Ooooh Christmas time is HUUUUGE in our house. HUGE. We homeschool and take the whole month of December off just for Christmas stuff.
We do a Christmas related "study" every year. Oftentimes I have a craft 2-3 days a week that goes with it. Last year we were doign a study on the different names of Jesus. (Lamb of God, Alpha and Omega, etc). I would find a craft that we could make into an ornament. So now we have a small tabletop white "Jesus tree" with our homemade names of Jesus ornaments. I'm thinking this year we'll continue that study and add more ornaments.
We do a TON of baking. With a good portion of the candy, we do a "Ding Dong Ditch". We make platters with all the candy and baked goods, with a little special ornament, and a helium balloon. Then the kids will put the platter on someone's porch, ring the bell, and run as hard as possible. The kids LOOOVE this. Its one of their favorite traditions.
The kids get one gift on Christmas Eve. For a long time it was pjs. Now it's a game for the family. If we don't have Christmas Eve plans, the we have a game night.
We always go to a walk through Bethlehem. It's such a wonderful place to go visit, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. It's 1.5 hour drive, but totally worth it.
We always do a Count down prayer chain. The kids make links out of construction paper, and we write things that need prayed about (the kids always come up with this part). Then each day they remove a link, and we pray over it as a family. The last day is always on Christmas, and it's a prayer that everyone will accept Jesus' coming into their hearts.
The kids always write and perform a Christmas play.
They also pick a way of GIVING throughout the season. ONe year they made dozens of beaded angel ornaments, then we printed out a poem about Christmas angels to attach to it. They passed them out to strangers they came across during the month. People in Walmart, the fridge repairman (who came back a year later adn said it was the ONLY ornament his wife refused to put away!), just whoever strikes them. They haven't decided for sure what they want to do this year.
I try to do the ornament a year thing, but honestly I'm not great at keeping it up.
Up until last year, we always went to my parents house with my brother, sister, and their families on Christmas Eve. There are about 17 of us all together, if everyone shows up (some of the kids are at their other parent's house, sometimes). It usually lots of finger foods and we exchange gifts. Then on Christmas morning we do our thing here, singing happy birthday to Jesus, reading about his birth, and each kids recieve 3 gifts, plus a "Jesus gift" (which is always religious in nature).
Then we always went to my dad's family Christmas get together. He comes from a family of 9 kids. There are over 100 of us if we are all there. Some years we'd have a bunch of games, etc for everyone to do, and my kids would perform their play for everyone. My grandfather passed away last year, and it kind of fell apart. So I'm not sure if we'll do that this year or not.
I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can think of right now. LOL