Christmas Traditions

I went to a Christmas get together last night and they were asking what our favorite Christmas Traditions were so I thought I would post what traditions we have for Christmas.

* Decorate the home inside and out the week of Thanksgiving. Each child gets a new ornament to put on the tree. They have a kids Christmas tree they put up in the basement.
* Bake goods throughout the season. Our favorites are fudge, peanut brittle, magic bars,sugar cookies with frosting, and reindeer droppings
* Deliver goodies to neighbors (This year we thought it would be fun to sing Christmas carols to them)
* The children each make their homemade Gingerbread houses.
* Candy Countdown Jar. Each child gets to pull one out each day. Every year it's a different candy and this year it's Andes mints.
* Go visit a Santa.
* Give a gift to Jesus chain - Starting December 1st we try and do a service or services to give to the Savior for His birthday each day. The kids set a goal of how long they want the chain and they write on the red or green paper what they did.
* Send out Christmas cards and a letter with a picture.
* The children each place a Nativity scene in their room.
* Secret Elves or Pixies - The first week of December we draw names from the family and the name you draw you do little secret services for them that week.
* 12 Days of Christmas - Every year we choose a family and leave them a gift each night for the 12 days before Christmas. We become the secret elves.
* For Christmas Eve we always act out the Nativity and read Luke 2. We have a ham dinner with rice pudding for dessert. Each child gets to open one gift. We play games and watch a Christmas movie together.
* One night we drive around town to see Christmas lights. (Christmas Card lane is really fun to visit)
* For Christmas the kids come down the stairs youngest to oldest to see what they got from Santa.
* Each child takes turns opening presents from the family so we can see what they get. Every year each child gets all their presents with the same wrapping paper.
* For Christmas breakfast we have butterscotch balls (http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1913,157184-238192,00.html) for breakfast with eggs and orange juice.
* For New Year's Eve we have a Swedish Smorgesbord since I am Swedish. When I was growing up we did it on Christmas Eve but we have changed the day we do it.

If anyone has a tradition they would like to share, I would love to learn what others do. I love doing traditions because it really unifies our family and they look forward doing it each year. Most of these traditions come from both of our families which has been fun to carry them on.