Gus & Ruby Letterpress – guest blogging giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed – thank you to all who entered!

Well, friends, it’s been such a blast guest-blogging here on Oh So Beautiful Paper.  And, as a thank you to you fine readers, we’re doing a giveaway for our final post!

We know it seems likes ages away, but here at the studio and shop, we’re already gearing up and planning away for the holiday season.  So, in the spirit of the (planning) season, one of you lucky readers will win a set of 50 custom-designed 2-color letterpress printed holiday cards or holiday party invitations with matching return-address printed envelopes.

And all you need to do to enter is leave a comment at the end of this post telling us about your favorite holiday tradition.

You’ll have until 11:59 p.m. on September 25th, 2012 to enter the giveaway. One winner will be selected randomly and notified via email. Good luck and thanks for reading!

Happy Friday from the gals at Gus & Ruby Letterpress!

Design and Letterpress Printing: Gus & Ruby Letterpress

Dog Illustrations: Vance Gorham

Gus & Ruby Letterpress is a member of the Designer Rolodex – check out more of their beautiful work right here or visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Brea McDonald Photography for Gus & Ruby Letterpress

  3. I live in Scotland and apart from my boyfriend who I live with, all my loved ones are still back at home in Northern Ireland.

    One of my favourite things about Christmas is the journey back home, with said boyfriend in tow, usually by boat. I love the atmosphere and the excitement of looking forward to seeing my family.

  4. As a kid, my family and I would always have fun decorating the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving! It was fun taking out all the decorations and going through the ornaments to see how we wanted to decorate the tree!

  5. My favorite tradition is a new one. My dad plays Santa for our neighborhood association and visits children at home once a year to ask them if they’ve been good and collect toys for donation. I play his “elf”, and my piano students get very excited when they see that I know Santa!

  6. Besides all the parties and times with family and friends during the holidays, my favorite part is when my father and I stream the front and backyard with christmas lights. I’ve been helping him since I was a little girl and we pride ourselves in lighting up the neighborhood yearly.

  7. Our favorite holiday tradition is having friends and family over for lobsters on Christmas eve!

  8. Just like most things in my family, our Christmas tradition is super weird. About 15 years ago, my dad’s sister bought these creepy Christmas dolls and put them on display at our family Christmas dinner (see? http://imgur.com/Ndh81). There are three of them altogether, and they sway their candles and arms in a hypnotic motion. Ever since that fateful 90’s Christmas night, my aunt breaks out the dolls and the whole family sits for hours watching them, drinking wine, and cracking jokes.

  9. My husband and I throw a big Hanukkah party every year. Would be awesome to send out letterpress invites 🙂

  10. My favorite holiday tradition is going over to my aunt’s house for New Year’s day and eating homemade chimichangas.

  11. My favorite tradition is when my dad makes cinammon rolls from scratch on Christmas Eve to have them ready to pop into the oven on Christmas morning while we open presents. Just the smell takes me back to being a kid!

  12. I love it when my family flies into Michigan to celebrate Christmas Eve at my mom and dad’s house. Then my aunt and uncle spend the night and we open our stockings and gifts with them Christmas morning. It wouldn’t be a Christmas without my aunt and uncle spending the night. Oh! and the green bean casserole 🙂

  13. My favorite holiday tradition is shopping for all sorts of kids toys to wrap beautifully and donate to charity through work, and then get a thank you letter in the mail a few weeks later!

  14. My favourite holiday tradition is the night before the big holiday feast! We always have a finger-food meal (less dishes) of cut veggies, crackers and cheese and wine. It’s good light fare before we eat(probably too much)at the big the next day.

  15. I don’t really know if my favorite holiday tradition counts… For me it’s a tradition doing gifts for my family/boyfriend and wrapping them! For me it’s the best part, besides helping in the kitchen!

  16. My favorite holiday tradition is that once a year, Christmas Eve, I spend the night in my old room and my old bed at my parents’ house. I wake up in the morning with my family, and I might as well be 5 years old again. Somehow – I even want to wake up early.

  17. What an amazing giveaway!! My favorite tradition is when my family and all of our extended family friends get together before Christmas. We eat lots of Swedish food, including lutefisk, and my grandpa and his old singing group sing hymns. So warm and fun.

  18. Love you girls at Gus & Ruby!! My favorite family tradition at Christmas is our family cookie swap. Everyone makes 1 type of homemade cookie and you get to take home a tray of all different cookies at the end! Great for gifts, but even better to keep for yourself 😉

  22. I’d love to send a holiday greeting card from our new home in Dallas, Texas. It would be exciting if it came from Gus & Ruby because I adore your store and the ladies. Many thanks. ❊❊❊

  23. my family has a tradition that on Christmas eve we open one present there is a pickle ornament stashed in the tree by adults and all of the little kids are supposed to look for the pickle and whoever finds it gets to open their present first. my tradition is not spreading into my fiance’s family now too!

  25. I love the holiday season in general and have lots of family traditions I grew up with, some we still keep and are very special to me. BUT my favorite “tradition” now, is spending Christmas morning first and foremost with my new husband (former fiance, former boyfriend) and starting our own traditions. This will be our 6th holiday since we started dating, 4th where we wake up together, and 2nd since that day also became the anniversary of our engagement!

  26. My favorite tradition is going to the Christmas Eve midnight service and singing Holy Night by candlelight. Makes the entire evening feel so special!

  27. I’ve been a member of a women’s book group for 15 years and we rotate homes each month for hosting, but I ALWAYS grab December! I love decorating for this special group of women and enjoying our meal and secret santa exchange together. It kicks off the season in our house.

  28. My favorite Christmas tradition growing up was Christmas Eve just before bed. My parents bought us all matching pajamas and one Christmas book to read before going to sleep. Every year my Mom would read(and cry) the book while we all wore our new pajamas. We still do this when my husband and I go home to visit!

    Ps. Great giveaway!

  29. My favorite holiday tradition actually revolves around Thanksgiving (though I do enjoy Christmas!). Through years of research, my family discovered that we are related to the longest living decedent of the Mayflower: Mr. John Howland (those folks in the Plymouth, Mass. area can visit his house!). Every year my aunt and uncle host a Thanksgiving event in honor of the holidays, family, and our history. My uncle dresses up like Mr. Howland (and refuses to be addressed by any other name), has erected a 30-ft tall tepee in the back yard next to an axe-throw/bulls-eye game, and displayed a charcoal rubbing of Mr. Howland’s grave stone. Other activities that have more recently been added to the event include a Turkey Trot 5k (where a family member, usually a teen on the cross-country team) dons a turkey costume and we dress up like pilgrims and chase him for 5k) and different family members hosting it everywhere from Georgia to Ohio. The food is always wonderful and familiar; we always begin the mean with the same, short prayer. Now that I live in California, it’s not always possible for me to attend the festivities, but Thanksgiving time has always been a favorite of mine because of my unique family, our history, and our traditions. The pictures speak for themselves 🙂

  30. We love baking cookies as sweet treats for our neighbors and friends. This year, we’re throwing a big holiday party to celebrate our new house!

  31. We have a bunch of favorite traditions. But one that my son has been asking about lately is the leaving of carrots and cookies for Santa and the reindeer. We also make reindeer food (glitter and oatmeal) and through that outside in the yard Christmas Eve for the reindeer to help find us! Love these cards!

  32. My favorite holiday tradition has to be Christmas Eve. Every year, for as long as I can remember, my Father would make Lobster Chowder for dinner. He was a Lobster man when I was growing up so we didn’t eat lobster very often (we didn’t want to eat the profits!). So it was special that we had that chowder on Christmas Eve, like a celebration of our livelihood from the previous year and luck for the year ahead. When we kids would eat it, he always said, “No chewing gum at the table!” and we would laugh. Now that we have our own children, he says it to the grand kids and we all still laugh. Some how, it just never gets old…

  33. We celebrate both Hanukah and Christmas, so my mother-in-law decorates her tree in all blue and white to represent both traditions.

  34. One of my favorite family traditions is stuffing our Thanksgiving turkey with ginger and scallions! It is a great fushion of cultures.

  35. our favorite holiday tradition during our two years of marriage so far is taking a christmas time trip each year. the first year was las vegas and this year is new york!

  36. Oh, these are so lovely!

    My favourite tradition is taking my Mum to the ballet – we see The Nutcracker every year. It just gets better and better.

  37. i love these cards! my favorite holiday tradition is a new one for us – a picture in front of our christmas tree on christmas eve.

  38. Love the Santa Paws cards! My favorite is dressing up for Halloween and giving out candy to the neighborhood kids. It’s awesome when you have a kind of scary costume.

  39. Growing up, we made sugar cookies every year. Now I am continuing the tradition with my kids. Messy, but totally worth it!!!

  40. My favorite holiday tradition is getting Christmas PJ’s on Christmas Eve. It is the only gift that is opened the night before Christmas!

  41. Growing up, my sister and I were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. Every year that present was the same thing — new pajamas, we each got the same ones, but in a different color. And even though we knew what the gift was, it was still so much fun to get to put on something new for bed and eagerly await Santa’s arrival. It was a nice little teaser for the next morning. I hope to restart this tradition with my own children someday.

  42. Nothing like all the yummy smells that permeate the house from holiday baking and meal preparation!

  43. I love wrapping all my presents and making them look beautiful, it’s my favorite part!

  44. My favorite tradition is staying up late on christmas eve putting together the kids toys in anticipation of the big day!!

  46. Every year we get to open just ONE present on Christmas Eve. My parents started that when I was a child because to tied my excitement over until the next morning 🙂 I look forward to starting that tradition with my only child on her first Christmas this year (she was born just 4 days later!)

  48. Every year when we decorate our Christmas tree, we listen to Elvis’ Christmas songs and dance around, doing the best Elvis impersonations ever. That is definitely my favorite part of the holidays!

  49. My family is from ICELAND so we spend 3full days celebrating the holiday spending time with family and sharing rounds of dinner, drinks and memories. Plus there’s a game of find the hidden almond in the holiday pineapple mouse to get a prize!

  50. ooooh – hands down, my favorite tradition is going to the christmas eve service. thanks for the sweet giveaway! so very generous :o)

  51. I am not sure if it counts as a holiday but I LOVE birthdays! I love being able to spend time with a friend of family member to celebrate them just being them! You only get 1 birthday a year so I love being able to celebrate!
    If Birthdays don’t count I have to say Christmas it is the one time of the year I know I will get to see all my family, And I have a huge family so that is important to me!
    [email protected]

  52. My favorite holiday tradition is the bran muffins my grandma (and now my mom) make on Christmas morning. I like that it’s an old family recipe, I like that we all eat them together after opening presents, I like that they aren’t a sugary sweet (as most of my holiday eating = pure sugar). Yeah. That’s my favorite.

  53. Each year, my family and I bake a birthday cake on Christmas Eve. The next morning, after opening presents, we put candles on it and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus! Then, of course, we eat the cake for breakfast! It’s such a fun tradition, and a great reminder that the day is really about celebrating the birth of Jesus.

  54. My favorite holiday tradition is eating a delicious brunch that my mom makes on Christmas morning. All our family comes together to celebrate and to spend quality time with each other!

  55. My favorite tradition is overriding my mother’s objections and skipping church to go to the movies on Christmas eve. My sister once said “mom, the movies ARE our church” — particularly looking forward to seeing Les Mis this Christmas!

  56. hands down, my favourite holiday tradition is reading The Night Before Christmas with my family late on Christmas Eve. we’ve done it every year for as long as I can remember, and one of my favourite parts of the tradition as an adult is when my parents and sister and I reminisce about memorable readings from years past (like when our cat successfully knocked over our Christmas tree as we were reading right next to it)!

  57. I love staying in my pjs with the family all day on Christmas. It just makes you feel cozy and warm. The day is full of naps, games and food. It’s perfect.

  59. great giveaway! it’s hard to pick a favorite but i really, really love going into baking overdrive during the holidays. something about coming home to a dark house, turning on some tunes, lighting a fire and baking just puts me in the holiday spirit. fingers crossed, this would be a great early holiday gift!

  60. My parents are from London and even though we haven’t celebrated the holidays across the pond in many years, we always have Christmas Crackers decorating the table. We take turns pulling them apart before we eat and laugh at the silly toys and jokes. The first Christmas I spent away from my parents when I was a newlywed, my mother secretly sent a few boxes of Christmas crackers to my in-laws so that I wouldn’t feel as homesick for my side of the family. It was so sweet and my new family members loved it!

  61. My favorite Christmas tradition is eating cookies by the fire on Christmas Eve and reading “A Child’s Christmas in Whales”!

  62. What a fantastic giveaway! My favorite holiday tradition is celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. The night before Christmas, our entire extended family — cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. — go to my mom’s house for dinner and present-opening. We always have Mexican food (we’re in Texas!) and the entire evening just embodies the holidays for me!

  63. We moved to Holland five years ago and were introduced to the holiday tradition of Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas rides a white horse named Amirgo and delivers presents to the children every few days for three weeks. So a few nights each week my children put their wooden clogs by the fireplace, sing a song, and leave a carrot for Amirgo. And in the morning they have a small gift waiting for them in their wooden shoe. This holiday tradition is fun because it lasts for three weeks!!!!

  64. I love walking around san francisco during the busy holiday season with a salted caramel hot chocolate, and listening to my music all by myself purchasing gifts for the important people in my life.

  66. Christmas Eve is my favorite. The whole family makes ravioli and sauce from scratch using my great grandmothers recipe. It’s a tradition I always cherish.

  67. favorite holiday tradition is decking out the christmas tree even though my family’s hindu

  68. We always listen to the same christmas cds on a rotation…hearing them always brings back the familiar holiday feelings!

  69. Decorating gingerbread houses with my sister…and bottomless mimosas and Irish coffees with the grandparents while opening gifts on Christmas morning!

  71. My favorite holiday tradition is hosting a Julefrokost party, inspired by my time living in Denmark. We host a celebration that is centered around friends, candles, food, and “hygge.” It doesn’t get better than that!

  72. My favorite holiday tradition is spending Thanksgiving with my entire family (50+ people usually) – laughing and eating and playing cards.

  73. To escape the cold Michigan winters, we spent most of my holidays in Hawaii. Instead of buying gifts, my parents gave us the gift of travel and family togetherness. On Christmas eve, we always had a family bbq on the beach would watch the sunset on the beach with eggnog.

  74. My favorite tradition would have to be Boxing Day. My family lived in England when I was younger, and we’ve been celebrating the holiday ever since. We eat roast beef and plum pudding, decorate the chandeliers with champagne poppers, pull Christmas crackers and wear the silly paper crowns all day… The Christmas season can be a whirlwind of activities – Boxing Day is when my family comes together to just enjoy each other’s company.

  75. My favourite holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve. We live in Australia, so for as long as I can remember my parents would drive us to the beach and my siblings and I would skip along the beach (for a good couple of hours), so excited about Santa coming, we’d then watch the sun set whilst eating prawns, fish and chips, dreaming about all the goodies Santa was going to bring us… pretending that we could see santa and his reindeer flying across the setting sun…!! Little did I know that my parents did this to wear us out, so ‘Santa’ could visit without any little interruptions, however it has now been our family’s tradition for over 27 years, one that I hope to continue with my own children..

  76. Oh beautiful work! My favorite holiday tradition is my family’s “Christmas Eve-Eve” party where we sing kareoke, eat lot’s of food, and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!!!

  77. My favorite holiday tradition is spending Christmas day at home with the family, and feasting on fondue all day! It’s a great relaxing day for us to just enjoy time together!

  79. Christmas Eve at Grandma Constanza’s House has been a tradition for longer than I have been alive. Between grandma, her children, grandchildren and spouses, we are 26 people (and counting). Grandma cooks zuppa di pesce (fish stew) and we all manage to eat together around one long string of tables. After dinner we sing holiday songs, ending with our family rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. I am fortunate enough to see my family quite often, however it is during this holiday that I am always reminded and amazed by what an incredible woman my grandmother is. An only child, widowed at a young age, she raised 6 children and is the anchor of our wonderful, passionate, loving, Italian family.

  80. We have alot of cousins and extended family. Since its hard to buy meaningful gifts for everyone we decided to assign secret Santas and do “make gifts” where you get creative and make a gift for ur assigned person. To make the nught a bit more fun everyone also buys a gift for the Yankee swap which we do after the identification of secret Santas…this always happens at my grandmothers house where we order lasagna for dinner. 🙂

  81. My favorite holiday tradition is going into my backyard every December and picking out our Christmas tree with my sister and then helping my dad decorate it. And of course having my mom’s homemade lasagna for dinner on Christmas Eve.

  82. My favorite holiday tradition is cooking and enjoying our Christmas Eve dinner my immediate family and any extended family that wants to join. We have Slovak heritage and make the same dinner of pierogies and breaded pork chops every year, going back to when my dad was a child.

  83. Each year, we bake Christmas Cookies! We all select our favorite cookie recipe and we bake all sorts of different cookies in one day to give as Christmas gifts. 🙂

  84. We celebrate christmas with the family on xmas eve, do santa gifts on xmas morning and then celebrate my DD’s birthday on Christmas night.

  85. My favorite Christmas tradition is filling the stockings, in my family my mom and I are always the ones to get fun little things for everyone in the family.

  86. I don’t know if I can narrow it down to just one! Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. Every year, we start decorating and listening to music the day after Thanksgiving. I’m super excited this year, because it’s my first year with my own house, and my husband and I are planning on chopping down our own tree! We also make sure to only watch Christmas movies between Thanksgiving and Christmas. After dinner Christmas Eve, we always read the Night Before Christmas together, and head off to Midnight Mass. I can’t wait!

  88. Every new year’s eve we make predictions about the new year and read predictions from the last. It’s fun to see what everyone thought would happen and what actually DID happen!

  89. Hi ladies! One of my many favorite traditions is acting like a kid again… watching Ma make fudge for the immediate & extended family while listening to Christmas music. Then eating the extra ‘batter’ she wasn’t able to pour into the pan. Then watching It’s a Wonderful Life with the family, in PJ’s of course 😉

  91. We always go to the Christmas parade, drink cocoa, and go get our tree. It’s one of my favorite days of the year!

  92. What a lovely giveaway. My favorite thing about the holidays are the lights. With dark coming so early, it’s wonderful to drive around and see the colorful displays!

  95. One of our favorite traditions on Christmas Eve is listening to the a cassette of Polar Express with William Hurt doing the narration while the children take turns holding the book!

  96. My favorite holiday tradition is going to pick out a tree with my parents and fiance. We go to a family-run tree farm outside of the city (we live in Boston) and cut down our very own fresh, sweet-smelling tree. We make a day of it by hiking around the tree farm, sipping cocoa and taking fun family photos.

  97. My favorite holiday tradition is reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve and waking up the next day to a full house of all of my relatives. Everyone comes to our house and we talk and cook and spend time together. It is a perfect day of good food, and even better company. 🙂

  98. My favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve we get together with my mom’s side of the family and do not use any lights, only candles. We have dinner and cookies and open presents in the soft candlelight. The funny thing is that as a kid I thought it was dumb. I always cheated and turned the lights on in the bathroom even though there were plenty of candles. Now I love the tradition.

  99. Mom makes large wheat free doggie bone treats and we drop them off to all my doggie pals in our neighbor hood with just my “paw” print on the card!
    Tail wags ~moose

  100. My husband thinks this is so strange, but we don’t open our stockings until the afternoon. (Presents are late morning, then picking up, brunch, showers and getting dressed for the day, THEN stockings.) One year, as a kid, my parents planted a note in the very bottom of my stocking directing me to some other hidden place in the house for the ONE present I wanted more than anything…and didn’t think I was getting by that point!

  101. What a COOL giveaway. My favourite holiday tradition is making zombie gingerbread houses… because the icing never comes out quite like the display and always ends up looking really spooky instead of festive

  102. my favorite tradition is timeless, no matter how old i’ve gotten (and I am!), Christmas morning I sit at the top of the stairs waiting for my mom to take my picture, pj’s and all, before I’m allowed to go see the gifts under the tree…and yes, they’re still signed by Santa 🙂

  104. I love all these cards! As the oldest sibling in the house I was responsible for “Santa duties” so my favorite holiday tradition is keeping all the presents from Santa hidden until the night before and wrapping them late at night in special “Santa wrapping paper” and signing them in funky “Santa handwriting” before placing them under the tree so everyone would come downstairs and see presents brimming under the tree on Christmas morning. 😀

  105. My family doesn’t do all the “traditional” traditions – we make up our own. My favorite is drinking margaritas on Christmas day after opening presents. Classy, for sure.

  106. My favorite holiday tradition is decorating our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My husband and I get up early to go pick out our perfect tree. We take our time putting lights and ornaments on throughout the day. That evening, we turn on the twinkle lights, light a fire in the fireplace, sit back and enjoy the pretty glow. That day always signifies that Christmas has started. 🙂

  107. … as a child (and now as an adult), we always get to open up one gift before we go to Christmas Eve services. The gift: PJs. Every year, we get PJs. And once we get home from services, we take family photos by the tree and then all run back into our rooms and put on our PJs. Once everyone is dressed, we gather back by the tree and open up gifts from Santa (yes, some gift tags still say, Santa – once a child, always a child.) We stay up late, and since we are already in comfy PJs … we sleep in Christmas Day.

  108. My favorite memory is my parents making us wait on the stairs banister and taking a photo of our pre-opening sleep faces. Then when we came around the corner to see that santa had come they got a shot of our smiling faces 🙂

  109. My favorite holiday tradition is watching our son rip off the wrapping paper to get to his presents. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway.

  110. Every year, I make a compilation mix of holiday and winter songs that DON’T make me want to stab out my eyeballs — songs like Imogen Heap’s “Just for Now” and Eisley’s “Winter Song.” It gets me through the holidays, and doubles as an inexpensive gift for friends and acquaintances. Plus, I’m an in-house graphic designer, and this “cover art” is the only thing I get to design all year that no one else is allowed to art direct. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ME!

  111. So excited for the holiday season! My favorite tradition growing up was setting out cookies and *beer* for Santa…because Santa likes beer better than milk. I will continue this tradition with my own kids one day for sure! 🙂

  112. What a nice treat for the holidays. My favorite tradition is spending a weekend in the kitchen with my wife baking holiday cookies for our family and friends.

  113. Oh, I just love the holidays! My favorite tradition is to make some hot mulled cider and fill thermoses with it so we can trudge through the snow to find the perfect Christmas tree. We pull the little kids on sleds and most always end up in a snowball fight!

  114. My fav tradition is having dinner with my family on Christmas eve & drinking hot chocolate and eating panetone (even though we’re not italian!) and waiting until midnight to wish each other merry christmas.

  115. Holy cow, what a fantastic giveaway! My favorite tradition is traveling to my grandparents’ house to be with my whole family. Those times are so precious to me.

  116. My favorite tradition is listening to Nat King Cole’s Christmas cd while making Italian cookies with my mother.

  117. Such a great idea for a giveaway! My favorite tradition is purchasing a new game (typically a board game)for my family to play together on Christmas Eve. When my brother and I were little it was to keep us occupied in one of our bedrooms while “Santa” snuck downstairs to deliver our presents. Now, we just enjoy spending time together and having fun. It’s a tradition though that I can’t wait to pass onto my future children.

  118. One of my favorite holiday traditions is a really little one I miss now that I live far away from home. The first weekend of December, by Dad and I would load up the trusty Subaru and drive to get a Christmas tree. It had to be a Fraiser Fir as they shed fewer needles, smelled amazing, and were better for pets. We’d stop and get coffee and listen to Christmas music throughout the drive. Just a nice little time for the two of us.

  119. Love this! Favorite holiday tradition (new this year) will be watching my girls open their gifts and the happiness on their faces. Priceless.

  120. We celebrated Hanukkah and didn’t really decorate at all when I was growing up, so it was always a real treat to bundle up, pile in the car, and drive around town admiring everyone else’s holiday light displays. My mom always seemed to know the best streets to drive down! To this day, I love driving around and checking out everyone’s beautifully decorated houses just before Christmas. 🙂

  121. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday to celebrate (yes, I was raised Jewish…but we always also had a tree!) and I always decorate my beautiful Pink Christmas tree – I promise, it is awesome – with simple white lights and silver + blue ornaments. I will wrap everything in sight, which my husband loves since his wrapping skills are…not so hot… 🙂 My favorite Bailey Boo Radley, the kitty all kitties wish they could grow up to be, will be missed terribly this year since he too loves Christmas and can alway be found napping under the tree’s lights but we plan to keep bringing out his stocking and stuffing it with some goodies he loves. And maybe this year, in honor of Bailey, we will finally make a trip to NYC to see all of the lights.

  122. My favorite holiday tradition is watching Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas with my family. It’s not super well known, but it’s the best Christmas movie ever! “We’re not birds, we’re a jug band!”

  123. We always spent x-mas eve at my grandparents house, my grandfather was a gruff old mainer who spent all his time divided evenly between starting projects in his workshop (note: starting doesnt mean finishing) and watching the yankees while muttering and swearing about the commentators or red sox fans.

    So at the end of the night we’d gather around and draw from a hat one the 12 days of christmas – and we’d progressively sing through the carol. Thing is – every year – no matter which line my grandfather got, he would somehow muster all the christmas spirit in the world and belt out his line… to the melody of “5 golden rings”.

    He has since passed away, but every christmas eve when we sing the 12 days of christmas, i make sure to inappropriately assign that melody to whichever line I get.

  124. Bing Crosby caroling on the old fashion record player, wood crackling in the fire place, pine spice mingling in the air, a dusting of needles on the floor, dancing dimmed white lights, humming, smiling, dancing, and remembering as we trim the tree.

  125. Our favorite holiday tradition is no electricity on christmas eve. We light the whole house with just candle-light. I’m not going to lie … there have been some hair-on-fire emergencies over the years.

  126. great idea! hmmm… my favorite holiday tradition is not seeing the presents under the Christmas tree until Christmas morning. When I was younger I would avert my eyes from my parents putting gifts under the tree, and now I try to not let my husband see them before he wakes up.

  127. My favorite tradition is decorating the wall tree that my grandmother made when I was a child! We put an ornament on the tree every day starting December 1st!!

  128. Making Christmas wreaths! On the farm we all head out with clippers and come home with mountains of pine boughs, spread them out in the barn. Each person makes their own and then we make a HUGE one for the front of the barn. Last year we had a wreath making party and all the guests brought items to decorate their own wreaths to take home. And they smell so fresh!

  129. My favorite holiday tradition is watching my adorable niece open her presents on Christmas morning. She is so genuinely happy and excited! It makes Christmas so magical and reminds me that it’s really all about being with family.

  130. Just love Christmas Spirit. Our family tradition is to make pretty, original, diy cover gifts. At the end, next to the xmas tree, it’s a bunch of colorful and personalized gifts !

  131. Just love “Noël” ! Xmas is for good my favorite holidays. As my brother & sister in law live in USA, the rest of the family are doing a xmas skype session from France to USA. One a special moment for us ! And with the camera from the computer, we show them our xmas tree, decorations, dinner table…

  132. My favorite holiday tradition is cooking Christmas dinner with my Memere. Ever since I was a little kid I have always loved to learn how to cook from her, and Christmas dinner is one of the few times a year that I get to do this with her. 🙂

  133. Having the girls home and staying in our jammies till dinner time watching old funny movies on Christmas morning!

  134. One of the reasons I love the holiday season so much is because of all the festive decor that can be found in neighborhoods and shops. A huge part of the festive decor, and a huge part of what people think about when they think of the holidays are presents and the many creative ways to wrap presents. As much as I love paper especially the beautiful and creative wrapping paper that can be found in your shop, my absolute favorite holiday tradition is the no wrapping paper rule! A few years ago in an effort to conserve paper and think more about our environment during the holidays, my family initiated a no wrapping paper rule. That being said, that doesn’t mean that we don’t get to open beautifully wrapped presents. When exchanging gifts we are not allowed to purchase any new paper to wrap our gifts. This requires that everyone get a little creative and use things they find around their house to wrap the presents, such as brown paper bags, old t-shirts or repurposed paper from a previous year’s celebrations. It is a little extra work but really fun to see all the creative ways people come up with to wrap their presents up! My mom always goes over the top and embosses gold leaves and glittery green balsam onto recycled paper, the result is stunning!

  135. Wrapping everything in sight in pretty paper and ribbon with handmade tags and embellishments! Sometimes the gift is less expensive than the packaging.

  136. My favorite holiday tradition is a simple one – snuggling up with my family members to watch the Boston Celtics play on Christmas Day!

  138. My favorite holiday tradition is seeing “It’s a Wonderful Life” with my family at an old movie theater in my town. I love that movie – makes me cry every time!

  139. How to choose just one! Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year from tagging, cutting, and decorating the Christmas tree (while listening to Christmas carols, of course), to the full day spent with my sister baking Christmas cookies to share (we typically end up making around 15 different kinds – some, our favorites that are carried over from year-to-year and some new and experimental), to the annual “Christmas drive” spent with (more) Christmas carols, hot chocolate, and scoping out the best Christmas lights in the area (one even has Santa and Mrs. Claus who visit shortly before Christmas!), to finding “the” gift for everyone on my list, to spending quality time with family and extended family, to Christmas movies…. I love the spirit around that time of year and everything that goes along with it!

  140. My favorite holiday tradition is watching the movie A Charlie Brown Christmas with my family. Even now that my kids are 24, 21 and 18 yrs we continue on! And every time I love that little sad tree even more!

  141. During the holidays my favourite thing to do is listen to Boney M and the Nutcracker. And nothing else. The Nutcracker transports me back to childhood, watching snow fall outside and be thrilled with the anticipation of Christmas; Boney M was the soundtrack for all holiday parties. I secretly wish I could dress with such panache. Well, I guess it’s not a secret anymore!

  142. My favorite holiday tradition is getting up really early and driving to my parent’s house in my pajamas on Christmas morning. Except now, I am in my thirties and I am dragging my husband and my son with me! It reminds me of the days when I woke up in my own bed and enjoyed the excitement of the morning as a child.

  143. My favorite Christmas tradition has been on Christmas eve. As a family we go to the candlelit mass downtown and then open up our home to a group of 10-15 friends afterwards. The house is always warm and full. My father makes Boullibase, my brother and I rush home from church to light the luminaries that line our drive way. And my mother always puts out plates full of freshly baked breads and cakes, which she takes pride in displaying and serving to our friends.

  144. My Mom still gives us stuffed animals in our Easter baskets…and
    I’m 30 years old people!

  145. After Christmas breakfast, we all line up in order of age (youngest first) and sing “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” (really out of tune) as we march into the living room to open presents. Did it when we were kids, now the age range is about 29 to 70, but we still do it anyway. Did I mention we’re also wearing paper crowns from the little English crackers? Oh boy…

  146. My favorite holiday tradition is waiting, with my sister, to see what silly comment my brother will make at 7am while emptying stockings. He’s not a morning person and those few moments I spend with my siblings just enjoying each others company and laughing is something I look forward to each year.

  149. We have a holiday party every year where we make some delicious fancy food and lots of cookies!

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