my moms house which is my kids Grandma and have Christmas Eve.  It is a lot smaller and low key but I can tell you I love it so much more.  We still have appetizers and great laughs.  The one thing we have added is the reading of Jesus' birth and a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and explain what each part of the cake means.

So what are some of your favorite childhood traditions or not so favorite.  Which ones have you continued or new ones you have incorporated into your family.