Christmas Traditions

So, this will be my 6th Christmas being married to Luke and my 7th with knowing him...and we pretty much have 0 traditions. I was thinking of the traditions we had when I was little and wanted to know if you guys had some ideas for some fun traditions for a just a couple with no kids, and some of course for kids for when I have them. Here are a few that I remember from growing up....

Pajamas- We always got pajamas on Christmas Eve and we would wear them of course almost all day and then Christmas morning. I had 4 sisters but the first one got married when I was 4...then the next one when I was 6...the next one when I was 10 and then my sister just older than me got married when I was 16. So, my favorite picture/memory of us is when all 5 of us were home and I was like 3 years old and we got Simpson's pajamas. Each of us was a member of the family...of course I was the baby. We got little dolls to go along with them. :)

Stories- My mom loves to collect Christmas books and I remember her reading them to us on Christmas Eve. Some of my favorites were The Match Girl (very sad tho), we had a Touched By an Angel one, there was one with a bunch of mice families that lived in a tree that I loved, and Snowmen at Night.

Movies- I LOVE Christmas movies! Of course the classics...we would always watch these movies at least once every year...A Christmas Story, Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, National Lampoons Christmas Vacations, Santa Clause (1,2 and 3), and I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now.

Arby's- I know this is weird...but we would always go and visit my Grandma on my Mom's side and we would go to Arby's on Christmas Eve because it was the only place open.

Grandparents/Great Uncle visits- I use to LOVE going to my Great Uncle Buddy's house. It wasn't necessarily always on Christmas Eve..although I think it was most of the time. But he always had the most thoughtful/cute gifts for me and my sisters. He lived in a tiny little basement apartment with a horse in the back and I just thought his house was the coolest thing ever! We use to also go visit my dad's parents on Christmas and they also had very thoughtful fun gifts for us, and of course I would see all my cousins that weren't even close to my age ha ha. But we always got to bring one toy that we got for Christmas and then of course we would get dressed up in our new clothes. My mom's parents were divorced but I loved going to their houses as well. My grandma always had a huge bag of gifts for us that were so thoughtful and it always was like she spent way more then she did because she was such a good thrifter. My Grandpa lived further away (about 45 minutes) and I would love to go and visit there because they had yummy food to feed us and I would always tug on his beard to make him "bah" like a lamb. I miss all of my grandparents very much.

Ornaments- My mom always gave us an ornament on Thanksgiving since she put up the tree that weekend. She always picked something that had to do with what we like that year. I have Barney, a piano, I Love Lucy...etc. Right now we don't use them because we have a themed tree that goes in our living room, but when we have a house and 2 trees I plan on doing the same thing with my kids and having all my ornaments on the tree from growing up.

These are just a few of the things that my parents did to make sure Christmas was very special for us. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! :)

*The picture is of Luke in 2008 which was our 3rd Christmas married.