I can’t believe Christmas is less than a week away! I feel like it was just Thanksgiving and too early to start celebrating!
Well, now that Christmas is right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to share some old photos that my mom dug out for me last week.
Aren’tĀ my sister and IĀ cute? I think this photo was taken at Christmas 1986. The date in the lower left corner says APR 1987, so I guess my mom didn’t develop these pictures for a few months. (Hey, single moms are busy!)
The back of this photo says February 1984, so I assume it was taken at Christmas 1983. My sister and I are totally rockin’Ā our footie pajamas. (I heard a rumor that you can buy adult size footie pajamas at Target nowadays. Can someone please confirm or deny? I might need a pair in my life.)
I wonder what my sister is wearing around her chest in this photo? It looks like a pair of underwear, which doesn’t really surprise me. She’s dressed up as Quail Man for multiple Halloweens! š
Christmas 1985 looked like a good one! Check out all of those gifts!
Nintendo!!! 
I’m pretty sure this is the year that I stopped believing in Santa. Don’t I look annoyed!?
Every family has their own special holiday traditions and ours is no differentāĀ¦ although, I think ours are sort of random!
On Christmas Eve, my mom, sister, and I watch Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special and A Very Brady Christmas. Both were taped off the TV in the late 80’s (one during a snow storm), so the quality isn’t great, but we still watch them. We even quote lines and sing along to the songs!
We also have a Christmas morning tradition that never changes.
Growing up, there was a Christmas morning āruleāĀ in our house that no present could be opened until my mom had her coffee. Not surprisingly, my sister and I quickly learned how to make my mom her much-needed cup of coffee, so we could open presents as soon as possible.
Over the years, our morning tradition evolved into making my mom her mug of coffee, delivering it to her in bed, and bringing our Christmas stockings into her bedroom to open immediately while my mom looked on and sipped her coffee. We’ve had this same Christmas morning tradition as long as I can remember and we still continue it year after year.
After we open presents, we eat Pillsbury Cinnamon Buns! š
Breakfast
I woke up with a serious craving for peanut butter this morning, so I made a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana slices on it.
On the side, I had an iced coffee with a splash of eggnog.
I also added some extra peanut butter to the other half of the banana that didn’t fit on my piece of toast. Peanut butter!
Question of the Day
What’s your most unique holiday tradition?
87 Comments
I love Pee Wee!! I’m sorry I didn’t see (or don’t remember?) the Christmas special. š
My family gets together every Christmas Eve (but not Christmas). We always have opened Christmas presents on Xmas eve, and then stockings are a morning thing….well…they USED to be a Christmas morning thing before I got to be a teenager and decided that I’d rather open everything on Christmas Eve because I couldn’t stand the surprise.
One thing that cracks me up is that my sister and I STILL get Christmas stockings….I am 28 and she is 40. It is our favorite part of Christmas. My mom has always been a fab stocking stuffer. We love them so much that one year my mom told us she couldn’t afford to do stockings, so we actually each chipped in money just so my mom would put together the stockings for us.
I think I had those same blue footie pj’s when I was that age! Btw, there’s a whole footie PJ’s for adults website too. http://www.pajamacity.com/Womens-Footed-Pajamas/products/154/
My Christmas traditions include watching National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation on Christmas Eve and opening whatever PJ’s my mom got for me that year. Then on Christmas morning my mom, step-dad and I have have a Grinch-themed breakfast complete with “Who Hash”, “Who Pudding” and “Rare Who Roast Beast.” š
My brother and I spend Christmas Eve watching a Muppet Christmas Carol. It’s on VHS so the quality is rough, but still a favorite tradition of mine!
Target does indeed sell the footie PJ’s because I own a pair of pink bunny ones Hunni purchased for me last year. This year they have puppies and penguins.
They are super comfy and great for a nice Christmas in front of the tree. They are made by Nick and Nora and you should totally get a pair!
I love the Brady Christmas special! So much so that I even know which scene that photo was pulled from. š I started a new Christmas eve tradition several years back and have to watch A Christmas Story before we go to the candlelight service!
I can in fact confirm that Target sells footie PJs in adult sizes–I saw Sock Monkey ones when I was there on Saturday!
For our holiday tradition, my husband and I set aside Christmas morning as “our” time. We watch A Christmas Story, open presents, and eat smoked salmon on bagels (with cream cheese and capers) and drink big cups of hot, sweet tea. Then it’s either off to see my family (this year) or his for the rest of the day. We’re seeing his side of the family for a cocktail party on Christmas Even–next year, we’ll do the reverse.
Have a happy!
Christmas eve traditions from an Italian kid= āDominic the DonkeyāĀ Played over and over while myself and my younger cousins held hands and danced around in a circle. Pizzelle cookies- TONS of food.. thought I’m pretty sure that’s everyones tradition. Christmas morning= my waking up and sneaking out of bed countless times to see if Santa had come yet.. until it was finally an acceptable hour to wake my parents (4:30 am) š My santa (mom) would stuff my stocking to the brim- so much that it would be laying on the couch.. with every little piece of the contents wrapped! My favorite thing still to this day š
I think that’s one of the reasons I get so down this time of year. My family doesn’t have any holiday traditions. The holidays are usually just everyone tolerating one another, with those who actually get along chatting amongst themselves.
I’ve always wanted Christmases like the ones in the movies. It looks like such a fun time!
Love Very Brady Christmas! I haven’t seen it played on any channels this year though, I’m gonna be bummed if I can’t watch it.
A Christmas tradition in my house was to take at least one picture of everyone opening gifts, no matter what kind of bed head you had going on!
I loved seeing the old photos Tina!!! š We have the exact same Pillsbury Cinnamon roll tradition and still carry it out. My mom would stay up all night wrapping presents for the 4 of us on Christmas eve and the cinnamon rolls are so easy and a yummy treat!
My family’s tradition is being anti-tradition! Instead of waking up early and racing to gifts, we sleep in til around 11, have brunch, and don’t start opening gifts til almost 2pm!
I love Christmas traditions! My brother, sister and I used to always have to wait for my Dad to find the video camera, then my parents would go “make sure Santa came.” Every year, even when we were 18, 16 and 14, they would still go check! My family are big fans of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls too! It’s great that you have all those pictures!
Target does sell adult footed pajamas, and so does pajamacity.com. š
Still working on establishing Christmas traditions since our daughter is only 2.
One year when I was young, it was the day before Christmas Eve and I couldn’t wait any longer to begin celebrating. My mom declared it “Christmas Adam” (since Adam came before Eve) and let me pick what I wanted for dinner. I picked pizza. Every year since then we celebrate Christmas Adam on the 23rd with Pizza dinner!
I love the old pics!
Your hair is fabulous in the last picture!
We also eat pillsbury cinnamon buns on Christmas morning. We always had to wait on the stairs (just around the corner from the tree… we always tried to peek), while my parents made coffee, started cooking the buns, and set up the video camera. We also watch Charlie Brown Christmas on Christmas Eve!
have a merry christmas!
We weren’t allowed to open anything until my parents have there coffee and had the same cinamon rolls after presents! Weird…LOVE Traditions!
Just wanted to chime in regarding the Target footie pajamas. Yes, they do exist in the women’s pajama section, however the real treasure lies in the boys pajama section. I’m about 5’8 and fit perfectly into the boys size extra large. And they were a steal at just 12.99!
Before you think I’m totally crazy, I bought them to wear in place of a sweater to an ugly christmas sweater party. And they were a hit! !
My family and I used to go see a movie in the theater every year, but now that we’re all grown and live in separate states, we can’t anymore =(
I’ve been making the same breakfast for my family (french toast + egg strata) since I got the recipes in my 7th grade home and careers class. It’s always a favorite! š
Cute pictures! š It’s so fun at looking back at old photos from the holidays.
Every Christmas our tradition is to wake up really early and open our stockings. And then once my grandparents come, we have breakfast and open our presents.
We have SO many Christmas traditions in my family. I think my favorite tradition actually takes place on Christmas Eve. Every year, my parents host an open house for about 50 long-time friends and neighbors. It is a great opportunity to see reconnect with people, be festive, and eat good food. (My mom is an amazing cook!) Equally important, my dad is very liberal with the champagne, and never allows a glass to be only half full. š
I love the old photos of you! What a head of hair you had!! It’s so fun to look at all the Christmases gone by, so many fads and so many ugly PJs!
Always fun to dig out photos from the archive!!
So so cute! I love how clearly we can see you in your younger self š Would younger-you have liked that breakfast, do you think?
OMG in the Nintendo photo, I think our parents have the SAME WALLPAPER! I will take a photo on Xmas to see!!
My most unique family holiday tradition–
ESCARGOT!
We eat escargot every Christmas Eve with my Mom’s (French) side of the family!
We totally rock the pillsbury cinnamon rolls as well!!
Okay weird as we have the Pillbury Cinnamon Roll tradition too, though we have not done for few years so guess what we are doing this year!!!!
Here is another site with footed pajamas. They are nice and warm too.
http://www.jumpinjammerz.com/
I love the old photos of you! What a head of hair you had!! It’s so fun to look at all the Christmases gone by, so many fads and so many ugly PJs!
My sister and I have this tradition that we self imposed one year, and then my mum couldn’t do anything about it, cos then it would break ‘tradition’. On Christmas eve we both get to chose one present we’d been given to open. We often get given pjs from my Gran, so we often opened them so that we had nice new pjs to open pressies in š