BL Faves: Holiday Traditions - 2020

"Every Christmas Eve we take the girls on a horse and carriage ride through Highland Park in Dallas. We get all bundled up with hot chocolate and get to see all the amazing Christmas lights throughout Highland Park. They seriously have some of the best lights! We also have a Christmas gift wrapping party while we watch Elf and bake and decorate sugar cookies for Santa.

Another favorite tradition of ours is Saint Nick stockings for me, Buddy and the girls on Buddy and I's anniversary, December 6th, which is also Saint Nicholas Day. This is an older tradition that is still popular throughout the world! Instead of opening our stockings on Christmas morning, we fill them early and open them on the 6th. This is always a nice treat for the girls and gets them even more excited for Santa to come! (You can read more about the history behind this tradition here).

We also host our annual New Years Day party with all of our friends. We have lots of food and champagne, reflect on the year we had, then write down all of our New Year resolutions! It's the best way to start a new year!"

"Every December my friends and I visit the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. If you aren't familiar with The Gaylord, they go ALL OUT for Christmas! Typically we get tickets for their ICE show, (an interactive experience with tons of huge ice sculptures- there's a different Christmas theme every year), but this year they have an "I Love Christmas Movies" show filled with scenes from classic Christmas movies!"

"This year will be Austyn's third Christmas so she's finally old enough to understand all of the magic and fun. We let her pick out an ornament every year, whatever she wants. This year she picked out a Popsicle. Eventually, when we have enough kids/ornaments and they’re older, they will get their own tree but for now they go on our family tree. We also decorate cookies every year. Normally Nick, my husband, and I just do it for fun but this year Austyn will be included, and they will be for Santa.

As for traditions with my friends, we go on a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt and do a Holiday Cookie Bake-Off! We get hot chocolate and drive around trying to find all the Christmas lights on the list- this is easily my favorite new tradition! For the Holiday Cookie Bake-Off, we all make recipes and taste-test to find the best cookie, (or worst in my case)."

"My fiancé, Jonathan, and I go get Keller’s Hamburgers (IYKYK) for dinner then go to Sansone Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree every year a couple of days after Thanksgiving. It’s an old drive in hamburger shop that’s been open since the 60s and literally nothing has changed about it since then, probably including the prices. The burgers are sooo good, and I also recommend the cheese tots. Then once we are home with our tree we pour White Russians and decorate for Christmas while watching a Christmas movie!

Next is my family’s annual Christmas Eve Eve party. We rent a party bus with bumpin’ music, a light show, and a pole to dance on. Drinks are poured as we head to dinner at the Italian restaurant we choose for the year. This year it’s Fachini in Highland Park Village and I couldn’t be more excited to try that place. After dinner, the bus comes back to get us and we continue to drink and party while driving around looking at Christmas lights in Highland Park. It’s quite the entertaining evening for adults and kids!

Jonathan and I also like to get dressed up in our finest New Year’s Eve attire and have a dinner date at Waffle House before we go out for the night. It’s really hard to make a reservation but luckily we know somebody who knows somebody and we call a couple weeks in advance and it all works out great. I’d recommend the All Star Platter personally, and Jonathan gets the patty melt."

"We don't have many holiday traditions, but my favorite is sitting around the fire pit making s'mores with my family! We play Christmas music and talk about our favorite memories throughout the year. We also never miss a Christmas Eve game of What Do You Meme! We started this little tradition a few years ago when the game first came out and I'm a firm believer that it will never get old."

"Since all of my family still lives in Hawaii we get to spend Christmas on the island! Every Christmas Eve we go to Bellows beach in Waimanalo, make a little fire and hangout as a family. We also host a New Years Eve party at my parent's house in Hawaii. We get dressed to the nines, have plenty of champagne and play games (Do or Drink is one of our favorites), to ring in the new year! It's always nice to end the year with my family and hometown friends!"

"Typically, Garrett and I would go look at Christmas lights in Fort Worth with our pups, but this is our first Christmas with Nash so we'll be starting new traditions this year! Cookies for Santa (Santa wants Oreos), Reindeer Food (oats and glitter spread across the yard), a handmade card for Santa, matching Christmas jammies for the cousins and whether or not gifts from Santa will be wrapped, undecided. Nash gets to pick out his own ornament every year and will eventually get a mini tree for his room.

"Every year my friends and I go look at Christmas lights around my hometown of Witchita Falls. We pile in the car, crank some Christmas tunes and ride around. It's always nice to have all my childhood friends back together! On Christmas Eve, my entire family goes to my grandparent's house and my grandmother reads The Night Before Christmas to us. We've done this since I was born! Also, eggnog."

"My favorite family Christmas tradition is going to see a movie every Christmas Eve! We wear our matching Christmas pajamas and slippers, stock up on candy and snacks and enjoy a movie as a family. Hopefully we can keep this tradition going this year! On Christmas morning my dad makes a HUGE breakfast, we turn on The Christmas Chronicles and open our gifts. My siblings and I are all grown up but we still get gifts from Santa, which I love!"

"Every year I look forward to my grandma’s Christmas eve dinner party! We dress up really fancy and meet at a steak restaurant in Los Angeles (where I’m from), sit at a long table and enjoy each other’s company over steaks and lots of wine!! I can’t wait to have my own Christmas eve dinner parties with my family!

I think the Elf on the Shelf tradition is so cute I definitely want to start that tradition when I have kids. I see all the parents ideas on Pinterest and that is something I will do for my family."

"Instead of having a traditional Christmas dinner, my family makes tacos, rice and beans, queso and guac, and we order tamales! We also fill each other's stockings with Victoria's Secret items like bras, undies, slippers, etc., rather than your typical stocking stuffers."