Once my boys were married, I bought everyone a stocking and had such fun filling them with fun things, silly things, practical things, candy and all kinds of things. On Christmas Day I handed out the stockings with this caveat, you can take these home and fill them yourself from now on or you can leave them at our house and Santa will continue to fill them every year. One daughter in law immediately dumped her stuff into a box and handed it back to me. She knew she wanted to continue the tradition. We love our stockings as much as the presents.
We did that too. My son in loves didn't know what to think when I did it the first year they were in the family. I did it when they were dating and I knew they were serious too.
I love that you give them, your bonus daughters, the choice in that. It gives daughters-in-law (like myself) a really family-feeling experience, and that acceptance really means a lot to someone who has once had a less than nice mother-in-law before. I'm excited for the day I get that chance, if my children choose marriage. ❤ thank you for being an example of a good mom in law/love ❤ the one I have now has really made me feel like real family ❤
I have done stockings since my children were born. Now it has expanded to the wives and grandchildren. A couple years ago I wasn’t able to get everything in the stockings. So I pulled out the sewing machine and we made Santa Sacks. We braided yarn for the drawstring. They loved the Santa Sacks and now that’s what we go with. I even do the fur babies at each home. They look forward to these every year.
😂😂 watching you put that brown sugar on. I thought to myself. Man she isn’t putting any butter on that dough 😂. Totally something I would do. I made tuna casserole one day. Took it out of the oven and there sat my can of tuna.
Bing and David singing little drummer boy/ peace on earth, is mine and my husband’s favorite. He is the same as Todd. Moderation 😂 I will go check out the other video you mentioned for drummer boy. Wow those look amazing. The stocking is gorgeous and such a great ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your traditions ❤🎄
My sister had a medium size box for each of her kids and if she saw something that she thought would be a good stocking stuffer for one of those people she would buy and put in their own box. At christmas she would go through each one and fill in where needed and wrap them all up. Kept her stress down at christmas to not have to it all at once and each person would get gifts that really suited their personality and were unique to them. Stocking's are the best!
This is really a great and practical way to do stockings! Thank you for sharing your sister's good ideas. This can apply to more than just stocking stuffers. This also makes sense for Christmas gifts and other things like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or other upcoming events. Definitely will be using this idea, thank you. Blessings on your day Kiddo!😊👍🌻🐛
Love seeing others use the bread machine to just make the dough and proof it. Traditionally our grandma (and her mother who was gone before I was born) would make the sweet yeast dough from the old Betty Crocker cook book (now in my possession) and roll diced dried appricots, dark raisons, and light raisons into it and then make a braided loaf from it for Christmas. I restarted the tradition last year and it choked up my dad when I gave it to him. At any case I adjusted the recipe a bit to use the bread machine to make and proof the dough for a small loaf.
Oh my word, stockings are the MOST fun on Christmas morning but we had to wait until all the other gifts were opened. My mom made all three of us crocheted stockings and, yeah, they STRETCH! Mom and dad would pack them so full and leave extra other little gifts on the mantle next our stockings. There were always staples in the stocking…one year they forgot our toothbrush and boy did we all raise heck. They’ve never forgotten since. I turned 50 this year and we all still anxiously await stockings.
I'm not much of a holiday person but we do have a couple of traditions. I wanted to tell you we did the pickle in the tree for a few years and my daughter always found it. So finally we said let your little brother find it this year he was always so sad. So we put it where a 5 year old could find it easy and of course my daughter was going crazy ... well, it turns out my son is severe red/green colorblind and he couldn't find no matter how hard he tried. We felt horrible but we didn't know! From that year on no more pickle!!
On our honeymoon my husband and I wandered into a Christmas store at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We saw the pickle ornament and decided to buy it because my husband’s family was from Germany. Anyhow, we always hide it and the finder gets a special gift. One year it was a giant candy bar. It’s been gift cards too. It’s a fun tradition for us to do with our family!
Merry Christmas!!!! My son will be 40 on Dec 19th. I didn’t start Christmas at our house until after his birthday because I wanted his birthday to be separate from Christmas. My birthday is Dec 29th and you cannot separate from or top Christmas and New Years. I always wanted him to know how special he was to me!
I was happy to hear that Tod filled a stocking for you Rachel. So many times the Mother that usually does all of the shopping and figuring out who gets what and who wants or needs whatever seems to get left out. I’m glad you’re not left out ❤. Merry Christmas to you all 🎄🎁!
I have a vivid memory of the year I had helped my mom finish wrapping some of the presents Christmas eve and it clicked in my brain that no one was going to make mom's stocking... but I was probably only 11ish, so had no money of my own. I got up and scrounged a piece of fruit from the kitchen, a pack of gum, etc, and then made her some coupons for help around the house and such. Every year after that I made it a point to make my dad take me out to get at least a few stocking stuffers for her because I wanted her to have a little something special too.
I love that you go to such lengths for your family and that you've kept doing it even though your kids are grown. Two of our three are grown, and I still like to do special things for them, too. I stuff stockings and take care with gifts and wrapping (I'm a ribbon lover, too!! Is there a support group for us?! ; ) ). We used to do the pickle thing until our pickle broke....and the last few years I have made a silly ornament that has something to do with whatever is currently going on in our lives. Last year we had Covid in November, so I made a snowman out of cough drops and hid it the same as the pickle.....the year before it was an empty toilet paper roll. I'm not sure what it will be this year....need to come up with something funny. Whoever finds the hidden ornament gets an extra gift....but I always put together gifts for all of the kids--a bag of snacks and a DVD or box pizza kits and soda....just something cheap and fun. It's been hard trying to think of fun Christmas Eve ideas since our get-together numbers have dwindled due to moves, death, and marriage.....but I keep trying to make things fun. God bless we Moms (...and Dads, grandparents, siblings, etc.) who try our best to make Christmas celebrations fun.
My parents didn't celebrate Christmas so I've never made much of a big deal about it but as I get older I want to do more things, make traditions and create fun and memorable moments with my children. I'm on my third year of making my children their advent calendars. I'll print off little Christmas tags and write things like "baking day," "skip a day of school," "your choice dinner/breakfast," "sledding and hot chocolate," ... then they can "redeem" them when they want. I'll also add chocolates, little containers of slim or play doh, chap stick, coins, ect. This year I'm wanting to stuff their stockings with all the things... but this is the first Christmas where I'm budgeting. Lol So we'll see how creative I can get.
@@showard866 I love dollar stores! However... the closest one to me is 2.5 hours away. Next year I'll be planning ahead and doing my shopping when I go into the city.
Stockings were always my favorite part of Christmas morning and that tradition carried on to my children and now the grandchildren. Every year we had an apple, an orange, mixed nuts, a Pez and then lots of fun goodies were added to fill them up. My kids always got a chocolate orange added to the list of annual standards. Stuff it 'til you can't stuff it any more is the motto. Watching you bake and get excited about the holidays made me smile. Those cinnamon rolls look so yummy. I can't seem to get there this year. Three family deaths in as many months (one on Thanksgiving morning before we left for their house), refrigerator went out, and now the transmission on hubby's car. I have been sick the past two weeks and suddenly we have a very bold fox that has taken an interest in our ducks and chickens. I want a fall do-over and a nice blanket to pull over my head until January. 🤒 Love the music. I always wanted it playing immediately after Thanksgiving until I worked retail. Moderation became a necessity for sanity. Thank you for sharing your lovely home and traditions. May God bless your family.
We love Christmas and stockings are my favorite! I graduated in 95, but my babes are 6,8, and almost 10! We also do Christmas Eve gifts- Christmas pjs, a movie, and snacks/hot cocoa!
This is my favorite thing about Christmas, I have adult children with in-laws as well. The one thing they do not want to stop is the stockings although this year I decorated Christmas Eve Crates to be able to transition to a family gift. Now I want to include the stockings lol. It’s hard not to spoil the ones you love. When they were teens, I’d buy $100 worth of movie tickets and divvy those up with gift cards to different fast food places they’d go to anyway. Makes you miss your adult children, wish I could visit an old Christmas to sit with my kids again. ❤😢
Stockings are my favorite too! We make pancakes into snowmen and use sausage links for the arms. We decorate with sprinkles, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips to make their faces.
Stocking stuffers every year for us: a sleeve of ritz crackers + a can of easy cheese; a can of cashews except for 1 granddaughter who doesn’t eat nuts. She gets jerky. 2 of the great grands get fruit roll ups instead of nuts. My son loves whoppers. Oldest granddaughter get gharadelli Carmel candies. Yes the pickle is a German tradition.
thanks you gave me a few more ideas..my kids love that spray cheese in the cans but with 5 of them I dont buy it, as it would be gone in a day and its not cheap. a stocking stuffer is a great idea for that and the fruit roll ups another item I never buy not enough in the box for a large family for the price..thanks again! Merry Christmas!
The stocking has always been my favorite to give and receive. My sister and I when we were little always opened our stockings before our parents woke up. I always make cinnamon rolls and doughnuts to eat while opening gifts.
Stockings have always been important in our Christmas celebration. I have made all of our stockings for my kids, their spouses, grandkids and dogs. They are blue with cream cuffs embroidered names. Each one is appliquéd with a different snowman or snowwoman. The total so far are 23 stockings. Since everyone has their own home, I stuff recycle bags with food goodies, a new kitchen gadget. This years theme was everything hot chocolate and s’mores.
Where do I start! Worked at a bakery and at 3am realized that I had forgotten the butter. Yup, scraping the sugar off a 3 x 8 table of dough. Who else turned off the volume to see what was beeping in the house. I have re-united with my ex. When he gets home from work, have the fire & lights on, Christmas music playing. Give him the moment. He is the Christmas bear and I make it special for him.
One of the most outrageous and endearing traditions that my in-laws do has been done for over 75 years. On Christmas Eve FIL gets the turkey ready for that evening. He will ask the unmarried, newest girlfriend/ boyfriend or partner who has never been to a loud French Canadian Christmas Eve to 'help' him. As he gets them to bend over the raw turkey to stuff it, he smacks them in the chin with the butt flap that he has cut off. It. Is. Shocking! Every single male/female In Law in this huge French family has been smacked with the turkey butt-- for over 75 years, this has been a time honored tradition. Like I said, not for everyone, but we love that the daughters are dating, so new blood is coming this Christmas! :)
As kids we got to choose one small present to open on Christmas Eve. We also take turns being the designated 'Santa' who passes out the presents and then we take turns opening so every gift gets it's moment to shine. For many years our extended family also had a special opening of some kind of toy like nerf balls that everyone opened simultaneously and then ran around playing tag with, even as adults! Hilarity and chaos ensued! Afterwards we'd have some cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs and get the dinner and the football games going! Happy Holiday cheer to the 1870's Homestead fam!
My kids love love love stockings. It’s one of their favorite things about Christmas morning gifts. I didn’t have stockings as a kid, my husband did and it was special to add that to our family tradition from his side of the family. We stuff them like you. Sometimes they overflow so much that items are sitting around the stocking too. Ooops. 😂 We wait until everyone is up and we do our stockings so everyone can see all the joy from seeing what they get in their stockings.
My mom just made cinnamon rolls with the “12 tomatoes” Amish friendship white bread recipe. It was amazing! I’m gonna make it tomorrow!!!! So much fun!
Loved watching you stuff that stocking - I have the stocking stuffers ready to go, but it's what I do last on Christmas Eve when every one is asleep. I know they must hear the tissue paper. Merry Christmas hope you have wonderful holiday❤🥂
Stockings are also our favorite, I have 4 grown daughters 2 of which are married and before they got married they had the “Christmas Stocking talk” lol and my other 2 adult daughters still get a Stocking from Mom, I do mine very similar to yours there’s always the basics and then a lot of personalized things for the recipient ❤️
Funny you should say that. I gave pez dispensers to my 5 kids all their childhood. Now I’m on s.s. And can’t buy a stick o gum. But that’s ok. Prayers are worth more than all. Stockings were very important to me. And when you think about it, filling them can cost more than the presents under the tree. But oh the excitement of a full stocking. Such memories. Thank you so much!!!! Thanks for the memories…..I’m gonna make your cinnamon rolls too. Merry Christmas you guys!
When my kids were younger I would hide the pickle on the tree when we first put the tree up. In the morning they would look for it and whoever found it first got to hide it that night. Then each morning they would get to search for it. I homeschooled my children, so it helped get them up in the mornings.
Beautiful video. I do Christmas stockings now only for our Grandchildren. They love opening them as soon as they come and everyone’s arriving and getting settled in. We open gifts like you do and then after dinner we do this…For the Adult children, I started the Saran ball, instead of the stockings. Prize in the middle and wrap everything in the ball that would go into a stocking. They have 45 seconds, then pass on. A piece of coal candy, means they have to stop and pass on. They keep whatever they unravel. This has become such a big thing, that I also do one for the Grandchildren now also. They begged me for one. They already are asking what I’ve put in them. We also do the pickle, but I changed it up. Adult girls look for the pickle. The adult boys look for a car ornament, the little girls look for a Barbie ornament each. I have a little gift for each of the the little girls and one for the pickle and car. Who knew adults could go crazy for fun games. Love it. Merry Christmas
12/1 Christmas STARTS in my house! Our tree goes up, takes me 3 days to get everything on the tree. Then we start setting up our Christmas house scenes up, town, country & mountainscapes plus all the decorations around the house & outside. That all comes down on 1/2.
Stockings are a huge deal for our family! We all buy around 5 things for each persons stocking and on Christmas Eve we take turns adding our things to each stocking! Also our stockings are homemade pillow cases because the regular ones just aren’t big enough haha
Always do stockings but they are in the form of gift bags these days .5 daughters and husband and 10 grandchildren...now 2 great grandies! But all our children also contribute to each other's stockings . Most often its a handmade item even if its jelly or a candle or a jar of hot chocolate mix. I love this new tradition
We have a lot of the same traditions. We open gifts one at a time, stockings are opened before gifts. We have a cookie decorating day. We have a sweater cookie cutter and we do an ugly sweater contest. We make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Our girls are grown and so are our three grandchildren. We have never spent Christmas apart. What a blessing! 🎄🥰 Merry Christmas and God bless
So fun! We do stockings with favorite candy, little gadgets and silly things like glasses that turn all the Christmas lights to reindeer. Light up earrings or necklaces are good for silly gifts. Always favorites are jewelry, socks and small games. New tradition this year. Instead of Christmas morning we will be doing Christmas Eve as the family dynamics have changed. It will be our Granddaughter’s first Christmas. 🌲
Our youngest son is gonna be the drummer boy in the church play this year so We've been listening to the " pa rum pum pum pum" music for a while as he practices his walking and beating of drums 🥁lol.
Stockings are my favorite thing to do. I start buying on 12/26/day after Christmas and buy through the whole year so it’s not such a “hit” all at once. My boys loved their stockings every year (except the year they new skis and snowboards and season passes at Crystal Mountain! The ski lodge was 7 miles from home 🤷♀️ I still do that for my grandkids to this day. 🎄
I kept trying to tell you “You forgot the butter, you forgot the butter”. 🤣 I LOVE Christmas stockings. I can never think of stuff to put in them though. Mine are mostly goodies with a couple gifts. Thank you for the wonderful ideas. Merry Christmas everyone. ☃️🎅🏼🎄⛄️
My daughter is graduating this year when she began high school we began adding kitchen things to her stocking so she will have a nice supply when she she leaves home
Favorite time of the year. My birthday is the 21st, so by default, I have to love this time of year. Ha. The story goes, I came home on Christmas Day and mom tried to tell my siblings I was there Christmas present, did not go over well with my brother, and resented me ever since 😂😂😂. In the stockings, there’s usually little things. One year when kids were little, my husband thought it be great to fill stockings with candy. It took forever to get through all the candy. Haha
mine is the 2nd and I would complain that I always heard we dont have much right now got to save up for xmas..but my dad pointed out the fact that his bday is in January when everyone is broke from xmas..he had a good point, that shut me up lol!
Stockings were my favorite as a kid! My husband hates Christmas and I don't usually get anything in my stocking unless I buy it. But I want the stockings to be the main thing for our kids and maybe one or two bigger gifts outside of it.
Exactly what I do for my Kids and husband and mother in law !!!! Stockings are my favorite! Easily a hundred $ each and so fun!! Pets get treats in theirs. We open together over coffee in morning.
My mother always put codes on our presents and we had to break the code. Hints were only given on Christmas eve. They were numerical and included such things as the sum of our name A=1, the sum of our birth year, the year the state we were born in became a state, etc. The older we got, the harder the code was. We also would have treasure hunts for gifts that were too big to wrap. Merry Christmas!
Absolutely love that stocking! So cute! Someone will be so happy to get that! Great tissue paper hack! Those cinnamon rolls look delicious! My daughter makes delicious cinnamon rolls, I think I’ll ask her to make some! Our Christmas morning is stockings first and then breakfast, then gifts. My mom and daughters did most of the stockings, buying and filling. My oldest daughter always does my stocking. But this year my mama passed away, so Christmas is hard. All my kids are adults and they love their stockings still! It’s everyone’s favorite! I have fun finding unique things and their favorites. They always get an apple, orange and nuts, just like when I was a kid!
We are super big stocking fans. We do a cookie day every year with the grandkids and grandpa helps them make a gingerbread house. We start Christmas music in December. No sooner. I’m trying your cinnamon roll recipe this year for Christmas breakfast. We also always have green eggs and ham for breakfast, remembering our love for all things Suess. Love your channel. Blessed Christmas to you! I have never seen anyone stuff a stocking that much. So fun. We all sit together and open our stockings one turn at a time. Draws it out. 😍
Sounds like you and your family have so much fun at Christmas time! I’m from a family of 14 children so we have to rent a building to have our family get together, we have done this for years and we love it! Then we go to our son’ and DIL’s house that afternoon for Christmas with them and our two grandsons But, we always go to church Christmas morning, cause Jesus is the reason for the season Merry Christmas and God bless
I love your traditions!! We also have the pickle ordainment. It came from my grandma on my mom's side. Wasn't ever talked about with me, but we put it in our tree every year and now I'm going to make it a competition with my 2 kids. I also stuff my kids stockings full like you do lol . I've never used tissue paper to help hide the top gifts and goodies. I might try that this year. I was thinking of making french toast bake Christmas morning and making that a tradition. I love Christmas! 🎅🎄⛄ Thank you so much for sharing!
I love this. Christmas music can hair all year for me. My daughter (5) loves Christmas music so we put it on once in a while all year. Decorating happens Thanksgiving weekend. I love hearing what your Christmas traditions are. I come from a small family, and this is one of the things I envy about bigger families
We have 6 kids and also gave code names. And we too take 2 hours to open presents. My step-dad started that because he wanted to see everyone open their gifts.
We love Christmas. Stockings are a big favorite. We have stockings with the family on Christmas Eve and then just with our family on Christmas morning.
My husband works in a grocery store. Therefore, he hears Christmas music for 8+ hours! So I listen while he's at work! Since it's just hubby and I now, holidays are changing. Trying to create a new norm. It's the time of year that empty nesting gets a little hard.
Can I just say....I want to come to your house for Christmas lol. Stockings have been and are a BIG deal in my house too but different as my kids are all 5 and under right now BUT you've given me amazing ideas for future Christmas's as they get older! I love the Elf idea and sibling exchange etc. This year I'm hoping to start a new tradition of a family puzzle out on a table for the few days before Christmas that everyone can participate in a little here and there.
My hubby and I giggled when you were saying about listening to Christmas Carols. We are the same!! I want to listen to carols for a good month. Hubby would rather wait for a few days leading up to Chy😂
We do stockings too! I used to always pick out wild Christmas printed boxer shorts for all - girls and guys! Now I just do grandkids. They love the stockings!
I've never been a fan of Little Drummer Boy until I heard For King & Country's version. And I've heard it in concert---it's AMAZING live!! Our local contemporary Christian radio station plays it and I crank the volume when I'm in the car. Merry Christmas!
Christmas is a huge deal at our house. I had stocking for my kids. They loved it. Now with grandkids and great grandkids I am up to 38. We leave that to the parents
So I start Christmas music of and on in April after the 10th then constant after Thanksgiving. we are all about the stocking I made them myself. God bless
YES!! I’m German & we have 2 pickles AND 2 bird’s nests hidden in the tree! I have birds all over my tree. We do the pickles & bird’s nests last too for prizes.
Love the stocking tradition, my kids are also grown - but they started with 2 foot stockings when they were little and they refuse to give them up!! So we had to add new ones when our children got married and since had children, we were unable to find the big ones so I had to sew them all ones the same size!! I do all the same kind of stuff you mentioned, along with some silly stuff - toys for the adults, books etc! I always top theirs with a throw blanket so no tissue! When my kids had babies, I told them we had to cut back (so we could focus on gifts for their kids) but they would not give up their stockings - said we could stop buying them presents but we could NOT stop the stockings lol!!
We love stockings at our house! My mom started the tradition, and I have carried it on, since it was so much fun. On Christmas Day, we do stockings first, then have breakfast and do big presents after. My kids are grown, so the gifts are very much like what you showed. We always top with a little stuffed animal, and the toe has a tangerine and a Santa chocolate or chocolate coins. I usually put in a tabloid or fun magazine too.Thanks for sharing!
I think this was my favorite of all your videos I've seen! I love Christmas, and seeing your family traditions was such fun. As our family has grown and changed, our traditions have changed as well. While I enjoy the new ones, I miss the old ones. Merry Christmas Rachel, and thank you for sharing! ❤💚🌲
Oh my goodness, Rachel...I want to come to your house for Christmas! 🎄❤️ Your traditions and family sound so beautiful and so full of LOVE! (I may be just a little jealous.😉) MERRY CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!! ❤️🎄🙏
The only gifts my husband and I get each other is stuff for the others stocking. We have cinnamon rolls and open the stuff in our stockings 1st thing christmas morning.
I’ve lost the Christmas sprit. I’m trying hard to find it. The B.S. of the last 2 years has divided my family and it’s just made it so hard to overcome. But, I’m trying hard to get the sprit back. Stocking where always a big event in my house. Now my daughter and I do one for each other and I love that.
We only do stockings for the adults and it gets pretty interesting sometimes. My SIL couldn't stand being limited to what fits in a stocking so she bought super-stretchy wooly baby tights in bright patterns and pinned a pair to each stocking. It's amazing how big an item fits into those things! 😏😄
While growing up Boxing Day was Christmas dinner was with my Nana H, & Grandpa H. Both have passed on. She usually made turkey & stuffing, peas & carrots, cranberry sauce, pickles, homemade buns, mashed potatoes & gravy. We opened gifts after we got there , my grandparents house was out of town, but not that far away.
Loved hearing about your traditions as a child and with your kids. This past year and a half hasn't been a very good one for our family so we will be skipping Christmas for the first time ever. We have many traditions since I was a kid. My mom was a single parent with two kids that made the very best of every Christmas as much as she could. My BEST memories of Christmas was when she always would save all kinds of food boxes to put our presents in. We would get a present on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning we would open up our presents to get a box of "stuffing, macaroni and cheese, cereal, crackers" or others because she couldn't afford fancy boxes or All the pretty trimmings. We always made a joke about wondering what kind of food box we would get under the tree. We grew up poor but felt the richest in life because my mom always made sure that we had what we needed and she worked her butt off for it. We did Go together as a family to find a real Christmas tree and my mom would always choose one of those pine trees that was very short and dumpy with the soft pine needles that poked you. We would put it up together and decorate it together. But one tradition that didn't stick around was the Christmas pickle. We tried it for a few years but it didn't stay around. I have tried it with my kids and it really hasn't stuck. The only thing I do different is that I usually have about 9 to 12 trees of all sizes decorated in my house. I even have a tree on my front porch that gets decorated a few times a year with different items because it's not just a Christmas tree. It's a year around tree. I usually sit back and watch everybody else open up their things because I like taking photos to see what everybody gets. Some of us adults watch one person or two people open up their items at a time. I still have a young child that likes to rip through everything. We just let him go and we don't really get to see what he gets. My brother used to do the same thing when he was a kid. It would literally take him 3.5 seconds to open everything up. He would speed through every item, look at it and toss it to the side. My mom never even had a chance to watch him or get photos because he was always done before me. I took my time opening my gifts so my mom could enjoy watching us open our things. My Christmas's were the best as a child and I hope I made my kids's Christmas the best I possibly could. My husband and I used to do the shopping together when our kids were little, but he kind of faded out as a years went on. I do all of the shopping for my family, our kids and his family.
I love your traditions and your sentiments about Christmas. I'm blessed to see my twin sister this Christmas! I love the stocking Idea. I may be doing that next year for the grandkids.👍❤️
I mix the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and then put it on the dough. It might not be for everyone, but it works for me. When the kids were small I would shop all year and could find amazing deals. Christmas show and music starts at 9:00 pm on October 31. By the time Christmas day rolls around I am ready for it to be over.
Since all of our boys are married and 2 have children of their own “Santa” visits the grandchildren at their own homes. I do have stockings for them all, 14 of them, that I fill with smaller items and candies. They each get a gift under the tree also. I start my shopping around October and have it all finished by Thanksgiving. We can then enjoy the Christmas season with relaxing and Christmas movies. My husband and I are both retired. I start my Christmas baking, cooking and Chex mix, requested by our 4 sons, the week before and don’t let stress enter into the equation. Merry Christmas to Rachel & Todd and all of their viewers.
Oh my goodness I LOVE stockings, they are my favorite! In fact, my Mom's Christmas is just stockings and we have a lot of fun finding things to put in there 🙂 You are totally right about For King & Country's Little Drummer Boy. The 2018 video on their channel Little Drummer Boy (Rewrapped Music Video) [LIVE] is my favorite, there are a few other live videos. Their official music video is fantastic as well.
Goodness. This video made me miss my mum and dad sooo much. But grateful for the wonderful Christmases we shared when we were blessed to be together. Thank you. ❤
I enjoyed hearing about your Christmas traditions, Rachel. Ours is similar. I go all out on the stockings. My kids think that the stockings are the best part of their Christmas presents. I wrap everything in colored tissue paper though. I make pecan rolls for Christmas morning. That was a tradition that was passed down from my grandmother and my mom. One thing that I always try to put in everyone’s stockings is a box of Juju Bees candy. Those candies are so vintage! My mom always put them in our stockings. They are getting harder to find every year. I hope your family has a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
Once my boys were married, I bought everyone a stocking and had such fun filling them with fun things, silly things, practical things, candy and all kinds of things. On Christmas Day I handed out the stockings with this caveat, you can take these home and fill them yourself from now on or you can leave them at our house and Santa will continue to fill them every year. One daughter in law immediately dumped her stuff into a box and handed it back to me. She knew she wanted to continue the tradition. We love our stockings as much as the presents.
We did that too. My son in loves didn't know what to think when I did it the first year they were in the family. I did it when they were dating and I knew they were serious too.
I love that you give them, your bonus daughters, the choice in that. It gives daughters-in-law (like myself) a really family-feeling experience, and that acceptance really means a lot to someone who has once had a less than nice mother-in-law before. I'm excited for the day I get that chance, if my children choose marriage. ❤ thank you for being an example of a good mom in law/love ❤ the one I have now has really made me feel like real family ❤
I've always did stockings for my adult children and spouses and grandchildren! I think they loved the stockings more than the gifts.
I like your name😀
I have done stockings since my children were born. Now it has expanded to the wives and grandchildren. A couple years ago I wasn’t able to get everything in the stockings. So I pulled out the sewing machine and we made Santa Sacks. We braided yarn for the drawstring. They loved the Santa Sacks and now that’s what we go with. I even do the fur babies at each home. They look forward to these every year.
😂😂 watching you put that brown sugar on. I thought to myself. Man she isn’t putting any butter on that dough 😂. Totally something I would do. I made tuna casserole one day. Took it out of the oven and there sat my can of tuna.
Oh no!😣
Hilarious 😂
We must be related LOL! Sounds like something I would do! 😁🌻
I just did this with chicken casserole last month. 😆
Bing and David singing little drummer boy/ peace on earth, is mine and my husband’s favorite. He is the same as Todd. Moderation 😂 I will go check out the other video you mentioned for drummer boy. Wow those look amazing. The stocking is gorgeous and such a great ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your traditions ❤🎄
My sister had a medium size box for each of her kids and if she saw something that she thought would be a good stocking stuffer for one of those people she would buy and put in their own box. At christmas she would go through each one and fill in where needed and wrap them all up. Kept her stress down at christmas to not have to it all at once and each person would get gifts that really suited their personality and were unique to them. Stocking's are the best!
This is really a great and practical way to do stockings! Thank you for sharing your sister's good ideas. This can apply to more than just stocking stuffers. This also makes sense for Christmas gifts and other things like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or other upcoming events. Definitely will be using this idea, thank you. Blessings on your day Kiddo!😊👍🌻🐛
Love seeing others use the bread machine to just make the dough and proof it. Traditionally our grandma (and her mother who was gone before I was born) would make the sweet yeast dough from the old Betty Crocker cook book (now in my possession) and roll diced dried appricots, dark raisons, and light raisons into it and then make a braided loaf from it for Christmas. I restarted the tradition last year and it choked up my dad when I gave it to him. At any case I adjusted the recipe a bit to use the bread machine to make and proof the dough for a small loaf.
Oh my word, stockings are the MOST fun on Christmas morning but we had to wait until all the other gifts were opened. My mom made all three of us crocheted stockings and, yeah, they STRETCH! Mom and dad would pack them so full and leave extra other little gifts on the mantle next our stockings. There were always staples in the stocking…one year they forgot our toothbrush and boy did we all raise heck. They’ve never forgotten since. I turned 50 this year and we all still anxiously await stockings.
I'm not much of a holiday person but we do have a couple of traditions. I wanted to tell you we did the pickle in the tree for a few years and my daughter always found it. So finally we said let your little brother find it this year he was always so sad. So we put it where a 5 year old could find it easy and of course my daughter was going crazy ... well, it turns out my son is severe red/green colorblind and he couldn't find no matter how hard he tried. We felt horrible but we didn't know! From that year on no more pickle!!
On our honeymoon my husband and I wandered into a Christmas store at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We saw the pickle ornament and decided to buy it because my husband’s family was from Germany. Anyhow, we always hide it and the finder gets a special gift. One year it was a giant candy bar. It’s been gift cards too. It’s a fun tradition for us to do with our family!
Merry Christmas!!!! My son will be 40 on Dec 19th. I didn’t start Christmas at our house until after his birthday because I wanted his birthday to be separate from Christmas. My birthday is Dec 29th and you cannot separate from or top Christmas and New Years. I always wanted him to know how special he was to me!
I was happy to hear that Tod filled a stocking for you Rachel. So many times the Mother that usually does all of the shopping and figuring out who gets what and who wants or needs whatever seems to get left out. I’m glad you’re not left out ❤. Merry Christmas to you all 🎄🎁!
Yeah my husband is not a gifts person so I never got stocking stuffers (or gifts for that matter), but my children take care of that now!
I have a vivid memory of the year I had helped my mom finish wrapping some of the presents Christmas eve and it clicked in my brain that no one was going to make mom's stocking... but I was probably only 11ish, so had no money of my own. I got up and scrounged a piece of fruit from the kitchen, a pack of gum, etc, and then made her some coupons for help around the house and such. Every year after that I made it a point to make my dad take me out to get at least a few stocking stuffers for her because I wanted her to have a little something special too.
I love that you go to such lengths for your family and that you've kept doing it even though your kids are grown. Two of our three are grown, and I still like to do special things for them, too. I stuff stockings and take care with gifts and wrapping (I'm a ribbon lover, too!! Is there a support group for us?! ; ) ). We used to do the pickle thing until our pickle broke....and the last few years I have made a silly ornament that has something to do with whatever is currently going on in our lives. Last year we had Covid in November, so I made a snowman out of cough drops and hid it the same as the pickle.....the year before it was an empty toilet paper roll. I'm not sure what it will be this year....need to come up with something funny. Whoever finds the hidden ornament gets an extra gift....but I always put together gifts for all of the kids--a bag of snacks and a DVD or box pizza kits and soda....just something cheap and fun. It's been hard trying to think of fun Christmas Eve ideas since our get-together numbers have dwindled due to moves, death, and marriage.....but I keep trying to make things fun. God bless we Moms (...and Dads, grandparents, siblings, etc.) who try our best to make Christmas celebrations fun.
My kids (also grown) really enjoy their stockings too. I like to find unusual things, funny things, small gifts and treats.
My parents didn't celebrate Christmas so I've never made much of a big deal about it but as I get older I want to do more things, make traditions and create fun and memorable moments with my children.
I'm on my third year of making my children their advent calendars. I'll print off little Christmas tags and write things like "baking day," "skip a day of school," "your choice dinner/breakfast," "sledding and hot chocolate," ... then they can "redeem" them when they want. I'll also add chocolates, little containers of slim or play doh, chap stick, coins, ect.
This year I'm wanting to stuff their stockings with all the things... but this is the first Christmas where I'm budgeting. Lol So we'll see how creative I can get.
You sound like a fun mom!
If you have a dollar tree that’s a great place to get items for kids stockings.
@@cynthiafisher9907 ❤
@@showard866 I love dollar stores! However... the closest one to me is 2.5 hours away. Next year I'll be planning ahead and doing my shopping when I go into the city.
Stockings were always my favorite part of Christmas morning and that tradition carried on to my children and now the grandchildren. Every year we had an apple, an orange, mixed nuts, a Pez and then lots of fun goodies were added to fill them up. My kids always got a chocolate orange added to the list of annual standards. Stuff it 'til you can't stuff it any more is the motto. Watching you bake and get excited about the holidays made me smile. Those cinnamon rolls look so yummy. I can't seem to get there this year. Three family deaths in as many months (one on Thanksgiving morning before we left for their house), refrigerator went out, and now the transmission on hubby's car. I have been sick the past two weeks and suddenly we have a very bold fox that has taken an interest in our ducks and chickens. I want a fall do-over and a nice blanket to pull over my head until January. 🤒 Love the music. I always wanted it playing immediately after Thanksgiving until I worked retail. Moderation became a necessity for sanity. Thank you for sharing your lovely home and traditions. May God bless your family.
Wow that's a lot of tough stuff happening all at once, especially when looking forward to the joyful season. I hope things get brighter soon for you!
🙏💕
We love Christmas and stockings are my favorite! I graduated in 95, but my babes are 6,8, and almost 10! We also do Christmas Eve gifts- Christmas pjs, a movie, and snacks/hot cocoa!
This is my favorite thing about Christmas, I have adult children with in-laws as well. The one thing they do not want to stop is the stockings although this year I decorated Christmas Eve Crates to be able to transition to a family gift. Now I want to include the stockings lol. It’s hard not to spoil the ones you love.
When they were teens, I’d buy $100 worth of movie tickets and divvy those up with gift cards to different fast food places they’d go to anyway. Makes you miss your adult children, wish I could visit an old Christmas to sit with my kids again. ❤😢
Stockings are my favorite too! We make pancakes into snowmen and use sausage links for the arms. We decorate with sprinkles, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips to make their faces.
Stocking stuffers every year for us: a sleeve of ritz crackers + a can of easy cheese; a can of cashews except for 1 granddaughter who doesn’t eat nuts. She gets jerky. 2 of the great grands get fruit roll ups instead of nuts. My son loves whoppers. Oldest granddaughter get gharadelli Carmel candies. Yes the pickle is a German tradition.
thanks you gave me a few more ideas..my kids love that spray cheese in the cans but with 5 of them I dont buy it, as it would be gone in a day and its not cheap. a stocking stuffer is a great idea for that and the fruit roll ups another item I never buy not enough in the box for a large family for the price..thanks again! Merry Christmas!
Love the Easy Cheese idea! Thanks, I’m going to use that!
Wow, I'd never have thought of those ideas! Thank you!
The stocking has always been my favorite to give and receive. My sister and I when we were little always opened our stockings before our parents woke up. I always make cinnamon rolls and doughnuts to eat while opening gifts.
Stockings have always been important in our Christmas celebration. I have made all of our stockings for my kids, their spouses, grandkids and dogs. They are blue with cream cuffs embroidered names. Each one is appliquéd with a different snowman or snowwoman. The total so far are 23 stockings. Since everyone has their own home, I stuff recycle bags with food goodies, a new kitchen gadget. This years theme was everything hot chocolate and s’mores.
Where do I start! Worked at a bakery and at 3am realized that I had forgotten the butter. Yup, scraping the sugar off a 3 x 8 table of dough. Who else turned off the volume to see what was beeping in the house. I have re-united with my ex. When he gets home from work, have the fire & lights on, Christmas music playing. Give him the moment. He is the Christmas bear and I make it special for him.
The best video of Christmas and happiness I’ve watched in a long time. Thank you Rachel ♥️🎉🌲♥️
One of the most outrageous and endearing traditions that my in-laws do has been done for over 75 years. On Christmas Eve FIL gets the turkey ready for that evening. He will ask the unmarried, newest girlfriend/ boyfriend or partner who has never been to a loud French Canadian Christmas Eve to 'help' him. As he gets them to bend over the raw turkey to stuff it, he smacks them in the chin with the butt flap that he has cut off. It. Is. Shocking! Every single male/female In Law in this huge French family has been smacked with the turkey butt-- for over 75 years, this has been a time honored tradition. Like I said, not for everyone, but we love that the daughters are dating, so new blood is coming this Christmas! :)
As kids we got to choose one small present to open on Christmas Eve. We also take turns being the designated 'Santa' who passes out the presents and then we take turns opening so every gift gets it's moment to shine. For many years our extended family also had a special opening of some kind of toy like nerf balls that everyone opened simultaneously and then ran around playing tag with, even as adults! Hilarity and chaos ensued! Afterwards we'd have some cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs and get the dinner and the football games going! Happy Holiday cheer to the 1870's Homestead fam!
My kids love love love stockings. It’s one of their favorite things about Christmas morning gifts. I didn’t have stockings as a kid, my husband did and it was special to add that to our family tradition from his side of the family. We stuff them like you. Sometimes they overflow so much that items are sitting around the stocking too. Ooops. 😂
We wait until everyone is up and we do our stockings so everyone can see all the joy from seeing what they get in their stockings.
A cute Christmas ornament is always in the stocking at out house. All our kids are adults also, each year they get a new ornament for their tree.
I'm with Todd! I love Christmas music, but I only want to hear it for 3-4 days before Christmas. That keeps it special, in my opinion.
My mom just made cinnamon rolls with the “12 tomatoes” Amish friendship white bread recipe. It was amazing! I’m gonna make it tomorrow!!!! So much fun!
12 tomatoes?
I fill my children's stockings with all the same stuff. Always has been a year long project. I love it.
Loved watching you stuff that stocking - I have the stocking stuffers ready to go, but it's what I do last on Christmas Eve when every one is asleep. I know they must hear the tissue paper. Merry Christmas hope you have wonderful holiday❤🥂
I love all of your videos but I think this is my favorite, talking about your family traditions! 🥰
Stockings are also our favorite, I have 4 grown daughters 2 of which are married and before they got married they had the “Christmas Stocking talk” lol and my other 2 adult daughters still get a Stocking from Mom, I do mine very similar to yours there’s always the basics and then a lot of personalized things for the recipient ❤️
Funny you should say that. I gave pez dispensers to my 5 kids all their childhood. Now I’m on s.s. And can’t buy a stick o gum. But that’s ok. Prayers are worth more than all. Stockings were very important to me. And when you think about it, filling them can cost more than the presents under the tree. But oh the excitement of a full stocking. Such memories. Thank you so much!!!! Thanks for the memories…..I’m gonna make your cinnamon rolls too. Merry Christmas you guys!
When my kids were younger I would hide the pickle on the tree when we first put the tree up. In the morning they would look for it and whoever found it first got to hide it that night. Then each morning they would get to search for it. I homeschooled my children, so it helped get them up in the mornings.
Beautiful video. I do Christmas stockings now only for our Grandchildren. They love opening them as soon as they come and everyone’s arriving and getting settled in. We open gifts like you do and then after dinner we do this…For the Adult children, I started the Saran ball, instead of the stockings. Prize in the middle and wrap everything in the ball that would go into a stocking. They have 45 seconds, then pass on. A piece of coal candy, means they have to stop and pass on. They keep whatever they unravel. This has become such a big thing, that I also do one for the Grandchildren now also. They begged me for one. They already are asking what I’ve put in them.
We also do the pickle, but I changed it up. Adult girls look for the pickle. The adult boys look for a car ornament, the little girls look for a Barbie ornament each. I have a little gift for each of the the little girls and one for the pickle and car. Who knew adults could go crazy for fun games. Love it. Merry Christmas
Stockings have always been a highlight in our family. My kids have carried on the tradition with my grandchildren. Such fun.
12/1 Christmas STARTS in my house! Our tree goes up, takes me 3 days to get everything on the tree. Then we start setting up our Christmas house scenes up, town, country & mountainscapes plus all the decorations around the house & outside. That all comes down on 1/2.
Stockings are a huge deal for our family! We all buy around 5 things for each persons stocking and on Christmas Eve we take turns adding our things to each stocking! Also our stockings are homemade pillow cases because the regular ones just aren’t big enough haha
❤
Always do stockings but they are in the form of gift bags these days .5 daughters and husband and 10 grandchildren...now 2 great grandies!
But all our children also contribute to each other's stockings . Most often its a handmade item even if its jelly or a candle or a jar of hot chocolate mix.
I love this new tradition
We have a lot of the same traditions.
We open gifts one at a time, stockings are opened before gifts. We have a cookie decorating day. We have a sweater cookie cutter and we do an ugly sweater contest.
We make cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Our girls are grown and so are our three grandchildren. We have never spent Christmas apart. What a blessing! 🎄🥰
Merry Christmas and God bless
So fun! We do stockings with favorite candy, little gadgets and silly things like glasses that turn all the Christmas lights to reindeer. Light up earrings or necklaces are good for silly gifts. Always favorites are jewelry, socks and small games. New tradition this year. Instead of Christmas morning we will be doing Christmas Eve as the family dynamics have changed. It will be our Granddaughter’s first Christmas. 🌲
Rachael , you are such a bright shining light ! I love watching your videos. May you and your family have a joyous Christmas season ! GOD BLESS !
Our youngest son is gonna be the drummer boy in the church play this year so We've been listening to the " pa rum pum pum pum" music for a while as he practices his walking and beating of drums 🥁lol.
Stockings are my favorite thing to do. I start buying on 12/26/day after Christmas and buy through the whole year so it’s not such a “hit” all at once. My boys loved their stockings every year (except the year they new skis and snowboards and season passes at Crystal Mountain! The ski lodge was 7 miles from home 🤷♀️ I still do that for my grandkids to this day. 🎄
I love your videos!! It's like I'm sitting at the kitchen table talking to my friend!! Such creative ideas!!
I kept trying to tell you “You forgot the butter, you forgot the butter”. 🤣
I LOVE Christmas stockings. I can never think of stuff to put in them though. Mine are mostly goodies with a couple gifts. Thank you for the wonderful ideas.
Merry Christmas everyone.
☃️🎅🏼🎄⛄️
My daughter is graduating this year when she began high school we began adding kitchen things to her stocking so she will have a nice supply when she she leaves home
Favorite time of the year. My birthday is the 21st, so by default, I have to love this time of year. Ha. The story goes, I came home on Christmas Day and mom tried to tell my siblings I was there Christmas present, did not go over well with my brother, and resented me ever since 😂😂😂. In the stockings, there’s usually little things. One year when kids were little, my husband thought it be great to fill stockings with candy. It took forever to get through all the candy. Haha
mine is the 2nd and I would complain that I always heard we dont have much right now got to save up for xmas..but my dad pointed out the fact that his bday is in January when everyone is broke from xmas..he had a good point, that shut me up lol!
My name is Rachel and I also graduated in 94! I am ready for Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. It drives my husband crazy, too. LOL
Stockings were my favorite as a kid! My husband hates Christmas and I don't usually get anything in my stocking unless I buy it. But I want the stockings to be the main thing for our kids and maybe one or two bigger gifts outside of it.
I never did either and one year my daughter noticed and began to question Santa. So I started filling mine myself.
Exactly what I do for my
Kids and husband and mother in law !!!! Stockings are my favorite! Easily a hundred $ each and so fun!! Pets get treats in theirs. We open together over coffee in morning.
My mother always put codes on our presents and we had to break the code. Hints were only given on Christmas eve. They were numerical and included such things as the sum of our name A=1, the sum of our birth year, the year the state we were born in became a state, etc. The older we got, the harder the code was. We also would have treasure hunts for gifts that were too big to wrap. Merry Christmas!
Absolutely love that stocking! So cute! Someone will be so happy to get that! Great tissue paper hack! Those cinnamon rolls look delicious! My daughter makes delicious cinnamon rolls, I think I’ll ask her to make some! Our Christmas morning is stockings first and then breakfast, then gifts. My mom and daughters did most of the stockings, buying and filling. My oldest daughter always does my stocking. But this year my mama passed away, so Christmas is hard. All my kids are adults and they love their stockings still! It’s everyone’s favorite! I have fun finding unique things and their favorites. They always get an apple, orange and nuts, just like when I was a kid!
My mother in law used to put meds and stuff in ours. Before you could get in trouble. That was years ago.
We are super big stocking fans. We do a cookie day every year with the grandkids and grandpa helps them make a gingerbread house. We start Christmas music in December. No sooner. I’m trying your cinnamon roll recipe this year for Christmas breakfast. We also always have green eggs and ham for breakfast, remembering our love for all things Suess. Love your channel. Blessed Christmas to you! I have never seen anyone stuff a stocking that much. So fun. We all sit together and open our stockings one turn at a time. Draws it out. 😍
Shut the box? Is that the game you were talking about. Definitely a fun and addictive game
I have 6 kids and 3 grandchildren to do fun stockings for
Sounds like you and your family have so much fun at Christmas time!
I’m from a family of 14 children so we have to rent a building to have our family get together, we have done this for years and we love it!
Then we go to our son’ and DIL’s house that afternoon for Christmas with them and our two grandsons
But, we always go to church Christmas morning, cause Jesus is the reason for the season
Merry Christmas and God bless
I absolutely love this, Rachel. 💛 Very touching and inspiring. Stockings aren't as popular over here in Germany, so it is extra special for me.
I love your traditions!! We also have the pickle ordainment. It came from my grandma on my mom's side. Wasn't ever talked about with me, but we put it in our tree every year and now I'm going to make it a competition with my 2 kids. I also stuff my kids stockings full like you do lol . I've never used tissue paper to help hide the top gifts and goodies. I might try that this year. I was thinking of making french toast bake Christmas morning and making that a tradition. I love Christmas! 🎅🎄⛄ Thank you so much for sharing!
I love this. Christmas music can hair all year for me. My daughter (5) loves Christmas music so we put it on once in a while all year. Decorating happens Thanksgiving weekend. I love hearing what your Christmas traditions are. I come from a small family, and this is one of the things I envy about bigger families
I enjoy Christmas music, because it's one month out of 12 that we get to enjoy it
We have 6 kids and also gave code names. And we too take 2 hours to open presents. My step-dad started that because he wanted to see everyone open their gifts.
We love Christmas. Stockings are a big favorite. We have stockings with the family on Christmas Eve and then just with our family on Christmas morning.
My husband works in a grocery store. Therefore, he hears Christmas music for 8+ hours! So I listen while he's at work!
Since it's just hubby and I now, holidays are changing. Trying to create a new norm. It's the time of year that empty nesting gets a little hard.
Can I just say....I want to come to your house for Christmas lol. Stockings have been and are a BIG deal in my house too but different as my kids are all 5 and under right now BUT you've given me amazing ideas for future Christmas's as they get older! I love the Elf idea and sibling exchange etc. This year I'm hoping to start a new tradition of a family puzzle out on a table for the few days before Christmas that everyone can participate in a little here and there.
thats a great idea
Thank you for sharing your wonderful traditions and blessings with us🌲❤
My hubby and I giggled when you were saying about listening to Christmas Carols. We are the same!! I want to listen to carols for a good month. Hubby would rather wait for a few days leading up to Chy😂
We do stockings too! I used to always pick out wild Christmas printed boxer shorts for all - girls and guys! Now I just do grandkids. They love the stockings!
I really miss my moms stocking stuffers. She was like you, filled to the brim with wonderful things. My husband try's but....❤
I've never been a fan of Little Drummer Boy until I heard For King & Country's version. And I've heard it in concert---it's AMAZING live!! Our local contemporary Christian radio station plays it and I crank the volume when I'm in the car.
Merry Christmas!
I made cinnamon rolls and bacon for dinner tonight. ❤ hubby had a hard day at work.
Christmas is a huge deal at our house. I had stocking for my kids. They loved it. Now with grandkids and great grandkids I am up to 38. We leave that to the parents
So I start Christmas music of and on in April after the 10th then constant after Thanksgiving. we are all about the stocking I made them myself. God bless
YES!! I’m German & we have 2 pickles AND 2 bird’s nests hidden in the tree! I have birds all over my tree. We do the pickles & bird’s nests last too for prizes.
I am a crazy Christmas person. I was listening to Christmas music before Halloween!!!
What wonderful memories being made!❤❤
Love the stocking tradition, my kids are also grown - but they started with 2 foot stockings when they were little and they refuse to give them up!! So we had to add new ones when our children got married and since had children, we were unable to find the big ones so I had to sew them all ones the same size!! I do all the same kind of stuff you mentioned, along with some silly stuff - toys for the adults, books etc! I always top theirs with a throw blanket so no tissue! When my kids had babies, I told them we had to cut back (so we could focus on gifts for their kids) but they would not give up their stockings - said we could stop buying them presents but we could NOT stop the stockings lol!!
Great, memorable family traditons. Thank you for sharing! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Yeap Christmas music in my car stays on the from the first wk of November till they take it off the air!!!
We love stockings at our house! My mom started the tradition, and I have carried it on, since it was so much fun. On Christmas Day, we do stockings first, then have breakfast and do big presents after. My kids are grown, so the gifts are very much like what you showed. We always top with a little stuffed animal, and the toe has a tangerine and a Santa chocolate or chocolate coins. I usually put in a tabloid or fun magazine too.Thanks for sharing!
I love King and Country Lil Drummer Boy
I think this was my favorite of all your videos I've seen! I love Christmas, and seeing your family traditions was such fun. As our family has grown and changed, our traditions have changed as well. While I enjoy the new ones, I miss the old ones. Merry Christmas Rachel, and thank you for sharing! ❤💚🌲
Oh my goodness, Rachel...I want to come to your house for Christmas! 🎄❤️ Your traditions and family sound so beautiful and so full of LOVE! (I may be just a little jealous.😉) MERRY CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!! ❤️🎄🙏
I felt the same way and was thinking can I join your house for Christmas!
The only gifts my husband and I get each other is stuff for the others stocking. We have cinnamon rolls and open the stuff in our stockings 1st thing christmas morning.
I’ve lost the Christmas sprit. I’m trying hard to find it. The B.S. of the last 2 years has divided my family and it’s just made it so hard to overcome. But, I’m trying hard to get the sprit back. Stocking where always a big event in my house. Now my daughter and I do one for each other and I love that.
Sheila: I made my own family. I have Christmas with the friends and people I really wanted to be with. Hope this year is better for you.
Stockings are a thing with us too. I always buy to much and have to threaten the stocking with bodily harm... 😂
We only do stockings for the adults and it gets pretty interesting sometimes. My SIL couldn't stand being limited to what fits in a stocking so she bought super-stretchy wooly baby tights in bright patterns and pinned a pair to each stocking. It's amazing how big an item fits into those things! 😏😄
Thank you Rachel for sharing and such good idea's on stocking stuffer's. The cinnamon rolls look delish!!💕🎄blessing's
While growing up Boxing Day was Christmas dinner was with my Nana H, & Grandpa H. Both have passed on. She usually made turkey & stuffing, peas & carrots, cranberry sauce, pickles, homemade buns, mashed potatoes & gravy.
We opened gifts after we got there , my grandparents house was out of town, but not that far away.
Loved hearing about your traditions as a child and with your kids. This past year and a half hasn't been a very good one for our family so we will be skipping Christmas for the first time ever.
We have many traditions since I was a kid. My mom was a single parent with two kids that made the very best of every Christmas as much as she could. My BEST memories of Christmas was when she always would save all kinds of food boxes to put our presents in. We would get a present on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning we would open up our presents to get a box of "stuffing, macaroni and cheese, cereal, crackers" or others because she couldn't afford fancy boxes or All the pretty trimmings. We always made a joke about wondering what kind of food box we would get under the tree. We grew up poor but felt the richest in life because my mom always made sure that we had what we needed and she worked her butt off for it. We did Go together as a family to find a real Christmas tree and my mom would always choose one of those pine trees that was very short and dumpy with the soft pine needles that poked you. We would put it up together and decorate it together. But one tradition that didn't stick around was the Christmas pickle. We tried it for a few years but it didn't stay around. I have tried it with my kids and it really hasn't stuck. The only thing I do different is that I usually have about 9 to 12 trees of all sizes decorated in my house. I even have a tree on my front porch that gets decorated a few times a year with different items because it's not just a Christmas tree. It's a year around tree. I usually sit back and watch everybody else open up their things because I like taking photos to see what everybody gets. Some of us adults watch one person or two people open up their items at a time. I still have a young child that likes to rip through everything. We just let him go and we don't really get to see what he gets. My brother used to do the same thing when he was a kid. It would literally take him 3.5 seconds to open everything up. He would speed through every item, look at it and toss it to the side. My mom never even had a chance to watch him or get photos because he was always done before me. I took my time opening my gifts so my mom could enjoy watching us open our things. My Christmas's were the best as a child and I hope I made my kids's Christmas the best I possibly could. My husband and I used to do the shopping together when our kids were little, but he kind of faded out as a years went on. I do all of the shopping for my family, our kids and his family.
Huge, huge Christmas fans here!!! I start as soon as Halloween is over. Plus I have 5 kids, they all get very excited.
I love your traditions and your sentiments about Christmas. I'm blessed to see my twin sister this Christmas! I love the stocking Idea. I may be doing that next year for the grandkids.👍❤️
I mix the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and then put it on the dough. It might not be for everyone, but it works for me. When the kids were small I would shop all year and could find amazing deals. Christmas show and music starts at 9:00 pm on October 31. By the time Christmas day rolls around I am ready for it to be over.
You could have melted the butter and poured it over the sugar and rolled it up you are so good adapting keeping it easy.
Sure, stop being so human!! Delightful. Merry Christmas to you guys, I really enjoy you inviting us into your home/lives.
Since all of our boys are married and 2 have children of their own “Santa” visits the grandchildren at their own homes. I do have stockings for them all, 14 of them, that I fill with smaller items and candies. They each get a gift under the tree also. I start my shopping around October and have it all finished by Thanksgiving. We can then enjoy the Christmas season with relaxing and Christmas movies. My husband and I are both retired. I start my Christmas baking, cooking and Chex mix, requested by our 4 sons, the week before and don’t let stress enter into the equation.
Merry Christmas to Rachel & Todd and all of their viewers.
Oh my goodness I LOVE stockings, they are my favorite! In fact, my Mom's Christmas is just stockings and we have a lot of fun finding things to put in there 🙂 You are totally right about For King & Country's Little Drummer Boy. The 2018 video on their channel Little Drummer Boy (Rewrapped Music Video) [LIVE] is my favorite, there are a few other live videos. Their official music video is fantastic as well.
Goodness. This video made me miss my mum and dad sooo much. But grateful for the wonderful Christmases we shared when we were blessed to be together. Thank you. ❤
I enjoyed hearing about your Christmas traditions, Rachel. Ours is similar. I go all out on the stockings. My kids think that the stockings are the best part of their Christmas presents. I wrap everything in colored tissue paper though. I make pecan rolls for Christmas morning. That was a tradition that was passed down from my grandmother and my mom. One thing that I always try to put in everyone’s stockings is a box of Juju Bees candy. Those candies are so vintage! My mom always put them in our stockings. They are getting harder to find every year. I hope your family has a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
Laura, what is a pecan roll? Like cinnamon rolls? I'll have to look into that, because if that is what it is, my family will love it!
I just made these yesterday and it was my first time ever making cinnamon rolls. They turn out heavenly!
My kids still talk about stocking being their favorite thing on Christmas morning. We have 16 with grandkids and all. Can’t afford to do them anymore.