Christmas & New Year's Day traditions for couples

[Petals]

So some of us will be lucky enough to spend Christmas/ New Year's holidays with our SO while others won't be able to do so this time around.

What are some holiday traditions that you want to continue OR create with your SO?

For me
1. Decorating Christmas tree together... aww I just love doing this and to share this with him will be so special!
2. Staying up Christmas Eve preparing (seasoning meat, baking cakes etc) dinner for the Christmas Day.
3. Huge Christmas dinner with dishes from both our cultures.
4. Ring in the New Year doing something romantic and involving just the two of us. (I'm not so sure that will work since, he has a huge and close-knit family)

[rhabdoviridae]

We visit the National Christmas tree together every year and drive around to look at lights in the neighborhood. When I've had my own place, we cut down our own tree which I'd like to continue when we re-close the distance. I always I insist we kiss at midnight on New Years because it's so sappy and silly

Hoping when we get our first place we add on a couple more

[differentcountries]

My SO is a Muslim, my husband is Christian but he is not that into Christmas, really. My husband and I have usually celebrated Christmas with either his parents or my parents+siblings. One year we had our own tree though, that was nice (we also had our own Christmas dinner then, with roast). I want us to have a tree again at our next (bigger) flat.

Usually, we decorate the Christmas tree on "little Christmas" (Dec 23rd). It is NEVER to be done before this (we consider doing it before this very vulgar/not respecting the advent) - the first weeks of December is the purple waiting period of advent, where we eat a little less fancy to prepare our body and mind for the upcoming feast. We decorate with purple candels, and light one more candle each Sunday of advent, and sing advent songs. We have a star hanging in the living room windom - my mother has a plain one but mine is electrified so you can see it from outside. The first weeks of Dec are also used to make cakes, traditionally it should be 7 different kinds but most people make no more than 3 nowwadays. My favourite ones are gingerman cakes, buttercakes, different kinds of nut-based cakes and Norwegian donuts with sourcream. I used to bake with my mother and sisters but ever since I got the food allergies I bake alone or with a friend. Each year in November I make my husband a Christmas calender with 24 small gifts in it - usually mothers do that for their kids to count down for Christmas Eve, but I like to do it for my dear one, too. If SO lived in Norway, maybe I would make him one too, last year I made him the 52 reasons I love you-deck of cards.

On Christmas eve morning, there are som special tv shows and movies that are shown. We watch them in between the preperations. If we are with my parents, we go to church, if we are with his parents we don't (they don't really mind church but they want us all to do the same things). After Church/tv, we have traditional dinner, which is either lamb roast, raindeer roast, dried/smoked/cooked lamb or a special Christmas dinner with pork. Dessert is usually a rice porrage with just one almond in it - the one who finds the almond wins a big marcipan pig. Then we open the presents while eating cakes. In my family, opening the gifts takes a really long time, as everybody pays a lot a attention to each gift. Usually me and my husband have already opened some gifts by then to save time.... If we are with my family, we will sing a whole bunch of Christmas songs and also walk around the Christmas tree singing. I think that is really cozy! I usually play the piano. This all happens on Christmas eve. If we are with my family, we will go on Christmas visits to family the next day and the day after. Also we usually have a dinner with friends.

I really wish that SO could celebrate Christmas with us once, but I don't think it would work to mix food, I mean Christmas food doesn't go well with anything else. But perhaps we could have some Turkish food later on in Christmas, especially lamb dishes could work.

Christmas time is also time for my birthday. Last year I celebrated it a month in advance; my first visit to SO (the 2nd time I saw him). I walked straight into my own surprise party! That was really nice. I hope to celebrate my birthday on the day with SO this year, then I will celebrate with my husband before or after. New year I have often celebrated with my husband and a few close friends, eating turkey and drinking champagne, and going out to look at the fireworks arond midnight. My husband is actually a bit scared of fireworks but he is trying to go out for longer each year. It is nice to be outside to kiss and cheer for the new year! I hope to celebrate new year with SO this year - I think it would actually mean a lot to him. My husband is working anyway. The plan is for the two of us to get away and do sightseeing in Turkey, so there would be noone we know around. I imagine we would sneak into the nearest town and be part of life, or maybe we would snug up under a blanket on a mountain, watching the fireworks and just be by ourselves. Either way, I would love to see the new year with him. In the future, ideally I would love to be with both of them on both Christmas and New Year, but there are logistis to think about. Even so... I hope to start making some new traditions.

[snow]

I want to introduce my fiance and his family to a tradition we have in our family and when I told him about this, he was thrilled:

Looking for the first star!
On Christmas Eve we are all going outside / the balcony in the city to look for the first star in the sky. Meanwhile Santa Claus is bringing the presents and putting them underneath the Christmas tree. I am sure we can somehow incorporate it with Santa bringing the Christmas at night for the kids, but meanwhile, I think that could be nice.

Decorating the Christmas Tree together!
Every person in the household has to put up at least one Christmas ornament, but all in all it should be done with Christmas music playing in the background and everyone helping out. We usually did this the 23rd of December, but my fiance's family put up their tree at the beginning of December, which I can agree with.

Making Pierogi for Christmas!
We have always had pierogi for Christmas, ever since I can remember and I learned from my mom how to make them so I will make them for our Christmas dinner.

Serving one plate more than people at the dinner!
It's an old tradition in my family to serve one more plate + glass + cutlery for the guest who might show up. This goes back to Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay. When, however, a guest shows up you give him a new plate, glass and cutlery and leave this one.

[TaraMarie]

This will be my first Christmas with my SO, and my first Christmas divorced, so we are going to start new traditions. He will be here for thanksgiving so the Christmas trees will go up (we have four). We have 13 for thanksgiving dinner, and I am super excited about it. He comes back on the 23rd, and we have a bunch of people over for Christmas Eve dinner. I know there will be lots of singing and drinking. Not sure what will happen Christmas Day, but for sure there will be lots of gifts and a big Christmas dinner. I am super excited and can't wait. We won't be together for New Year's Eve, but he will be here in the second and we are going on a cruise. The holidays will be great this year.

[farandaway]

This will be my first Christmas with my SO. Most likely I will be in the States but we will see, tickets have not been booked yet. No matter where we are and what we do, it only matters to me that we are together. We will go to Church and look for beautiful peaceful places to be in but that's all. I've waited for so long just to be with him, Christmas time or any time will be wonderful when it's the two of us.

[Petals]

This will be my first Christmas with my SO. Most likely I will be in the States but we will see, tickets have not been booked yet. No matter where we are and what we do, it only matters to me that we are together. We will go to Church and look for beautiful peaceful places to be in but that's all. I've waited for so long just to be with him, Christmas time or any time will be wonderful when it's the two of us.

Ah, I posted this thread and totally forgot about it lol!

It's so nice to see quite a few people being able to spend Christmas with their SO for the first time. Yes, just being together is a big deal in itself, so anything we do will just be icing on the cake.

My SO says he wants to continue the tradition of spending part of Christmas Eve with his (adult) daughter at her house. So while we will be able to stay up late and cook, part of the evening/night will be spent at her house. I don't mind that at all as he doesn't see her enough and she normally spends Christmas Day with her mom.

[Petals]

We visit the National Christmas tree together every year and drive around to look at lights in the neighborhood. When I've had my own place, we cut down our own tree which I'd like to continue when we re-close the distance. I always I insist we kiss at midnight on New Years because it's so sappy and silly

Hoping when we get our first place we add on a couple more

Oh yes, kissing at midnight on New Year's Eve - so silly and romantic at the same time. We will be doing this