Traditions

I just read about a friends joy at watching her children's excitement when looking for the "Christmas Elf" each morning. I've never heard of this tradition, but upon doing some googling, I've totally fallen in love with it. Whenever Mike and I have kids, they will certainly be visited by the Christmas Elf! But this got me thinking about my Christmas traditions. Though a small list, they are all close to my heart:

• Putting the tree up (especially with my Mom) - I understand that doesn't sound like a tradition, but the way Mom always made that time special - it was and it was always the weekend after Thanksgiving.
  
• Shopping with Mom the first weekend in December.
• Baking cookies - Spritz Cookies are a must, and these Italian cookies are a new/old must. We would make these cookies for Easter actually, but I just LOVE them for Christmas. The Nobel Pig posted this spot on recipe last year.
• Grandma (and now Grandpa) Angel - After my Grandma passed away when I was 4, Mom would hide a Christmas present for me to find after opening all my other gifts that would be from Grandma Angel. It was a wonderful way to keep Grandma a part of my life and make me feel like she was still watching over me.
  
• Late Night Christmas stocking shopping - My husband and I started this our first Christmas together. We would stay up late and go to someplace like Walmart, go our separate ways with a small budget to buy silly little gifts that we would then go home and immediately open. This is also repeated for Easter baskets. 

In addition to that main list are also watching White Christmas, driving around Riverside to see the Luminaries and the Blow up house, baking my pumpkin bread, and probably a few more things I can't think of now.

So I'm wondering, what other traditions are out there. What are traditions that you hold dear? I'm always looking for things that keep the holiday spirit going!