For those who don't "do" Santa, what are your Christmas traditions?

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I know there have been threads like this before, but haven’t seen one for awhile and it’s that time of year…I’d also like to hear from any new people, so here goes:

For those of you who have chosen not to partake in the Santa Claus tradition, what are your Christmas traditions with your children?
 
We do St. Nicholas not santa in our home…
we have done these things… children fill their shoes with pieces of carrot or bits of hay for his white horse or donkey. Place shoes outside bedroom doors or on the hearth. We also have made candy canes (a candy cane represents Nicholas’ crozier)…

Also when I was a kid growing up we had the threat of Krampus coming if we where not good
 
Well I will tell you what my brother does. I don’t have children. His children do get presents under the tree but it is just three gifts. That was the number of gifts that were brought to Jesus. Before they can open them on Christmas morning my brother reads the Story of Christmas.
 
canadianlife said:
How come some of you don’t “do” Santa?
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In my humbal opinion, this question is better to be asked in a seperate thread, as it has a HIGH potential for thread hijacking. and will spark an arguement and the OP just wants some alternatives. just my opinion, though.

I am interested in seeing some good responses to the OP’s question. hubby and I plan on not doing santa and I’m interested in hearing what other families do.
 
My parents raised us this way and growing up we…

-celebrated St. Nick’s day with setting our stocking out and getting candy and small gifts

-set baby Jesus’ manger out during Advent and put a piece of straw in it when we did a good deed

-spent a lot of time doing family things-Advent nights at our church, penance services, driving around to look at the lights, baking and frosting cookies (TONS of them b/c my mom LOVES to bake!), inviting friends over and making gingerbread houses

-Christmas Eve we open presents from relatives and then the past several yrs we’ve been going to midnight mass

-we do the same as most who do believe in Santa- we would leave cookies for my dad “Santa” even thought we knew, and we would have gifts in the morning, but we’d thank mom and dad.
*My husband’s family’s tradition was each person would open one gift at a time - TORTURE for children in my opinion! lol. 😉 So, we’re keeping up my side and letting the kids tear open their presents together 🙂 *
 
Our only child is in utero at the moment, but we do not plan on doing Santa either.

We plan on celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas, similar to what was posted above. Also, celebrating the other big feast days in December (Immaculate Conception, O.L Guadalupe, etc) because we generally celebrate feast days around the year (anything for a par-tay:D). Also, I think the Swedish custom of celebrating the Feast of St. Lucia (St. Lucy) is interesting, and when we have daughter we may do that one as well…I’ll need to research it more.

For Christmas Eve we’ll decorate the tree and the house, and we’ll keep gifts to a minimum, and encourage each of our children to give a birthday present to Jesus ( I know a family who does this and I love it…their kids either paint a picture, sing in the choir for a Christmas Mass, etc). And of course lots of feasting, reading the Nativity accounts, and in general celebrating the arrival of Our Saviour 🙂 Also my parents always made sure that we did some kind of act of charity as a family, like going to help out at a Christmas event for those who are less fortunate, etc.
 
SueKrum said:
In my humbal opinion, this question is better to be asked in a seperate thread, as it has a HIGH potential for thread hijacking. and will spark an arguement and the OP just wants some alternatives. just my opinion, though.

I am interested in seeing some good responses to the OP’s question. hubby and I plan on not doing santa and I’m interested in hearing what other families do.
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Thanks, Sue! Yeah…that question, if answered, will most likely hijack the thread. 😦

canadianlife - if you search on santa, you’ll most likely get an answer to your question. That question has come up in the past, I’m pretty sure. 👍
 
We aren’t going to do Santa either. We’ve wondered how to go about this as well, especially since Sophie’s cousins are definitely do Santa. Some great ideas!
 
I have the opposite problem in that I have used Santa for the last 7 years and would like to switch over now… but not sure how.
We have always also celebrated St.Nick on Dec 6. So will have to see how we make a total switch over.
DS has been questioning how Santa comes, where he gets the money to buy…
Of course, I have always told him that Santa gets just 1 small thing…never wanted to give Santa credit ;). And we get him 3 gifts because Jesus got 3 gifts. Of course then there are the stocking stuffers …
 
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