berry1014

My best friend, sil and I go to Kmart on thanksgiving morning. It has become a ritual. A couple of years ago we didn't go and the rest of the day just didn't feel right. We are there early in the morning and make it back in time for the Thanksgiving day parade.

Last year we bought her kindergarten teacher and the bus driver GC to a local store. Will do the same for again this year for the bus driver and her main teacher. Not sure yet we give to the art, music and phys ed teachers. I have a couple ideas for consumable gifts.

Same here. We have 2 kids and all their santa gifts are wrapped in santa themed wrapping paper however each child has a different design from the other. The rest of the presents are in non santa themed wrapping paper. I do use bags for the odd shaped items.

On Christmas eve day we go visiting a couple friends and family that we will not see the next day. Any gifts from them are opened while there so they can the see the kids faces and get a thank you in person from the kids. Before our son came along, our daughter got to open one gift from us on Christmas eve. Now the kids will get to open the gift from each other. It will be a toy. My mom just requested that we bring the kids to her place on Christmas eve morning so she can let them open their toy gift from her. On Christmas Morning they open the gifts from santa, their stockings and then the gifts from us. Later in the day other family members come over for either breakfest or dinner and exchange gifts. The day after Christmas we celebrate with my father in law and his family so more presnts opened that day too.

It varies each year, depending in what I need to get and what is on sale but the average is around $250. Sometimes less , sometimes more.

it varies year to year.

I make the pies every year and one year at Christmas I forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pies. Good thing I also make apple pies too cause we had to throw out the pumpkin pies. YUCK!

I shop mostly with a list but if I come across something that I know a certain person would enjoy then I will get it.

Both. we have 5 trees, the 3 smallest ones have while lights while the 2 larger ones, including the main tree in the living room have colored lights. we used colored lights on the stair case banister and around inside the kids bedroom. We use mostly white lights outside but do mix in some color lights too.

We used to go visiting various family members exchaning gifts beforie heading over to my MILs for the evening. It got be to much for us with a small child in tow. By the time we got home around 9ish, our DD would still be wired and it would take a while for her calm down enough to got to bed. 2 years ago when I was pregnant with our DS we decided to make some changes on Christmas eve. So now on Christmas Eve morning we will go out to breakfest with my mom and anyone else in the family who does not have to work. After breakfest we will go to my mom's for a bit so the kids can open one gift each from her. From there we will go visiting other family members and friends that we will not see on Christmas. By mid afternoon we head to the local market to get seafood for our dinner and then head home. Once home the kids will get to open their gifts from each other (it will be a toy) so while they play with their new toys, I will finish any prep work that needs to be done for Christams (we are hosting breakfest and dinner). We will enjoy a nice dinner and wait for Santa to make his rounds on the fire truck. He usually gets to our neighborhood around 6ish. Afterwards the kids get a bath and then we all sit down together and watch some Christmas movies on TV. Before the kids go to bed they will put out milk and the special cookies DD made for Santa and DH will read twas the night before to them. Once the kids are in bed DH and I will relax and enjoy the decorations and watch another Christmas movie. A little before midnight we will put out the presents and get ready for bed.

We have 2 small kids so we stay home. We host Christmas dinner and do not eat until at least 5 pm so we usually still have a house full until late Christmas night so we will all sit around watching a new movie or two or playing a new board game that someone got.

All 5 of our trees are fake.

We go to walmart first cause it is in our town. All the other stores we go to are over in Delaware. So we go to walmart then swing by home to unload and then head to delaware to finish our shopping.

Milk and cookies (my daughter make a special cut out sugar cookie just for Santa) Celery or carrots for the reindeer

The only person I will shop for is my mom. She will be watching the kids for us on black friday so it only seems fair. She went shopping on BF with us twice but didn't care for it so she opted to babysit for us instead.

I just want a white christmas.

This is my 10th year shopping on Black Friday and my 3rd year here.

I keep my money, debit card and keys in my pockets. I usually wear jeans, sweater or long sleeve shirt, winter coat, gloves, hand warmers, boots .

my daughter will be 6 in Oct and believes in Santa. My son just turned a year so he still has a couple of years until he understands who Santa is.

I am always dreaming of a White Christmas! The last "white" Christmas we had was 8 years ago. It snowed on the 23rd and there was still snow on the grass on Christmas day. Before that it had been years. I want it to snow starting on Christmas eve and end Christmas night.

Usually we take everything down around Jan 1st. Depends on what we have planned and the weather.

We start string up the outside lights a weekend or two before Thanksgiving, depending on the weather but do not turn them on until Thanksgiving weekend. Sometime in Nov my daughter will start asking to put up her Christmas tree. She has a small 2 1/2 foor tree for her bedroom. That is normally up and decorated before thanksgiving. I will start the rest of the decorating right after Thanksigiving dinner and the Saturday after. If we get back from shopping early enough on BF then we will decorate that day too.

I am making home made hot chocolate and tree shaped rice crispy treats and then will decorate them with little candies and icing. I also make home made cookies to give out as well.

Depends on type of holiday stress you are referring too. The people in the stores while out shopping. Family? Decorating? My best advice is plan early, shop as much as possible early and organize as much as possible. Nothing worse then looking for something when you need it the most. I keep notebook strictly for Christmas. I plan the meals for our everyday dinner along with the holiday dinners/parties. A section for gifts all ready bought and gift ideas and for who. A section for different events we want to attend or do, even simple things like taking an evening and go looking at lights or doing an all night christmas movie fest. Good luck.

My best friend, SIL, MIL and sometimes my cousin will head out around 4 am and hit walmart. The only main store in our town. Once we are done there we head back to my house to unload and then my DH joins us. I am not sure who will be going this year due to some changing jobs, moving etc.