As a multicultural familia we incorporate both of our American and Latin traditions during the holidays. Our family traditions are religious, cultural and some of them are really just for fun! Little one’s 1st Christmas was when he was only 5 months old, and as he has gotten older we have incorporated lots of new traditions. Now that he’s 4 yrs. old he clearly understands that the “reason for the season” is the birth of baby Jesus (we always have a Nativity scene with our tree), but he can’t help the excitement of looking forward to Santa!
Making Christmas memorable for our son is one of the greatest joy we can receive as parents. So, on that note here’s a round-up of our multicultural Christmas traditions old and new listed in one place!
COOKIES AND MILK FOR SANTA!
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
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| Riverbanks Zoo “Lights Before Christmas” |
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| Children’s Garden Christmas & Kid’s Walk |
GINGERBREAD HOUSE/TRAIN
It’s a tradition to make the gingerbread house with his Daddy!
LETTER TO SANTA
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| This was his 1st time actually mailing out the letter (that Mommy wrote for him) to Santa. |
STAR ON OUR TREE
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| One of our son’s favorite thing to do is put the star up on the tree. This was his 1st time and you can tell he was a bit nervous that he may fall.:) |
OUR CHRISTMAS TREE
For some reason, I can’t find a picture of our 2008 Christmas tree! It’s probably in some disc. 😉 But, in the meantime enjoy the pictures of our Christmas trees during the following years.
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD
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| We started a new family tradition. Packing shoe boxes for children less fortunate. You can read more about our first shoe boxes here. |
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| This year little one actively participated by choosing and packing 4 shoe boxes all by himself. Here he is with Daddy ready to drop the shoe boxes off. For more about our OCC tradition go here. |
SANTA CLAUS!
Breakfast with Santa, and again… little one was not very interested in Santa.
ORNAMENTS & GIFTS
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| Our fun new tradition making hand print ornaments and gifting them to family members. |
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| Making play-doh ornaments. Want to know how to make them go here. |
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| A fun ornament based off a Taíno book. Read more about it here. |
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| A fun craft to keep little one busy for hours shaking the snow globes. Easy instructions found here. |
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| Making lollipop Christmas tree cards for his school friends, and cousins. You can read more about it here. |
ADVENT
Every morning we read the story of the birth of Jesus using the story book set & Advent calendar.
After I read it, little one puts it on the tree as an ornament. This is our 1st year doing this, and he enjoys getting up every morning and asking “what day is it?”
NOCHE BUENA (CHRISTMAS EVE) IN PUERTO RICO
Music and celebration during Noche Buena! Read my post here.
Celebrating Noche Buena in Puerto Rico with his Titi, and the rest of the familia!
For more details go here.
THREE KINGS DAY
Although far from Puerto Rico, we continue to keep the tradition of the Three Kings.
For the full post click here.
MAGIC REINDEER FOOD
A new 2012 tradition! Making magic reindeer food!
And last but not least or necessarily a tradition, but we had to share! Little one dressed up as Santa for his pre-k school Christmas Program. Where has time gone by?
What fun traditions do you and your family have? Please share, like or comment! Would love to hear from you!
¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
I love the idea of a gingerbread train. I might have to do that next year.