Holiday Traditions

I love holiday traditions!  I believe traditions are a great way to establish family memories which the kids can look forward to with anticipation.
It seems every year I pick up some sort of new tradition to try from someone.  There are so many things we do as a family for holidays every year that we might not even know at the time that we have started a tradition.  Christmas is probably the holiday with the most traditions for us.  To name a few of the traditions our family does during the Christmas season is our family baking day, cousin cookie exchange for the adults, and a paper chain countdown to Christmas that the kids make each year out of construction paper.

I have picked up a few more traditions for other holidays like the cupcake tradition for Valentine's Day from my cousin.  The beginning of every February, every family member writes down compliments for everyone everyday until Valentines day.  Each slip of paper is put into a ceramic cupcake and then read on Valentine's Day.  My husband and I help the younger ones write their compliment and then help them read theirs.  I think it makes each one of us feel special to hear the compliments that are being read.

Another tradition that I just started this Thanksgiving was given to my by my sister-in-law.  I bought a king sized sheet and sharpies and had all of the guests sign the sheet.  I think it will be a neat way to look back each year to see who my guests were and what they wrote and how they signed their name on the sheet!

Hopefully, these traditions and all of the other ones we add in years to come will be passed down for generations, which then they can always start a new holiday tradition.
What are your family's traditions?