2nd Day of Sock Yarn

On the second Day of Sock Yarn, Simply Sock Yarn gave to me...

my very own Puppy Love Kit!

If you and your pup would like a chance at this adorable package featuring the Pheasant colorway of Tosh Sock (the color reminds me of the dog-playing-poker paintings!), fun dog notecards, Christmas-themed puppy treats and a pair of HiyaHiya Puppy Snips (little scissors), just answer the following question in the comments below:

What's one holiday tradition that you do nearly every year? Does it involve a special religious service? Is it your kid's holiday concert? Perhaps you and yours stay up all night baking every cookie imaginable?

For me, one of the things I do every year is something that I learned from one of you! It was shared years ago, that one of you buys special pajamas every Christmas and gifts them to the family on Christmas Eve. That way, everyone has clean, new PJs for Christmas morning pictures. I go a step further and usually buy matching pajama sets for my boys early in the season so they get to wear them a lot. This year though, it's hard to find pajamas for 10-year-old James that match 5-year-old Henry's, so I think the matchy-matchy years might be over. Here are a few shots from last year. And I even ended up using these in Christmas cards. Oh, these goobers.

Leave me one comment below before 8am tomorrow and you'll be entered to win in today's contest. Please be as specific as you like, as I know many of us find inspiration for our knitting and our lives in what you share. Want to know more about the 12 Days of Sock Yarn? See here.

Comments

[Marie]

We go to my parents’ house every Christmas since they live too far to visit more regularly. My two boys do the Christmas thing with their Grandma , everyone is happy because I sit and knit!

[Elizabeth DeLong]

My grandson and I make gingerbread men and women.
He is 17 now and has already asked when we are going to make them!

[Larissa]

Make my family’s German Christmas cookies -thin anise-seed cookies :)

[Allison]

Cookies! The kids and I bake and decorate sugar cookies every year.

[Audrey Abbott]

The adorable jammies pics take me back over 50 years to a cherished Christmas memory. Mom had been sewing up cozy flannel gowns and robes for both of us - white with red calico kitties and the red calico print flannel to match. On Christmas morning, I was delighted to have a nighty & robe that not only matched Mom's, but Barbie also had a set!

[Krista]

My favorite holiday tradition is the Christmas Eve "appetizer buffet" my parents always do. When I was little we'd pull the piano bench up to the sofa, load it up with finger foods like cheese, crackers, salami, and smoked oysters, and watch something Christmas-y on TV.

[JackieLemon]

My grandkids and hubby and I decorate gingerbread men and women and then make a village out of individually decorated houses. They get sillier and more fun every year. Been doing this since they were babies and now the oldest is in college. We make plans for this all year.

[Cathy Hosek]

My family makes my husband's family sour cream cookies every year. They are similar to sugar cookies, but have almond extract added and are delicious!

[Cyndy L]

I inherited the tin foil Christmas angel that sat on top of our tree every year for 60 so years. Even if I don't put up the tree she comes out and finds a place in the decorations. My sisters love that she is still in use being some 75+ years old.

[Amy]

Every Christmas my father-in-law makes winderwurst for the family to eat on Christmas Day.

[Paula Schumacher]

We would give our daughter her wrapped Christmas pajamas to open. When she had changed into them, she would eat a Christmas cookie while I read ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas to her. Daughter is now a new mother. This Christmas we will continue the Christmas Eve tradition with our 5 month old granddaughter....reading out of the same book I had for her mother.

[Deborah M]

We read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ and then the Bible

[molly mcginnis]

On Christmas Eve, we celebrate a Lithuanian tradition by naming all of the foods served after Saints or Apostles (like Apostle Paul's potatoes). Some years it's been kind of funny- I'm not sure when it started, but we've always done it. At night, we all go around the table and say what we appreciate or love about our neighbor sitting next to us, break off a piece of bread and kiss that person on the cheek. It's definitely as weird as it sounds, but it's family and tradition so we can't change it :)

[Andrea Giattini]

Ever since I was little, we would have Polish pierogi for breakfast on Christmas morning. When I was a child, my mom would make them every year. Now I buy them from the Polish butcher or at a church bazaar where the priests cook. We all look forward to pierogi for breakfast on Christmas morning.

[Robin]

My favorite holiday tradition is having my grandchildren on the 23rd thru Christmas Eve. We wear Christmas pajamas. They get to open one present. We play games and do a craft that they give to their parents. This time is all about them. I enjoy our quiet time together.

[Ann]

We are not breakfast eaters at our house, but one year when the girls were really little, they were starved on Christmas morning. I don't know why, but I had a tube of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in the fridge. The next year they asked for that to become a Christmas tradition. It has been ever since. Now that they are starting to be out on their own, my husband still requested it for Christmas morning this year and said "I get the center one this year. I never get the middle one".

[Rebecca Snyder]

Making poppyseed cake to have as a snack before church on Christmas morning.

[Anissa Miller]

My great grandparents were Norwegian and taught the Norwegian Christmas traditions to their kids and so it's been passed down the line. So my sisters and I still make the traditional foods including lots of Norwegian cookies. We celebrate on Christmas Eve as is the Norwegian tradition.

[Kathy Gerhart]

We all put small gifts including handmade, food, silly, and fun items in each other's Christmas stockings including the adults. One of the highlights of Christmas morning is to see what is in your Christmas stocking.

[Terri]

For the past several years, we have had a family Christmas project that we do 2-3 weeks before Christmas. It is often a craft type of project - building gingerbread houses, making decorations, etc. This years project is making a Christmas card for soldiers that won't be with their families this year, and writing an encouraging message.

[amy g]

We grew up having mom's caramel rolls on Christmas morning. They would bake while we were unwrapping our gifts. As we have grown older, the task of making the rolls has come to me, so I make them up and deliver them on Christmas Eve day with instructions for baking them the next day. These are gooey, caramel rolls with whole pecan halves (not pieces) and no icing. I have to make some without nuts for the younger set, but someday they will learn to love pecans. Thanks Mom!

[Jessica]

I make Croatian nut roll every year. It is a family favorite passed down from my great-grandmother and great grandfather, who emigrated from Croatia before WWI.

[Lynn]

Our family tradition has been baking and decorating sugar cookies - such fun! Also, homemade fudge-mom's recipe.

[Kimberly Townsend]

We do an advent calendar, it keeps the anticipation and spirit of the season going. We also do cut out sugar cookies, decorating and sing Christmas carols.

[Maureen]

We back cookies after the last or late Christmas Eve mass. it is a way of just being together doing something fun.

[Ann Knepper]

When our kids were little, we used to set up a small buffet of finger foods, crank up the Christmas music and all decorate the tree on their Dad's birthday!!

[Cindy Walton]

Christmas eve with the in-laws. All appetizers and junk food, no serious meals allowed.

[Lisa Loback]

The one tradition we have every year is the stocking. We always let our kids open their stocking first thing on Christmas morning. We’ve now carried that tradition on with our grandchildren.

[Julie Vance]

It's the mashup of food my husband and I grew up having on Christmas Eve. Veggie pizza for me. Little smokies for him. And we started cream cheese, bacon wrapped dates a few years ago. Yours, mine, and ours.

[Lara]

One of my favorite traditions started when our kids were in elementary school and we had just moved to a new house. We had made cookies and candy and wanted to gift some to the neighbors. We packaged it up in tins and snuck over to each of their houses in the dark. We rang the doorbell and ran like crazy back home. (Hoping of course they would actually see it on the step!) The kids thought this was hilarious fun, so we continue to do it every year. Now the kids are happy to take on this mission alone.

[Becky Gray]

My husband and I wrap the tree in lights-he does the placing while I follow him around holding the lights. Around and around we go listening to Harry Connick Jr. singing Sleigh Ride. When we’re done the kids join us for rice crispie treats and hot chocolate and we turn the lights on and squint to see if we can see any shapes the lights make—and we pull out the fun glasses that turn the lights into angels, snowmen, reindeer, stars, candy canes etc. Just hear those sleigh bells jinglin’ ring ting tinglin’ too. Come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!

[Danielle Sime]

I seem to always be working on Christmas Day (in the food service industry), so I always make a point of setting a side a day sometime after Thanksgiving and before Christmas (one year it was Christmas Eve!) to set up my tree, listen to Christmas carols, and drink cocoa. As the years do on, I’ve added some special people to this tradition, my Mom, Dad, brothers, their wives and now kids, friends, and away-from-Home co-workers; and this year I’m so glad I got to add my new Husband to the mix!

[Bonney]

We have a tradition we call Christmas Cheer. Every year at Thanksgiving all the children are given a sum of money and a theme. On Christmas morning they all share how they bestowed their money. It brings great joy to us to see all the imaginative ways they've spread the spirit of Christmas!

[KRISTA]

Every year we decorate our tree. And then each day thereafter, the kids re-decorate the tree. I've finally given in to the constantly changing landscape as getting over it was doing me no good and didn't make a dent in their Christmas cheer.

[Bonnie]

Santa Mouse comes to visit! He wraps a small package for each person, ties it with yellow ribbon, and leaves it in the tree. We've been doing it since I was a child after my oldest sister checked out the Santa Mouse book from the library.

[Jane]

We bake mince pies and cheese tarts every Christmas. There would be riots if it didn’t happen!

[Nancy Hooper]

There are so many! Christmas is my favorite holiday! We start with taking the kids to the Christmas tree farm to pick and cut down just the right tree. Then of course it's Hallmark Christmas Movies alllll season long! Throw in a little shopping and baking before Christmas Eve at the in-laws and Christmas day with my extended family. Most important is the time we spend together!

[Teri]

Since my not-so-little one flew the nest, the only tradition I keep is that of spending Christmas Day on my own (by choice!). I just relax the day away, knitting and watching Netflix.

[MariaR]

Christmas Eve church service. And my husband makes his family's oyster stew.

[Beth]

Traditionally, my parents and I go to Bethlehem, PA each year the week before Christmas to have dinner, do a little shopping and listen to the carolers.

[Judy]

Lighting Chanukah candles for eight nights, and eating latkes.

[Leticia Jurado]

We have an ornament exchange with my sisters and my grandkids all help putting up the Christmas tree the expression on their face is priceless.

[reanna]

My husband and I have a hectic Xmas eve/day so we started the tradition of going out to dinner Xmas night after dealing with both families. (There are 30-40 at my family's xmas and then 5 at his. It's just overwhelming by the end of the two days)

[Pat]

Every year we make a family recipe for Huckleberry Pie. It is everyone's favorite.

[Robin Fisher]

We have Christmas morning breakfast which MUST include hashbrown casserole (or 2)! I didn't fix it one year, and there were a lot of sad faces at the table. lol

[Cheryl]

I make fruitcake! Sometimes a dark one with store-bought candied fruit; sometimes a light one with dried tropical fruit that I candied myself.

[Rita]

I started a Christmas tradition several years ago of having one ornament from my family and friends Christmas tree to place on mine. As the years have passed several of these people are no longer here to share Christmas with me, but each year when I hang that ornament I think of them and tell everyone this one was my grandma's etc. it has become a family Christmas tree and they still share the holiday with me every year.

[Debra]

A Christmas Eve party for family and friends that has been going on for over 50 years. Starts with Chinese food for dinner and winds up with lots of appetizers, Christmas cookies, good friends and lots of laughs.

[Diana]

My mom and I open one gift on Christmas Eve every year from each other - and the giftee gets to choose!

[Trina Mechling]

My great-grandma's stuffing and my grandma's kolache nut rolls are the two things I must make. We watch Its a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, and The Santa Clause Trio movies for Christmas. Along with new pjs for all. My sons' school has pj day before break with the Polar Express movie. The younger grades make their own train cars to sit in, out of boxes they decorate.

[Diane]

We attend a party that our friend Rlise hosts.

[Jan Ball]

We get together as a family and pop popcorn and crack some adult beverages and binge watch favorite Christmas movies. New tradition since the kids are now adults.

[Denise]

My father always reads the Christmas story from the Bible before we open gifts.

[Jennifer]

Now that my daughters are grown and starting their own holiday traditions, they are continuing the one tradition that has been a part of our family holiday since I was a child, much to the bafflement of spouses. Children and their spouses always get a stocking from Santa when they visit for Christmas. For our daughters, their stocking is the same one I made for them when they were born; their spouses were surprised to find their own stocking hanging by their wife's the first Christmas. The new twist in our family tradition last year was that the daughters created stockings for their parents. I hope that when my grandsons grow up, their wives will be surprised by stockings full of thoughtfully chosen little gifts prepared by their mother-in-law.

[EMILY GARRISON]

We have to be really flexible as far as extended family celebrations (I'm the oldest kid of divorced parents with a total of 9 blood siblings plus 2 stepsisters; it's chaos). But we keep our immediate family celebration very simple. On Christmas Eve each kid gets a new pair of pjs and they get a new movie. We make personal pizzas from scratch which the kids LOVE. We all sit in our pjs and eat pizza and cookies and watch a movie. It's a nice quiet time before it all gets crazy the next day.

[Inez Finley]

Every year we bake cookies and create plates for all of our neighbors. We spend a day delivering them and visiting and catching up. It's a highlight of the season.

[Shirley]

We have the same Christmas Eve meal every year, honoring our Danish ancestry. It includes roast duck, carmelized potatoes and red cabbage. Even after my mother passed away a few years ago, my sister and I have been able to carry on the tradition.

[Rhonda Atkinson]

I have 3 children who are grown, 2 with their own children. When they were young they would get their Christmas jammies on early Christmas Eve. Then before bed we would all sit on the couch, daddy included, and I would read The Night Before Christmas and Polar Express. I still have the books, however the kids and grandkids are making their own memories. Love remembering the fun we had when mine were "littles".

[Susan]

For my family it would be my Mom’s homemade eggnog. My Mom is 87 now, so my sister and I have taken over that tradition of making the eggnog for Christmas.

[Sue]

Our tradition is doing all of the traditional Swedish foods in a big Christmas Eve Smorgasbord. These are things we only eat once a year (maybe with some leftovers)so it's a much-anticipated meal.

[Kara]

We gave a cookie decorating contest with the boys. Winner gets all the leftover candy.

[Karen Caron]

We all get to open one present on Christmas Eve. The kids take a long time planning on which present that might be!

[Diane Nocivelli]

I like to hang the stockings every year.
P.S. love the pics of your kids!

[Tam Fricke]

We go to the local civic symphony every year to lovely classical holiday music and then laugh through through the sing-a-long. My newphew loves it and I love the time with him.

[Yvonne]

Dont think I have any holiday traditions. Maybe if anything knitting for a special bud of mine and trying to see him on Christmas Eve night for dinner. Dont always work out with the seeing part.

[staci]

On St Nicholas' Day (December 6) we give our kids new ornaments to put on the tree. My mom also gave us a new ornament every year, but I nudged the tradition to earlier in December so we could have the ornament displayed on the tree longer.

[Nicole Doyal]

My daughter, still at 27 years old gets pajamas from her grandparents. Every year she says she is going to take them off the list and every year she gets them...and still on Christmas Eve. The one an only present that is opened on Christmas Eve....

[Andrea B]

Midnight Mass - coming in from a snowy evening to a warm church lit by candles.

[Heather Anderson]

My holiday traditions include watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and then on Christmas Eve, attending the candlelight service at my church. Merry Christmas everyone!

[Donna]

When my children were little we made Christmas cookies with cookie cutters - roll the dough etc. they made ornaments for neighbors and grandparents. We also read the Christmas story from the Book of Luke before unwrapping presents. My grandchildren come on Christmas eve and we continued the tradition of the Christmas story before the unwrapping of gifts.

[Debbie (KnitterDeb1030 on Ravelry)]

Now that my two daughters are grown we gather at my younger daughter's house and spend the night, have "Christmas" morning then later a big dinner. We pick a day/night that's convenient for us all. It's especially fun now with 2 grandkids in the mix!

[Vicki Wilson]

What a fun idea. Your boys are so cute.

[Michelle]

We always try and have an afternoon where we have coffee and eggnog and cookies and read through our collection of Christmas books.

[Leigh Anne Staton]

I make Cream Cheese Braids...my mom’s recipe that was published in Southern Living magazine in 1979 and several times after. I give them as gifts every year and everyone loves them. Such a sweet tribute to my mom who left us 24 years ago. Christmas isn’t the same. ❤️💔

[Natalie]

We always go get our tree on the day after Thanksgiving. It used to be with all 3 children but now it's my husband and I. We put it up and then on the Sunday we put the lights on and decorate. The children come for this still. Play Christmas music and eat Pizza. I always look forward to it. The tree is always so beautiful..

[Joyce]

When my folks died, so did most traditions. I tried to do matching Christmas pajamas with my sis to rekindle a tradition but that bombed. So, now I make sure to make (or have a friend make) us coordinating socks. I buy a Christmasy colorway, make her socks and then cobble together a shorter pair of coordinating socks for myself.

[Lisa Smith]

We have a Christmas Lights Trolley that comes by our house every year. We put on Santa hats ( a Santa Bandana on the dog) and go out side and wave at everyone going by. It is really fun and festive.

[RuthAnn]

The special cookies we only lmake at this time of year and frost and decorate and share with friends

[Sandy Officer]

Our Christmas tradition is combined with our anniversary. We always travel to a different part of the United States to see what the Christmas traditions are in that city or area. Our favorite place is Hawaii.

[Jennifer]

When I was little, my sister and I would spend the night at my grandparents’ house and bake two batches of German cookies. Now that they have passed away, I carry on the tradition of making these cookies and send “cookie care packages” to family members.

[Tara]

On Christmas morning we always have a brunch that cooks while opening gifts. While the menu can vary slightly from year to year, the one staple is Monkey Bread. Cinnamony-buttery gooeyness!

[Hillary Bertoch]

My husband's family does the new pajamas on Christmas Eve but something that I have continued from my childhood is on Christmas Eve giving a present that reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas, something that brings the focus back on Christ and not all the presents of the next day.

[Wendy Chase]

When our children were younger, my husband would take them to a movie on Christmas Eve so I could have a few hours to wrap Santa gifts or finish any last minute projects. This will be our first Christmas as empty nesters so I'm not sure how that's going to feel Christmas morning. When my older children moved closer with some of their littles, we started doing what my Grandmother did-visiting on Christmas day so they could show us what Santa had brought. I'd prefer to stay home in my pj's all day but it makes me feel closer to her to carry on that tradition.

[Triplesss]

We always read Luke 2 when I was a child and when my children were younger. We had a stand-up paper Nativity scene that we set up on a card table. Treasured memories.

[Cindy]

I miss the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa.

[Kate]

We make Christmas cookies and coffee cake for Christmas morning.

[Abby M]

Advent Calendars - My mom made a quilted one. We take a mitten out of the pocket in the back and put it on the button for that day. :) Counting down!

[Caitlin A]

My mom and I always make a big batch of our family's old German cookie recipes. It takes all day and we usually make a huge mess, but we have fun and dance around to Christmas records while we do it.

[Nancy F.]

New pajamas for everyone. We also watch the Polar Express before bed!

[Tammy Hardman]

Decorating the tree with the handmade ornaments that my son made as a small child.

[Angela Williams]

My family is my inspiration. I have two 9 year is boys. They are wonderful. This is our favorite time of the year. All of the get togethers with family and friends make it even more special. Every year I let my sons pick out an ornament. It’s fun to see how their preferences have changed. When they finally have a place of their own they will have at least 18 ornaments each for their trees.

[Karina]

I like to bake cookies and have a few recipes I like to do for Christmas, but I can't eat them all myself. So I have made a bit of a tradition out of bringing them to work to share. Everybody wins.

[Barbara Rude]

Christmas eve service at church and then home to watch White Christmas.

[Jackie Trembley]

I get together with my daughter-in-laws and make cookies. We all look forward to the event!

[June Costello]

Every year I make my grandmother's Potica bread recipe

[Sarah]

Every year I hide Rosie, our Elf on the Shelf for our girls.

[Genia Planck]

Please don't think me anything other than odd, but I go the cemetery where my dad is resting, and "have a beer" with him and his new friends. I get a six pack of his favorite beer, and pour it over his grave, then some for his buddies. And leave a penny on each of their headstones (it's the National Cemetery in Culpeper)
Sometimes my brother comes with me, sometimes my kids come. Then we go to out to lunch at the local diner and catch up on all the gossip. Small town gossip is the BOMB!!

[Sarah]

We make Haitian pate (meat pastry) for Christmas morning breakfast. My daughter was born just before Christmas in Haiti and that is what we had on her first Christmas with us in the hospital.

[Jessica]

I wish we had Christmas traditions at my house! Every year, I try and come up with something, but by the time Christmas day actually comes, and we've been about town seeing family on various days throughout December, and still have more to see, we're quite tired of doing much of anything.
I'm thinking, though, of making something special for breakfast this year, just to have *something* for us (we have no children, so no Santa visits) to look forward to for the actual holiday.

[Linda]

I started collecting a special ornament for my son when he was born. and have continued to do that every year and he is 38 now