I'm a little late, so you'll get some extra time to finish this day! You can post your answers until 7:30 AM EST (HP Time) Dec 11th!

Day 10 is all about Tradition! What is your FAVORITE yearly Holiday Tradition you and your family have? Mine was (Before I moved from home) setting up our Christmas Tree on Dec 1st and then decorating it slowly through the month. I'll have to find a new one soon! My Fiance and I just bought a house on Nov 30th, so maybe we'll do something Yearly to celebrate that! 

Let's hear YOUR Favorite! Each participant will gain 2mil HPD! 

My favorite traditions that we do are:

1. Go get our Christmas tree each Thanksgiving weekend. We have a favorite spot out in the hills that we go and wander around to cut one down (which we hate doing, but can't afford an artificial tree). And now that Haley is 6, we let her decorate the tree however she wants after we get the lights on it. Usually takes her a couple days because she has to keep adding and moving things. 
2. we have a Christmas Eve box that we open each year. It usually has jammies, a movie, some hot cocoa, a bag of popcorn, and a candy treat. So we can get into jammies early and do a movie date night with the family. ❤️

My family rolls out the cookie dough and cookie cutters, and we make Christmas cookies, and then decorate them with frosting and sprinkles. It makes a mess, but it tastes great and we all have fun!

My tradition with my family was always making my grandmother's recipe for homemade sugar cookies and vanilla frosting dyed green. I would always help my mom and sibling cut out shapes and decorate the cookies. It's small but it was something we would do every year since I was old enough to walk.

We will clearly not be able to do this with COVID going on but one tradition we did every year (even when I lived too far away to come to it also):

we would invite about 10 to 15 people over to my best friends moms house. She would have prepped boat loads of cookies. I'm talking gingerbread sugar etc and some would already be cut out and cooked already other times it would just be the dough. My sister usually would make/bring some of her own sugar cookie dough as it's an old family recipe. We would have 15 or more types of sprinkles and endless colors mixed together for the icing. For hours we would just bake and decorate cookies. Have drinks and snacks and chat and hang out. We'd also make chocolate covered pretzels and church mice treats and so much more. I really miss that for the company and all the delicious cookies! Everyone would go home with 25 cookies by the end. 

My family puts the tree up before Thanksgiving and we decorate it over time. And then we will watch Christmas movies throughout the month. Now that we have a baby we may add more as she gets older 

My favourite tradition is going to my sisters for lunch. We spend time with her, her husband and their four kids. We laugh, talk and drink wine. Its a relaxing day with great company and fab food.

I'm late but I'm going to reply regardless.

My favourite tradition is two different ones (for different sides).

For my moms side, we play this stupidly long card game into the night.  All of us in jammies, eating cookies, cursing my grandma for cheating and my grandpa for helping her.  

For my dads side, we do boxing day snowmobiling.  Tubes and all sorts of things behind them.  Go out all day ripping in the snow, and hoto chocolate and food after.

You're not late, Neke! This is today's activity! :)

I totally realized that after that it's not the 11th.

Neke needs more sleeps!

Every year my family does "dysfunctional secret santa"  xD  At thanksgiving the family draws names out of a hat, and then a week later no one remembers who they had, and then the next couple of weeks we spend our days trying to remember who has what.  It's meant to keep all the cousins together for the Holidays because most are married and doing other things.  This year, because of Covid we won't be doing it because funds are tight, but it was something I always looked forward too; despite all the arguing, it's the one time of the year we as a family talk the most.  

My brothers, sister and I all help my parents get their big (15 foot ) tree into the house and decorate it. We always do it the day after Thanksgiving. It takes all day to pick it out, bring it home, get it inside, clean up, decorate it (while listening to christmas music of course) and just have fun spending time together. Then for Christmas we always gather as a family for dinner and gift giving. Best time of the year!

My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas dinner my family would normally have over my grandmothers house. She makes the best chicken wings and my siblings and I still fight over them 🤤

A newer tradition within the last few years now that my family is getting older, was the cousin-cookie-baking extravaganza! Homemade cookies and frosting. 
Unfortunately due to current events neither of these events will be happening this year :( but here's to hoping for a normal Christmas 2021!

in the old days (before the divorce) we would cut down our xmas tree, decorate it as a family, make cookies, and watch movies till kids bedtime :) then me and the hubby would wrap presents for the kids and put them under the tree, this year maybe just drive around and look at the lights

We put our tree up the weekend right after Thanksgiving and it doesn't come down until after New Year's Day. I've always had a real tree (no exceptions for me). I am very anti-artificial tree myself. I love nature so real trees are the only way to go in my opinion. They're prettier and smell nicer. I even live in a log cabin style home which I adore! Never had an artificial and never will. Thankfully, my husband feels the same way. We go to a tree and wreath stand that is set up every year in town where they sell precut trees for only $25! And they're great people! Then we always decorated it as a family. My husband doesn't really stuck with it the whole time. But my 2 year old was loving it last December and he was even more into decorating the tree this year as a 3 year old. Growing up, my family always unwrapped everything and had a buffet snack table for dinner on Christmas eve, then we opened the gifts "from santa" on Christmas morning. I don't believe in santa so we don't do santa gifts with our son. Since I got married, the three of us normally open one gift on Christmas eve (my son's is usually his Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa so he can wear them to bed and be wearing them Christmas morning. Then we open our gifts from each other Christmas morning and go to my parents in law's house for lunch and open gifts from them and all my husband's siblings and give our gifts to each of them. We always did Christmas with my family on Christmas eve but that's going to be a little different this year. My mother works and lives states away and doesn't know if she's coming up for Christmas. But we're going to visit my father and his girlfriend for the weekend after Christmas.

My boyfriend and I recently bought a house and have been looking for a Christmas tradition to start in our own house so I'm loving these ideas so far!

When I still lived at home, we would set up our Christmas tree as a family after Thanksgiving dinner so we could make sure everyone was present.

Another tradition I have with my brother is that he opens a Christmas gift on Christmas Eve that usually has new pajamas, a new Christmas movie, and popcorn so he can chill and hang out before getting ready for the big day tomorrow. 

My family isn't suuuuper big on any certain set traditions due to being flexible with the rest of our family of when and where we celebrate Christmas with extended family and whatnot. But my mom and I definitely set time aside to do some christmas cookie baking each year. We also make some traditional Norwegian holiday treats like krumkake and kringle.

Here in Australia, it's always super hot on Christmas Day, as it's right in the middle of our Summer. So our traditions are a little different. My husband, our son and I make the 8 hour trip home to South Australia to be with my family. Christmas Day, we get up early to open presents, and then get ready for the massive family lunch. Everyone comes to my Nana and Papa's beautiful huge home on their farm, and we end up with almost 50 people every year. We have a huge spread of food, but our biggest and best feature is an enormous table laid out with seafood. Kilos upon kilos of prawns, crab, crayfish, oysters etc. (We Aussies love our seafood on Christmas!) And we all sit around it and drink, eat and laugh. Then (if we can move), we all play drunken cricket, sit and talk, drink more beer and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in a massive food coma. This doesn't happen often anymore, but when it does, it's truly the most beautiful tradition our family has on Christmas.

My husband and I have decided that one year, we are going to have a white Christmas, so will probably head up to the US or Canada!

On Christmas Eve, when I was a kid, my parents, sister and I would go to a nearby town to get some smaller items and eat in a cafe.
Later, my sister and I would go to bed early after leaving cookies, a carrot and milk for Santa.
Early next morning, my sister would come upstairs to get me up, then we'd go downstairs to the livingroom where Dad would be ready with his camera. Mum would be still in bed.
The ceiling light would be on, Christmas tree would be lit up and all our gifts piled in our designated spots: eldest brother's on the armchair, sister's and mine on the 2-seater couch, mum's on the left of the 3-seater couch, second brother's in the middle and dad's on the right.
We would sit on the floor or stand by our piles unwrapping whilst dad took photos.
Mum would appear an hour or two later, then she and my dad would disappear into the kitchen to get the food started.
Later after our aunt and cousin arrived, we would all sit in the dining room at the extended table and have dinner: turkey, ham, roasted potatoes, boiled potatoes, garden peas, carrots, brussells sprouts, cocktail sausages and stuffing. All washed down with either Coke or Schloer (fizzy,non-alcoholic grape juice), and followed by a choice between Black Forest gateau and strawberry gateau with either whipped cream or ice-cream. Then there were After Eights (thin plain chocolate squares filled with mint cream), Tunnock's tea cakes (soft biscuit base, mallow cream covered in chocolate), Tunnock's snowballs (mallow cream encased in chocolate and covered with coconut sprinkles) and selection boxes (box containing a variety of chocolate bars).

Two more traditions were: getting the Argos catalogue and circling the things we wanted Santa to bring. And getting the TV guide then circling and writing our names beside what movies we wanted to record onto video tape.

Every year Chris and I drive around and look at lights. Our town (and nearby "burbs") have over 200 houses that compete in a contest to have the "Best Lights of 20**" and you get to vote on your favorite! Some people even rent out their own radio station and have their lights synchronized to the music.

Every year after we open up our Christmas presents we would then pack them up and head to my grandma who lives in another county. After we get there we would show her our gifts. Later we would have Christmas dinner. I sure do miss doing that.